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Questions? Contact Youth Director Alex Tagtemeir at atagtmeier@mneclipse.com
MN Eclipse Maple Grove Blast Academy
The MN Eclipse Blast Academy Program serves Maple Grove, Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center and the surrounding communities. Our Blast Academy is available to players as young as age 3, during pre-kindergarten, and runs through the Under 10 age group. Below is our “Pathway to the Eclipse” which highlights the key club philosophy and foundational skills / tactics that we work to emphasize at each age group.
Blast Little Stars (Ages 3-6)
Key Philosophy – In our “Little Stars” age groups, our club philosophy is to work on the development of basic movement / athletic skills as well as to develop the foundational soccer skills that our players will use throughout the rest of their soccer careers.
Foundational Soccer Skills – Dribble the ball wherever they go without using their hands. We want our Blast Little Stars to develop a relationship with the soccer ball that extends beyond their time with us. Dribble, dribble, dribble everywhere plus lots of fun games and activities.
Foundational Soccer Tactic #1 – Every player on the field should be actively involved in the practice or games, even if they do not have the ball at their feet. We want to teach all our players to stay engaged with the game and move up the field as the ball progresses up the field. Without going into too much detail, we are beginning to teach our players the concept of team shape and how to maintain their focus as the ball travels to different areas of the field.
Blast MiNi Eclipses (Ages 7-8)
Key Philosophy – In our “Mini Eclipses” age groups, our club philosophy is to further the development of the foundational soccer skills that players learned with our “Little Stars.” In addition to progressing each child’s dribbling skills, we will also start to introduce the ideas of teamwork, passing and understanding how players fit in to a team.
Foundational Soccer Skills – We still want our players dribbling everywhere and continuing to grow their relationship with the ball and love for the game. We will begin teaching basic passing and ball control techniques within the context of small-sided games and activities.
Foundational Soccer Tactic #1 – Continue to impress upon the players that everyone should be actively involved in practices or games, even if the ball is not at their feet. We want our players engaged and focused at all times while they continue to learn the building blocks for the concept of team shape.
Foundational Soccer Tactic #2 – We want to teach our players to always pass the ball out to the sides when we are in our defensive part of the field (i.e. not across their own goal). A great opportunity to teach this is through goal kicks where we can encourage teammates to find spaces away from other players in the wide areas of the field. This idea should be emphasized through encouragement and positive reinforcement and over time players will begin to understand the concept and start making good decisions on their own. The concept coincides with players learning basic passing and ball control techniques as well as helps players to improve their spatial awareness and understanding of how to work as a team.
Blast Eclipse (Age 9-10)
Key Philosophy – Our “Eclipses” age group is the oldest division in our Blast program and while we will always continue to build on the foundational dribbling, passing & receiving skills, we will also begin to focus more on the team concept and begin to work on improving decision-making skills (speed of thought and the ability to make good decisions on the field) using small-sided games and activities.
Foundational Soccer Skills – Dribbling, passing and receiving are all still the key components of each player in our Blast program’s development. Using small-sided games and activities, we will continue to develop these foundational skills while forcing our players to execute these skills under pressure from other players.
Foundational Soccer Tactic #2 – We will continue to teach our players in our defensive end of the field to look to pass to teammates that are on the same side of the field so that we do not pass the ball across our goal. A great opportunity to teach this is through goal kicks where we can encourage their teammates to find spaces away from other players in the wide areas of the field. This idea should be emphasized through encouragement and positive reinforcement and over time players will begin to understand the concept and start making good decisions on their own. The concept coincides with improving passing and receiving skills and helps players to improve their spatial awareness and decision-making skills.
Foundational Soccer Tactic #3 – The final foundational tactic we will begin to emphasize with our “Eclipses” is the idea of working as a team and moving to space to create passing options for your teammates. The best teacher for soccer is the game itself and we will expose our players to various small-sided games and activities that force them to make quick decisions and move off the ball to help their teammates. Small-sided games are a great tool for teaching these concepts because each player gets to touch the ball often and the small space forces players to make decisions more quickly than they would on a big field. Plus, we all play soccer for the games anyway, right?!
Graduation to MN Eclipse
Upon completing the final year of the MN Eclipse Blast Academy program, we would love for players to choose to further their soccer careers with us and join our MN Eclipse competitive soccer program. With MN Eclipse, players will have the opportunity to join an exciting team, receive professional coaching and travel to other areas in Minneapolis-St. Paul and the surrounding areas to play in games and tournaments.