Never heard a sweeter sounding word than Feyenoord [R]

Ronald Koeman won Coach of the Year award (Rinus Michels Award), and Feyenoord Youth Academy won Best Youth Academy award for third year running.

http://www.feyenoord.nl/pages/newsdetail/S1/10010000040293-999-10010000000003.aspx

Feyenoord will play one of the following clubs in the third qualifying round for the CL:

Kiev
Panathinaikos
Kopenhagen
Fenerbahce

Yeah Perfect position

Just because it hasn't been mentioned yet. "Uber-Feyenoorder" Kuijt said he doesn't want to move back to the Kuip until he is at least 35 or 36 years old. How do you feel about that, ffan?

The next Roy Maakay!

Not much to say the truth. He is a player that has value when he is fit and running, so I had no desire what so ever to see him return at the end of his career as he cannot fall back on polished technique to add to the team.
By the way, I wouldnot call him "Uber-Feyenoorder", that kind of player, like "Uber-Ajaxied" is no more.

Clasie (169 cm) gives the smaller soccer player hope.

How Feyenoord delivered tailor made work with the education of the half-pint in the Youth Academy.

Clasie (169 cm) gives all small soccer players in the Netherlands hope. Professional soccer is attainable too with a shorter length. But in his case it took a radical turn around in thinking. In Feyenoord’s Youth Academy Clasie (now 20) for years purposely practiced less than the rest of his team mates.

The 2006/2007 season is a few months on its way and a pattern becomes clear. At the Feyenoord B1 Jordy Clasie has a lot of problems to play the full stretch of the matches. In the course of the second half he slowly fades away and in the last 15 minutes the little fellow gets cramp in his calfs. The reactions are easily predictable. So young and than already tired of a little match? Exercise harder little lad, or else you are done with quickly.

The head of the Academy, Henk van Stee, a few years before already honestly advised Clasie to look for a nice club in the vicinity of Alkmaar, close at home. And a lot of youth coaches think that way.
But when he isnot tired, Clasie shows on the ball things that make him the talent that as a first year B-junior is allowed to practice with the batch of the under-17. So Raymond Verheijen, than just started as an exercise physiologist at Varkenoord (the Youth Academy Grounds), turns his attention to the question if it still is possible to design a plan for Clasie.
In consultation with the B-youth coaches Cor Adriaanse and Jan Gösgens a tailor made exercise scheme is made. Clasie is not going to exercise more, but actually less. A lot less..
Football conditional exercises of his team from then on he literally only participates for half the time. Little matches of 11 versus 11, the thing soccer players love the most to do, for him are restricted to a maximum of two times 8 minutes, after that the rest often continues for a while. ( See the training scheme).

“With Jordy all conditions were in place to being stretched to his limits as a kid”, Verheijen says when he picks up the exercise schemes of those days. “He was of small stature and traveled very early in the morning all the way from Haarlem to Rotterdam to go to school and exercise. That all costs a lot of force. Cramp is a logical signal from the body that it cannot cope with the full load. By letting him exercise literally half less Jordy kept enough energy to execute better what he was doing. Now he did not have to deplete his reserves, with the result he started every exercise fresh. The purpose of exercising is to attempt every time again to act one percent faster than the time before that. Only by turning 100% time after time into 101% a youth player develops himself. But when you start the exercise already at 95%, you never will get to that 101%.

Part 2

From that moment on also at the matches, a settled protocol was established. Clasie is regularly substituted on purpose about twenty minutes before the final whistle, also to keep him fit and fresh.
“Because that way he never got injured, ultimately he made on balance on a year’s basis more exercise hours, “according to Verheijen. “When in 2008 he had to promote to the A1, we took the same approach. Giving him ample time to get used to the higher level and after settling in slowly increasing the load. But he always kept doing less than his team mates. That way we kept him injury free all those years and could he develop as a football player. Thanks to the current Academy head Stanley Brard at Varkenoord now “The survival of Football talent” rules and not “The survival of the Fittest”.
Verheijen calls Clasie the example of how we should deal with all small youth footballers in the Netherlands. If you have the little ones do the same as the rest than you drain them in such a way that you create structural tiredness. As a result their speed of acting is not going up, but only downwards. They cannot follow on and that way a lot of unknown Clasies did not make it.
Verheijen in hind sight puts a lot of credits with Cor Adriaanse and with Jean Paul van Gastel. The current assistant coach of Ronald Koeman was Clasies’A1 coach. “Adriaanse and Van Gastel took the trouble to deliver coaching made to measure. And not only with Clasie. At first they had to go against the current as football is a very conservative sport. Van Gastel to me is the example of a new generation of coaches that arenot only well versed technically and tactically, but also have the knowledge to gear exercises to one another. Because of that this generation can do fitness exercises of a team themselves. For years I say that clubs shouldnot put that in the hands of athletic coaches. That’s the origin of accidents, because football in the load and in the patterns of movement call for a different approach than athletics.”

Van Gastel at Feyenoord 1 now is in control of the “periodization”, the exercise build up during the season. As a A1 coach he has mastered that. Verheijen: “See the results, all season long there are hardly any injuries, and because of that Feyenoord can exercise and play a lot with it’s strongest team. The contrast with Ajax is enormous. Alex Pastoor is also such an example of that new generation.”

With Jordy Clasie everything turned out well. Before he last year under Alex Pastoor warmed up his engine at professional level with Excelsior, he ended up as a regular basis player in Van Gastels’A1 team. That team ended as 2009 and 2010 champions of the Netherlands.

“To me the winning of the 2009 title was the finest moment in the 3 years I was involved with the Academy”Verheijen says. “In that A1, besides Clasie, there were more little ones. And it also was a team that became champions with almost only first years A juniors.”


Clasie:

“I was not so much aware of how they were handling my exercise load,” Clasie says. When you are that young you just think the coaches have the best intentions with you. I also was in a batch with a lot of talent, so always playing everything was not obvious. I indeed did not have any or hardly any injuries in the B1 and A1. That will not have been a coincidence.”


Week scheme of Feyenoord B1 and Clasie:

Monday 12th of March 2007:
Recovery/Tactical exercise (75 minutes)

Team:
- positional play 8 vs. 8+2 neutral players
(4 x 3 minutes/2 minutes rest)
- match 10 vs. 10 (2 x 8 minutes/2 minutes rest)

Jordy Clasie:
- positional play 8 vs. 8+2 neutral players
(4 x 3 minutes/2 minutes rest)
- no 10 vs. 10 match practice

Tuesday 13th of March 2007:
Football fitness exercise (90 minutes)

Team:
- football sprints with sparse resting time
(2 x 8 sprints 15 meter/10 seconds rest)
- Football fitness match 6 vs. 6
(4 x 6 minutes / 2 minutes rest)

Jordy Clasie:
- football sprints with sparse resting time
(at 50% = 1 x 8 sprints 15 meter/10 seconds rest)
- Football fitness match 6 vs. 6
(at 50%= 2 x 6 minutes / 2 minutes rest)

Wednesday: day off.
Thursday 15th of March 2007:
Tactical exercise (75 minutes)

Team:
- Positional play 6 vs. 6 + 6 bouncers
(6 x 2 minutes/ 1 minute rest)
- Match 11 vs. 11 (3 x 8 minutes/ 2 minutes rest)
- Match 4 vs. 4 ( 4 x 1 minute/ 1 minute rest)

Jordy Clasie:
- Positional play 6 vs. 6 + 6 bouncers
(6 x 2 minutes/ 1 minute rest)
- Match 11 vs. 11 (max 2 x 8 minutes/ 2 minutes rest)
- No match 4 vs. 4

Fryday 16th of March 2007:

Match directed exercise (60 minutes)

Team:
- Positional play 6 vs. 3 (6 x 1 minute/ 1 minute rest)
- Match form 11 vs. 11 (2 x 8 minutes / 2 minutes rest)

Jordy Clasie:
- Positional play 6 vs. 3 (6 x 1 minute/ 1 minute rest)
- Match form 11 vs. 11 (2 x 8 minutes / 2 minutes rest)

Saturday 17th of March:

Team:
Match (80 minutes)
Jordy Clasie:
Match ( Max 60 minutes)

I like it .hahahahaha

Be my guest!

I was watching the Wesley Sneijder docu on tv and saw how Ronald Koeman took in Wesley as a kid into the first team selection and giving him the opportunity to play. And suddenly I was struck by the repetition of history with the new mighty midget Jordy Clasie.

He needs to improve in corners. I remember Sneijder back in the day also having problems getting it properly in front of goal. Next year, expectation level will rise. Always tough.

It's not accessible outside of Holland on the NOS website. Anybody have a way to see this from across the ocean?

Hide my bottom?

At the cost of Van der Vaart

The right choice.

Able to see it with the link or does it not work?

Didn't work but I found it on YouTube. I have it downloaded if it's taken down for copyright reasons.

In other news the "true Feyenoorder" Kuyt is heading to Fenerbache for 3 years. No doubt Feyenoord really wants him back when he is around 35 year old.

Really what are these "elderly veterans" thinking that their old club wants them back when they can't do anything any more and the club has plenty of young talent who can do better ?

Feyenoord can also draw Fenerbache for the CL qualifying rounds, would be hilarious if Feyenoord manage to knock Fener out. Shouldn't really be that hard even.

Mark Van Bommel is 35 odd too & he is heading to PSV so I am sure Feyenoord can give a 1-2 year deal to Kuyt maybe.

It would be a waste of money and a bad message to the young players. The club already did this a couple of years ago when the brought Maakay, van Bronkhorst, and Thomasson back to the club and nearly bankrupted it.

Yeah,it will be a bad messages to the young players..........................