MONTHLY NEWSLETTER June 2022
Coach's Note Sandro Salami Head of Youth
Greetings, parents and guardians! A new season brings new challenges, new goals, and new hope. As we approach this new season, we hope to have a complete season uninterrupted by the issues of the past two years. Our staff and players have been hard at work preparing for the upcoming season, as well as the selection camp held towards the end of the month. Scouting camps are never easy, since we have a lot of work to do to select the very best talents to join the Academy. However, we trust our coaches and scouts to do a thorough job and continue to develop the players already at the Academy at the same time, and our staff did an amazing job in conducting yet another successful camp!
With the monsoons upon us, we are taking every care possible to train our boys and keep them safe. We have also added to our staff. Devan Daniel (Coach), Harshal Naik (Physiotherapy), Muskaan Lucknowala (Nutrition), and Nihaal Colaco (Media) join our team, and we are sure they will add to the quality staff we already have in place. They have already started making a positive impact on our players. Looking forward, we hope to continue getting competitive game time for all our players in the coming months. With some promising tournaments on the horizon, we are excited to have the opportunity to participate and accelerate the development of our players. As always, we will share the best moments of all of them with you here!
Counsellor's Note Padma Rewari Head of Child Welfare and Education
Dear parents and guardians, I hope you all had a lovely time at home with the boys! I know I speak for all of the staff when I say that holiday months feel incomplete for us here at Beverly without the energy of all of our Young Champs. Which is why it was such a nice feeling to welcome back our boys this month! The excitement they had to be back was matched by ours to have them back with us! School has started for all boys, and we are taking all necessary precautions to ensure their safety and continued education. A new season also brings change. And this season is no different for the welfare department.
Merlyn, who had joined our team and been an important part of the welfare department has left us following the completion of her internship. During her time here, Merlyn was diligent, hard working, and even though she was here for a short time, she managed to create a positive impact on the players, especially the new batch of players who joined us in March. I hope you will all join me in wishing Merlyn all the very best for her future endeavours.
RFYC @ RFDL In the Months of April and May, our players who were a part of the U-18s had the opportunity to play in the Reliance Foundation Development League. This competition is aimed at being India's highest level reserve tournament with participation from various ISL teams. Being India's premier youth Academy, RFYC was afforded the opportunity to play in this league, and it was an important experience for our senior players as they got their first taste of what football is like at the highest level. While most participating teams played their reserve squads, there were also
players who had already represented their clubs in the ISL, and who brought that experience with them. Our players had a strong showing in the tournament, finishing sixth, ahead of some established ISL clubs! The players will take some valuable experience away from this, and it was the perfect opportunity for our oldest players to perform in front of other ISL clubs and really show their level! Shared below are some of the images from the tournament. For complete galleries and highlights, you can visit our website!
Spotlight Surdas Meitei U - 19 Midfielder
Tell us a little about yourself. Hi, I'm Surdas Meitei. I am just the kid from Manipur hoping to one day be a professional player and get to represent my country! That has been my dream since I was a child.
I am grateful to RFYC and to all of my coaches for giving me the opportunity, and the best platform to fulfil my dream!
You recently travelled to Goa for the RF Development League. How was that experience? RF Development League was very exciting experience, getting to play against the other reserve ISL teams, especially after having not played with competitive team for almost the past 2 years due to COVID lockdown. It was a good experience to know how they play and what kind of challenge they could give to us.
What was the best part about the trip? The best part about this trip was pretty much everything. It was first time I've been to Goa and highest level league I've ever played. Off the pitch, we also to see many beautiful places and I personally really enjoyed my time there!
Who is your football idol? Tell us what you most admire about them. I love Ronaldo from my childhood. He was the first famous player I saw on TV and I've been his fan ever since.
I admire his attitude, mindset and goal scoring ability.
If you were a player in FIFA or PES, what would your rating be, and which club would you be playing for? If I was ever on FIFA/PES, this may sound unrealistic, but I don't want my rating to be less than 75. And if I could choose any club that would be Real Madrid!
Spotlight
Sarthak Pawar Sports & Performance Psychologist
Tell us a little about yourself. Hi, My name is Sarthak and I’m the Sports and Performance Psychologist with RFYC . I’m originally from Pune but I went on to finish my higher education from Leeds Beckett University in the UK. If I were to pinpoint a moment in time, I believe I was pretty clear about becoming a Sport’s Psychologist since I was in 17, and I do love every moment of it as I get to work with elite athletes on a day to day level and constantly observe what makes athlete elite and superior as opposed to someone else who also might be just as talented.
Creating awareness about the mental side of things in elite sport can be so fulfilling especially when an athlete really has a personal “breaking barriers” moment and really escalates to the next level. Along with Sport’s Psychology, I have a firm interest in football coaching and I have coached in the UK with Leeds United FC during my time in the UK and also followed that up with a coaching stint in the US, predominantly in Los Angeles, California. Lastly, keeping sports aside, I do enjoy a bit of music especially from Linkin Park, Kanye West or the Arctic Monkeys but my biggest source of entertainment comes from stand-up comedy and maybe someday, you might see me do a bit of stand up in front of an audience as well, much like most of the engineers of our country.
How does a psychologist help players in the Academy? While a Psychologist can offer a lot of support and help to any academy, I believe the role offered at RFYC is even more unique because it allows me to help the players on and off the pitch. While we do engage in conventional classroom sessions that focus on various topics like the importance of mental resilience, constant communication and usage of meditation techniques to improve focus, the real edge I get is certainly on the pitch where I get to observe the athletes in the element without fear of judgement. On the pitch, I am able to really pinpoint what it is that a player needs help with and often, interventions can be implemented on the pitch itself. For example, a winger might seem like he is lacking the commitment to take players on, but that can arise from a lack of confidence if he sees that the defenders are faster or stronger than him. A simple fix could be to allow the player to keep on dribbling without thinking about losing the ball in the process. On the other hand, it might also help to speak to the coach about this and change the players position in a spot where he feels more confidence to take his man on. A lot depends on constant communication with the coaches so that we are on the same page and can work towards the best solution for an individual. It is important to create a great rapport with the players so that they feel like they can confide in you about their issues and be open to the solutions you offer them in confidential individual sessions.
A common misconception is that Sports Psychology is just making players "mentally tough" and helping raise their performances. Tell us what other areas players need help in and how you help them. I wouldn’t say it’s a misconception that sports psychology is about making players mentally tough but there certainly is so much more to it. If I were to sum it up in really short, it would be about creating awareness. Awareness about the various aspects of sport that are so heavily dependent on the mental side of things. Certainly, mental toughness and resilience are the easier concepts to grasp, but there are so many finer mental aspects that define how you perform, for example, the level of concentration you possess while sticking to a task given by your coach, or confidence you possess to master new challenges and grow as a player rather than sticking to what you do easily.
For me, the biggest victory is when a player is able to look at certain challenges he is facing on the pitch, reflect and really understand what the mental obstacles could be behind certain mistakes he is making on the pitch. In such a moment, a player could naturally go in to the instinct of “I must work harder”, but we would like to create awareness about the fact that these mistakes may not be occurring because the player is not talented enough or not working hard on the pitch but because he may not have mentally prepared for that certain scenario. Hence it would be ideal scenario would be to create awareness in every player’s mind about how they can mentally prepare for these various challenges and work towards them off the pitch with better planning and self-reflection.
We'd love to hear from you. Please write to us at contact@rfyounchamps.org