Toronto FC Academy athletes were quite busy during the month of July as the U10s through to the Juniors all participated in the Academy’s summer programming known as IDP (Independent Development Plan) Camps.
The IDP Camps were introduced so that the athletes can understand their own abilities and expose them to a number of activities that would aid in the development as both athletes and as individuals. Coaches and staff continuously review the plans and both staff and players discuss the different options and approaches to match the individuals’ goals.
The Academy builds an IDP based on each individual’s strengths and weaknesses and creates a plan to help the development process and progress of each specific athlete.
Toronto FC Head Coach Greg Vanney brought the idea of IDP to the Academy when he was Director of the Academy last year.
For the younger age groups, U10-U12, IDP incorporated “Camp Days”, which ran from Monday to Wednesday and integrated multi-sport training.
Following regular soccer specific training in the morning, these athletes would participate in other sport related activities such as basketball, aerobics and stretching, beach volleyball, soccer tennis, bocci and street soccer.
The Academy even brought in Canadian National Team gymnast Ella Douglas to teach gymnastics to the young Reds.
While the U10-U12’s participated in Camp Days the U13s, U14s, U15s and Junior team would have “Double Days.” These “Double Days” several times during the month of July in which the teams would partake in normal training sessions in the morning, followed by a training session in the afternoon.
The U13, U14 and U15 teams were coached by the Toronto FC First Team Head Coach Greg Vanney and Toronto FC assistant coaches Robin Fraser, Nick Theslof, Dan Calichman and Jim Liston, Director of Sport Science. The JR teams’ afternoon sessions were run by their head coach, Danny Dichio.
All of these activities aim to enrich the abilities of our athletes, both physically and mentally.
The Toronto FC Academy understands the importance of education for their athletes, which is why SAT preparation was made available for all Seniors. The Director of Education would identify players who have credits that can be transferable to US colleges and universities and suggest SAT preparation in the case that continuing their education in the United States becomes an option.
For some of the younger age groups (the U14s, U15s and Juniors), the Academy had math tutoring available. The Director of Education would identify players that could benefit from the math tutoring but it was not made mandatory.
With IDP, the Academy provides resources for the athletes but they take ownership and make the final decision. Throughout the month of August tutoring sessions will continue to be available to prepare the young athletes for school come September.
The Academy also introduced Cognitive Testing to help enhance the IDP of each athlete. Cognitive testing is a way to obtain info and analyze each player individually to create “brain” profiles.
Cognitive tests are administered to the athletes and they focus on testing the brain processing speed and the mental strengths and weaknesses of each athlete. The cognitive team would then gather and analyze the data from each athlete and input it into their IDP.
Furthermore, behavioural interviews were also conducted with the athletes. Behavioural interviews are more personal one-on-one conversation, in which players can be a bit more honest than they might be on a questionnaire.
It is also important that our athletes are educated on injuries that can arise in sports. Throughout August the cognitive testing team will be educating players, coaches and parents on concussions in sports and the protocols to prevent, identify and manage head injuries.
