Player Development Academy

Don't really post much here these days, too busy for the old social media thing. Anyway, we would like to wish all our players and families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 2022 is already looking crazy busy, so we will do what we can to accommodate. Have a good one folks.

Apologies one and all, we dont post very much these days on Facebook, if you would like to keep up to date with what we are doing, pop on over to Twitter, we regularly update there -

Being comfortable on the ball is massive for young players, they must be given the licence to try things and express themselves without the fear of failure.

Technique is one of the elements that we take back to basics in a lot of our sessions. We can't emphasise enough the importance of building from strong foundations. Here we're working on Running technique and also striking the ball.

Some of our older videos, this is a great one for preseason especially when introducing pressing.

PDA pressing Pressing warm up for pressing session.

Brilliant PDA sessions tonight. Take it back to basics and build up the elements.

Running technique is one of the elements we aim to improve in our sessions, among the other elements we have been working on. We have been working with Cody for a number of weeks now and the improvement we have seen has been brilliant, well done Cody.

The busy season has started in earnest for the PDA coaches. Brilliant to see all the enthusiasm in the players we have worked with this week both in the individual sessions and group session. .

After a year hiatus due to other football commitments, it's great to be back on the pitch working with and developing both individual players and squads.

Brilliant to be back working with Westdyke again, especially with this being the 2014 group. The first year is one of the most important in their football development. Let them play and have fun, let them grow to love the game, while having a ball at their feet the whole time. Westdyke Community Club Westdyke Girls and Ladies

Excellent final session of the block last night with the coaches from Westdyke Community Club. We worked on a lot of paired practice that the coaches can incorporate into their sessions. Well done everyone and thanks for having us.

Another brilliant session last night with the coaches of Westdyke Community Club , last night we worked on elements rarely incorporated into coach education courses. REACTION, SPEED & AGILITY. The benefits of coaching young players PROPER and CORRECT technique when coaching these elements is paramount. Well done everyone.

As an extra element to last night's coaches session, we introduced the coaches to body strength. Westdyke Community Club

Brilliant session again last night with Westdyke Community Club. In this session we gave the coaches the opportunity to get in and coach the block tackle before we introduced the next element, which was body stance. With our sessions we break the mechanics down to the basics so the coaches can learn the foundations of coaching and implement them into their sessions with their squads. Well done everyone.

Super development session last night with Jenna & Eva from Westdyke, these sessions are designed to combine elements required to enhance performance and development. Football, Strength, Flexibility, Balance & Co-ordination. Westdyke Community Club westdyke

Excellent CPD coach the coaches session last night with Westdyke Community Club. We worked on a major element of development that is overlooked on coaching courses. The foundations of development is built around what elements players need to progress and develop. A big thank you to all the coaches within the club for having us and we look forward to the next session in 2 weeks.

Excellent introductory Coach CPD with Westdyke Community Club last night. Super to see so many attend. Looking forward to the next session where we will put into practice the elements we discussed last night. A big well done to Westdyke for taking coach education and development seriously and doing what they can to help coaches across all elements of the game, from coaching postion, sport science, body language, verbal and non verbal communication to practical sessions on the pitch. The list is endless, however all this is part of what it takes to help educate and develop coaches. The coaches no matter what they take on board, it will always be a positive step towards player, squad and club development as a whole. Well done Westdyke, we look forward to doing more sessions. .

Well done Ewen Macdonald. Great to see you progressing and developing. Just proves all the hard work you've put in over the years to your development is paying off. Congratulations and keep it up. .

Excellent final session of the block this morning. We'll done everyone you all did brilliant.

Another really good session on Saturday. The players did excellent and are really developing, all this work is along side the sessions they do with their club and school. This all works together to help the players become more confident and comfortable on the ball.

Well done Westdyke. PDA fully support this. The development of kids, not only in football but in all forms of activity can only be a positive thing. Aberdeen F.C. have shown great vision with this project and this will benefit Absolutely Everyone.

Westdyke Community Club - the largest sports group in Westhill - has voiced its support for Aberdeen Football Club's plans to create a football and community sports hub at Kingsford.

Find out more ➡ afc.co.uk/news/10032

Brilliant session again today. We focused more on individual ball skills and also built another layer into passing which we introduced last week. Well done again everyone

Lovely day out today for another PDA session.

Excellent Academy session this morning. Today we focused of the shape of the foot when passing, both standing foot and striking foot. When working with young players we take the mechanics back to basics so they can understand how each element works, we then build the blocks of the development in as we go. Well done everyone.

Excellent opening session of the our new block, the players worked really hard. Today we worked on basic passing mechanics. You must get this right before you move onto anything else. Planting foot and striking foot must be in correct position before you work on accuracy or power.

Super sunny day to be back on the pitch for our Academy Sessions