Our students welcomed a new academic year this term, with our Player Pathway students looking to hone their football skills, and our new Sports Career Pathway students building up experience in their chosen field.
Player Pathway
On the pitch, our Player Pathway students train four times per week with UEFA A & B Licensed coaches. These coaches also take charge of each matchday for their squad, across both first and second year.
The students cover a wide range of topics throughout each term, which helps each player develop to their full potential. The first three weeks of the term were dedicated to ‘Retaining and Rebuilding’, which taught the students how to take control of the game and make the pitch big. This led onto the ‘Transition to Defend’ module, where the students learned how to organise and react. They then move onto ‘Pressing’, which covers triggering the press, and reacting to it.
The next few weeks are dedicated to ‘Penetrating the Defence’, whether that is over the top, around the corners or through the middle. This focuses primarily on teams with a high press, while also concentrating on teams that are playing a low block. They additionally highlight on ‘Transitioning into Defence’, before training how to block by forcing teams out wide and minimising space.
The final block of modules our players covered included: ‘Create and Score’, ‘Transition to Attack’ and ‘Emergency Defending’. The ‘Create and Score’ sessions centered around creating attacking patterns in and around the box, both through the middle and out wide. ‘Transition to Attack’ concentrates on retaining possession after a defensive phase and building the attack, while ‘Emergency Defending’ focuses on blocking the central areas, while regaining defensive shape.
The students take part in weekly competitive fixtures, taking place on Wednesdays and Fridays. The training modules are tailored towards the students’ performance on the pitch, making the course personalised to the ability of each individual player.
Career Pathway
Coaching
Our Coaching students have gained vital experience on the pitch, shadowing our UEFA A & B Licensed coaches. As an introduction to the course, the students have covered topics such as the characteristics of a primary coach and how to plan sessions for multiple sports. They have also delivered a PE curriculum in schools, while coaching those school teams.
This experience is vital to the students as they are gaining real-world coaching experience at such an early age, at our Football Education, Junior Academy, and externally at local schools.
Analysis
Our Analysis students were given an introduction to the industry, including the software and equipment required to work in the field. This includes familiarising themselves with equipment such as Veo, which is a fundamental aspect of analysis. The students also learn how to code the games through Huddle, where they can clip key moments in both games and training.
The analysis students have also gained vital experience with the younger Junior Academy groups, where they’ve clipped key moments from games throughout the season down. Working with our second-year Player Pathway groups, the students recently delivered a pre-match meeting based on their previous game and provided a game-plan for the squad.
Strength and Conditioning
On the pitch, our strength and conditioning students have focused largely on building up a RAMP warm-up, which stands for Raise, Activate, Mobilise and Potentiate. This helps our players mobilise before a game, through min-band routines, squats and lunges, and overall balance work. Learning how to successfully set up a RAMP warm-up is important for our strength and conditioning students, as it is fundamental to helping the players perform to their potential on the pitch.
The students have also been given an introduction to fitness testing. This can be done in the gym and on the pitch, and includes power, endurance, speed, agility and flexibility testing. Again, this is vital for any strength and conditioning coach to learn, as regularly testing players can help maximise performance on the pitch.
