Seattle Futsal Academy

Futsal Summer Camps – 2012!

Carl — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:10:44 +0000

Dates and locations coming soon for 2012 futsal summer camps. Contact us if you’re interested in having your child participate and sign up for our email list to get up to date information.

Join Our Mailing List

For Email Newsletters you can trust

Adult Drop-in Sessions Tuesdays and Thursdays!

Carl — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:59:24 +0000

We have adult drop-in sessions running every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 8-10pm at Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center (6535 Ravenna Ave NE Seattle, WA 98115).

$7 per 2hr session – pay at the front desk.

Just show up and be ready to play!

For more information you can contact us at SeattleFutsalAcademy@gmail.com or (206) 618-0719.

Join Our Mailing List

For Email Newsletters you can trust

Winter Youth Leagues Starting in January

Carl — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:36:37 +0000

Winter leagues start January 22nd, 2012. This year we will be playing at the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center (6535 Ravenna Ave NE Seattle, WA 98115) which has a great gym space that is perfect for futsal.

We are currently offering two leagues:

Boys U11/12

Girls U11/12

(If you have a team that wants to play but does not fall into this age group let us know and we will work to put together more leagues in the spring).

Each league will last 8 weeks with games being played on Sundays between 12:30-4:30 (games run for about an hour).

January 22nd – March 11th
$65 per player
12 players maximum on a team
Every participant will receive a Seattle Futsal Academy t-shirt!
Signup deadline is January 8th and there are only four open spots in each league so sign your team up today!

You can register your team at Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center (206) 684-7534.
Online registration will be available soon through the Seattle Parks and Recreation website.

For more information you can contact us at SeattleFutsalAcademy@gmail.com or (206) 618-0719.

Futsal Festival!

Carl — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:50:23 +0000

Brazil and Futsal

Peter — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:46:26 +0000

“No time plus no space equals better skills. Futebol de Salao (Futsal) is our national laboratory of improvisation.” Brazilian Football Coach. Trying to describe the collective talent of Brazilian soccer players is like trying to describe the law of gravity. You can measure it—the five World Cup victories, the nine hundred or so young talents signed each year by professional European clubs. Or you can name it—the procession of transcendent stars like Pelé, Zico, Socrates, Romário, Ronaldo, Juninho, Robinho, Ronaldinho, Kaká, and others who have deservedly worn the crown of “world’s best player.” But in the end you can’t capture the power of Brazilian talent in numbers and names.
It has to be felt. Every day soccer fans around the world witness the quintessential scene: a group of enemy players surround a Brazilian, leaving him no options, no space, no hope. Then there’s a
dancelike blur of motion—a feint, a flick, a burst of speed—and suddenly the Brazilian player
is in the clear, moving away from his now-tangled opponents with the casual aplomb of a
person stepping off a crowded bus.
Each day, Brazil accomplishes something extremely difficult and unlikely: in a game at which
the entire world is feverishly competing, it continues to produce an unusually high percentage
of the most skilled players. The conventional way to explain this kind of concentrated talent is
to attribute it to a combination of genes and environment a.k.a. nature and nurture. In this
way of thinking, Brazil is great because it possesses a unique confluence of factors: a friendly
climate, a deep passion for soccer, and a genetically diverse population of 190 million, 40
percent of whom are desperately poor and long to escape through “the beautiful game.” Add
up all the factors and—voilà!—you have the ideal factory for soccer greatness.
But there ’s a slight problem with this explanation: Brazil wasn’t always a great producer of
soccer players. In the 1940sand 1950s, with its trifecta of climate, passion, and poverty
already firmly in place, the ideal factory produced unspectacular results, never winning a World Cup, failing to defeat then-world-power Hungary in four tries, showing few of the
dazzling improvisational skills for which it would later become known. It wasn’t until 1958
that the Brazil the world now recognizes truly arrived, in the form of a brilliant team featuring
seventeen-year-old Pelé, at the World Cup in Sweden.* If sometime during the next decade
Brazil should shockingly lose its lofty place in the sport (as Hungary so shockingly
did), then the Brazil-is-unique argument leaves us with no conceivable response except to
shrug and celebrate the new champion, which undoubtedly will also possess a set of
characteristics all its own.
So how does Brazil produce so many great players? The surprising answer is that Brazil
produces great players because since the 1950s Brazilian players have trained in a particular
way, with a particular tool that improves ball-handling skill faster than anywhere else in the
world. They have found a way to increase their learning* Soccer historians trace the moment
to the opening three minutes of Brazil’s 1958 World Cup semifinal victory against the heavily
favored Soviet Union. The Soviets, who were regarded as the pinnacle of modern technique,
were overrun by the ballhandling skills of Pelé, Garrincha, and Vavá. As commentator Luis
Mendes said, “The scientific systems of the Soviet Union died a death right there. They put
the first man in space, but they couldn’t mark Garrincha.”
BRAZIL’S SECRET WEAPON
Like many sports fans around the world, soccer coach Simon Clifford was fascinated by the
supernatural skills of Brazilian soccer players. Unlike most fans, however, he decided to go to
Brazil to see if he could find out how they developed those. This was an unusually ambitious
initiative on Clifford’s part, considering that he had gained all his coaching experience at a
Catholic elementary school in the soccer non-hotbed of Leeds, England. …
In the summer of 1997, when he was twenty-six, Clifford borrowed $8,000 from his teachers’
union and set out for Brazil toting a backpack, a video camera, and a notebook full of phone
numbers he ’d cajoled from a Brazilian player he ’d met (Juninho). Once there, Clifford spent
most of his time exploring the thronging expanse of São Paolo, sleeping in roach-infested
dormitories by night, scribbling notes by day.
He saw many things he ’d expected to find: the passion, the tradition, the highly organized
training centers, the long practice sessions. (Teenage players at Brazilian soccer academies
log twenty hours per week, compared with five hours per week for their British counterparts.)
He saw the towering poverty of the favelas, and the desperation in the players’ eyes.
But Clifford also saw something he didn’t expect: a strange game. It resembled soccer, if
soccer were played inside a phone booth and dosed with amphetamines. The ball was less
than half the size but weighed twice as much; it hardly bounced at all. The players trained,
not on a vast expanse of grass field, but on basketball-court-size patches of concrete,
wooden floor, and dirt. Each side, instead of having eleven players, had five. In its rhythm
and blinding speed, the game resembled basketball or hockey more than soccer: it consisted
of anintricate series of quick, controlled passes and nonstop end to-end action. The game
was called Futebol de Salão,
“It was clear to me that this was where Brazilian skills were born,” Clifford said. “It was like
finding the missing link.”
Futebol de Salao had been invented in 1930 as a rainy-day training option by a Uruguayan coach. Brazilians quickly seized upon it and codified the first rules in 1936. Since then the
game had spread like a virus, especially in Brazil’s crowded cities, and it quickly came to
occupy a unique place in Brazilian sporting culture. Brazil became uniquely obsessed with it,
in part because the game could be played anywhere (no small advantage in a nation where
grass fields are rare). Futebol de Salao grew to command the passions of Brazilian kids in the
same way that pickup basketball commands the passions of inner-city American kids.
As Alex Bellos, author of Futebol: Soccer, the Brazilian Way, wrote, Futebol de Salao “is
regarded as the incubator of the Brazilian soul.” The incubation is reflected in players’
biographies. From Pelé onward virtually every great Brazilian player played Futebol de Salao
as a kid, first in the neighborhood and later at Brazil’s soccer academies, where from ages
seven to around twelve they typically devoted three days a week to Futebol de Salao. A top
Brazilian player spends thousands of hours at the game. The great Juninho, for instance, said
he never kicked a full-size ball on grass until he was fourteen. Until he was twelve, Robinho
spent half his training time playing Futebol de Salao.*
Like a vintner identifying a lovely strain of grape, a cognoscente like Prof. Emilio Miranda,
professor of soccer at the University of São Paolo, can identify the Futebol de Salao wiring
within famous Brazilian soccer tricks. That elastico move that Ronaldinho popularized,
drawing the ball in and out like a yoyo? It originated in Futebol de Salao. The toe-poke goal
that Ronaldo scored in the 2002 World Cup? Again, Futebol de Salao. Moves like the
d’espero, el barret, and vaselina? All came from Futebol de Salao. When I told Miranda that
I’d imagined Brazilians built skills by playing soccer on the beach, he laughed. “Journalists fly
here, go to the beach, they take pictures and write stories. But great players don’t come from
the beach. They come from the Futebol de Salao court.”
One reason lies in the math. Futebol de Salao players touch the ball far more often than
soccer players—six times more often per minute, according to a Liverpool University study.
The smaller, heavier ball demands and rewards more precise handling—as coaches point out,
you can’t get out of a tight spot simply by booting the ball downfield. Sharp passing is
paramount: the game is all about looking for angles and spaces and working quick
combinations with other players. Ball control and vision are crucial, so that when Futebol de
Salao players play the full-size game, they feel as if they have acres of free space in which to
operate. When I watched professional outdoor games in São Paulo sitting with Prof. Miranda,
he would point out players who had played Futebol de Salao: he could tell by the way they
held the ball. They didn’t care how close their opponent came. As Prof. Miranda summed up,
“No time plus no space equals better skills. Futebol de Salao is our national laboratory of
improvisation.”
In other words, Brazilian soccer is different from the rest of the world’s because Brazil
employs the sporting equivalent of a Link trainer. Futebol de Salao compresses soccer’s
essential skills into a small box; it places players inside the deep practice zone, making and
correcting errors, constantly generating solutions to vivid problems. Players touching the ball
600 percent more often learn far faster, without realizing it, than they would in the vast,
bouncy expanse of the outdoor game. To be clear: Futebol de Salao is not the only reason
Brazilian soccer is great. The other factors so often cited—climate, passion, and poverty—
really do matter. But Futebol de Salao is the lever through which those other factors transfer their force.

An extract from The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle (2009):

Futsal Summer Camps

Carl — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:58:47 +0000

We are holding summer camps open to kids 8 -14 years old. Players will spend three hours each morning (9:00am – Noon) learning technical and tactical skills including dribbling, passing, receiving, shooting – ball skills that transfer directly to outdoor soccer. Plus players will enjoy Ultimate Knockout, Power and Finesse, juggling competitions and more. In addition, each participant will receive a futsal t-shirt!

To register your child today fill out our REGISTRATION FORM and return to us by email at:

SeattleFutsalAcademy@gmail.com

or mail to:

3900 2nd Ave NE #405
Seattle, WA 98105

Then pay using the Paypal link below or mail us a check.

Futsal is the official form of indoor soccer recognized by FIFA. It’s played 5 on 5 on a hard court surface with a slightly smaller ball with less bounce. Futsal emphasizes improvisation, creativity and technique. Seattle Futsal Academy has been promoting and organizing the sport in the Seattle area since 2009.

Are You Interested in Adult Drop In?

Carl — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:45:48 +0000

If you are interested in Adult drop-in please let us know by emailling us at: seattlefutsalacademy@gmail.com
We are trying to start a weekly drop-in, but the only way it will work is if we get input from Seattle. Thanks

Futsal Birthday Parties!

Carl — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 19:53:59 +0000

Looking for a fun activity for your son or daughter’s birthday party? How about a futsal birthday party!?!? We will provide everything you need to have a fun filled day on the futsal court. Children of all ages are welcome to play, and the parents can even join in on the fun if they want.

We require a 2 hr minimum at $125/hr (+tax), with each hour after that at $75/hr. Parties take place at the Wallingford Boys and Girls Club (1310 N 45th St. Seattle, Wa 98103). Please contact us at SeattleFutsalAcademy@gmail.com for availability.

Futsal Training Sessions Now Available

Carl — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:55:50 +0000

We are happy to announce that we are now offering futsal training sessions. These will be a great opportunity for teams to not only get some valuable practice time on the futsal court, but also present an easy way for parents, players, and coaches to get exposed to this amazing sport!

We will provide referees/instructors to organize and run games, as well as give as much or as little instruction as wanted by coaches—who are welcome to be as involved as they wish.

We require a 2 hour minimum for these sessions with a maximum of 4 hours. The first two hours are a total of $250+tax, with each hour after that being $75/hr (prices may vary based on facility and time). We suggest a minimum of 10 players and a maximum of 20 per session.

Please contact us by clicking on the ‘Contact’ link, calling us at (206) 618-0719, or emailing SeattleFutsalAcademy@gmail.com if you are interested in having your team participate in a training session.

Also, if your team’s schedule is too full right now but you’re still interested in getting them into playing futsal at some point in the future, you can always let us know what time of year their schedule could allow it and what you’re interested in (league, training session, tournament, etc) and we will try our best to accommodate.

Article about Seattle Futsal Academy in the Seattle Soccer Examiner!

Carl — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:38:04 +0000

SEATTLE FUTSAL ACADEMY TAKES FIRST STEPS IN ‘EXCITING, FUNDAMENTAL SPORT‘
by David Falk, www.SeattleSoccerExaminer.com

Peter Cadigan is one of three local soccer lovers who is getting the new “Seattle Futsal Academy” off to a kicking start. We talked with Peter about the plans for the Academy and also about the fast-paced, footskills sport of Futsal. Don’t think ‘indoor soccer,’ because Futsal has no walls.

How / when did Seattle Futsal Academy get started?

Peter: Seattle Futsal just started its first league this past weekend. We are not operating as an academy at the moment. Our goal is to organize leagues and tournaments for playing futsal and to raise the interest in the game in our area. We started SFA with an idea of spreading the game of Futsal. We are 3 guys who have grown up in Seattle and have played soccer since we were 5 years old. We were never exposed to this game as youth and feel that this game can add so much to the skill development of players as they pursue their soccer goals. Its a fun sport for adults as well. These are the reasons for why we created SFA.

Do you play year round?

We will be offering leagues year round. Futsal has a great advantage in an area like the Northwest; since Futsal is played indoors we don’t have to worry about the weather. We are not set up for memberships right now. We have a league currently running for high school aged girls that has 6 teams that play on Sundays from noon to 4PM at the Wallingford Boys and Girls Club in Seattle. We will be offering leagues and/or tournaments for other ages and boys in the very near future.

Explain the game to American soccer fans who might not be familiar. (Rules, number of players, etc.) How is it the same/different than outdoor soccer or American ‘arena’ soccer?

Futsal is FIFA’s official indoor soccer game. It is played five on five, usually on a hard surface field that is roughly the size of a basketball court. The ball is slightly smaller than used in full field soccer. It’s also slightly heavier and doesn’t bounce as high. The big difference in comparison to traditional American indoor soccer is that futsal is played with touchline boundaries. Because of this, futsal demands and develops a higher level of ball control and on-the-ball skills. In traditional American indoor soccer, kicking the ball off the walls is often an important part of creating scoring opportunities. These types of plays do not transfer to playing outdoor soccer. However, in futsal, players must play a quality control game that is also necessary in outdoor soccer.

How can playing Futsal help the traditional outdoor player?

The traditional outdoor player will gain many things from playing Futsal: individual ball control, quick decision making, more touches on the ball, playing within smaller boundaries, shot precision and if thats not enough come check us out on Sundays.

What do you think the future holds for the sport in the Puget Sound area?

We believe in the game of futsal, and we believe it will catch on in the Puget Sound area. There are organizations in both Portland and Spokane that have been successful in maintaining steady leagues. Seattle is very much a soccer city, even before we had an MLS team. We think if we can just get people out playing the game, the players will find out how much fun it is, and the coaches will see what a great skill developing game it is.

Explain the explosion of popularity for Futsal in South America, and especially Brazil. Why is the game so big there?

The origin of Futsal can be traced back to Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1930 when Juan Carlos Ceriani devised a five-a-side version of soccer for youth competition in YMCAs. Once Ceriani got the ball rolling, Futsal gained rapid popularity throughout South America, particularly in Brazil. The skill developed in this game is visible in the world-famous style the Brazilians display outdoors on the full-sized field. Pele, Zico, Socrates, Bebeto and other Brazilian superstars developed their skill playing Futsal.

Do you ever see a time when professional Futsal comes to America in a league of our own?

The day that Futsal comes to America in a professional setting is years away but not tens of years away. It is such a fast paced, exciting, fundamental sport! It is only a matter of time before people get a hold of this game and realize that a professional league is mandatory in America.

What are your short and long term goals for SFA?

Our short term goals for SFA are to provide leagues and tournaments to youth in the Seattle area. Our long term goals are to provide leagues, tournaments and clinics for Futsal enthusiasts of ALL ages in the Seattle area. By providing these opportunities we will hopefully spread the game of Futsal beyond the city of Seattle.