By Sports Reporter/Doha


The ‘Aspire in the World Fellows’ coaching symposium successfully opened today, featuring a group of world leading football experts that have travelled to Qatar to share best practice and expertise, develop recommendations for training methodologies and support the management of young players.
Representatives from 20 of the world’s leading clubs, federations and leagues that belong to the Aspire Fellows community are taking part in the two-day event. These include experts from clubs including Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal and many more.
The symposium began with an open discussion session with the visiting experts and the Academy’s student-athletes during which the students shared their experiences of training and competing at the Academy. Students were also given the opportunity to direct questions to the experts about how best to improve their performance.
The session provided a range of valuable insights for participants, helping to support the development of innovative approaches to improving training methodologies, nurturing footballing talent and supporting young players in achieving sporting success. Following the session, participants were then given a tour of Aspire Academy’s facilities and briefed about the educational and training programmes the Academy provides to its students as well as an overview of the significant success and progress that has been achieved in the fields of sports education and science.
During the afternoon, prominent sports psychologist Dr Gloria Balague from the University of Illinois in Chicago presented a lecture on “The Role of the Coach in Training Psychological Skills”, which explored the effects of psychology on athletic performance. A number of additional workshops sessions focused on training plans, match and training recovery, integrated training methodologies and preventing soft tissue injuries.
Day two of the symposium will feature a visit to Aspire Academy’s Laboratories along with a number of other workshops, discussions and training sessions. Dr Donna O’Connor from the University of Sydney in Australia is expected to give a presentation on developing learning opportunities for players.
Aspire Academy first opened its doors in 2004 and is considered to be one of the leading sports institutes in the Middle East. The Academy offers an integrated educational programme of sports development, sports science and academic learning to boys aged 12 to 18. The school develops well-educated sports champions and aims to become the world’s leading sports academy for young athletes by 2020.