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The ISC Academy is our Youth Soccer Recreational and Instructional Program for 4 to 10 year olds, held over the course of ten weeks in both the spring and fall each year. The Academy program is a beginner level program for 4-6 year olds and both a beginner level and skills/instructional program for 7-10 year olds that is unique in the Iowa City area because we provide expert level coaching to all players in the Academy. Players don't need to have any experience playing soccer to join this program, but all players, even those that are not new to soccer, will find that they will make terrific improvement and also have plenty of fun! Why the ISC Academy and not other recreational soccer programs? In the Iowa City community there are a number of very good soccer programs. However, the main difference between the ISC and most other programs is the level of expert coaching that we offer for ALL players in ALL levels of our programs. In the ISC we have always prided ourselves on the ability to provide expert level coaching to all levels of players, including the recreational players in our ISC Academy beginner level program. The Academy program is run by our experienced, qualified, and full time director of coaching, Jon Cook, who has been with our organization for 12 years. Jon is a former player, educator, and a highly licensed coach through the United States Soccer Federation. Over the last 12 and half years, Jon has dedicated his time to coaching both our recreational players and our competitive players. Unlike other programs that sometimes have coaches learning on the job, the ISC Academy Coaches are prepared from day one to make sure your kids have a great time and learn while having fun! In order to guarantee that your child will work with our best coaches, we have two separate practice times for the youth players in this program. In addition, we limit the number of players that are accepted into each age group so that your child will receive the appropriate attention that they need to both have fun and to improve their soccer skills. Therefore, please note that the 4-6 year old group will practice from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM each Friday and the 7-10 year old group will practice from 6:30 to 7:45 PM each Friday. Jon will oversee and directly coach with both the 4-6 year olds and the 7-10 year old groups. In addition, Jon's best coaches will work with him with both groups. We will only accept 21, 4 Year olds for the spring season. Ratio of Adult Coaches to 4 Year olds: 7 to 1 Ratio of Adult Coaches + Mentor Coaches to 4 Year olds: 3 to 1 We only accept 36, 5-6 Year olds for the spring season. Ratio of Adult coaches to 5-6 year olds: 9 to 1 Ratio of Adult Coaches + Mentor Coaches to players: 4 to 1 The Spring 2012 practice times are listed below. Friday Evenings in April, May, and June 2012 5:30-6:30 PM 4-6 Year Olds 6:30 -7:45 PM 7-10 Year Olds A full list of the Fridays that we have scheduled for the Spring 2012 Academy is below:
Format Changes for ISC Academy 7-10 Year Old Group: The time change for practice groups will not only allow us to offer a better expert coach to player ratio, it will also offer us more opportunity to change the format of the program for the 7-10 year olds to make the program an even better experience for the kids. In the past few years we have tried to incorporate more skill based training for the 7-10 year olds in the Academy, but with only 1 hour of practice, we had a hard time incorporating skills based training into the schedule when we wanted to also ensure that we were providing lots of opportunities for fun games and scrimmage time. With the additional 15 minutes of practice time, we will now be able to incorporate a skills based portion during every one of the 7-10 year old sessions. Of course we still believe in the terrrific value of the "games/activities" approach to learning which provides young players with learning opportunities through participation in fun soccer games, but we also acknowledge that our expert coaches have the opportunity to offer instructional based skills teaching that other programs don't offer and aren't as well trained to offer. Our Director, Jon Cook, will oversee all of these changes and make sure that many of the skills based lessons that he incorporates with our "advanced year round competitive" players are incorporated in the Academy 7-10 year old sessions. We believe that by making these changes, the 7-10 year old program will still be great for those players that are completely new to soccer, but it will also offer more challenges to players that have participated in the 4-6 Year old Academy program and are ready to learn new skills. As we embark upon our 14th year of the Academy, we are as excited as ever about the Academy program. The same knowledgeable professional coaches that direct our competitive teams have made a commitment to overseeing the development of the youth players in the Academy. The ISC Academy staff has worked hard to put together a recreational program that suits the needs of young children. We are confident that your kids will enjoy our "games approach" to learning that will be utilized with both the 4-6 year olds and the 7-10 year olds. However, we are also confident that the 7-10 year olds will benefit greatly from the additional 15 minutes that we have added to their practice time so that we can give the coaches more time to include a coaching period for more skill specific instruction. We feel strongly that this program is the best introduction to the game of soccer available in the Iowa City area. Moreover, with these changes we feel that players can "grow" with the Academy program as they move from the 4-6 year old group to the 7-10 year old group. Next: Goals |