- October 19, 2022
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Sports performance trainer Alex da Silva said the rainy weather during the summer can make soccer practice a challenge, resulting in multiple cancellations.
Then he thought back to the indoor futsal facilities in his native Brazil.
In July, he opened The Fitballer, an indoor location where kids and adults can practice free from the hazards of the weather, on Industrial Boulevard in Sarasota.
“That’s what my gift is," he said. "I like the game, I know the game, I play the game."
Da Silva said Sarasota had a need for someone like him to open an indoor facility.
The space of about 3,500 square feet may be small in size but is nonetheless attracting players looking for an opportunity to play soccer indoors.
Da Silva says the facility, which opened 10 weeks ago, serves all soccer players from ages “5 to a hundred.”
He offers various levels of training for all ages, and pick-up games, on a floor covered in artificial turf underlaid with padding.
Born in Brazil, da Silva is a certified sports performance trainer and a private trainer as of 2016, having played men’s regional futsal (a form of soccer played on a smaller, indoor court) in 2005 before he played USL League 2 in the United States in 2019.
"We have five World Cups. That's our passion,” he said of Brazil, which has the most FIFA World Cup titles of any country in the world. “Soccer in South America is almost a religion.”
In Brazil, he met his wife, Gillian da Silva, who also is his business partner. They co-own The Fitballer, along with Rise Fitness, a fitness facility at the intersection of Bee Ridge and McIntosh roads which they opened in 2020.
Also common in the Northeast, indoor soccer facilities are often known for their smaller size.
Da Silva says that kids in Brazil begin learning on the soccer court before moving to the fields.
In fact, Brazil has a professional futsal league that is recognized by FIFA.
The term comes from the Portuguese "futebol de salão," which translates to "indoor football.”
Da Silva says a futsal court in Brazil would be about triple the size of his current facility.
“This is what I was able to find,” he said.
However, he said it nonetheless is large enough for the purpose of creating better athletes.
In some ways, da Silva says the size presents an advantage.
“You have to find a solution faster, so you have to think faster,” da Silva said. “You have to move faster. You have to find space faster, so the pace is faster, and it requires a lot of conditioning. By the time you go to the official outdoor soccer field, it seems like you have way more time to think, to move ... way more space than before.”
Athletes will play in matches ranging from three to five players on each side, while training in the fundamentals of the game.
Da Silva plans to also add a training room to the space to help the players not only become more skillful, but to increase their strength.
The space can also be rented for events and birthday parties.
Many of the athletes who currently are using the facility are from the Florida Premier Football Club in Lakewood Ranch, which has lost a lot of summer practice time due to the rain.
“We’re from up north, and we have this type of facility all over the place, and we have none of that down here,” said Christie Kratz, a parent who kids use the facility.
“We've been missing tons of practice lately on the outside, so being able to come here has been life-saving, in a sense,” said another parent Karl Nehring.
He noted many of the kids who practice together at the facility come from different teams.
“I think it's been great to bring us together,” he said.
Da Silva said those who use The Fitballer can head in different directions.
“Some of them want to go to college. Some of them are just going for fun, so I'm here to help them," he said.
He said he hasn't been surprised by the great, early response to the business, but he is grateful.
"I was always confident, but I'm also grateful for what I have, and for what what's coming.”
