F.C. Copenhagen is building something new. As the club develops its girls’ and women’s football department, a talented group of 2012/2013 girls is taking its first steps within this new structure.
Tanner Speed Academy has been involved with many of these players for several years. Carsten Effertz recently returned to Copenhagen for another training session with the group, continuing a relationship that started when many of the girls were still very young.
The visit comes at an exciting stage in the development of the department. This group represents one of the first generations within the new structure and is therefore playing an important role in the club’s long-term development of the women’s game.
One particularly interesting aspect of the group is its training and competition environment. The girls train and play together with boys, giving the most talented female players the opportunity to be challenged at a high level in terms of speed, intensity, physicality and decision-making.
For Tanner Speed Academy, the relationship with these players goes back several years.
Many of the girls have been training with Tanner Speed from a young age, with a strong focus on coordination, movement quality, running technique and the foundations of speed development. The group has also travelled to Gothenburg several times for training, while Carsten has made regular visits to Copenhagen to work with the players in their own environment.
A club with a long football tradition – now building the next chapter of its girls’ and women’s football department.
Now, at the age of 13–14, the value of that early foundation is becoming increasingly visible. As the players enter an important phase of growth and maturation, changes in body proportions and physical capacities can affect coordination and movement. Having already developed fundamental movement patterns, rhythm, balance and body control gives the players a strong foundation to adapt and continue progressing.
This is one of the key principles behind the Tanner Speed approach:
Speed development does not start when players are already fast. The foundations need to be built years earlier.
The latest session in Copenhagen was another opportunity to build on that foundation. In a demanding training environment, the ability to accelerate quickly, move efficiently, change direction and control the body at high speed becomes increasingly important.
At the same time, the visit provided an opportunity to look ahead. The next step is to explore how Tanner Speed Academy can support F.C. Copenhagen in developing a structured, long-term approach to speed development within its emerging girls’ and women’s football department.
For Tanner Speed Academy, this is what long-term development is about: starting early, building the right foundations, following players through different stages of maturation, and progressively adapting training as they develop.
From Copenhagen to Gothenburg and back again – we are looking forward to continuing the journey with this talented group and hopefully expanding our cooperation with F.C. Copenhagen in the future.
