Frequently Asked Questions
What will my child get from the Legends Academy that he won't get with another program?
- Incredible Dribbling and Finishing Skills
- Positive Mental Attitude – A huge part of the program success has been gained by conditioning the players to see the upside of circumstances and make the next thing in the game of life a positive and productive event. Regular motivational e-mails and motivational coaching emphasis are an integral part of the curriculum.
- Self Confidence – From mastering the most difficult skills
- Elite Teamwork – From playing the worlds most popular sport at the highest level and having more tactical options than other players
- Leadership – From learning how to master the ball and from taking the responsibility to make the big plays
- Power – Legends Soccer develops total body power as a result of dynamic soccer actions such as shooting, faking and exploding, short sprints and tackling
- Anaerobic Capacity – A better anaerobic threshold is developed because the practices are broken into 3 or 4 minute competitive segments that improve the players’ exhaustion, (lactic acid), threshold considerably
- Coordination– No other sport expects players to move the ball with their feet at speed and only the Legends program develops the most difficult soccer skills under pressure
- Agility – The tremendous emphasis on the most difficult dribbling fakes and shooting skills develops a supreme level of agility
- Endurance – Each practice is filled with activity that develops the cardio-vascular system to an extensive degree
- Intelligence – Legends players are asked to make difficult decisions with the complication of limited space and time, thereby fostering soccer intelligence
- Injury avoidance – Soccer is one of the safest team sports and the Legends approach builds a greater level of agility and coordination which develops superior ability to avoid potentially injurious situations
- Role Models – Older Legends teams will provide numerous examples of the skillful intelligent approach to soccer and a classy, integrity based, philosophy applied to competitive athletics
How long do I sign up for?
One month at a time. The Academy program is totally flexible. You can come and go on a month by month basis as you please.
What percentage of graduating Legends players get to play in College?
Over 85% of players from the first 7 teams to graduate from the club have played, or are playing, in College.
Why do the Legends players get such success with College Scholarships?
Showcasing for College is where the tremendous individual skills our players have previously developed really become essential because extremely difficult combination skills can only be performed by players with great dribbling skills and ball striking ability. Thus the absolutely fantastic quick release skill and dribbling ability we develop in our players allows us to develop an incredible team player who is very attractive to the college coach. Other programs that didn't first spend the necessary time on developing a fantastic individual player cannot hope to compete for college scholarships in the way that our players can. At age 17 our players play faster, have greater confidence, look better on the ball, can score goals, beat players, defend well in 1 v 1 match ups and combine in and around the opponent's penalty area to create goal scoring opportunities. When a player can do all this everything else is easy.
Through the years we first work the more complex individual skills. Then we work the more complex individual tactical equations involved in the 1 v 1 situation and eventually the more complex tactical situations involved in the 2 v 2. Throughout the whole process we gradually operant condition the appropriate game responses by mandating certain responses i.e. early shot, pass or fake. We will never work with a ball ratio of greater than 2 v 2 because we are able to create a more complex tactical challenge than any ever encountered in the 11 v 11 game by practicing two teams together and forcing the players to utilize maximum cognition, perception, assimilation and task selection abilities under pressure at every practice. The practice expectations we have of our players exceed anything they will face in the game situation by a country mile. Therefore, after doing this for a few years the "real game" is a technical, tactical, physiological and psychological breeze.
Furthermore the players love it. They spend their time playing an exciting version of the game in a crowd where theirs and their opponent's goals are only twenty yards apart. Every second they are optimally challenged to the maximum of their ability. The end result is a player who loves the game, has great individual and team abilities in the clutch defensively and offensively and, therefore, the ability to lead the team to victory.
College coaches love this type of player because they make the plays that win games.
How do you divide up playing time?
We believe in equal playing time for all players who consistently attend practice. We do not play a bench. We believe that keeping our stronger players on the field at the expense of playing time for our weaker players is unfair and ends up de-motivating the weaker players and teaching the stronger players that it is OK to be unfair as long as the team wins. The only justification for unequal playing time is the statistical win and we believe that this is a cynical ego driven motive that has no place in youth sports where development should be the paramount consideration
How do you train positional play?
We train utility players who are able to play numerous positions because their ability with the ball and situational versatility gives them a breadth and depth of talents and skills applicable to a wide variety of situations. We position players much later than other youth clubs because our focus is on maximizing the abilities of each individual not winning games.
Why do you win so many games if your focus isn't on winning?
The reason we win so many games when the teams mature is because we never focused on the wins and losses as the players were developing. Children can only develop incredibly creative skills and a risk taking mentality when they are given complete encouragement and support to take the risk in all situations where there is a much easier and often fear based option. We focus on the development of the brilliant individual player and leave the integration of the team until its logical place i.e. after the individual brilliance is set in stone. It is almost impossible to beat a team of brilliant individuals who have learned when and where to use their teammates effectively. That’s why Brazil have won so many World Cups.
Locations
- The Discovery School
- Discovery Tree Oakleaf
- Discovery Tree San Pablo
- Coastal Charter School
- Kid City Atlantic
- Kiddie Academy
- La Petite - Baymeadows
- La Petite - St. John’s Bluff
- Kid City Fruit Cove
- Jax Golf & Country Club
- Ladybird of Oakleaf
- Ladybird of St Johns
- Melrose Preschool
- Primrose of Julington Creek
- Southside Charter School
- San Jose Catholic School
- Southside United Methodist
- Stepping Stones
- Academy at Deerwood
- Academy at St Johns
- ECS Good Shepherd
- Total Learning Center
- Tutor Time Hampton Point
- Tutor Time Windsor
- UNF Preschool Center