Who am I?
Ever since I could walk, the ball was my friend. As a young kid I played football in the streets and on the schoolyards of Zwijndrecht, a small city in the south of the Netherlands where I grew up. Alone or with my friends I played whenever I could, and then I was Cruyff, van Hanegem, Maradona, and when I was a little bit older, I was Fernando Redondo and Zinedine Zidane.
From my earliest teens I was known as a talented player, but I was never really noticed by the professional academies in the region. I didn’t really mind, and to be honest I wasn’t really concerned with a career as a professional footballer. Apparently I had another path to walk.
Like all of us, on that path I was shaped by several people and experiences. But there have been two specific moments in my childhood that have been quite influential, also during my later career as a football coach and youth trainer. The first moment was when I saw Johan Cruyff playing football for the first time, and the second moment was when I got my hands on the ‘The Complete Curriculum For The Ideal Footballer’, a book from Wiel Coerver. Amongst some other people, these two legends,, Coerver and Cruyff, inspired me through the years. In a way it is partly because of them that I was able to do what I’ve done this far, in all parts of the world, from Amsterdam to Porto, from Moscow to Beijing, and from Tokyo to Abu Dhabi. With my knowledge and more than twenty years of experience that I gained on my football journey, now I want to help trainers, youth coaches and other people that are somehow concerned with developing youth with the next steps of their development. Just like others helped me with doing that.
On this website you can find several interesting workshops and courses that can be of value for professional clubs as well as for private academies, federations and amateur clubs. For more information, you can send an email to the email address below, or give us a call.
I hope to see you soon!
Michel Hordijk
mehordijk@hotmail.com
0031-6-13074582
Foto: Sammy Balistreri
Football Curriculum Vitae
Clubs: FC Utrecht, CSKA Moscow, Ajax Amsterdam, NAC Breda, FC Volendam, Viktoria Plzeň (Czech Republic) TSV Hartberg (Austria)
Clubs, federations and schools (projects and workshops with o.a. Cruyff Football): Al Ain FC (UAE), Al Wahda (UAE), FC Portland (US), FC Iwaki (Japan), Flemish Football Federation (Belgium), FPF (Football Federation of Portugal)), Montessori Beijing (China)
Specialisms: skills training, principles of play, methodology (common thread), training creation, individual development, ‘coach the coach’
What do I offer?
From my own specialties I created a number of workshops and courses. The workshops and courses you find on this website are meant to improve the quality of youth development, and are suitable for every possible level. Also, all workshops and workshops can be adapted and made customized based on specific questions or needs.
Next to the purely football related workshops for trainers and coaches, in cooperation with Steevens&vanBezooijen Training, Coaching and Consultancy, I also do football clinics for companies and other organizations. For instance during a ‘team day’. It is fantastic to use the beautiful game of football to (for example) improve the cooperation between people that have to work together, for example as a management team. And besides, it’s always fun to go outside and do some nice exercise and games!
Workshops (4 hours)
Training technical skills and principles of play
Training Creation
Individual Training
Courses (5 days)
Training technical skills and principles of play
Methodology and Training Creation
Individual Development
In cooperation with Steevensz&vanBezooijen Training, Coaching and Consultancy:
1- Football Workshop team-coaching for companies and organizations
2- Individual guidance (individual skills training, game analysis, mental coaching)
Workshops
Training technical skills and principles of play
In this workshop skills training is the main topic. What is technique? What ways are there to improve technique? Which method works best? Which exercises can I use? What is the ‘magic hexagon, and why is this shape with six corners called magical? In addition to the technical skills, in this workshop we also discuss a certain number of principles of play. Principles that can be integrated in the technical skills training, which almost automatically creates a game-related environment, in which the players are challenged to practice their technical skills in a functional way, and by doing so improve their game intelligence.
‘Training technical skills and principles of play’ is a workshop for all kind of age categories and levels, and it contains all important aspects of functional skills training. A great possibility to enhance the level of (technical skills) training in your club.
Training Creation
Based on a clear model, in this workshop you learn how to create your own training sessions. This is a complete and practical guideline that is absolutely interesting for all trainers and youth coaches, regardless what level they are working on. Both in the ‘classroom’ as on the pitch you learn just about everything when it comes to creation of focus, the use of materials, creating the best spaces, the application of resistance, and implementing different learning methods in your training sessions. In short, how to create the best learning environment for your players.
Individual Training
The workshop ‘Individual Training’ is for both (personal) skills trainers that literally work individually, as for ‘team’ coaches and clubs that attach great importance to the individual development of their players. And who want to transfer this into the daily practice of training and coaching. How do I compose an individual plan for every player? How can I train ‘individually’ when I have twelve to twenty players? How can I create exercises in which I can involve the individual plans of several players? Through my experience as an individual skills coach at (a.o.) Ajax Amsterdam, FC Utrecht, Viktoria Plzeň and FC Volendam (and as a personal skills trainer of individual players of all kind of levels and age categories), I know it takes a different perspective and a different approach when you really want to train on an individual basis. In the workshop ‘Individual Training’ I share this experience, and both from theory as on the pitch I show the basic principles of individual training. Absolutely interesting and suitable for every club that wants to get the very best out of their players!
Courses
Training technical skills and principles of play
In this workshop skills training is the main topic. What is technique? What ways are there to improve technique? Which method works best? Which exercises can I use? What is the ‘magic hexagon, and why is this shape with six corners called magical? In addition to the technical skills, in this workshop we also discuss a certain number of principles of play. Principles that can be integrated in the technical skills training, which almost automatically creates a game-related
environment, in which the players are challenged to practice their technical skills in a functional way, and by doing so improve their game intelligence.
‘Training technical skills and principles of play’ is a workshop for all kind of age categories and levels, and it contains all important aspects of functional skills training. A great possibility to enhance the level of (technical skills) training in your club.
Methodology and Training Creation
This 5-days course is suitable for academy directors, youth coordinators and youth coaches who are interested in the common thread within an academy, and how to create this thread within your club’s context. Because that’s what ‘methodology’ is all about: creating and monitoring a clear learning path, from the youngest age group up to the first team. Which of course is very important. For that reason renowned academies such as FC Barcelona, FC Porto and Dynamo Zagreb have a specialized department for methodology. In the course ‘Methodology and Training Creation’ not only the creation of a clear common thread is discussed, also we will talk about how this common thread can be transferred to the daily practice on the field. Because it’s nice to have a clear and advanced learning path on paper or in the laptop, but of course it’s only valuable if the theory is truly ‘translated’ into the way training sessions are prepared, executed and evaluated throughout the academy. How do we do this? And what do we need to do it? It would be a great pleasure to convey my knowledge and share my experience (gained at a.o. Ajax Amsterdam, Cruyff Football, FC Volendam and Viktoria Plzeň) with every coach who wants to know everything about creating a common thread within an academy, and how to transfer this thread into every day practice in the best possible way.
Individual Development
‘I have never seen a youth team making its debut into the first team. Only individuals do. That’s why in an academy,
we should focus on the individual development of the players.’
- Johan Cruyff
There are many well-known quotes from Johan Cruyff, but personally I find the one above most striking. In my opinion, in three sentences this quote says exactly what an academy essentially is. Namely the education and development of individual players. Of course this education and development take place in a team-environment, as in the end football is an eleven against eleven game. But within that team-environment, the individual development of the players is the most important Many academies say that they focus on the (individual) development, but unfortunately in practice this is not always the case. Which in a way is logical, because it takes a perspective that is totally different from the
‘traditional’ way that is still used a lot in the world of youth football (‘players paradigm’ versus ‘team paradigm’). So it’s not easy at all to consistently focus on the individual development. In the course ‘Individual Development’ the participants learn what is required to really put the player first, and to focus on the individual development. In addition to the creation, execution and evaluation of an individual plan (which is a very important pillar of individual development), pedagogy, conversation techniques, training creation and several ways of individual training will be discussed in detail. Highly recommended for every club or federation that wants to put in serious effort in the individual development of their players.
In collaboration with Steevensz&vanBezooijen Training,
Coaching and Consultancy
1- Football Clinic/Workshop for companies and organizations
2- Individual guidance of football players (technical skills training and mental coaching)
Football Clinic/Workshop for companies and organizations
Joey Steevensz and Mirjam van Bezooijen are two skilled and experienced youth professionals and trainers, who, among other things, coach management teams and other staff. This coaching may be based on a general need (for example promoting the cooperation within a team), but the reason to hire them can also be a more specific question. For companies and organizations that are interested in engaging Mirjam and Joey in the coaching of their management teams and/or other staff, there is an option to add a football clinic or workshop. First of all, this workshop is a lot of fun, and it’s nice to do a physical activity that is also relaxing (participants don’t have to be top fit, but there’s going to be some sweated clothes ;-). Secondly, the functioning and dynamics within a football team are not very different from those in teams in any company and organization. Only think about ‘give your back’ and empowering each other. Also it’s interesting to observe during the workshop, and (for instance) to see who wants to play on what position during the (small sided) games; who prefers to defend, who likes to attack, and who wants to play in the middle? From that observations some things could come up that are connected to the group dynamic, which possibly could be used by Mirjam and Joey in the coaching process. But as stated, the football workshop is certainly intended to have an hour of physical activity and fun. A really nice option, both for the ‘football players’ within your company or organization as for the less sports minded people. Highly recommended!
Individual guidance of football players (technical skills training and mental coaching)
In addition to the work with team processes, Mirjam and Joey coach individuals, and help them on their path of personal development. These individuals work in any kind of profession, so they’re also athletes (in general), and football player in particular. This mental coaching for football players can be combined with individual skills training. Through this cooperation we can provide a wide spectrum of training, coaching and guidance for both professional footballers and youth players from all age categories. Custom made with a hundred percent focus on the individual development, and suitable for every (youth) player who wants to get the very best out of him- or herself. If you are interested in this guidance by experienced professionals on both mental coaching and (skills) training, you can contact us by sending an email or by giving us a call. Then we could have a no-obligation conversation to see if, and if so how we can help you in your development as a footballer and as a person.
Michel Hordijk: mehordijk@hotmail.com
(0031-6-13074582)
Mirjam van Bezooijen: mirjamvanbezooijen@gmail.com
(0031-6-11905997)
Photo: Sammy Balistreri
Adress
Boogjes 120
3311 VC Dordrecht
CoC Registration Number:
66143403
NL25INGB0002740693 (BIC: INGBNL2A)