This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Technical Staff
Our own technical staff, made up of Spanish and local psychologists, educators and coaches, who put the method created by our professionals into practice.-
Nacho Maestre
Manager of Gate for Children -
Alejandro Lucena
Head of Gate for Children
Gate Thailand
Gate Thailand is the foundation’s first destination, where it has been working since 2017. School support, language training and skills development for the labor market are some of the areas that the team works on.
Elle Manchusa
Director of Gate Thailand
Ken Sriwichai
Thai coach and educator at Gate Thailand
Disschai
Thai coach
Just to play
Methodology
The Gate method is based on the development of our values program through comprehensive training that unifies the fields of sports and psychology
Sports Methodology
At Gate for Children we rely on integral training as a model for establishing our working methodology, with the ball as the principal medium, but through which we simultaneously develop technical, tactical, physical and psychological aspects.
The contents are adapted to the children’s age and their true level, in order to optimize their learning, and they take into account the cultural differences of the different environments in which we operate.
Our methodology is based on the development of our values through our sports training program, taking into account children’s developmental process, as well as their cognitive, relational, emotional, physical and technical-tactical development. In competitions we emphasize the educational side of things, without forgetting the importance of competition.
Training structure
Warm-up: This is the section where we gradually prepare the body through various exercises to improve physical performance and prevent muscle injuries.
Main session: In this section, we perform three Gate star exercises aimed at achieving the main objective of the session.
Warm-down: This aims to return the body to an initial state, promoting recovery and avoiding injuries.
Training Methodology
When we talk about the Gate for Children method, we are referring to the combination of two important components within the dynamics of learning soccer: the physical side and the emotional side.
Barely any soccer schools around the world combine the learning of these two components in the same training sessions. As such, after conducting an analysis of the situation in the environment where we began our project, we realized that it was essential to teach soccer technique and tactics to be used as personal resources for survival in life.
Soccer is an important part of our lives, but instilling values became our ultimate goal. This is where our motivation to work with children comes from, and we choose developing countries or areas and neighborhoods where financial resources are scarcer and people live a more marginalized life. Working on teaching soccer through values has turned out to be the perfect combination for our foundation.
Psychology
From the psychological point of view, learning that takes place in a relaxed atmosphere, in a group with good harmony and where children can trust each other is more beneficial, permanent and effective.
Taking this as a starting point, the combination of sport and learning values leads to success, since it is possible to mold disruptive behavior and conduct within a playful environment, without the possibility of children suffering any kind of trauma.
Team sport
Group sport makes it easier for professionals from the field of the psychology of physical activity to assess and treat certain disruptive behaviors displayed by children who have been raised in unfavorable environments, who come from dysfunctional families, or who are orphans.
The possibility of working in this sphere by playing sport – in this case soccer, which is our passion – and with the synergy inherent to group work among equals, offers us the possibility of more permanent and effective behavioral change.
Providing resources
Our preferred methodology is intended to provide children with the resources they need to make their dreams come true. Methodologically speaking, the groups will not be very large, with 20 or so children, to ensure that the teaching is of high quality. However, we will also try to reach as many youngsters as possible, so the numbers or dynamics of the sessions may vary.
We normally begin with the area of developing values. The psychologist will oversee the dynamic or activity in order to work on the objectives of that particular session and also to evaluate and identify any needs of the children that may arise. This will tell us if we can continue with the program or if it is necessary to modify it. It is also possible to determine whether there is a need to intervene individually with certain youngsters, although we will try to ensure that all intervention happens as part of the group.