DutchCan Soccer

The 2015 DutchCan™ Camp

A short report on our pilot camp. 

 

In the summer of 2015 Paul Okumu and Theo ten Caat organised their first soccercamp in the name of DutchCan™. This pilot was held at the L'Amereaux Sports Centre in the Scarborough district, Toronto - Ontario.  The quality of the young soccer players made this camp into a promising start and it would become a returning event.

The training sessions were of Dutch Academy quality and the talents were challenged for an intense full week. This means two training sessions a day, morning and afternoon, with a high intensity was a week of hard work for the boys. The day program was filled with technical exercises with special attention for possession games and every session was closed by playing a match.

 

For those who participted DutchCan made a special Personal Development Plan, which the Dutch academies use for the development and progress of their players.

This PDP is all about awareness, knowing your talents and making a plan for their own personal development. Players need to get structure in their approach on soccer by using a training scheme. Playing soccer and using a structural approach in the game. The players took this theoretical part of the soccer camp really serious, because soccer is not just a playing game but in the first case it’s a thinking game. Thinking about how to progress and how to improve, it is about knowing yourself.  

 

At the last day of the camp there was a mutual closing with trainers, staff members, players and parents. All players where giving a certificate of attendance, a beautiful team photo and special individual written words from coach Theo ten Caat. In a brief closing word both DutchCan trainers spoke about reaching the top and thanked the parents for their trust in DutchCan™. Coach Paul Okumu expressed that they will organise their second soccer camp in the summer of 2016. 

 

The 2015 DutchCan™ soccer camp was photographed by Emily-Jane Watson