Courtesy: Daily San Diego Soccer News


Super Mario Talks About New Clinics

by Kathy Snyder

Wednesday, October 28, 2009




Coach Mario Mrakovic with Surf's Caelan Murray.


SD Futsal League founder Mario Mrakovic took some time from his busy schedule to answer XKSD’s questions about his upcoming Futsal clinics.

XKSD: What makes Futsal such great training in soccer development?

MM: Beginning at an early age, coaches coach kids to be goalies, defenders, midfielders or forwards. At Futsal, you get to play all the positions at all times. Since it is 5v5, you are always involved in the play. There is zero ball-watching. And since it is 4v4 plus a goalie, it is universally accepted to be the best game for player development, with player positioning in squares, diamonds and triangles always present.

For the kid who's never played Futsal before, two months with SD Futsal is equivalent to several years of high quality soccer training. What makes SD Futsal clinics attractive is that whatever level or age you are, after training with us, you will eclipse that level no matter what type of training you had prior to that. We make sure that -- if you have learned from the best -- we will still be able to top that and give you much more. We at San Diego Futsal have a huge amount of pride about everything we do and always strive for above and beyond excellence.

XKSD: How do you divide up the children, by age or skill level?

MM: We always divide into two different clinics: the early session for the younger kids (age 5-11) and the late session for the older kids (12 and up). At the start of each clinic, we all warm up together. After that, when it is time to play, groups are divided by age and skill. But all the decisions we make are based on common sense and rationale. We also like to give new students a chance to work on their confidence first and then move them up to play at being challenged. We get a lot of kids that wish to play with their buddies, the group they signed up with, or with their team. We always look to create an environment where you can play with your best friend. Kids want to be in charge and they want to be kids. So we let them.

XKSD: When does the new season start?

MM: The new season starts on Sundays at Alliant University on Nov. 1. Alliant’s facility is our stronghold; we run clinics every Sunday evening from 5 to 8 p.m. for 10 months straight from September through June. This is where we run our camps, leagues and tournaments as well. It is a beautiful facility in a great location. It is 20 minutes from anywhere in San Diego.

We are also starting Tuesdays at Del Mar Fairgrounds on Nov. 3. This is the best location in town, across the street from where the SD Sockers will be playing their games. People love this location and the facility is top notch.

We are particularly happy to announce our new location opening next Friday in San Elijo. There is an academy project, an exciting new project for North County SD. We are looking to make Futsal a very important aspect of developing young soccer players through SD Futsal and ultimately the academy. There is strong buzz and incredible excitement about the Academy and Futsal in the San Elijo area. People have been waiting for this for such a long time and now the wait is finally over.

XKSD: How long are the clinics?

MM: Our clinics run between six to 10 weeks. A usual clinic is either 75 or 90 minutes long on one certain day in the week. Each 90-minute clinic includes 30 minutes of Futsal training plus a full hour of Futsal play.

XKSD: Where will you be holding these clinics?

MM: We are at Scripps Ranch, Poway, Sabre Springs, Encinitas, San Elijo, Del Mar and looking to expand. The number of Futsalers in San Diego is increasing all the time.

XKSD: Do you coach by yourself, or do you have a coaching staff?

MM: I don’t need coaches. I like to have helpers, Futsal teachers, or role models for the kids. My 70-year-old mom can coach. I like to use my former and current students since they are familiar with what I try to get the Futsalers to do, and they are familiar with the program. They are all great demonstrators and kids look up to them.

I also like to use kids as demonstrators. I actually use 4- and 5-year-olds often to demonstrate shielding or moves to “older” kids. And I like to use a saying: “If a 5-year-old can do it, you can do it!" This will help kids get better – not the coaches! Coaches only mess things up and leave the kids with bad habits, poor and wrong technical abilities and raw overall coordination.

XKSD: What kinds of skills can players expect to work on? What kind of drills or activities can they expect to participate in?

MM: We always do a 10-minute no-ball warm-up to help with the correct footwork, coordination, whole body strength, agility, quickness, balance, all speed components and explosiveness. We do ballistic, dynamic and functional stretching vs. boring static stretching. After that, everything is ball oriented.

The most important thing with the ball is passion, technique and execution of the tasks. An elephant can do a step-over -- we call it a step-over -- but it doesn’t mean that it is a step-over. We want the kids to execute the moves the right and correct way with the precise understanding of the move. I always want the ball exercises to be done with the exact and proper body posture from head to toe. We always go very technical and meticulous about it, to the smallest of details. This makes our training special, different and unique. And the word of mouth travels. Most of our new kids come because parents heard from their friends about "this great and fun training."

The early session for younger kids is mostly training of first touch, super-glue controlling of the ball and dribbling. The late session for older kids mostly involves working on first touch and pass. We also incorporate shooting, tactical training -- teaching the timing, angles, direction, movement without the ball, improving decision-making, etc. Then again, when they start playing during the second part of the clinic, the Futsal game itself is still the best teacher there is!






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com