Presentation
Mini ESA started in 2012 and is the ‘proof of concept’ of the future centre of excellence for Belgian athletes. This life-size experience allowed Brussels young athletes, between 15 and 22 years old, to improve their performance while benefiting from professional and personalised follow-up for four years. In addition, the project showed the importance of having quality sports facilities in Brussels.
A hundred tests performed by 25 Belgian promising athletes from the world of athletics and soccer were needed to enable the multidisciplinary selection committee to select five young athletes in each of these two disciplines. These tests are of a physical, psychological and technical nature and were conducted by internationally recognised experts in their speciality, such as Jef Brouwers, Titi Mullie and Guy Cheron.
Various activities were proposed during these four years. First of all, athletes have benefited from a mobility programme, to be performed twice a week, allowing then to harmonise their entire body, improve their perception and prevent injuries.
Afterwards, our young athletes took part in an activity aiming at analysing the Alpha and Beta waves in sport including measuring their degree of concentration during the effort. The psychological test has meanwhile helped identifying the personality of the athletes.
The results of this first edition are spectacular! In athletics, two out of the five athletes took part in the Rio Olympics while three out of the five promising young soccer players are now evolving within the first division of the Anderlecht Royal Sporting.
However, the need to physically settle Mini ESA in a place arose. Indeed, being split into multiple places made the visibility of Mini ESA unclear and did not contribute to create a body spirit. Therefore, it was thought to use an intermediate centre, the ESA Arena. This intermediate centre allowed performing the activities without waiting for the creation of the big International ESA excellence centre. Activities are therefore performed in an infrastructure which, even if it does not entirely belong to ESA, has been identified as ESA being also part of it.
Athletes

Youri Tielemans
2013 : RSCA A team-player and Belgian Red Devil
Professional contract since 2013
Completed the Mini ESA program in 2015

Leander Dendoncker
2013: Starter Viareggio U21
2014: First game in the Champions League
2015: Belgian Red devil and RSCA A team-player
Completed the Mini ESA program in 2015

Andy Kawaya
2013: Belgian champion U17 U19 U21 with RSCA – RSCA A team-player
2014 - 2015: Played several matches in the Champions League
Completed the Mini ESA program in 2015

Scott Bitsindou
2013: Winner of Aegon Cup U17 in Amsterdam
2014: Played for the first time in UEFA Youth League - RSCA youth team captain for 5 years
Completed the Mini ESA program in 2015

Alexis Scholl
2014: Espoir Team player
Defender at Benfica
Completed the Mini ESA program in 2015

Dylan Borlée
2015: Silver medal (400m) and gold medal (4x400m) at the European Championships in Prague - European record 4x400m - Bronze medal at IAAF World Relays in Bahamas
2016: European champion (4x400m) in Amsterdam - 4th at the Olympic games in Rio (4x400m) with a new national record

Robin Vanderbemden
2014: Belgian Champion (60m)
2015: 8th at the European Championships U23 in Tallinn (400m) - Finalist at the world championships in Beijing (4x400m)
2016: selected for the 200 and 4x400m relay at the European Championships in Amsterdam - Selected for the Olympic games in Rio (4x400m)

Camille Laus
2013: Belgian Champion in long jump
2015: Selected for the European Team championships in Heraklion (200 and 4x100m)

Vincent Laporte
2013: 9th at EYOF (the javelin throw) – 3rd in the Belgian championships and Flemish champion in javelin
Left the Mini ESA program in 2014

Alexandre Screve
2014: World Junior Championships (4x400m) in Edmonton
Left the Mini ESA program in 2014
Le programme Tennis.

L’onglet Basket.

Experts

Jacques Borlée
Static Test and posture analysis

Jef Brouwers
Psychological testing

Guy Cheron
Ocular mobility test

Didier Verhasselt
SDE mobility test
Videos
Testimonies