This past weekend, TikiTaka held its first TikiTaka camp at a club, with very good results! The organizer was Brunflo FK, a football club in Jämtland that got interested in TikiTaka this past winter.

“I have been impressed by how Tony has been training teams in the past, and came in contact with him and TikiTaka at the football symposium in Sundsvall. I thought that this could be something exciting to test in our club.” says Mikael Olovsson, initiative taker to the camp in Brunflo.

Michael’s idea, which was hatched in Sundsvall, eventually culminated into an intercamp which took place over a course of three days, where both coaches and players of different ages from the club participated.

The weekend started with a 90 + 90 for the leaders on Friday, which is 90 minutes theory and 90 minutes practical training in the TikiTaka method. On Saturday and Sunday it was the youth of the club – 120 boys and girls born from 1997 to 2003 – which got the opportunity to test the TikiTaka training methodology. The players were divided into smaller groups, and the leaders could actively watch the exercises up close.

“The TikiTaka method is something new, and it’s good because we get a lot of practical exercises, which we can then go on to teaching our youth. The model itself is also great,” Michael continues.

TikiTakas development manager Tony Gustavsson was responsible for the training on Friday and Saturday, while Janne Mian, who is normally the Sports Manager at Boo IF with a past as a fitness coach at Hammarby, took over on Sunday and used TikiTaka-inspired exercises for strength and flexibility. Janne shares both the values of TikiTaka and its way of looking at football development:

“Youth Football in Sweden today, is very focused on physics and is results-oriented, and we need to change the approach and further improve our understanding of the game,” he says.

Janne has, like TikiTaka, looked a lot on the factors which has lead to success in other countries, and highlights Denmark as a role model. There has been a major reorganization in youth football and a removal of the series game; there has been a start towards playing more 3 against 3 with the thought that “development before victory, leads to victory”

On Sunday, Janne showed some of the physical-and flexibility exercises where you also integrate the ball, and how you can actively work with the exercises in an intelligent way.

“These exercises are often used to warm up, but in football, it is also important to work efficiently. When we work with coordination, agility and flexibility, the ball is always included.”

Janne points out the importance of the joy of football and gives examples of exercises where you at a young age can “play in” the tactical parts of football, by introducing certain rules which provide gratifying moments in the exercises.

Janne also highlights the importance of being able to make quick decisions in today’s football, and showed off exercises in passing the ball where you can mix girls and boys of different ages:

“Living passing exercises, where you have to use the entire field, are not based on physics, but rather to know when to let go of the ball and to do it quickly. Simply a good understanding of the game. “

On Sunday, Janne also showed some exercises based on 3v3 games which were very appreciated, and which we at TikiTaka always advocate.

We conclude with Michael Olov’s good news:
“I have only heard positive words from everybody after the weekend. The concept is very exciting and we will continue to build on this in some way.”

TikiTaka say a big thank you to the very positive and committed team who participated in TikiTaka’s Camp in Brunflo, and hope that we will be able to see you again! We in the TikiTaka team are obviously very excited about the praise that our training methods get around the country. It inspires us to continue with our vision to develop future players and people of world class!

Want to see more pictures and videos from the weekend? Follow us on Facebook!
If you have your our own photos or movies from one of our educations, we would welcome an e-mail at info@tikitakaacademy.com, or post them directly at our facebook page.