Monday morning and we're up at six. Have to get our son to Slavia for 'regeneration training' in the pool. No splashing about, but laps for about forty minutes, kicking in the water as they hang on to their styrofoam boards. After that, the boys in the academy, nothing more than a Czech public school dedicated to jocks, head to the classroom. The other kids are driven off by nervous parents, who wonder whether they'll get them to class and themselves to work on time again this week. We decided to take the plunge, no pun intented, into the world of hardcore soccer this year, pulling our son out of a private British school and enrolling him in the sports school at Slavia's training center and in the shadows of Eden Arena, where Slavia Prague plays its home games in the Czech capital. Maybe our decision, however, wasn't the toughest. One of the new boys picked to join the team is living in a rented apartment in Prague with his mother. His dad and sister remain at home som 100 miles south of Prague. The dad makes it up to Prague for the weekend games. Up to age ten, we could swing school and soccer. Practice was three times a week, and started at three thirty, which gave my wife a half hour to get him from school to the field, usually just enough time. But at age eleven, the kids move from the "pripravky" or prepatory teams, to "mladsi zacy", or young students, as it literally translates. Now, things get a bit more serious. On the positive side, uniforms, travelling costs, which we had to pitch in to finance heretofore, are picked up by the club. For the players, the hours of practices increase. And it's not just scrimmaging and shooting. The Czechs, feeling they've fallen behind the other European powers, are putting more emphasis on creating not just better soccer players, but athletes. So, on Tuesday mornings, again just after seven, our son needs to be in the locker room for 'gymnastics' which is lots of work on the horse, rings, doing summersaults and such. On Thursday morning, they head outside, if the weather allows it, for áthletics', which consists of sprints and other drills to perfect their running and overall coordination. It's all about training units. Slavia's calculated that 10 training units is what the top European academies are doing at that age. There is a deep awareness that Czech soccer has slipped and now they're trying to play catch up, absorbing the training tactics of the top countries like Germany and Holland. So, that's a general overview of life at an academy... from a parent's perspective. It doesn't begin to scratch the surface, but if anyone's interested in hearing more, I'd be more than willing to you what I know.....
Thank you for that! Such an interesting process. I have some questions if you don't mind. Are you and your son American citizens? If so, does that color the perception of him as a player by the coaches or other players? Is there any kind of a language barrier? Is there a clear path at Slavia Praha to the first team? How many players from a given year "make it"? How was your son selected for the Academy? Was it a tryout process or was he invited to attend after being scouted? Is technical training a big part of practices, or at that point are the kids expected to have their technique down?
Hey there, More than glad to answer your questions. Let's go thru them from the top. I am a U.S.-born American; my wife is Czech; my son holds dual Czech-U.S. citizenship. He speaks Czech fluently; that's really his native tongue; his English is very good. There are players at Slavia who don't speak Czech. It's definitely an obstacle, but if the kid has talent, they'll go out of their way to accommodate him. No clear path at all. In fact, since new Chinese owners came in with deep pockets, the chances seem to have diminished. Having said that, players from Slavia and Sparta dot many of the rosters of first and second division teams here. He was playing for Bohemians when the coach from Slavia asked if we'd be interested in coming over. That was in 2012 when he was six. The older they get, the more teams will have to pay for the transfer. At six, there was no fee. Each year, Slavia, like all teams here, holds open tryouts for the freshest birth year squad. This year, Slavia started up a team for boys born in 2012. From those five-year-olds, they pick a team. Most of these early starters will likely be cut in coming years. Like I said, he was scouted by the coach, who had seen him play when he was at Bohemians, also a first division team, but with much fewer financial possibilities. In the early years, our coach was very much into Coerver. That was a bit unique here, but everyone who's watched this age group says they are more comfortable taking players on than older kids at Slavia, where passing and teamwork were drilled into their heads from the get go. At 11, there's little specialize training, although goalies do go off on their own. They're gradually shifting to a bit of tactical work. At this age, they play 7+1 with a size 4 ball on about a half of a regulation field. As for individual skills, many parents pay for outside training. I didn't, but spent a lot of time with my son, juggling, dribbling thru cones, shooting and such. If they don't have the skill, they're doomed eventually. Hope that helps.
Yikes! Forgot to answer a question about getting into the academy. Basically, the guys on the team are highly encouraged to attend. Technically, it's a Czech public school specializing in sport. Besides soccer players, my son's class has lots of hockey players, a tennis player, and maybe a few girl field hockey players. (There are still kids in the school, who played for Slavia in the past, but were cut at some point. They are kept in a different class.) The school accommodates training. For example, on Thursdays they have three training units, including Coerver at 1140 to lunch time at 1230. They say the kids who attend the school generally start to pull away from the kids who only attend the afternoon practices... We'll see.
So, Slavia’s U12s head to Poznan, Poland this weekend for a prestigious, if not unusual, tourney. This won’t be played at some windswept complex on the outskirts of town, with parents ringing the field, stomping their feet to keep warm. Nope. This is being played in legit, bigtime, arena, with a capacity of some 5,000 smackdab in the center of the Polish city. Eight teams are taking part, including European heavyweights Chelsea and Manchester City. Others are impressive as well: Red Bull Leipzig, Hertha Berlin, Feyenoord, Inter Milan, hosts Lech Poznan, and, of course, Slavia. They will be competing for the Lech Cup http://www.lechcup.pl/ over two days – Saturday, Sunday – in games that will be over before a blink of the eye: 10 minutes. Four field players, plus goalie, will battle on a field about 40 meters long, 20 meters wide. So, it ain’t normal footy at all, and with astro-turf, not futsal either. For those interested in logistics, tourneys like this are invite-only, and, as far as I know, the organizer has to sweeten the deal to lure in some of the bigger fish. For us, at least, the kids will be put up at a four-star hotel, not far from the arena, plus all their meals are taken care of. The kids will bus up to Poznan on Friday in what is expected to be an eight-hour trip. (it’s about 300 miles from Prague). We have to pitch in about $100 per kid for the bus; Slavia’s picking up the rest. So, that's really the only out-of-pocket expense for us. Of course, we'll give our son some spending money for snacks and such. Slavia’s coach has picked, “nominated”, eight players for what I would suppose is viewed as a pretty prestigious event. If interested, I’ll tell you how it went next week. Wish them luck!
So, the tourney is over. Slavia finished sixth out of eight. Sounds worse than it was. All the games were close, but our goalie is not up to snuff. Beat Red Bull Leipzig, Inter Milan, Feyernoord, and lost a squeeker to Man. City that we should have won, 5-4. Son did okay. Seven goals. Third most in tourney with a few other kids....
As a parent, I guess you want to see how your kids stack up with some of the best from around Europe. While our boys might not have the elegance of some of the players at Feyernoord, there was definitely no technical gap between most of the Slavia players and these seven other teams. And against Manchester City, they really should have won...Son had two against them Another good thing to come out of it, was that the trainers from Slavia and Lech agreed to play a few friendlies in the spring. So, we'll be heading up to Poznan again in the March for real matches that will give the boys much more than 12-minute mini-matches...
I was giving you fake, or tainted news. The losses were more, including to Poznan 2-1, and Chelsea 4-1, the only game our boys were outplayed in. All the other games we lost were one-goal affairs. So that first day.... the games went like this.... Slavia -Man. C. 4-5; Slavia-Feyenoord 2-0; Slavia -Hertha Berlin 2-3; Slavia-RB Leipzig 1-2; Slavia-Chelsea 1-4; Slavia-Lech Poznan 1-2; Slavia -Inter Milan 1-2. As a result of that, Slavia played against Feyenoord, Milan, and Leipzig on Sunday in what was the "Europa League." The top four teams from Saturday battled it out in the "Champions League". On Sunday, Slavia beat Feyenoord (1-0), Milan (4-2) and Leipzig (5-3), but lost to Feyenoord in the "final" of the Europa League 1-0.
For anyone interested in watching one of the U12 Feyenoord-Slavia games from the Lech Poznan tourney in December, here it is....it's just over 11 minutes
Slavia's 'academy' -- a public school in Prague with a focus on athletics (as opposed to academics?) -- had a spring break last week. That meant my boy and the other members of Slavia's U12s as well as U13s headed out of town for a week of training and a few friendlies. They traveled just 40 miles or so to a hotel that serves as an informal training center for Czech athletes and sports teams. There are fields, both grass and astroturf, basketball courts, swimming pools, whirlpools, etc. A veritable smorgasbord, or pretty close to it, at meal time. It's pretty top notch... from what I hear, or saw from photos on social media. Anyway, according to my son, it was pretty intense. Two training sessions, sometimes three, one-time even four, plus stretching, massages, and other team-building activities. This is where the Europeans are just light years ahead of the U.S. It's at these critical ages, 10,11,12 that the basics of the game are learned; the skills honed. My son was exhausted when he came home on Saturday, but a bit more confident, being away from mom and dad for a week, competing every day in a very competitive environment against other determined boys. Just priceless stuff if you're interested in developing topnotch soccer players. I'm not here to dump on the U.S. model. I came up thru it, albeit when it was still pretty awful...
I find this whole thread very interesting. How did you end up living in Prague? Did you meet your wife and then go there, or go there and then meet your wife? Do you think at any point you will come back to the states?
Hi, I move here back in 1995. A job was what did it. I'm still employed at the same place. Wife is a native. Met her here. Maybe years ago, I thought about going back, but now with a family and deep roots here, it doesn't seem practical, or frankly, something I'd want to do. I've grown accustomed to living here. I have a pretty good life....
The Czechs have a fairly well-developed social security system, and this is it for me at least (and maybe this is what you experienced during those early "maybe" years): no way in hell am I getting my wife to move to the US until our kids are out of university, at the earliest, unless we strike it crazy rich. Maternity and paternity leave, vacation days to spend time with the kid, limited work weeks with mandatory overtime pay, free health care, free universities, free or highly subsidized athletics clubs (our local club produced multiple Olympic skiers and a few Norwegian national teamers for soccer, its price is a fraction of what I paid as a youth player in the US), etc., etc.
Sure, sports opportunities abound especially in the former East Bloc countries, where the commies really kicked in the cash to prop up the programs. Many sports struggled after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but are coming back now. Slavia is lucky that it has a deep-pocketed owner, so the money is starting to seep down to the youth teams. In the U.S., it really seems geared to the well-heeled.
Interesting weekend coming up for the Slavia U12s. On Friday, they head to Ostrava in the east of the country, about 180 northeast of Prague. There, they will face four teams over three days. Besides the home team Banik Ostrava, Hungary's Gyor ETO (the club for which Peter Vermes played for back in the 1990s), Slovakia's MSK Zilina, Poland's Wisla Krakow, are taking part as well. All are first-league sides. Not sure if they'll be playing 8+1 or 10+1. Either way, it will be a good test for all the teams. Great chance for the boys to see how they match up with some decent Central European clubs. For those interested in the logistics of how something like this works, I give you the following. The boys at the academy are expected to show up for school on Friday at eight in the morning, as per norm. They will have two class sessions, and then at 10 the trainer is expected to take them over to the training center where a bus should be waiting to whisk them away. In Ostrava, they will stay in a hotel, with all food taken care of. They are set to return to Prague on Sunday evening. The club is paying for the bus. Parents have to pony up money for accommodations, which is about $150. That's a lot for an average family here, but not prohibitively so....Scores to come early next week.
So, I was promising you results, and.... I don't have them. Son came down with a sickness so we kept him at home. Weighing heavily on our decision was the weather. It was cold, so cold they actually cancelled the first division game in Ostrava that weekend. Temps hovered in the mid to upper teens during the day, plus there was a 'smog alert' in effect. So, while the weather wasn't fit for grown men, little guys were allowed to play. A lot of parents had a problem with the decision, but no one dared leave their kid at home for fear it could effect their little offsprings' chances in the future to be 'nominated' for upcoming tournaments. As we approach the spring, the season of tourneys abroad is in the air. The first one up is in an exotic destitation: Izmir, Turkey, with a list of who's who of the European soccer world -- Bayern Munich, Man. City, Sporting Lisbon -- pluse some more unusual ones -- Besiktas, Galatasaray (obviously, since this is in Turkey) Karabag from Azerbaijan, and a team from Kyrgyzstan! http://www.u12izmircup.org/ So, now the buzz about the team is who goes and who doesn't. The playing format is 8+1, so about 15 players will be 'nominated.' I've booked a hotel (that I can cancel), so I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed!
Well this is embarrassing. The Turkish tourney is in the can. Apparently, the organizer doesn't have the cash to fly over and put up all the teams that were originally scheduled to take part. So, Slavia's U12s got the ax. Making it worse was the fact my son was 'nominated' to travel to the tourney in Izmir. There is a bright side. That weekend when the Turkey tourney is taking place, Slavia's U12s will be traveling to Munich for a couple of friendlies against Bayern Munich! The German giants also got the boot from the Turks as well. At least we're in good company. Looking forward to snooping around at the Bayern academy where the games will be played. From what I've heard, it's simply one of the best around....
An organization from the Middle East promised more than they could deliverin order to make their event look better to outsiders? I’m floored.