Where the idea comes from
The Ajax school does not begin in the academy but in the first team. Rinus Michels developed from 1965 onwards, with Johan Cruyff as his central player, what later became known as Totaalvoetbal: positional rotation, zonal marking, high pressing, every player having to understand every position. Ajax won the European Cup with it in 1971, 1972 and 1973.
The academy adopted this playing idea as its development goal. Anyone who wanted to play for Ajax had to understand it. That is still the core: the academy develops players for a particular way of playing, not for football in general.
Cruyff himself shaped the academy twice more. As head coach from 1985 to 1988, and more strongly through the so-called Cruyff Plan from 2011 (more on that below). In between, coaches such as Louis van Gaal built on the same foundation: van Gaal's title-winning side of 1995 was structurally the realisation of Michels' ideas with a new generation.
Since 1996 the academy has trained at De Toekomst ("The Future"), the development centre next to the Johan Cruijff ArenA. The name is the programme.
The TIPS model
TIPS is the best-known element of the Ajax approach. It describes what players are selected and assessed on:
- Techniek — technique
- Inzicht — insight, understanding of the game
- Persoonlijkheid — personality
- Snelheid — speed
The order is not accidental. Technique comes first because Ajax assumes it is most trainable at a young age and can barely be made up later. Insight comes second because Ajax football demands decisions: when do I tuck in, when do I open up, when do I play the third man. Personality means willingness to take responsibility, courage on the ball, appetite to learn. Speed comes deliberately last — not because it is unimportant, but because it is the least trainable and says the least about the player someone will become.
What TIPS means day to day: every player is assessed regularly along these four dimensions. That assessment is the basis for their individual development plan. A player with outstanding technique and weak insight gets a different programme from one with the opposite profile.
TIPS has been varied and extended over the years. Critics inside the club have noted that speed has gained importance in the modern game and that the model reflects that too little. It is a grid, not a formula.
The development principles
Individual development before team success
The most important principle and the hardest to hold. Ajax youth teams are not there to win championships. They are there to produce players for the first team. A coach who takes his U15 to the title with long balls has, in Ajax terms, failed.
In practice this means: playing time is distributed according to development needs, not performance. Positions are filled according to the learning objective, not the probability of winning. Results are noted, not celebrated.
One system as a teaching tool
All Ajax youth teams play a 4-3-3 with the classic Dutch numbers: 1 goalkeeper, 2 and 5 full-backs, 3 and 4 centre-backs, 6 holding midfielder, 8 and 10 central midfield, 7 and 11 wingers, 9 striker. At Ajax the numbers are still roles, not shirt numbers.
The system is not a dogma for the first team. It is a teaching tool for the academy. Because every position has a clearly defined role, a coach can explain to a twelve-year-old exactly what the 6 does in the build-up and what the 8 does when pressing. And because every team plays the same system, a player can move up from the U13 to the U14 without having to learn anew.
Changing positions in the early years
Up to around U13, Ajax players play several positions. The future centre-back learns as a 6 what it is like to receive the ball with his back to the opponent. The future winger learns as a full-back how it feels to be the player he will later be pressing.
That is direct Michels heritage: Totaalvoetbal assumes every player understands every position. Specialisation comes later, usually from U14/U15. How rotation can be planned in practice is covered in the guide to changing positions in youth football.
Positiespel — positional play
Dutch Positiespel is the forerunner of Catalan Juego de Posición and it is everywhere in the Ajax academy. 4 v 2, 5 v 3, 6 v 3 in small areas. Later, positional games with zones and support players.
Unlike the rondo, which is played in a circle, Positiespel usually takes place in rectangles with a direction of play. The ball is not only to be kept but moved from one side to the other. That trains what defines Ajax football: building from the back, playing through the middle, switching play.
Technique under pressure — but also in isolation
Here Ajax differs from La Masia. Ajax also trains technique in isolation — ball mastery, feints, passing technique with both feet, receiving on the move. The Coerver method, developed in the 1970s by the Dutchman Wiel Coerver, shaped Dutch youth football as a whole, and Ajax is no exception.
The proportion is limited, however. The bulk of a session is game forms. Isolated technique is a building block at the start, not the core.
One against one as a foundation
Ajax wingers are expected to beat opponents. So 1 v 1 is trained in every age group — offensively and defensively, in game forms with points for successful dribbles, in one-against-one tournaments, in positional games with a rule that the winger must dribble at his opponent once before passing.
Coaches as developers
Ajax youth coaches are part of a development department with a shared methodology. Many are former Ajax players. Over the years the club has run its own coach education to make sure the same language is spoken. A coach who brings his own playing idea is not wanted.
The Cruyff Plan: what happens when you radicalise the method
In 2010 Johan Cruyff publicly criticised the state of his club. Too many coaches without an Ajax background, too little focus on individual development, too many average players. In 2011 he got his way: former Ajax players took key positions, Wim Jonk became head of the academy, Dennis Bergkamp worked with young attackers, Frank de Boer coached the first team.
The plan had clear principles:
- Individual training becomes the core. Every talented player gets a personal development plan and one-to-one work with specialist coaches.
- Youth teams exist solely to develop players. Results are irrelevant.
- Former players replace qualified coaches without an Ajax past, because they embody the playing idea.
- Ajax should again be what it was under Michels and Cruyff: the best development programme in the world, not a team of signings.
The plan had measurable success. Players such as Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong, Donny van de Beek and Justin Kluivert were developed or promoted in this phase. Frank de Boer won four championships in a row.
And it failed anyway. In 2015 Wim Jonk left the club after a falling-out and Cruyff withdrew. The conflicts were about power, structure and the question of whether an academy can really work independently of the first team. Bergkamp left in 2017.
What the Cruyff Plan shows: development philosophy and club leadership have to fit together. A radical methodology without a stable structure dismantles itself — even when it produces players.
The business model
Ajax does not develop players out of idealism alone. The club has built a business model on it: develop, establish in the first team, sell. De Ligt for around 75 million to Juventus, de Jong for around 75 million to Barcelona, Antony for around 95 million to Manchester United — base fees in each case, with exact sums varying by source.
The model has a price. Talents leave the club earlier and earlier, often before they have arrived in the first team. Ryan Gravenberch went to Bayern at 20. The academy thereby loses the last and most important development step: the time between U19 and a regular place.
Bergkamp has criticised this publicly. Others at the club see it as an unavoidable consequence of the club's market position: Ajax cannot compete with English wages in the Eredivisie.
The criticism
Result-independence is theory. Every youth coach, at Ajax too, is under pressure. Players want to win, parents want to win, the club wants to make talents visible. The principle is right; the execution is never complete.
The fixed 4-3-3 has limits. As a teaching tool it is strong. As a worldview it becomes narrow. Players who learned only one system at Ajax had to adjust in other leagues. That is not an argument against the system, but against making it absolute.
The Ajax school lives off the Dutch environment. Small-sided formats in children's football, technical education as a national tradition, an association that promotes the same playing idea. A club in another country that copies Ajax does not have that environment.
The last few years have been turbulent. After the semi-final in 2019 came championships, then chaos: leadership changes, poor signings, a weak 2023/24 season. The academy was not untouched by it. Good development does not protect against poor club governance.
The method is less documented than its reputation. Like La Masia, Ajax publishes no curriculum. Much of it rests on statements by former coaches and players.
Application: what you can take from it
This section is our interpretation.
For youth coaches, Ajax is the most accessible of the major schools. The principles are concrete and do not need a density of talent to work.
Decide: develop or win?
Both at once rarely works. Whoever develops distributes playing time by development need, lets players play unfamiliar positions and accepts defeats for it. Say that to your players and parents at the start of the season — and hold to it when it hurts.
Use a fixed system as a teaching tool
Not because it is the best system, but because clear roles let you explain to every player exactly what his position does in the build-up, in the press and in transition. A player who understands his role learns faster than one who hears something different every week.
Assess in dimensions, not in grades
Take TIPS or a grid of your own. How player assessment can be structured systematically is covered elsewhere. Assess every player two or three times a season along the dimensions. Talk to him about it. Derive from it what he works on. That is the core of an individual development plan — and it costs no infrastructure, only time.
Change positions up to U13
Every player plays at least three positions over the course of a season. The striker defends, the defender builds. Specialise only from U14.
One against one in every session
Five to ten minutes per session for one-against-one situations — with a finish, in small areas, with changing starting positions. That trains, offensively and defensively, what gets lost in game forms with many players.
Positiespel with direction
Instead of a rondo in a circle: 4 v 2 or 5 v 3 in a rectangle with two end zones. The ball has to travel from one zone to the other. That trains building and switching play, not just keeping the ball.
Technique short and isolated, then into the game
A block of ten minutes of ball mastery, feints or passing technique at the start makes sense in children's football — Ajax does it too. Then straight into the game form in which that technique is needed.
What to take away
- Ajax develops players for a particular way of playing — the 4-3-3 with positional play and pressing shaped by Michels and Cruyff. The academy serves the first team, not the other way round.
- TIPS — technique, insight, personality, speed — is an assessment grid, not a formula. It structures individual development.
- Individual development comes before team success. The principle is clear; the execution is never complete.
- The fixed system is a teaching tool: clear roles, the same language across all age groups.
- Changing positions up to U13, one against one at every age, Positiespel with direction.
- The Cruyff Plan shows that methodology without a stable club structure dismantles itself, even when it produces players.
Player assessment in Coach OS works with four areas and 17 attributes — a logic similar to TIPS, only more differentiated. What you conclude from it for the individual player is not answered by any grid. You answer that.
FAQ: frequently asked questions
Sources and further reading
- David Winner: Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football — on the origins of Totaalvoetbal and Dutch football culture.
- Johan Cruyff: My Turn — on the Ajax school from the perspective of its most important figure.
- Interviews with Wim Jonk, Dennis Bergkamp and Ruben Jongkind on the Cruyff Plan and individual development, scattered across Dutch and international sports media 2011–2017.
- Documentaries and reports on De Toekomst, including from UEFA and the Dutch football association KNVB.
- Wiel Coerver: Soccer Technique and follow-up works — on isolated technical training in Dutch youth football.
A note on the evidence: Ajax publishes no development curriculum. This description rests on consistent statements by former coaches and players as well as outside observation. Transfer fees are base amounts according to media reports and vary by source.