Following on from a lecture about Strength and conditioning for children and how this could be taught particularly to pre-pubescent athletes I decided to listen to a podcast from Rob Pacey (Pacey Performance Podcast). The podcast featured Luke Jenkinson who was the lead Sheffield United Academy S+C Coach for the football academy. The podcast was about the programme Luke had developed at the academy which is shaped around play and athletic development within the foundation phase. This is something I had seen before on twitter however I had never considered the real reasoning behind why they were completing this type of training within their programme.
I’m going to share my thoughts and key points that I’ve took away from the podcast and how this might look in future in my own setting.
Movement doesn’t happen in straight lines
Part of the movement skills programme is using play to expose the players to movement in a more random environment where changes of direction etc, are more relevant and allows them to do this under pressure. He spoke of using more invasion games rather than 10 players in 3 lines and just setting them off. He said he has two reasons for doing this, is that movement doesn’t happen in straight lines and that the play environment exposes to different movements in order to manipulate their body and using disguise in order to be successful within the games. Further to this he suggested that you will get a more maximal sprint and fuller movement if the players have a stimulus, a target to get to or past.
This is different to movement and S+C coaching I have previously seen. If I relate it to my coaching (technical/tactical) corner it resonates as sessions where there has been more of a random decision making, I believe there has been a greater tempo and intensity to the session. Therefore, this really got me thinking about can we use play as a basis to teach movement and coach within the random environment you create.
Help them understand their body
Another part of the movement skills programme the academy have developed is the exposure to other sports and activities. Due to the players having an intense training load within the academy they manage their training and physical activity therefore, they use the S+C training to expose them to these other sports they may be missing out on. As part of the programme they had a focus on rhythmical dancing and gymnastics as well as doing parkour and climbing. These type of activities had outcomes which can be related back to football and the players understanding their body. These activities would develop strength, co-ordination, agility, jumping and landing; all attributes that would help with the physical literacy of an athlete.
Creating an environment where the players are exposed to different movements will only add to the development of physical literacy within players and by doing this creatively using other sports is something that could help within engagement of players as it is something different to what they already do however still having the physical benefits to help with their physical development.
To summarise, the podcast really made me think about ways that I could coach and facilitate movement and strength and conditioning within sessions and how I could do this in future if asked to work with athletes especially within the physical corner.
The Pacey Performance Podcast: https://www.strengthofscience.com/sports-science/pacey-performance-podcast-60-luke-jenkinson/
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