Find out from your Phase Lead, Michael Donaldson, about why this Phase differs from all others – requiring flexibility and adaptability as the Academy Team work on developing players who may find themselves at school in the morning and training with the First Team in the afternoon!
Find out from your Phase Lead, Michael Donaldson, about why this Phase differs from all others – requiring flexibility and adaptability as the Academy Team work on developing players who may find themselves at school in the morning and training with the First Team in the afternoon!
LYDP
SpecialistSupport
Below is an overview of the support our teams will give to your son in the Late Youth Development Phase.
Performance
Analysis
What is Performance Analysis?
What do we do?
Performance Analysis is a newer discipline in comparison to sports science & medical for example and has developed exponentially with technology. Performance analysis is split into 2 key streams – video and data, of which is coupled to maximally improve individual player performance and team development.
We use video and data simultaneously to improve your son’s development from an individual point of view and, as they progress throughout the age groups, how that links to their role in the team. Video filming provides the foundation of analysis; we have world leading analysis camera software at Hale End and Sobha, including an automated camera system, meaning analysts can focus on analysing the information & creating insights, rather than putting vast human resource to cover games & full training programme.
Where do we do it?
As players progress through the Academy, they will be exposed to a variety of analysis meetings in each of the 5 facets of analysis – pre-match/opposition analysis, live/matchday analysis, post-match analysis, training analysis and best practice/projects analysis. Each of these 5 areas are delivered in an appropriate player-friendly, visual format as an individual, unit or team and this is carefully decided based on information being delivered.
At Late Youth Development Phase
What differences are there as a player moves up from EYDP into LYDP? There is a more in-depth analysis approach now. Players start to face different styles and strategies in terms of opposition teams, and a big development is the introduction to advanced data, to provide information on performance and development.
We run monthly education workshops about the advanced data we use. The workshops guide your son to use digestible objective markers. This gives them hands on practice of identifying such markers and presenting findings. We encourage your son not to let specific markers define him, but to see them as important for his development and how these markers can help paint a picture.
At this stage, we still focus on data individually rather than within the team, prioritising individual performance within team phases rather than overall outcomes like team possession or winning.
From a Lifelong Learner perspective, how much players are increasing football awareness and studying football is strongly encouraged. Why does this matter? As players move towards earning a full-time scholarship contract, they should now be taking ownership of their own development, with the coach and analysts’ support.
Part of that is starting to engage with learning outside formal sessions, watching clips, analysing teams and reviewing best-practice examples.
Your son will find relevant first team and elite footage to support this on Hudl.com. Analysts support players in using this tool, like finding clips of their favourite players that align with their IDAs to increase engagement.
Match cycles are now followed for almost every game, particularly at U16. This includes opposition analysis, where there is a combination of delivery from both analyst and coach alongside harnessing guided discovery delivery. Q+A is promoted to challenge players interactivity, engagement levels & understanding of the game plan.
We live code during matches with communication to the bench, allowing for half-time clips and in-game adjustments. We do this because players are expected to be able to take on information and adapt their game based on the situation that is presented to them. The cycle loop will then be closed with a review in a post-match analysis meeting, which could be done as a team, as units or individuals.
Your son will also present information more frequently now, review opposition threats, understand their roles individually and within the team.
The aim is for players to start confidently understanding game plans, data and video whilst actively engaging in their own player journey. This prepares them for the professional development phase & what the Head of Coaching has coined “Being Sobha Ready”.
What Can I Do?
We know these age groups are key education years, therefore only where possible, for parents, encouraging your son to be proactive with Hudl.com. Reviewing games and training with a deliberate focus on their IDAs, but also team effectiveness and creating conversation with coaches/analysts off the back of that, is incredibly beneficial to their development. This all helps reinforce what they’re learning on & off the pitch.
If you have any questions about analysis, please do reach out.
Nutrition
What is Nutrition?
What do we do?
Nutrition plays an integral role in overall health, growth and development, training, recovery and match performance. It impacts body composition, strength, power and speed at the elite level.
As players progress through the Academy, we adopt a phased approach to their nutrition education. We begin with a strong food-first foundation, focusing on core principles such as building a balanced plate. From there, we introduce football-specific strategies, including pre- and post-training nutrition, hydration and matchday fuelling. In the later stages, we individualise nutrition plans based on the unique needs of each player, ensuring they are optimally fuelled for performance and recovery.
Where do we do it?
Across all phases, we deliver an education curriculum including theoretical workshops and practical sessions and offer weekly drop-in nutrition clinics for players, parents and host families.
At Late Youth Development Phase
At the LYDP phase our tagline is eat for football, we breakdown the week based on the U15 and U16 schedule and target education around training days, match days and rest days.
Responsibility is shared between parents (60%) and players (40%). Parents receive a monthly newsletter with key nutrition updates and have access to the nutrition drop-in sessions. However, we encourage your son to start taking ownership of his daily eating habits such as increasing carbohydrate intake the day before a game to boost energy stores and support optimal performance.
Workshops
We introduce cooking workshops, which are an opportunity to put knowledge into practice. Generally, these are done as an online cook-along. We give players an ingredient box, to take home and cook in their kitchen.
There are usually two of these in a season plus additional practical and theoretical sessions. We build on the education they’ve learnt in previous phases and look at how to approach nutrition on different days of their schedule.
For example, U16s will get to Hale End early and travel by bus before games. So in that practical session, we focus on teaching them how to prepare a pre-match breakfast the night before, ensuring they’re fuelled and ready to perform on the day.
Training and Match Nutrition
At LYDP, the Academy provides pre- and post-training snacks for every training session and a hot meal on their day-release day at around 4:30pm.
On matchdays, snacks are provided throughout the day as well as a post-match hot meal, home or away. For long distance travel or tournaments, a pre match meal is also provided – this will be communicated with you in advance.
As U16s train at least once a week at Sobha, we start to manage their nutrition within a full-time programme.
Screening
So, how do we screen? Each player completes a Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire at the start of pre-season to assess understanding, guide education and identify players who many need extra support. We also gather information on school lunches, how players travel to training, who cooks or shops for their meals, and any allergies or intolerances to build a complete picture of their home environment helping us tailor our support more effectively.
Monitoring continues through the season with players photographing their meals and snacks on set days so we can closely monitor intake and give feedback.
At U16, with parental consent, we take a DEXA (body) scan to track muscle mass, a marker of fuelling behaviours and development. We also take blood tests once per season to help us identify any nutritional deficiencies and inform dietary strategies.
At Hale End, injured players will get additional nutrition support through an injury nutrition clinic, with the player and parent.
What Can I Do?
Feel free to come to the drop ins, read the newsletters and support your son in taking more ownership of his learning and the increased responsibility.
At home, please encourage your son to make sure he is eating for football and fuelling his high energy requirements including breakfast before school. It doesn’t need to be complicated, even cereal, toast, or a banana with yoghurt is good.
We provide food around training and matches, but it’s great to have plenty of extra snacks and fluids available at home. For evening meals after training, batch cooking on a Sunday is a good way to prepare quick, post-training meals.
If you have any questions about nutrition, please come and speak with us.
Physical
Performance
What is Physical Performance?
What do we do?
As a Physical Performance team, we develop players’ physical attributes: how quick, strong, powerful and fit they are. Our approach is player centred. Your son follows an individualised programme focused on long-term athletic development. We identify their strengths and areas to develop, leading to a clear action plan to make them physically healthy and capable of applying their attributes on the pitch.
We work closely with the coaches and the Multi-Disciplinary Team, informing them of the training load of the players or how much running they’ve done during a game. From that we can prescribe intensities for the week or months after to develop the players on an individual basis.
We also work with players from an injury prevention and rehabilitation aspect. If your son gets injured, they’ll spend time with the physio initially, then we’ll return them to the pitch in a safe and gradual manner – before they join back in the team training.
Where do we do it?
At a variety of locations. We do sessions with the players inside in the gym and sometimes do specific athletic development sessions in the Dome. Before the football session, for U12s and older, we’ll do the first 15-20 minutes of athletic development on pitch. We also might give your son some sessions to do at home, whether that’s injury prevention or conditioning as they return from injury.
We deliver the best programme to enhance your son’s performance and optimise him as a footballer. You play a vital role by asking questions, maintaining open communication and encouraging your son to maximise each opportunity to develop.
At Late Youth Development Phase
At LYDP, content is more football- and position-specific as players are approaching the Professional Development Phase. They are closer to adult stature and we have a clearer idea of their roles, so sessions are more individualised and intense: we increase strength, power and speed work.
At the start of every session, players have an option to come to the gym first to do prep. When we’re on pitch, we’ll have a 15-20 minute window to develop speed, agility or mobility prior to the technical session with the coaches.
Schedules differ between the U15s and U16s due to matches being on different days. Both age groups have a reset day following their match, two athletic development sessions before their football session and two gym sessions per week to develop strength and power. On Saturdays they will have matchday support.
Testing
There are the same tests as the previous phase, plus additional strength and endurance tests. GPS tracking also starts at U13 in EYDP but is used more extensively in LYDP. You might notice your son wearing the tracker and want to know why we use it. It’s part of our monitoring of player health, physical capacities and on-pitch application. This is constant in training and matches and we’ll look at this compared to U18s, U21s, and first team benchmarks.
What Can I Do?
Almost all players will have some injury, often growth-related, when bones lengthen faster than muscles and tendons adapt. It’s important to expect this kind of injury.
Your son might miss football temporarily, but we increase athletic development work during that time. Long-term injuries, especially in LYDP, are managed with a full MDT approach.
For any players reading, with scholarship decisions approaching, you might be tempted to do more gym work or seek external support. Make sure that you talk to us first. You might still be in peak weight velocity – putting on muscle quickly can cause changes in performance.
If you have any questions about your son’s physical development, we’d love to talk.
Physiotherapy
What is Physiotherapy?
What do we do?
The Physiotherapy department at the Academy aims to maximise player availability by reducing the impact of injury and illness and therefore allowing more development time on the pitch. This involves screening, injury rehab and working in a multidisciplinary team to ensure players return in the quickest, safest way.
We run an open-door policy for questions, emphasise education and prioritise early detection. Early reporting gives us the best chance to keep players on the pitch. Our goal isn’t just return-to-play but also staying on the pitch. When injuries occur, players and parents are encouraged to ask questions to understand the issue.
Up to U16, you are welcome to join assessments where we discuss with your son how to manage the injury and provide clear explanations of physiology and anatomy to help support recovery. As boys get older and it becomes full time, it’s much more prescriptive with what players need to do.
At Late Youth Development Phase
At LYDP, there can be an increase in the number of injuries a player may experience. Our message is still the same: please report any issues or concerns to us as early as possible so we can try and keep your son on the pitch in the long term.
We have designated full time physios for both age groups, meaning there is lots of accessibility and these designated physios will be present at training, games and tours, ensuring greater continuity and trust. This puts us in a great position to monitor their development and push individual strategies to try and keep them on the pitch.
Assessment at this phase?
We will assess all players that report to the physiotherapist and determine if they are fit to continue with their current training regime or not. If your son does sustain an injury that requires time out of football, you can expect him to receive individualised management to his rehabilitation. The Physiotherapy team will tailor rehabilitation to get him back to play in the quickest but safest way possible. There will also be access and frequent communication with one of our academy doctors, if required, to aid in his rehabilitation.
What Can I Do?
Keep speaking to us with any concerns you have and encourage your son to communicate with us. Be aware that boys are developing physiologically and anatomically, and we will manage them with this in mind.
We still have an open-door policy and please do come and see us whenever. At this phase we hope to see your son starting to drive that process, with your support and encouragement.
Player Care
What is Player Care?
What do we do?
Player Care focuses on empowering your son to learn and develop using the Football Academy, helping him grow as a footballer and as a person with skills he will take into adult life, whatever career he chooses. We support players with their personal development goals and celebrate these milestones, in football and life.
Where do we do it?
The Player Care team has a presence at both Hale End and Sobha and there is always an opportunity for 1: 1 contact time for any player around player care or wellbeing in performance. Conversations, either pitch-side, in the corridor or the canteen, are positively encouraged and they are welcome to come into the office and to have a chat, whether that’s about home, school, football or what’s happening on the weekend.
At Late Youth Development Phase
At LYDP, we’re preparing players to graduate from Hale End and translate their learning from the Academy to perform and thrive in the next stage, whether that be at Sobha with the Professional Development Phase team, or another area altogether.
We support the staff in pushing the players to deal with the high demands of a performance environment, with the additional adult responsibilities in football and wider life. The psychologists often work with the boys on Champion Mentality, which is important at this phase, where there is so much player movement and change.
We also encourage your son to get used to being uncomfortable. They have to now self-regulate and find mechanisms to deal with difficult decisions – there’s considerable pressure across all areas of their life. Every young person needs a set of tools to deal with this, not just for now, but also as they become a young adult.
Workshops
The Lifelong Learner Programme and curriculum span across the season, with workshops every four to six weeks. For LYDP, the dial is turned up further on topics on football transition and transferable skills, with greater emphasis on building a skillset for employability and professionalism. We explore topics such as wellbeing, social media and EDI, with more mature themes that they may be exposed to away from the academy.
Player Care provide sessions and information to support both players and parents. In January and February, more support is available while players are preparing for their GCSE and mock exams.
At this point you might want to know, ‘what does the transition into becoming a scholar look like?’ We help you understand what it means for your son to reach or not reach the next phase and being ready for that.
At U16s, players get support from both Sobha and Hale End, with a minimum of six hours of workshops over the season. This is led by PDP staff, for players and parents together, about what the scholarship is and what it entails.
At U15s, we help players to cope with the pressures as a young person and achieving their potential as a young footballer. We empower your son to handle the increased challenge, be more open when they are struggling, and self-aware of where could benefit from help.
1:1 Sessions
There are 1:1 sessions to support players through exam stress and other life changes, Players can always seek advice, whether it’s coping with the next session or articulating something with a coach in the right way. We work with the coaches to help players to take ownership in these situations, something they’ll eventually need to do at Sobha.
What about me?
Be proud that your son is at this stage of his journey and that you’ve helped to clear the path he’s now on. But accept that many decisions are now out of your control and that your son should be comfortable driving his own journey and development.
Try to become more comfortable seeing your son uncomfortable. Be open-minded in this stage of journey, as there will be changes and challenges. He’s still developing but is being pushed into the red zone and facing daily challenges. We ensure there is adequate care in the background helping him to face these.
Of course you will always be a parent, so this part may feel difficult, as your role shifts to allow him to progress. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Psychology
What is Psychology?
What do we do?
As a Psychology department, we provide group-level psychological support during sessions, in workshops and in analysis meetings. We also work closely with players on an individual, often around performance support, but sometimes well-being and mental health, which we collaborate on with the Multi-Disciplinary Team.
We work with the coaches, who are very experienced and psychologically aware, so our role is to align their knowledge of psychology, football and the players with our expertise in child and adolescent brain development, understanding this generation and bringing in psychological strategies.
Champion Mentality is gradually integrated as your son moves up through the phases, through the respective coaches and staff into sessions on and off the grass.
Where do we do it?
There are between 1-4 sessions per week, depending on the phase. These are primarily on the grass, but also in the gym and the analysis classroom.
At Late Youth Development Phase
If EYDP is the learning phase, LYDP is the developing phase.
At LYDP, players train three times a week – we’re alongside them on the pitch for one day a week. There is 1:1 support for players if something is flagged via coaches or staff, or for players with long-term injuries. We work closely with the coaches to embed our pillars within training sessions.
At this phase, we expect your son to take more ownership of his development, preparing for the next step up towards professional football.
Screening
So, how do we track progress? We screen three times in the season. During pre-season we screen for Champion Mentality. We go through the whole pillar for the boys to identify their strengths and areas for development, which goes towards setting their Individual Development Area.
We also explore questions like: What helps you perform at your best? What can hinder this? What are your strengths? What is your learning style?
This information is shared with the multi-disciplinary team and coaches so we can collectively support the players. They’re rated on the full pillar in the next phase, so now it’s about awareness of its importance and involvement in setting their IDA.
On a group level, the pillar is integrated into sessions. On an individual level, it might be live coaching within the session, or outside of it as 1:1s to break things down.
Whenever U15/16s have a training session, we integrate a Champion Mentality theme within the plan. We start to use language like ‘role model mindset’ and ‘growth mindset’ and encourage players to communicate this too. For example – what does that mean to them on and off the pitch?
We expect players to think about what they want to get from their sessions and how they can maximise learning and improvement. This is how they start to take ownership, track progress and understand feedback from staff.
What Can I Do?
This is a development phase. Knowing what to expect during the phase will help your son to adapt to the changes. Encouraging him to reflect on sessions, talk about his goals and ask questions will help reinforce this learning. Allow him to explore and take opportunities. This environment provides so many experiences that build the blocks for later life.
If there is anything we can do to further support you and your son as a Psychology team, please do reach out to us.