International Football Summer School

The practices will focus on problem solving exercises designed to promote a player's technique and skills. Players will develop the co-ordination and basic motor patterns they need to solve specific soccer game related challenges in a context where decision making involves reacting not only to opponents movements, but also their own teammates. Sessions will focus on choosing the most effective solutions to these problems where a high degree of ball mastery and wide range of motor skills are needed. These technical soccer skills are learnt through a variety of progressive technical soccer challenges that are appropriate to the individual's technical developmental stage which allow comfort in making errors that allow for learning. The goal is that these technical skills will eventually be able to be performed in an adaptive and flexible manner on the field in combination with all the decision making a player needs to make.

The emphasis in football sessions will be on providing a learning environment where players experience the "Game for Understanding" - an approach to develop the whole player using the a four-cornered model (technical/tactical, physical, social and psychological) with an eye fixed firmly on fun and the long term. The sessions give "ownership" to players while tailoring the challenges to their precise technical needs of individuals.

The Strength and Conditioning team at Cardiff Met Sport will provide a training programme for players who are at the Summer School. Players will be expected to participate in a training regime which includes weight lifting, flexibility, speed agility, SAQ, circuits and recovery sessions. The S &C component aims to improve athletes' performance by providing the training, knowledge and expertise to make them stronger, faster, fitter and more resilient to injuries. These physical attributes will help improve your sports specific skills and abilities. Sessions take place in our purpose built strength and conditioning gym where we have a full Olympic weightlifting setup including 4 platforms. Circuits and SAQ sessions take place in the National Indoor Athletics Centre. Players will develop knowledge that will better enable them to maintain an effective conditioning programme in the future.

You will learn how to integrate best practice in sports medicine and physical therapy with football specific training and conditioning techniques based on cutting-edge sports science. Through our sports injury and rehabilitation professionals, you will experience which strength and conditioning practices, biomechanical principles and recovery methods can provide an integrated model that supports across the spectrum of player care. There is a sharp focus on optimising preparation for performance as well as the return to performance, rather than just a return to play.

Learn how to analyse, understand and improve your football performance. This aspect will develop how to measure your tactical and technical effectiveness based on game footage from Summer School fixtures using a range of modern techniques and technologies including state of the art athlete monitoring and time-motion analysis techniques via GPS (Global Positioning Systems). Working in the world-class Performance Analysis Laboratory learn how to use analytical and video editing software such as Sportscode and Nacsport.

Learn process focused goal-setting which will help you as a football player and as an individual to understand your current stage, state and status and also where, why and how you want to progress. Through sessions with our life-skills training consultants, you will learn how to become habituated into setting systematic objectives that are focused on 'process and performance' rather than on outcomes and results. Develop the capacity to undertake reflective practice in ways that help you to better evidence your progress and development.

Football is a global economic and social as well as sporting phenomenon. Every weekend the English Premier League is watched by over 170m people in over 200 countries. In the UK it is a major industry with over 100,000 jobs. Discover how you can be involved in the professional game and be a part of leading the growth of the football industry. This element focuses on both the football and business related knowledge needed to develop professionals for the football industry. You will develop a clear understanding of the importance of football within the context of economic, social and cultural life both in the UK and worldwide.

Effective coaching is player centered and therefore much more about "how to coach", and less of "what to coach". We take constructivist learning ideas influenced by a range of leading pedagogists, including world leading sports coaching researchers at Cardiff Met. The emphasis on the pitch will be to explore a spectrum of teaching styles against a clear evidence base for effective, active and player-centred learning.

Through 1-to1 consultations, at the end of the summer school, discuss your future football and academic plans with our coaches and support team. We will provide you with further information and guidance on pathways for further development within Cardiff Met University, UK and beyond. As an alumni of the Summer School, you will also have access to future support and advice from our academic and career support staff for a further year.