Matrix is different. In a comparative study, Matrix players were found to have sixteen times more contact with the ball, than trainees at conventional league coaching academies. Over a nine month season, a Matrix coached youngster is likely to touch, pass, turn and move with the ball 26,000 times, whereas a conventionally taught player will touch the football only around 1,700 times. Developing players’ soccer skills with the ball almost constantly at their feet, makes Matrix truly different.

Matrix is also about having fun and letting youngsters of all ages conduct training sessions themselves. It’s what is know in soccer circles as peer-led play and is the type of informal training that makes Brazilian footballers masters of the art.

Nevertheless, there is plenty for young Matrix players to learn. There are around 10,000 carefully-choreographed technical drills, all based around real game scenarios, which our youngsters learn in sequence, until they master the complex skills and work together as a team, passing, moving, creating space, enacting tricks and scoring. These capabilities are embodied in the Matrix Six building blocks.