Author: Fernando Solis
In my time as both a player and junior and youth soccer coach in Melbourne, I have unfortunately experienced and discovered widespread inadequate coaching throughout the ranks of our junior and youth soccer clubs. Parents are always asking me – Where should I take my son to play next year?
Sadly, I don’t have the answer.
There are good clubs with bad coaches and vice versa. Not many clubs offer a young soccer player a complete systematic progression from the ages of 6 through to 16.
Firstly, let me explain the driving force behind my passion for coaching young soccer players. To have every chance of becoming a soccer player, it is without doubt that the developmental stages through the junior and youth years of a child are the most critical and important.
Reflecting back on my time as a youngster, I can now see that I was not lucky enough to have a steady education under a string of knowledgeable soccer coaches. Sadly this affected the improvement of my soccer skills and tactical awareness and also neglected my need for proper physical development and soccer specific fitness conditioning.
I played Victorian Soccer Federation Super League and was playing at the highest level in Melbourne’s junior soccer leagues. This was from the ages of 13 to 15 and frequently came up against the likes of Mark Viduka and Josip Skoko during the season. At 18, I was a naturally skilled player but never had the necessary fitness to be an effective central midfielder.
Through my late teens I also suffered from lower back and hamstring problems, and no club coach ever had any solutions or ideas on how to help me. The lack of a resident club physiotherapist didn’t help my cause and I couldn’t afford to see one privately, so I gave up on the hamstrings and quit playing at 19. My dream of becoming a professional soccer player was pretty much over.
That feeling of frustration spurred me on to create Fitness Goal Personal Training and I combined two of my passions – fitness and soccer. I help people every day with their fitness goals and I also get to teach soccer players the way I believe is the way to play the game.
Along with my FFA qualifications and my time spent in Argentina learning the finer points of junior and youth soccer player development, I’ve also received my certification as a personal trainer to further extend my knowledge about the human body and properly understand fitness and strength conditioning from a scientific perspective to assist soccer players of all ages properly develop and improve.
Contact Fernando Solis for more information about our Melbourne soccer coaching programs for soccer players of all ages.