Interview with Bill Adams – Director, Super Soccer Academy

Interview with Bill Adams – Director, Super Soccer Academy (www.supersocceracademy.org), New Delhi, India

What does a corporate trainer, author, teacher, actor and social activist and a football community coach from the UK has to say about Indian Football at the grassroots level. To find out more we spoke to Bill Adams, Director Super Soccer Academy who has been nurturing the love of soccer among the children of India for over a decade.

When was the Super Soccer Academy started? Who are the people behind this initiative?

Bill Adams

I started the Super Soccer Academy in 1998

I was born in England, into a footballing family. My uncle was on the books at Arsenal, another for Bolton Wanders.

I was educated in the UK at the Universities of Oxford, Essex, and Leeds. I have graduate and post graduate degrees in Social Psychology, Social Policy and social Change, and am a qualified Teacher. I played good quality amateur football in the UK for a variety of teams including the Suffolk Police.

I qualified as a Football Association ‘C’ coach in 1976, and coached the Essex University Team. In 1984 until 1992 I was employed part time by Leeds City Council as a Community Coach; This involved travelling from Youth Club to Youth Club coaching children and teaching youth club staff how to teach football. I became a registered assessor for the FA’s Soccer Star Search Scheme.

I am also an internationally published author. My book ‘The five Lessons of Life “ (Pub: Random House) is published in twenty nine countries. I contributed the chapter on the problems and opportunities of player development in India for the book ‘Soccer in South Asia – Empire Nation, Diaspora.- Ed. by Paul Dimeo and James Mills. (Pub: Frank Cass)

What was the inspiration behind setting up the academy?

I came to India in the early 1990’s (My wife is a Punjabi). I found that the School PE teachers were ruining my son’s footballing ability, and couldn’t find anyone who was coaching modern football in Delhi, and so started coaching my son and his friends.

How has SSA grown from the time it was started to the present day?

Starting with 9 children the numbers kept growing and so in 1998 I launched a company The Super Soccer Academy Private limited. Soon, I was employing 5 coaches and the number of children had risen to 280 a week. See www.supersocceracademy.org Total numbers coached each year have now risen to over 600! We now have 8 regular coaches and approximately 6 temporary coaches.

What, in your opinion, makes football a great sport for children?

It has everything. Athleticism, teamwork, skills, sophisticated techniques, tactics, and strategies. It is both cerebral, exciting, and loads of fun.

What are the special features of SSA that makes it stand out from other academies?

We teach age appropriate modern football.We have an age appropriate syllabus for children aged 5 to 16.We work at making all children as good as they can be, and we put developing children above developing teams.We aim to make children become sports people of honesty and integrity

What kind of attitude/qualities do you look for in your prospective students?

We welcome anyone who wants to take up football as a sport, irrespective of ability. We do not tolerate cheating or unsporting behaviour. We expect hardwork and discipline – We provide everything else.

Bill and boys

What is the basic selection procedure?

Children enroll for their appropriate year group. Most pay a fee – poor children are given free places.

What are the types of courses offered for children?

We offer a graduated syllabus for each school year group, Summer adventure camps for children, long coaching courses at various schoolsWe also offer pre-tournament conditioning camps for school teams

Target age group: 5 to 16Timings: – Children attend one, usually two classes a week.Coaching venues: This year we have coaching in schools in Noida, DLF and Dwarka

Can you tell us about a typical beginner’s session?

This varies depending on age and experience. Children learn football in the same way they learn to read and write. All sessions are game based and fun. Each child has a ball.

As with teaching any subject,our syllabus has three major components.For the five and six year olds we concentrate on foundation skills.For classes 3, 4, and 5 we teach basic technical skills.In class six the children learn basic choreographed move and basic tactics, At the end of class seven children begin to learn more sophisticated tactics and strategies and by now are intellectually capable of learning more sophisticated tactics and strategies.

The first thing children learn is either to run in step with the ball, or how to shield the ball. For the little children the games include ‘puppies in the park’, ‘sharks in the pool’ ‘crabs on the beach’ ‘Gladiator’ ‘red light green light’ ‘blob tag’ and so on. For the slightly older children we play the ‘four goal game’ ‘nine passes’ three team games and a variety of conditioning games. For the older children we have numerous games related to the concepts of ‘pressure, cover, balance’ and drills that are fun challenging and highly competitive.

Do you conduct coaching camps throughout the country? If yes, please provide details.

Super Soccer for SchoolsThe Super Soccer Academy is the complete soccer education provider.We offer schools in Soccer Development Consultancy,Teacher Training Programmes,Team Coaching Programmes, andSoccer Development Workshops for the school’s senior managers.

Schools who have availed themselves of the Super Soccer School Development Programme include:

The Shri Ram Schools, New Delhi and Haryana,Daly College, Indore,Tyndale Mallinson School, Srinagar, KashmirBishop Cotton School, Shimla.Assam Valley School

Also, Soccer Adventure camps at Saat-tal near Nanital

Do you have tie ups with other football academies?

No, but we do have good contacts with UK clubs and coaches – see website for details

Tell us about a few students who have made their mark in National/International championships?

We have had 6 children go on to the Indian national squad in different age groups, three others have turned professional, About 16 have played for their State teams

What kind of a response have you got from students and parents?

We have had excellent response from all of our students and particularly the parents who recognize that we are professional, organized and very unique in our approach to soccer development in the Indian context.

Dedicated to producing quality

What does it take to become a player of International standard?

Hard work, exceptional spatial intelligence, self confidence, supreme fitness and exceptional durability. The ability to dig deeper when the challenge gets toucher, Most importantly that they have had regular modern coaching from the age of 7 or younger.

What are the future plans of the academy?We will be expanding the academy this year by about 300 children, 200 will be from slum clusters. (Total 800+) We are also setting up little leagues for about 1000 children so that all our children will have the opportunity to play competitive football. We start a Basketball Academy in October.

What message would you like to give to children who wish to learn football?

There is a big difference between playing a game and learning a sport, and while playing a game is fun, learning a sport has so many other benefits. – challenges, teamwork, leadership, discipline, work ethics, standards, self-sacrifice, pride in accomplishment, and strength of character – Qualities important to all of us. – All this and loads of fun!

How do you see Indian Football in the future?

I am not optimistic. The problems are systemic and structural and the sport is plagued by cheating and administrative incompetence. There is lots of talk about developing grass roots football but only a very few are doing so.

The vast majority of those who argue for developing grassroots are actually spending their time trying to develop a winning team.

The AFC are working hard to develop schemes that will help grassroots development but the resistance is both saddening and disgraceful.

Corporates and businesses waste bucketfuls of money that could go to developing proper football education in our schools/communities.

The AIFF, and the SAI compete for the same resources and AIFF policy is determined by political expediency and the existing clubs, who have a vested interest in the Status Quo.

If the cheating was stamped out, the SAI removed from football all together, the League clubs had separate organizations, and the AIFF reconstituted as a football development agency free of political and commercial interference, with a similar remit to the English FA. If it was depoliticized and professionalized and worked to stamp out cheating. If schools were given proper sports syllabuses and teachers and coaches were trained to teach age appropriate football. We could see India enter the world’s top 100 teams within the next 12 years.