welcome to player development's final frontier
Where Technical Training Meets Cognitive Training
Brazilian academy coaches Fabricio Monte (Santos FC 2003-Present) & Luciano Santos (Santos FC 2011-2019) present Beyond Juggling, a groundbreaking curriculum of pair juggling games for elite soccer players. 100% compatible with Coronavirus social distancing guidelines! Produced in collaboration with globally-recognized cognitive training experts MBM and education consultant Cal Christopher, this groundbreaking collection of entertaining games will challenge the technique and cognitive ability of your players like nothing they’ve experienced before. Rule variations are included that allow less-skilled jugglers to play too!
A Player Is Not An Island
A solution to the mind-body problem
Out on the pitch, every technical action is combined with perception and decision-making tasks. Our actions with the ball only occur while our brain is faced with an overload of multiple variables – time, space, opponents, and teammates. This is why no player is an island unto themselves in football. In the red hot cauldron of a competitive game, technical actions are always performed under a taxing, brutal cognitive load. To future-proof players and equip them for the game of tomorrow, a significant portion of a player’s technical training must recreate this cognitive aspect. This includes vision and awareness, the ability to quickly process and filter information, and fast and effective decision-making. It is these traits – rather than technique alone – which separate players in the top professional divisions from players in the lower ones. The groundbreaking Beyond Juggling games curriculum, designed and endorsed by some of the world’s leading player development experts, focuses on the full range of these elements. Through a challenging and wildly addictive pair-based curriculum, each player must show a high degree of technical skill while simultaneously carrying out a variety of cognitively demanding tasks. Sounds a bit like soccer!
Cognition
Challenging cognitive tasks are at the heart of the curriculum. Decision-making, task switching, reaction speed, memory, synchronization, anticipation, concentration, and mental endurance are all trained in a variety of fun and creative ways.
Perception
A large section of the curriculum specifically trains players' vision and spatial awareness. Forced to disconnect from the ball, players must read and respond to visual cues while simultaneously keeping the juggling rally alive.
Technique
While performing a range of brain games, players must execute increasingly demanding juggling combinations that require different touch quantities, weights, directions, and surfaces. Ball control, first touch, and ambidexterity are all developed.
Coordination
The curriculum also includes juggling games that develop players' physical attributes in a fun, competitive way. These games train not only coordination but balance, rhythm, and muscular endurance - all alongside technical skills!
The Creators
Luciano Santos
Luciano Santos & Fabricio Monte are two of Brazil’s top talent developers, boasting over 25 years’ combined experience coaching in Santos FC’s esteemed youth academy – a superstar factory that has produced the likes of Pele, Neymar, Robinho, and many of the latest samba starlets. With decades of football and futsal expertise in one of the world’s most competitive youth hotspots, Luciano and Fabricio’s recent graduates include Rodrygo (Real Madrid), Emerson (Chelsea), Giovanni Manson (Ajax), Gabriel Barbosa (Flamengo), Kaio Jorge (Santos FC), and Yuri Alberto (Santos FC). For Beyond Juggling, Luciano and Fabricio have teamed up with online learning designer Cal Christopher, as well as experienced cognitive training consultants MBM.
Fabricio Monte
Alumni
Fabricio & Luciano's former players currently represent:
MBM Consultancy
Cognitive training experts MBM (Michel Bruyninckx Method) have helped refine the Beyond Juggling methodology and curriculum to maximize its effectiveness. MBM Founder & Author Michel Bruyninckx is a Belgian UEFA A Elite Youth coach, lecturer, and brain training expert who is widely cited as one of the key figures behind Belgium’s football revolution and “golden generation” (Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Dries Mertens, Vincent Kompany, Romelu Lukaku, Axel Witsel, and others). At Genk, the Belgian club where Kevin de Bruyne was developed, Michel’s curriculum design and consultancy have led to unprecedented success. In the current Belgium U17 squad, 10 of the 22 selected players hail from Genk. Genk’s academy is now the world’s sixth most prolific exporter of players for Europe’s top 5 leagues, ahead of FC Barcelona. Michel’s innovative methods have also led him to consulting contracts with Real Madrid, AC Milan, FC Metz, Senegal’s Génération Foot Academy (Sadio Mané), and Qatar’s Aspire Academy. The Beyond Juggling programme is officially endorsed by MBM – a team which includes former AFC Ajax coach Ed Graper – and is set to become a key part of the home practice curriculums of elite European clubs.
Culture
Build a competitive pair juggling culture among friends and team-mates with these addictive games. Duel in the living room, in the backyard, at a friend's house, at school, or at the practice field.
Accessibility
Get thousands of intelligent touches anywhere, anytime, and on any device! All you need is a ball, internet access, and two players. Each game is filmed in HD and has written instructions.
Play
Players develop best when they are absorbed in play. Beyond Juggling turns technical training into an entertaining game - then supercharges it by adding different types of cognitive load.