Lion's Edge Futsal Report #1

Tuesday Night 30th June saw the first night of the Lion's Edge Futsal Academy get under way with great success.

The Lion's Edge Futsal Academy is a program run by Futsal Tasmania due to an agreement with Kingborough Lions Soccer Club and their Lion's Edge junior and youth Football program.

The idea of the Academy is to encourage the use of "Ball Wizardry", or in other words skill and technique with the ball at your feet. The sport of Futsal and especially the Academy style training regime gives players techniques and tricks that they would never be able to pick up in the usual outdoor game and training sessions.

The reason Futsal is so useful for this is the fact that players are forced to have a large number of touches on the ball at all times and there is a distinct increase in every players involvement in the game. This form of the game is similar to Small sided games" but of course has the benefits of being out of the rain, having flat surfaces to play on and of course the low bounce ball which keeps technique as the main focus.

The Lion's Edge Academy program is especially unique in the fact that Futsal Tasmania has moulded it to be skill specific to Football and use techniques that can also be used in the outdoor game. A particular focus will be on individual "Ball Wizardry" to ensure that players receive this individual element that is often missed in their team training sessions.

The program will run for 8 weeks and players are welcome to join at any stage. Training will be held at Hobart College Gym at 5pm-6.30pm Tuesday Nights and are open to all players boys and girls between 9 years and 15 years. You DO NOT need to be a Kingborough Lion's player to join the Futsal program.

The Lion's Edge Futsal Academy is part of the state wide Islanders Futsal Academy which is the most successful Futsal/Football training program in Tasmania and the first ever training program to produce National Champions in any age group. There are currently programs running in Sorell, Kingborough, Rosetta, Burnie and of course the main state program in Moonah.

The hope is that the Lion's Edge Futsal Academy will grow again in summer and be a big part of the development of young players in the region.

The first training saw some very positive signs with all players looking very promising.