Announcing 8BY8 x PSA Merger
We are delighted to announce that after a month of working together as both 8BY8 Football and Primary Sports Academy, we will now officially be joining forces and merging the two sports coaching businesses together.
This exciting development means we are simply able to continue offering the professional coaching services that both companies have built a reputation for, to a wider network. We are also proud to now boast over 65 years combined full time coaching experience.
Primary Sports Academy is predominantly PE and primary school based sports with 8BY8 Football traditionally being extra curricular football and a recent progression into PE and multi-sports too. Linking the two coaching companies together broadens our offerings of top quality coaching pathways to more children in Cheshire and Greater Manchester.
Between us we are delighted to firstly make this announcement and secondly to explore the exciting possibilities the future has to offer for all enthusiastic sports players.
If you have any queries regarding this development please get in touch via:
Carl: carl.psa@outlook.com
Alex: alex@8by8football.co.uk
Office: admin@8by8football.co.uk
3 key components to make it as a pro.
Making it as a professional footballer is the dream, to achieve that dream requires a concoction of key components, some of which will alter naturally as the body and brain matures and as players gain experience within different environments, some of which are different for various playing roles within a team. But, there’s some absolute essential physical and technical ingredients required to give any player the best chance of making it to the top of the game. Here’s our top 3 key physical and technical requirements to be a professional footballer:
Speed - Before considering anticipation and reaction time, if you don’t have physical speed across short and longer distances you need to work on them quickly. Speed is enhanced at all ages through flexibility (also reducing injury risk), core work and at youth/senior level through weight training and working on fine tuning those fast twitch fibres.
Intricate passing and receiving skills (awareness) - this includes the preparation prior to receiving, scanning/checking , correct body shape. If you aren’t up to scratch with these techniques your chances of the success with the ball whether it be keeping it for your team, quick play or goalscoring, will leave you with very little chance of hitting the big time. It is a fact that in a 90 minute game players have the ball at their feet for an average of 3 minutes, what they do with limited touches is what defines their success.
Power - with and without the ball, physically and technically which means to gain power you’ll need plenty of technique work, striking the ball repeatedly getting your body in the correct position in relation to the ball to make contact consistently in the right place. Then add the physical work away from the ball to develop those key muscle groups - core, quads, groins, hamstrings, calves to dominate opponents. .
We’re not saying these are all you need, there’s plenty to add into the mix: desire, aggression, intelligence/game awareness, leadership, stamina, but what we’re saying is if one of the above are missing it’s time to get to work.
Primary School Football
We’re proud to offer specialist football coaching within primary schools and have already built up a reputation for outstanding practice within the schools we operate. Fully inclusive with a variety of environments depending on the players and children’s development needs including the gifted and talented programmes.
8BY8 Coaching are just amazing and have changed our football ethos in school. The children absolutely loved the sessions, football has become a passion for all of our children from reception to year six. The dedication, skill, fun and kindness shown to our children is outstanding!