The Philosophy of the Metro West Football Academy
Soccer, Futbol, whatever you call it, it is the World’s Beautiful Game. We believe that there is no singular correct way to play the game, so what is a game of soccer?
A Team’s Strategy - The intent behind on-field decisions and the principles of their gameplay.
The Payers’ Individual Expressions of Skill and Creativity - How the individual impacts the game around them moment to moment.
It is the intersection of these two ideas that creates a team’s performance.
The Purpose of the MWFA
The Academy exists to provide an educational environment that enables players to develop personal skills and game understanding such as to allow them to excel as creative individuals within the dynamic game.
The game is so open ended, entirely fluid and ever changing rather than based on set plays, and the most talented players play soccer dictated by their personality. The best players play soccer as an art.
Through targeted summer group training and our winter Futsal Club the MWFA is determined to provide real, tangible value to our players. Their experience should be rewarding, self-motivated, challenging, and supportive.
Enabling our Coaches
The coaches are the ones leading our players. They must be enabled through supporting systems. It is our philosophy that a coach…
Is a GUIDE - they identify players’/teams’ unique strengths, weaknesses, and personalities, and works to build around that rather than try to change it.
Must be given the resources and tools required to do their job. That means equipment, tools, space, and time.
Is a professional and we hold them to high standards for communication, their ability to understand and explain concepts, and their ability to relate to their players. We must therefore provide instruction/resources for them and pay that also reflects the level of professionalism we expect.
Our focus is on providing environments that encourage, educate, and inspire, the football artist.
Technical Mastery - through high volume, intense repetition, high level explanation of technique, and personal 1 on 1 assistance
Game Understanding - exploration of topics and principles that give players the game understanding to execute a team’s strategy and then audible on top of that to become an impact player.
Creativity and Confidence - we want to show our students how fun it can be to be creative in the sport by encouraging exploration and designing sessions with dynamic problem solving in mind.
A Painter, Writer, or Singer, performs and creates their art through what they feel and experience represented on the page, canvas, or in the theater. The outcome of the piece is entirely determined by their unique personality.
However, every great artist must first learn their fundamental skills. A painter must learn different line techniques, brush control, color theory, perspective and framing, and these are hard skills with no flexibility, you do them either right or wrong and practice is repetitive and boring.
But how you use those skills is what makes you the artist. Soccer works the same.
I founded the Metro West Football Academy out of a desire to provide coaching to players that felt more valuable to them and to provide that same opportunity to other coaches. Industry standards for youth soccer at all levels are inconsistent and, on average, not high enough. Not enough coaches are taught how to be true educators, not enough players are enabled to be creative, passionate, and empowered to make mistakes and push themselves. Coaches are not paid well enough to dedicate themselves to their craft and are not provided the other resources that they need. The businesses themselves are not focused on supporting their programs but rather controlling their programs. And this needs to change.
The job of a coach is not to instruct but to educate, to lead. They analyze the unique strengths and weaknesses of their team and then create a strategy around them to try and get the best out of the kids, rather than fit them to a predetermined mold. Our priority is to enable our coaches to master and apply their craft. To enable players to go on a journey of self-discovery and find what parts of the game they enjoy and are best at. We want each team to have a distinct and powerful unique culture, making each team a real team with something to play for.
No coach gets paid to coach. They coach because they love it. As such we don’t try to control the soccer as its being played. We set the standards high for our professionals, lay out their expectations, and then give them all the tools they might need. We set the standards high for our players, push them to be their best, and make sure they get everything they need to get there. If we have good coaches, dedicated players, and then give them the best possible environments to operate in, the rest will take care of itself.
~ Tristan Roveto, Founder and Director, MWFA
Contact us
Reach out with any questions about our philosophies and process for education.