GERMÁN CABRERA

I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and migrated to Australia as a kid. I grew up playing in the youth system for Sydney Olympic FC which was a part of the Old Australian Professional league called The NSL (National Soccer League). At 15 years old I was invited to train with ex Spanish La Liga Club Real Mallorca after I sent a video tape of some game footage. I was fortunate enough to have spent 2 months training with their Youth set up. Two years later the Football Federation in Australia decided to dissolve the whole professional league set up and left the country with no Professional League system. Being 17 at the time I had no other option but to follow the rest of the players and drop down a league and play Semi Pro for the time being. It was at this stage I was offered to go trial in Cyrpus. I didn’t have to think twice about and I jetted off and trialed nearly two months with two different 1st division clubs trying to win a First team contract. Things didn’t go my way but an old team mate of mine was playing with Apoel FC in the youth team and I was able to get a trial with them. I ended up signing as like an apprentice with the youth team for 4 months an experience that I will never forget. From that point on I was fortunate enough to have played in a few other different countries like back home in Argentina, Spain & India.

However, my career was always thrown a curve ball due to numerous amount of knee injuries. This caused my progression to stall, and took my career back and forth from Professional level to Semi Professional. Prior to launching G10 I was coaching/mentoring local youth players in a 1 on 1 environment on the side while also working for a Spanish Academy that was based in Sydney for a few years.

The inspiration came from my time back in Argentina 2005, when I was recovering from one of my ACL reconstruction surgeries. I was training at EL CEFAR (Training Centre for Argentine Footballers uncontracted) it was big set up at the old Boca Juniors training ground (La Candela) that provided training and friendly games for Pro Footballers that currently had no clubs or recovering from lengthy injuries. Apart from training in a team environment they also placed a lot of emphasis on training in small groups and 1 on 1’s. This gave us players a lot more time on the ball due to the repetition factor and we could focus on certain areas that needed improvement. This really stayed with me and in 2013 on my return from playing 7 months in India I received my master personal trainer’s qualifications and decided to provide coaching for youth & senior players mainly focusing on player development & conditioning work.

I felt at the time there was a lot of Academies here in Sydney but no service where you could receive more individual and personalized training. As word started to spread on what I was doing I decided to take a break from playing and focus solely on G10. Fast forward to 2017 and I am coaching over 40 players, worked with Pro Players that are playing in Australia, China, Korea, India and Argentina, and running G10 Fitness from a Corporate Gym facility.

We provide 1 on 1 training and small group training sessions, placing a lot of emphasis on individual player development. We also work with clubs who contract us to do weekly Technical ball work sessions. Unfortunately the majority of clubs don’t get the chance to work on individual Technique and we provide this service for them. I feel like thing that sets us apart from others is the fact we can help players on and off the field. Offering services inside the gym specifically tailored for football players.

Unfortunately clubs are not able to work with players in a 1 on 1 situation while coaching a full team. So Football players need the extra training to work on specific things that they are lacking. We personalize our player’s sessions according to what we see they need work with. The other way of looking at it is players get a lot more repetition training in an environment like this and this can really help build a players confidence up.

I place a lot of emphasis on guiding players and strongly encourage them to be creative and explore what works and what doesn’t work for them. This gives players the opportunity to discover, create and innovative with their play. I am a firm believer that Players who have a high standard of technical ability are the ones who stay composed while under pressure. Combine all this with motor skills and you will have created a strong football foundation.

Take G10 on tour and have the opportunity to train players in different parts of the world. If all goes to plan I will be doing a coaching tour in 2018 in Argentina and a few states in the USA. Work with more players and have more Pro players on our books. On an individual note I want to continue developing as a coach, and maintain the same humility, drive and passion that has gotten me to where I am today with G10.