Wexford Tournament.

Brazilian Soccer School Dublin Southwest journeyed to BSS Wexford for a Futebol de Salao tournament during the mid term school break. BSS Wexford were the perfect hosts. Elliot (Wexford) and I were very pleased with the day and the skill level of the players. I would like to thank the players from BSS Dublin Southwest for the professional manner in which they conducted themselves. We took 30 players to Wexford and the majority of our players used the skills they have worked on during our sessions, and to see so many players using the sole of the foot was for me fantastic. The trip gave us a great opportunity to bring our 3 venues together and allow them get used to playing with each other. Our next outing will be the Newcastle trip were we are expecting a very high level of skill.

Skills Badge Presentation                        

( Star Newspaper article)

  We are very proud at Brazilian Soccer Schools Dublin Southwest to have 22 players pass through our skills badge assessment, our players range from 5yrsto 13yrs, and the levels range from First steps to First Steps/Kick start to Level one. We had Footballs next star Craig Walsh present the awards to the players,the players were very excited to have Craig present them with their awards,and had lots of questions for him.Our first ever skills badge was due to a lot of hard work by the players over the last year, I would like to congratulate all the players for their work, and in particular the 5yr/9yr olds as it was a great day for them as it was for them all. In the media during the last week Rio Ferdinand stated that " the English need to look at the foreign coaches and players, that the foreign players will look for the ball even when marked with opposition players, unlike the English way of if he is marked don't pass it to him, in other words get it out of there". Well Rio you don't have to look at the foreign coaches and players, all you have to do is get yourself to your old hunting ground of Leeds and meet up with ICFDS Simon Clifford and Steve Nichol to see that the thing your looking for is right under your nose.We at Brazilian Soccer Schools Dublin Southwest will look forward to the day that we have players in our national squad that have the ability to seek the ball while being marked by an opposition player. Brazilian Soccer School Dublin Southwest have sessions in Ballyfermot, Lucan, and our new venue in Inchicore. Brazilian Soccer is the brain child of Simon Clifford, and have schools world wide.We concentrate on technique and comfort ability on the ball. We work with a size two all that has restricted bounce and therefore encourages the players to think, work fast, the players must think to pass or beat the player with a move.We have players that control the game, and can make a pass that will lead to progression within the game. Our website is www.icfds.com/dublinwest and you can contact head coach Ray Connolly on 0879342601

Skills Badge

Skills Badge Assessment

We had our first skills badge assessment on the weekend of 6^th and 7^th of November, we had 13 players do there First Steps / Kick Start badges, and 9 players done there level one. It was a fantastic two days, and to watch the players go through the assessment , and to see all their hard work come together is well worth the time and effort that was put in by players and coaches. To have so many players at the 5yrs to 7yrs age bracket go through and achieve their First Step/ Kick Start badges was a very special moment to watch.

We also had our older players go through their Level 1 badge and that was also a very special moment, as they have all worked hard over the last 12/18 months. I would like to congratulate all those that took part.

Some of the Players that completed the Skills badge;

Lee Connolly Lee Blakemore Josh Moran Adam Bennett T.J Cosgrave Jen Cosgrave David Durak

We have in our Ballyfermot Venue a young boy called Adam Bennett, he attends our sessions every week without fail, the change we have all noticed in Adam is nothing short of amazing. This young boy came to us and was very very quiet. During is time with us he has come out of his shell and joins in with everything we do. Adam recently had a bad fall and needed surgery on his chin, Adam still came down to our summer camp to visit us, and as soon as the Doctors said he could play football he was straight down to us. We look forward to working with Adam for many years, oh did  not mention Adams age???? He is 5yrs old

Lucan Venue

Our Lucan venue is up and running and we are attracting new kids every week, we have some players that have already come on in their football ability and we are only up there since the 1st of July. We are moving fast towards filling this venue and we will then move into another area.

Skills Badge

We will be working on going through the skills badge in our Ballyfermot Venue during the month of September, and hopefully we will do the skills badge assessment in October

Ballyfermot Sports Complex opening Day

Brazilian Soccer schools had an incredible day at the Ballyfermot Sports Complex, the players were excellent and their display of all we do was fantastic. The players got a well deserved applause after the display. We got 3 new players from that opening day, and We also got invited to do the opening day at the resource centre in Ballyfermot.

Opening Day Resource Centre

The opening day at The Resource Centre was a fantastic result, we went for a solid 3 hours with each session full of kids amazed with what we were showing them, so signs on it we had kids that done the session wanted to do the following session so much was the enjoyment.

Palmerstown Festival

We were asked to do the opening of the Palmerstown Festival and we were only to delighted to accepted the offer. We were there for two hours and we had up to 45 kids for the whole two hours, we went through passing, moves to beat a player, juggling, we then went into a mini league and then into a knock out competition getting right down to a final. The Best Part Was The Kids and Parents loved it

Brazilian Soccer Schools Southwest held its first camp at Easter 2010 and it was a fantastic success. We had two week long camps with some Children signing up for the two weeks. We mixed the ICFDS modules with some fun games and the children loved it, the highlight of the days events was the FDS tournament which took place every afternoon and was run through the week on a league basis with 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.

My only regret is that I didn’t advertise it earlier as I feel we would have been bursting at the seems, we did not decide to do it until the Wednesday (2.5 days before the kids were off school) but we got a fantastic response, and we also got 5 new members from it which is fantastic.

BSS Dublin Southwest would like to thank the Staff of the Ballyfermot Sports Complex for their support and help throughout the 2 weeks, and also a big thank you to all the parents for getting the children there on time ,and the prompt collection.

We are already putting together our Summer Camp and expect it to be just as fantastic and better.See more photos on Media/ photo page.

Craig Walsh - Brazilian Soccer School
By John Fallon
Footballs Next star Finalist Craig Walsh has backed the burgeoning
Brazilian Soccer Schools.
The recently-signed Shamrock Rovers player visited the Ballyfermot
Sports Complex Venue last Saturday to see for himself the strides made
by the youngsters involved in the tutelage.
All of the players present were delighted that Walsh spent an hour
with them at the Southwest Dublin venue and got involved himself in
the training session.
The school, which has been visited by Pele during his trip to Ireland,
offers innovative football coaching for children and tots based upon
the techniques honed by the world-renowned Samba Boys.
Teenager Craig, who played for local Ballyfermot club Cherry Orchard
and was capped last year at Under-17 level, gave the initiative a
ringing endorsement.
He said: "I think this is great for the kids. You do not see much of
this type of coaching around, where the focus is purely on ball work
and I feel it’s great for them to work within this learning
environment.
"This is fantastic for their first touch, and it will enhance their
ability to receive the ball with any part of their foot and kill the
ball dead; its just brilliant".
Of particular interest to Craig was the work conducted with the
youngest group present, the 5 year olds. Ages range from 5-14 years
old and each are imparted with age-appropriate coaching drills.
During the coaching sessions, Craig demonstrated some juggling moves
to the boys and, not to be outdone, the boys present showed Craig some
of their tricks for him to take away with practice.
Brazilian Soccer Schools Dublin Southwest is open to Boys and Girls
aged 5-18 and develop children’s football and that is all abilities.
Head Coach Ray Connolly said: "It was a privilege that Craig visited
us at our academy.
“After his hectic few weeks in Italy with the Sky One show and his
recent move to Shamrock Rovers, we were honoured when he said he would
give up his time and come to our event last Saturday.
“I know he amazed him with the work we do here, and he was fantastic
around the kids.
“He answered the variety of questions put to him by the participants
as well as signing autographs and getting into photos with the
players.
“He spoke to the players about is experience with Inter Milan and what
was expected of players on and off the pitch from the likes of Jose
Mourinho.
“Craig also got involved in the session which was great. We at BSS
Dublin Southwest wish Craig all the best in the future and would
welcome him back to our sessions anytime.”

We at Brazilian Soccer Schools Dublin South-west have always stated that Brazilian Soccer Schools worldwide are the best coaching organisation in the world; we have also said that practice on session skills away from the sessions will give you great reward. Here is proof of such reward.

Saturday two weeks ago I received a phone call from a very excited parent of one of our players Keith Aylmer. Keith mother phoned to tell of her thrill of watching her son play in what sounds like a fantastic match, at one stage I had to ask for Keith’s mother to slow down such was the excitement, let me quote what she had to say “Keith’s manager Mick was so proud of Keith today as he played in defence for his football team (John Bosco fc under 10s), he performed some of the skills that he has learned at Brazilian Soccer Schools, one of the other managers also called Keith over and congratulated him on the skills he performed in the game, and told him he played brilliant. Keith before attending Brazilian Soccer Schools was very shy and had no confidence in his football, now he oozes confidence in his football”. As you can see we have a very pleased mum and a very confident young player.

Head Coach Ray Connolly says; When Keith came to us at Brazilian Soccer Schools he was talking about being a goalkeeper, which is fine. We explained to Keith that within the modern game keepers are expected to be more confident with their feet than before. We told Keith to try us out and let us work with him to show what he can become using our coaching methods, he agreed. Now when we have a game at the end of the session you will very seldom see Keith between the posts as he hungers after the ball and tries the moves that

Reece O Brien

Young Reece came to Brazilian Soccer Schools (Ringsend Venue) in December 2008 as a very active always talking, always fidgeting, but mostly confident and funny young boy. Reece had not been involved in any conventional football club, our involved in football other than playing in the Park with his Father. I felt this was ideal, as there was raw talent with no bad football habits instilled in him.

We worked with Reece along with our other members, what did we find???? we found a young lad that got very timid when he found something hard, we found a young lad that nearly chewed his sleeve off when he found things difficult, we found a young lad that would mess when he found things difficult, but underneath all that we found a young boy that when he did focus and did try he was very good with the ball. Karl and I spoke at length about this and decided while we were excited about the football element of Reece we would have to channel all the shyness and giddiness, and use the ICFDS Philosophy that to create a good player you need to create a good person (in the football context).

We started to see results in Reece’s ball skills as we went through our sessions, Reece was getting more confident in the sessions and I felt he was getting more confident in his ability on the ball, the sleeve biting had stopped and the messing had ceased.

I was approached by Reece’s Father Kevin in August, who said he was now thinking of getting Reece into a team and what did I think?. I told Kevin that it wouldn’t be a bad thing but to be careful where he goes and to keep him with us what ever happens, as what he is learning here will not be achieved anywhere else.

A couple of weeks later Reece’s father came to me and said he had taken him over to the Home Farm Fc Academy and the coach there asked him had Reece ever played football before? To which he answered no, so the coach laid down some cones and gave Reece a ball Reece went off and dribbled the ball using the inside/outside of his foot, turning etc, the coach said “ I thought you said he didn’t play football” to which Reece’s dad replied “he doesn’t” “well he wasn’t born with that skill said the coach” “oh that”, “he learned that in the Brazilian Soccer School academy he attends in Ringsend” the coach replied “well you need to keep him there as well so”. Reece was moved from the academy to the under 7s team. On the 10^th of October Reece scored the winning goal on asking him how he scored it he said “the ball came back out to me and I struck it with my laces and it went into the top corner”, he also got man of the match on the 18 October while playing as a defender.

I know Reece’s parents are committed to keeping Reece at Brazilian Soccer School and while Reece has just turned 7 we are looking forward to watching this player develop and one to watch out for in the future