Barca Academy Question (outside NOVA area)

[Anonymous]

Hello, Can someone be kind enough to answer few questions about Barca academy.
1. How many total kids in the academy?
2. Where did the Nova club practice before finding a permanent training facility.
3. Does Barca teach foot skills such as maradona, Cruyff turn, Ronaldo chop etc...
4. What is the player to coach ratio?
5. Is it really worth money ($3000-$5000)?

Thank you taking the time to answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello, Can someone be kind enough to answer few questions about Barca academy.
1. How many total kids in the academy? 2-3 teams for each age group and 1, somestimes non on the girls side.

2. Where did the Nova club practice before finding a permanent training facility. - They are at Evergreen and Morven Park

3. Does Barca teach foot skills such as maradona, Cruyff turn, Ronaldo chop etc... - Nope, not really and most clubs don't do technical training, you need to train on you own for that.

4. What is the player to coach ratio? 1 coach per team (depends on age group)

5. Is it really worth money ($3000-$5000)? You need to determine this on your own.

Thank you taking the time to answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello, Can someone be kind enough to answer few questions about Barca academy.
1. How many total kids in the academy?
2. Where did the Nova club practice before finding a permanent training facility.
3. Does Barca teach foot skills such as maradona, Cruyff turn, Ronaldo chop etc...
4. What is the player to coach ratio?
5. Is it really worth money ($3000-$5000)?

Thank you taking the time to answer.

1. 2-3 teams per age group on the boys side and 1-2 teams per age group on the girls.
2. They have always been at Evergreen
3. No club teaches foot skills.
4. One coach per team. Some coaches will assist with teams that may need the extra attention.
5. Price is $3000. Value is subjective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello, Can someone be kind enough to answer few questions about Barca academy.
1. How many total kids in the academy?
2. Where did the Nova club practice before finding a permanent training facility.
3. Does Barca teach foot skills such as maradona, Cruyff turn, Ronaldo chop etc...
4. What is the player to coach ratio?
5. Is it really worth money ($3000-$5000)?

Thank you taking the time to answer.

1. I don't know the exact number, but I would estimate that they have around 300 players total. For boys they go from U8-U19 and for girls they go up to U16. Older age groups have one team per age group with 20-22 players. Younger age groups have normally 1-2 teams per group, although U10s boys have 3 teams.
2. Barca Nova practiced at Evergreen, which is a great facility with excellent turf fields, from day 1. This was a very smart choice in terms of quality of the training facility. Barca shares the field space with FCV, Loudoun, and a couple of non-soccer teams. Starting from the end of last season, some of training sessions were moved to Morven park, which has decent grass fields, but horrible traffic around the rush hour. This created scheduling challenges for parents with multiple kids (e.g., one kid is scheduled to practice at Morven, while the second one is scheduled to practice at Evergreen). This problem is not unique to Barca, but they did not have this problem the first year, when all teams practiced at the same facility.
3. Not really. They mostly focus on passing and receiving the ball, spacing, team shape, etc. Some parents don't like that the club does not teach 1v1 skills, while others have their kids learn such skill outside the club's training.
4. In the first year, they had 1-12 ratio or better, but things changed in the second year. Older teams, for example, have one coach per team so the ratio for some teams could be 20+ per coach. For the youngest teams, it is still 12-1 or better, but the ratio will change as the teams expand as they move up the age groups. I would say what they do is probably on par with other clubs in the area. Of course, some clubs will have a worse ratio, while others will have a better ratio.
5. Whether it is worth the money depends on the individual circumstances of the player and the family. Barca is one of the more expensive programs, but the coaching is generally good and all teams try to play a similar style. The results vary. For high level players, the main issue is the quality of the player pool (with the possible exception of their 2001 team), when lower level players may play on the same team with high level players. This affects the overall competitiveness of their teams. If your kid is a top level player, he and she can move to a higher level team that plays in DA or ECNL and you will either pay less or get more in terms of college scouting (DA or ECNL showcases, higher level tournaments, etc). If your kid is an above average player, but not elite, and is placed on one of the top teams at Barca, the club could be a good fit. Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Total how many kids in the academy? 500 or 1000 thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Total how many kids in the academy? 500 or 1000 thanks.

250-300

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Total how many kids in the academy? 500 or 1000 thanks.

Or, you could do the rough math yourself. You were given a range of teams. Nobody will no the actual numbers so take an educated guess and you will come up with a fairly accurate range yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Total how many kids in the academy? 500 or 1000 thanks.

Or, you could do the rough math yourself. You were given a range of teams. Nobody will no the actual numbers so take an educated guess and you will come up with a fairly accurate range yourself.

**know

[Anonymous]

Is the Nova club growing from one year to another?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the Nova club growing from one year to another?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the Nova club growing from one year to another?

They had a big growth from year 1 to year 2, but I don't think there was much growth between years 2 and 3. In fact, their player numbers may have shrunk a little after year 2, at least in the older age groups.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for taking time to answer all my questions. I really appreciate it.

Have a great weekend!!!

[Anonymous]

There are more teams and players at the younger ages U13 and below. Older teams are more sparse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the Nova club growing from one year to another?

They had a big growth from year 1 to year 2, but I don't think there was much growth between years 2 and 3. In fact, their player numbers may have shrunk a little after year 2, at least in the older age groups.

Not sure of the breakdown between age groups but overall they continued to grow in year 3.

I've never seen them have the kids do footskills. Not at any age, and not even in warm-ups. That sort of individual technical work would need to be done outside of team practices at this club. On the other hand, I've hardly ever seen any kids standing in lines either. Their practices are very active. All of the kids get lots of touches, and you can really see the technical improvement over the course of the year.

As far as cost, one thing I'll add is that they do give you 4 days a week. Because of the way the club is structured - with centralized control over all the teams - it's really easy for them to set up internal scrimmages. So even when you don't have a league game or friendly with another club, you can pretty much guarantee that your kid is going to be playing a game every weekend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the Nova club growing from one year to another?

They had a big growth from year 1 to year 2, but I don't think there was much growth between years 2 and 3. In fact, their player numbers may have shrunk a little after year 2, at least in the older age groups.

Not sure of the breakdown between age groups but overall they continued to grow in year 3.

I've never seen them have the kids do footskills. Not at any age, and not even in warm-ups. That sort of individual technical work would need to be done outside of team practices at this club. On the other hand, I've hardly ever seen any kids standing in lines either. Their practices are very active. All of the kids get lots of touches, and you can really see the technical improvement over the course of the year.

As far as cost, one thing I'll add is that they do give you 4 days a week. Because of the way the club is structured - with centralized control over all the teams - it's really easy for them to set up internal scrimmages. So even when you don't have a league game or friendly with another club, you can pretty much guarantee that your kid is going to be playing a game every weekend.

Is game day the 5th day or 4th day? Most clubs have 4 days from late August through early November .