Off the field

BENGALURU : Like everything else during this lockdown, football as we know it has also come to a halt, leaving young talents with no options to train. BOCA Juniors India, the local chapter of Argentina  Club Atletico Boca Juniors, is now bringing about an alternative with home workouts and skill-based challenges on their YouTube channel.  CEO and founder Sunanda Das states that the exercises  under the ‘Home Workout Series’ are divided into various stages.

“We make it a bit intense. We have uploaded 15 videos in the series, each training is around 4 - 6 minutes and is broken into four parts. We start with warm-up and guidelines to follow, before we move on to fitness exercises and ball-skills,” says Das, adding that while the workouts were initially only for the academy students, shortly after its first release, it was made accessible to all.

Das emphasises that small touches, ball control/mastering, reaction and movement, are their prime skills of focus, most of which are individual attributes. “In the harder workouts, we showcase advanced skills such as quick and double turns, ball retrieval, etc. We have advised students who are unable to perform this to stick to the basic skill workouts and to gradually move to the enhanced versions over a period of time,” he says, adding that while a few trial runs featuring students were under the works, a complete live session is set to be held on April 18.

The series is free for all. Das states that while on-field training is on a pause, keeping young talents engaged is crucial in order to keep their skills intact. “We’ll have regular sessions with kids every week. We are also looking to hold sessions with professional players from the UK and Argentina, where the kids get an opportunity to interact with the players,” he says, adding that the academy also plans to enforce new rules once the on-field training resumes. “There will be a no-contact rule for a month or two, which means we’ll practise long-shooting and passing, keeping the safety guidelines in mind,” he says.