50 exercises of the Ajax Academy Amsterdam PDF

50 exercises of the Ajax Academy Amsterdam

The goal of Ajax is to form talented young players into top football players.

Only the very best will reach the top after a difficult and often long road. Johan Cruijff, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Wim Kieft, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Kluivert are but a few of the international stars that have successfully completed the training at the youth academy.

At AFC Ajax, the training of top football players takes centre stage. That is why the youth academy is also known as the breeding ground of Dutch football.

The further you get, the harder it becomes to maintain your place and to reach the ultimate objective - to play in the Amsterdam Arena. Only one or two players make it to the first team each year.

Ajax is partly dependant on players from its own youth academy. The youth teams are trained in exactly the same way as the first team en these boys are therefore already accustomed to Ajax’s style of play.

Central within the club is the style of play (4-3-3), training, behaviour and house rules.

Ajax strives to keep the way of playing football recognisable; attractive, offensive-minded, creative, fast, fair and preferably far away from the own goal on the opponents’ half.

Ajax has developed the so-called TIPS model, which stands for Technique, Insight, Personality and Speed. For each part there are ten criteria.

P and S are generally innate properties, but I and S can always be developed further.

The players own a special Ajax passport, in which all achievements are noted.