The Casvi Model

Nano Rivas and his team have developed a training methodology revolving around competition, having in mind at all times the educational stage of the boys and girls in our Academy. Our methodology is applied on an annual basis, progressively dividing contents in phases of 4-6 weeks. These contents are generally aimed at improving the 4 basic elements for the practice of football, namely: technique, tactics, physical conditioning and sport psychology, all of which are interwoven, so none of those elements may be developed without developing the others. Then we divide our objectives in weekly micro-cycles based on the following areas: competition, academic aspects and specific training. In particular, our goal is making the tasks performed during the training sessions be as similar as possible to the actual competition, working in a way that, in the trainings, players experience the different phases of the game that take place in an actual game. All this is divided into the following blocks:

• BT: Ball time
• ADT: Attack-defence transition
• TAB: Time away from the ball
• DAT: Defence-attack transition
• SBA: Stopped ball actions

Specific training sessions: It is a basic aspect of our methodology. The purpose is for the player to improve all those elements of the game that are most common in her or his position on the field. To this end, former professional players will periodically join us as our specialist coaches.

Another of our objectives at the Academy is that our players learn to compete under different game models and in different circumstances within the same game. The ability to understand the game and its needs makes the difference between amateur and professional players.

The physical aspect is a defining characteristic in today’s football. Therefore, our goal is to get players to reach their optimum physical condition by means of a progressive workload adapted to their own developmental stage and to the workload each player is able to undertake.
To this end, we will focus on two main objectives:

• Improvement of physical skills: Improving skills such as strength, the most important aspect that must be developed in the pursuit of a proper musculoskeletal system development and injury risk prevention, together with other specific skills needed in football such as agility or coordination, makes our players much more well-rounded athletes, allowing them to have a much more effective football growth.
• Injury prevention: Prevention is one of the basic aspects of the individual programmes developed for our players, so we support them in this process of comprehensive improvement, minimising the risk of injury to the maximum.

Throughout the year, initial and control tests will be carried out, which will allow us to adapt the training loads based on the individual needs of each player. Our professionals in the Sports Science area of the Academy will organise all their work in order to adjust the physical conditioning to the developmental stage of each player according to their age.

Sport Psychology focuses on the identification and understanding of psychological theories and techniques that can be applied to sports in order to maximise the performance and personal development of athletes.

One of the theories of Psychology states that psychological skills can be learnt just as physical skills are learnt. Among the main psychological skills with an impact on high sports performance, we can mention focus control, self-confidence, thought control, motivation, overcoming stress and anxiety regulation.

At Casvi Football Academy we believe that technical, tactical and physical skills can be fully developed if the person has sufficiently developed and evolved psychological skills. The better psychological skills a player has, the better the performance of their tactical, technical and physical skills.

To help our players reach the excellence of their football skills, the Casvi Football Academy model includes, as a fundamental part of player development, specific training sessions under the following methods:

• Technique, tactics and the ongoing interaction among them. They are initially developed by means of more analytical tasks, and then by applying more integrated tasks, where more and more elements of the game are added and a higher quality in their performance is demanded.
• Collective training sessions by playing lines and individual training sessions by specific positions within the field.
• Training sessions under different modalities:
  • Technical or technical-tactical training sessions on the field.
  • Tactical talks using video recordings of own training sessions or games or those of professional teams, for a better understanding of the game.
  • Integration of the two previous elements: first, images relating to the technical or tactical contents of the game will be watched and analysed; then, immediately after that, such contents will be re-enacted on the pitch.

Former professional players of the First Division will take part in specific training sessions for the improvement of the game. These elite players will share their experience, skills and knowledge, in order to offer our students an exclusive experience for their individual and collective growth.