WEST DES MOINES, Iowa – Nov. 29, 2010 – The Des Moines Menace Academy is excited to announce new partnerships with iSoccer and ZoomReports to help enhance technical development and to aid in the evaluation process of club players.

Starting the week of November 29, invitations will be sent to members of the U9-U17 teams to sign onto iSoccer and ZoomReports. The Menace Academy will be using the iSoccer technical assessment and online video training platform to help improve and track the technical development of our players. ZoomReports will be used as an evaluation tool for coaches and players to assess their progress throughout the year.

Director of Soccer, Laurie Calloway looks at the new partnerships as a way to reach players and coaches in a medium they understand.

“We will always look at new technology to enhance our coaches’ ability to improve and evaluate our Academy players,” Calloway said. “iSoccer and ZoomReports ally to our current coaching staff’s vast experience and will help accelerate the development of our Menace Academy players.”

The iSoccer Assessment will be taken throughout the year to measure individual and team development. Coaches will also use the assessment results to focus their training with players and to build targeted technical sessions to supplement team practices. This additional resource will provide players and parents guided video training instruction, which can be accessed from the internet and even downloaded to an iPod, for players to practice at home.

With the Menace’s level of iSoccer membership, players can create their own customized training sessions from a library of over 500 training exercises, build a four-week individual training program, set improvement goals, and view their own assessment analysis.

“iSoccer will provide an avenue for our players to challenge themselves technically away from the structured training they are used to,” said Kevin Schalk, Director of Coaching at Menace West. “This technology will give our players the ability to train virtually anywhere and our coaches a way to monitor the players’ progress through homework and assessments. The more the player uses the system the faster our club will compete at the highest levels of competition.”

Players will also be evaluated throughout the year to measure their progress on the field, similar to report cards they would receive at school. Coaches will utilize ZoomReports to produce professional, detailed reports of player progress and as method to provide feedback and improvement comments.  Players will also submit self-evaluations as a way to reflect on their own development and growth throughout the year.

“ZoomReports will give our players and parents a detailed outlook on their soccer development and provides a way for the staff to track progress of the four pillars of soccer throughout the players’ club years,” Schalk said. “This program allows each player to do a self assessment; it’s very important for players to give an honest evaluation of themselves, which provides the coaches with great insight on how to get the player to the next level.”

The initial iSoccer assessment and first ZoomReports evaluations will take place in March.  Academy members can watch for further emails on how to get logged into both of these systems.

For more information on iSoccer visit www.iSoccer.org and for more information on ZoomReports visit www.zoomreports.com.