Bristol’s largest non-profit, independent football academy

So for myself and my lad Zackary the BICFA experience so far has been brilliant.

Made welcome by all from the outset, the standard of coaching and most importantly for me as a parent, the ethos is top notch.

Being a parent who has older children that I have taken in the past through the traditional grass roots Sunday league system, I was keen for Zackary to not be involved due to it often being about winning at all costs and more for the coaches and parents egos than it was about the child enjoying and developing their football skills.

This was this biggest thing that sold me the BICFA offer when it arose. I have complete trust and faith in what the coaches do and how they are led by Patrick at the helm.

Zackary absolutely loves his sessions and on the odd occasion when we have missed one, he is gutted.

It is very much about mutual respect with the children and coaches and I love how they all meet/greet and say good bye with hand shakes to all at the start and end of sessions.

Players are encouraged to play well with passing and keeping possession and that it is OK to make a mistake and lose as long as they have been trying to play in the proper way. Mistakes are not punished or made to feel bad by belittling the players, they are not shouted at but instead talked through that it is OK and talked about how it happened, why and how it can be improved moving forwards.

Zackary being a goalkeeper gets specific keeper training sessions as well as joining in with his age group squad.

They provide some great experiences against some brilliant opposition of all qualities, other similar academies and some tougher challenges against professional club set ups.

The Boston Utd Pilgrim Cup last summer was an amazing experience and I know others have experienced tours abroad to the IBER Cups in Portugal and Scandinavia where Zackary hopes to get involved for the coming 2018 tours.

Zackary loves it as a player and so do I as a parent.