International Clinics: Tokyo and Kyoto

Movistar Inter Academy Director and First Team Assistant Coach César Muñoz alongside our Program Manager, Miguel Miranda headed out to Japan for a two-city futsal filled week.

The tour began with an intensive two-day Coaching Clinic with coaches from all over Tokyo. Muñoz started with theoretical sessions in the morning covering offensive and defensive movements pulled from Movistar Inter’s First Team and finished out the afternoon with practical sessions.

On the third day, they changed gears to focus on player development. The day was broken up into three sessions, dividing players up by age group: 7-9 years, 10-12 years, and 16-21 years respectively. The session’s objective was technical and tactical attack concepts. Players ran through functional drills involving passing sequences and rotations that ended in finishing on goal.

After three rigorous days in Tokyo, our coaching staff was off to the former Japanese capital, Kyoto, for another intensive two-day Coaching Clinic. The Kyoto Coaching Clinic dedicated one day to attack and defense correspondingly, using video to explain rotations and sequences used by the Movistar Inter First Team. Coaches were later invited to put on their futsal shoes and try out the exercises for themselves.

The tour ended back in Tokyo with 3 practical sessions with players ranging from 7 – 12 years old and a coaching Master Class for local coaches that included both theoretical and practical parts.

Over the last couple of decades, futsal has gained a lot of momentum internationally and that is certainly no exception in Japan. Japan’s professional futsal league, the F.League, was formed just ten years ago and it’s national futsal team currently holds a world ranking of 16.

Coaches that participated in the Clinics are excited to apply new methodologies imparted by Muñoz to their training sessions and look forward to heading to Movistar Inter’s facilities in Madrid to continue their education.