Conquering youth soccer clubs <7> I’Park Football Academy Hwamyeong– Oh Cheol-seok, middle school coach from I-Park
– Focused training, including injury prevention in actual games
– Switching to first-class clubs from elementary to middle school
– Active exchanges with domestic and foreign professional clubs
– Attention center back Seo Hyun-jin and MF Kim Ji-ho
At the soccer field in Hwamyeong Ecological Park in Buk-gu, Busan on the evening of the 10th. The 21 iPark Football Academy players, comprised of first to third grade middle school students, were warming up with a more serious expression. Today is the first training since the end of the season. Perhaps because they participated in various competitions and completed the prescribed curriculum, the players’ faces showed a relaxed look, but they did not neglect training.
Since all the important competitions had been completed, the day was mainly focused on light warm-up using a ball. The players gathered wearing light blue uniforms with the professional soccer Busan I-Park logo engraved on them, and began a warm-up focusing on the lower body. I grabbed the ball on the floor and started doing push-ups, then repeated lunges, jumping, and running without stopping. As his stamina dropped, his head lowered and his hands went up to his waist, coach Oh Cheol-seok boosted his morale by saying, “Let’s finish this quickly.”
Coach Oh, the middle school coach at I’Park Football Academy, is a former professional coach who played as a striker at Busan I’Park for six seasons starting in 2004. He was a striker who used his tall height of 188cm and was excellent at competing for aerial balls, and was on the pitch during his active career. However, due to a knee injury, he gave up his career as a player, and after working as a coach for the I-Park Youth Team and Kaesong High School soccer team, he is currently nurturing young players at a youth club.
Coach Oh said, “On this day, the season is over, so we focus on light training centered on warm-up, but we usually conduct tactical training such as ball possession training and defensive pressure cover every week.” “I am most concerned and train based on situations that are likely to occur in actual games,” he said.
I’Park Football Academy, founded in 2014, acquired an elite elementary education license four years ago. The following year, the middle school division was converted to a first-class club, making it a cradle for nurturing professional players. In particular, this club focuses on maximizing the skills of its players by interacting with professional soccer clubs at home and abroad. For three years since 2020, we have signed an agreement with Valencia, a ‘prestigious’ player in Spain’s La Liga, to exchange methods for developing youth players. During this period, ‘Golden Boy’ Lee Kang-in belonged to Valencia, and communication between the two clubs was more active than ever.짱구카지노
Now that the agreement period with Valencia has ended, we are continuing exchanges on youth development with Busan I’Park, a local professional club. Choi Kyung-soo, CEO of the Hwamyeong and Myeongji branches of I’Park Football Academy, said, “We are operating various training programs with I’Park and are making efforts to advance youth club players to professional clubs.” He added, “It is still a process of trial and error, but the development of Korean football is “I will do my best for you,” he said.
The main players of the I-Park Football Academy middle school division are Seo Hyun-jin and Kim Ji-ho (14 years old). As a center back, Seo Hyun-jin’s advantage is that he has high soccer intelligence and is fast. He also has good ability to predict the opponent’s attack and judge the situation. Midfielder Kim Ji-ho has excellent individual abilities, including dribbling. He has a high understanding of the passing space and plays the role of finding an attack route through through passes. However, due to his weak physical strength, his activity level is low, which is considered an issue that needs to be improved.