Brazil: How many hours do their juniors do?

16 games? You call that a Junior Football season!

Mauricio Marques, Brazilian Football Federation Coach presented at the recent FFA Coaching seminar in Sydney.

This could be Academy focussed or indeed just targeted towards teams/individuals wanting to progress who are outside various Australian junior Academies.

How many hours per week should a Brazilian 13 year be on the ball?
How many games per week do 15 year olds need to play in a season?
How many hours per week do Brazilian 14 year old football wannabees spend in the gym?

Of course there is no-one right way, but food for thought. Answers below.



Minimum Stats of Players in Brazilian Football School
Age Hours Per Year Hours Per Week Weeks Per Year Games Per Year
13 380 10 38 30
14 440 10 44 40
15 650 14 46 55
17 750 16 46 70
20 870 18 48 80


The whole focus of Brazilian Academy's is to prepare player for next level of development

Players are always trained for two roles (example: defender & defensive midfielder or opposite forward & attacking forward) this gives them additional ability to gain selection and fit into squads easier

Players do no gym work until minimum of 15 years of age, all gym work before 15 is own body weight work. (The reason for this is they see this as time wasted on possible football training)

Team tactics are not emphasized until 15 years of age (Again the reason for this was because they need maximum hours up until this age perfecting there skill development)

One point: In Canberra juniors play 16/18 games per year as teenage boys/girls. Do I need to say anymore? The Academies, in general, play more.

The explosion of clinics and academies, pre-season tournaments, summer football acros Australia shows that the demand for more football, by many, is clearly there. How this "extra" football is provided/controlled across Australia will be interesting.

Local Football Federations control football. In the past most have thought providing 16 games a season means a job well done. If you want to keep control the various Federations may have to look at doing a bit more work:)