In December, WLTF Coaches Laura and Antonia were lucky enough to take attend a Study Visit to Southampton FC Academy. Strength & Conditioning Coach, Antonia, has shared her experiences from the day.
Southampton FC is proven in it’s success at turning young potential into excellence and the club has a philosophy that drives the development of young home-grown football players. As part of a group study visit organised by Steve King (Coach Development Coordinator) we spent the day at Southampton FC and their academy.
Throughout the day the staff and players were open in sharing the ‘Southampton Way’ and I would like to share the insights and perspectives I have taken from different areas from one of the leading Premier League Academies in the UK.
Campus Tour
The day started with a campus tour and welcome talk at 9.00am. The clubs training ground (Staplewood Campus) currently holds the Men’s First team, Academy and Women’s teams/girls academy. The grounds structure and design is purposefully built around the clubs philosophy in terms of pitch structure around the ground. Eventually the players move forward and closer to the first team pitches. As you move up the age groups you have your feet closer to the doors of taking the next step into first team football/environment. Around the side of the pitches and inside the buildings there were plenty of motivational quotes to see for extra motivation for the players and staff.
As I entered the first team gym the first thing that caught my eye and picked up on was a word on the wall - “stronger” in clear bold, black writing high up on the wall. This may seem really simple and obvious but it was effective for me and for some reason this stuck with me. There is no doubt that the simplicity of quotes created an atmosphere around the ground. The first team building was covered in clear big windows, and so it is open for all to see from inside. The building also has stands, which connect onto the pitches. They mentioned this was for the coaches/manager to stand in and watch on during training sessions. I can imagine there would be a reason for this – and so I assume it may be the idea of taking a step back as lead coach/manager. Perhaps a different position can help their coach pick up and analyse different details and gain a different perspective on the session that they may have not seen otherwise if they were on the pitch with the players.
The Academy Education section of the grounds was next to see. The doors were open and you could see the lessons taking place as we walked through. Coaches are around the building also and so there really is no place to hide for players even if they have had a ‘bad day at school’. Education and Football are as one in the process of developing the young athlete, hand-in hand with each other. Coaches have the access to talk to their teachers each week if they needed to. I think it is important for the coaches to understand how the players work in the classroom not just how they perform in front of you on the training pitch or in the gym.
U23’s Training session observation
The U23’s training session was focused on technical passing, combination match play patterns in preparation for their next game. What I noticed from this was the repetition of practicing the pattern of passing basics/technical aspects/movement patterns going over it again and again unopposed before moving on. During this their head coach was involved, telling players what to do and demanding the basics of the players for almost every pass/movement what he wanted from it.
Data Insights
A look at how the club are using data to support individual player development was delivered by Ben Creswell (Academy Data Insights Technician). Variables collected include; Appearances by Competition, Match Minutes by Competition, Minutes by Age Group, Minutes By Category of Opposition (Cat One, Cat Three, Cat Two, Grassroots, International), Average Performance Grade (1-4), Average Performance Grade By Age Group (1-4), Days Missed Through Injury, Time Spent Watching Match/Training/Best Practice Videos and Performance Grade by Position (1-4). The statistics help to give a broad picture overview of player current performances and linked to their pathway/journey at the club. They base statistics from previous seasons on players as well as currently. It can further give coaches an idea of what a player may need more of or what they may not need more of and leads to further helpful questions, for example does a player need more competitive situations/fixtures as previous seasons show they lack this – and is this important enough for the individual at their stage of development?
Ben Creswell also highlighted the importance of data as a tool to help guide and reflect on a player’s process. The data is used for player recruitment decisions, position-specific analysis and post-game analysis. A player audit grading system on current performance is used where a scale of 1-4 is given for player performances in games (1= This player is currently performing at an elite level, 2 = this player is currently performing at the standard expected of a Southampton Academy Player, 3= this player is currently performing at an average standard, approaching the standard expected of a Southampton academy player, 4 = this player is currently performing below the required standard of a Southampton academy player). The score given comes from different coaches watching a player- but it is important that this is accurate and consistent over time by the same eyes.
They also have a player audit grading system for player potential for U16 age group to help decide whether a player is released or to receive a pro-contract which is heavily focused on ‘value added’ to academy and how many attributes they have associated with the 5 pillars of potential. Data given doesn’t necessarily mean a player is released it just gives indication on where their players are at and in comparison to previous seasons to start to identify gaps, progressions and reasons as to times of success/underperformance. In relation to this the academy manager linked the releasing of players at the end of season to the grading system for helping towards putting a player in perspective throughout the year on their performance. When the time comes to decide on releasing or keeping players they would hopefully have received clear feedback on either underperformance/successful performance throughout the whole year consistently rather than it being a total shock if a player is released at the end of the season.
It is important to identify patterns for a particular individual throughout their time at the club and therefore help in identifying how good a player can become for their future years to come, not just where they sit currently in their performance. Overall, it is clear the coaches are constantly assessing and reassessing for potential taking into account the growth and maturation status of individuals.
Within our study group there were coaches from Polish, Danish and Slovakian Football Clubs, English Rugby Clubs, UK Sport and more wanting to learn from the systems, methods and approach Southampton FC apply in areas including Coaching, Education, Sports Psychology and Data to develop their academy players from U9’s to U23’s.
An Audience with Lead Phase Staff
An Audience with Lead Phase Staff included presentations from Oli Higginson - Foundation Phase (U9-U11), Gary McDermott - Youth Development Phase (U12-U13) and Danny Maye - Senior Development Phase (U14-U16). The U9’s-U11’s focus on variety, moves and turns including curve running with the ball and the famous Cruyff turn focused towards beating an opponent and getting out of trouble in a game. They also have at least one 30 min-one hour multi sports session a week. This exposes the players to different movement patterns, skills and improves their motor patterning development. The weekly training schedule for U9’s-U12s includes two evening training sessions (Monday and Wednesday), and a day release 1.30-7.30pm with a training session in the evening (Friday) with Games on Sunday. The U13’s have three training sessions in the evening (Tuesday, Thursday and Friday), and a day release on Wednesday, with Games on Sunday. The U14’s-U16’s ’s have two training sessions in the evening and two day release with games on Saturday/Sunday.
The five pillars for performance for all age groups include Ball Mastery, Game Impact, Athleticism, Game Intelligence and Enthusiasm & Curiosity. For U9s-U11s, they want all their players to be dominant in 1v1 situations with awareness of different ways in which they can beat an opponent (technical), to show an understanding of the principles of the game and their roles within 7v7/9v9 (tactical), and to develop resilience to deal with challenges and set backs (psychological). Their ultimate aim is to produce intelligent players who can adapt to different opponents that they may face from game to game and to be able to select the necessary skills. They want to develop players that enjoy practicing and understand the value of purposeful practice (psychological). Their focus is technique and dealing with the ball under pressure and avoiding pressure with skill.
The Goalkeepers for all ages are also included with outfield players during sessions to develop their feet on the ball further and awareness with the team as a whole. The U14’s-U16’s age group focus on game impact and intelligence. They encourage all their players to ask coaches for clips and analysis on their performances to receive feedback on specific parts of the game. To further develop ownership away from the pitch, they want their players vs. parents to deal and take on any issues they have and to talk to the coaches to solve these. In this age group they learn how to win but focus on development by not feeding the players with information all the time.
Ultimately the coaches want their players to do the game/sport itself (11 v 11). The coaches began to notice the players were not exposed to this in training enough in previous years. During the growth spurt stage the players often will lack concentration and focus, as most of their energy goes into growing. They realised they had to individualise games in training depending on growth and maturation status across age groups. The coaching staff soon found out the late maturers could not handle much of the 11v11 game increase in training. As a solution they mixed players based on maturation in training and now they continue to do this for effective individual player development.
Even the canteen is full of motivational quotes
Individualised Programmes
Each player in the academy has individualised six-week programmes. The players pick one to two targets focused on their football performance on the pitch. The players will spend 30 min during their day release at the clubs training ground and 45 min as home to practice these. If players want guidance they ask questions to the coaches for feedback, and ultimately it’s down to the players during this time. The players drive their own learning and they create the sessions. They have six weeks to improve, they present back to the coaches, performance analysis team and sports science team, focusing on their strengths. This presentation also teaches them life skills.
An example of an individual practice sheet for U12-U13 player; will include
· Target e.g. pace to beat players with end product
· Equipment list - balls, mannequinn x 3, Target goals x 4
· Players you can use in your team
· Picture of a pitch and what it will look like using lines and markers
· Key points e.g. type of finish (instep, laces, number of touches), Type of cross (driven, cut back, lofted), First touch (positive to run onto, inside, outside)
· Pattern – e.g. 1. Receive ball from CB/CM 2. Take first touch to beat mannequin (inside/outside) 3. If central finish into target goal, if wide cross into opposite target goal
· Coaches tips
When the individual practice takes place in training you may have 2-4 different groups of players set up all working on different things on the pitch going through their individual practices. The coaches give players this free time to do their own individual work and coaches are around if guidance is called on by players. The players are helping each other work on individual targets even if it may not be directly towards their own targets. This could help other players understand the players they are playing with better on the pitch so they know what that player may need of you also on the pitch. It creates expectations early on to teach athletes how to self-prepare to improve and not rely on the coaches to take the steps for you and to call on the players around you who will be on the pitch with you going through the same things.
Psychology – Understanding Your Senses: Effective Communication
A practical psychology session about ‘Understanding your Senses; Effective Communication’ was delivered by Amy Spencer (Academy Sport Psychologist). They deliver practical psychology sessions with team building challenges for all age groups through to u23’s to teach effective communication skills and to trust who you are working with through challenges and constraints. The psychologist spoke about the preference of practical based psychology sessions vs. seated in a classroom having a lecture by a coach. The practical example included a short obstacle course with hurdles, hoops and cones and working in pairs to get through this with one blind folded and one guiding. This was then progressed and the player guiding could use the same language they would use on the pitch when communicating with other players, e.g. drop right/left shoulder, press, turn, shift forward, step, and to relate this back to the game. This further progressed into a race against other partners, to see who could get back the quickest through the course. The club also use personality profiles for players and although it is not definitive as behaviour is changeable day-day, it is another tool used by coaches to discover the best way to work and develop the individuals.
Meet the Academy Manager – Edd Vahid.
He spoke honestly and openly about the system the club has. He further touched on the importance when making decisions on releasing or keeping players, and to take the time on these decisions as the players’ careers/lives are in your hands. He highlighted the importance of athletes being made aware of being released to prepare them and their families. The club has a key role in this preparation phase after they leave the club to support their next steps. The club has had players on trial who are worthy of being selected but the decision was made not to because they had a player in the squad who they see could develop and add value/impact with potential. They believe in the potential of the current players they have. Ed concluded with the strong statement around what success/failure of their players means and that this is players wanting to repeat the experience of being an academy player regardless of outcome.
It was clear to see the academy focus heavily on developing the players holistically and wanting to produce people who can be great footballers, but also as important is to develop qualities to help prepare the boys for life outside of football - a challenge all coaches likely have. Thank you to all at Southampton FC for this experience.
