Monthly newsletter - January 2025
Hello ballers,
Welcome to the January edition of my monthly newsletter. If you missed any of the previous months, you can check them out here: https://strivefootballacademy.com/blog
January seemed to go on forever but February is absolutely flying past - with lots of exciting things coming up…
Football Camps
The next camp starts in just over a week at Ridegway Academy…
It’ll run from Monday 17th - Friday 23rd Feb.
All details, as always, can be found at the link below.
https://strivefootballacademy.com/football-camps
Group sessions
The u8 group sessions on a Friday evining (click here for details) have been going great and I’ve had quite a few messages and requests for other group sessions for different age groups. If this is something you are interested in, please drop me a message.
What’s going on?
A quick update on the Baller League. I have officially made it through the Trials and into their ‘Draft Night’ - which is essentially an American Sports style draft. I will be one of 200 players there and 144 will be chosen evenly across the 12 teams. I have no idea how each manager will make their decisions as none of them were there at the trials - I guess they will go off video footage? The draft is on Monday 10th March - I imagine it’ll be live streamed and if it is I’ll share the link on my social pages.
The Premier League has been a great watch this season in my opinion, it seems a little more open and not as predictable as it has been over the past couple of years. There was an announcement that the Premier League are going to crack down on ‘mocking’ celebrations which I guess would be ones like Myles Lewis-Skelly’s ‘Haaland’ celebration against Man City and more obvious ones like Adebayor's full-pitch run after he scored for Man City against former club Arsenal. I don’t see anything wrong with the former of the two - who’s to say that the meditation celebration is Haaland’s anyway?! The full pitch run is almost inciting a riot though so maybe crack down on those first!
The Champions League is past the initial stage and I think the new format is definitely for the better. We didn’t have nearly as many ‘nothing’ matches at the end of the group stages. Usually by the final gameweek most teams already have their fate sealed and this format allows a lot more movement in that regard - let’s see if it’s as entertaining from here on out.
Ask me a question
I have been borderline harassed over the last few weeks (won’t name names)...
Is Josh Windass’s goal for the mighty SWFC from (well) inside his own half the best example of this EVER??
I have finally seen it and yes it is definitely up there with the best of that type. My question for all of you is:
Do you think scoring from your own half is overrated? Of course it requires skill but I would argue it also requires some form of mistake from your opponents: GK off their line, defence not putting pressure on etc.
My opinion? Give me a Messi type dribble and goal over a Windass/Beckham own half goal every time.
Got a question for me? Let me know…
Worth a watch
Here is that Josh Windass goal from his own half:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blyhO3Aj4gU
I love these training videos as it gives you great insight to how good pro’s actually are!