Southampton’s inaugural Coaches Conference USA was hailed a success, with over 50 coaches from Partner clubs being given the chance to work with Martin Hunter and a team of experts.
The coaches gained more of an understanding of how we deliver a high-performing Academy, with four days of seminars and practical sessions at the home of partner club, Soccer Association of Columbia in Maryland.
Club coaches from the USA enjoyed sessions delivered by Martin Hunter (Technical Director), Mo Gimpel (Director of Medical & Science Performance), Matt Hale (Academy Manager), Edd Vahid (Head of Coaching and Learning), Vince Bartram (Academy Goalkeeping Coach) and Matt Depledge (Academy Strength and Conditioning Coach) from our Academy.
Saints’ group of staff provided insights that clubs have already been putting in to place, so they can become high performing soccer organisations with a focus on coach and player development.
One of the coaches from SAC, Ivan Croft who has over 27 years of coaching experience with travel teams to University teams, said: “The conference was fantastic, aligned with best practices in youth player development and coaching and exceeded my expectations.
“The Southampton staff were incredibly knowledgeable, very willing to share their expertise, and clearly have the right long-term objectives and approaches in mind to develop great young players and young men."
As part of the conference, teams from the Baltimore Armour US Development Academy programme worked with our coaches on physical and goalkeeping sessions, and Saints’ Academy Under-14 boys team took part in a technical session delivered by Martin Hunter.
Southampton U14s and Baltimore Armour U14s also played a game where coaches attending the conference received coaching points from Matt Hale that demonstrated the long-term process of development we use to produce players for our first team and international football.
The first conference was a chance for Southampton Football Club to deliver content to clubs in the USA and set out its standard for club partnerships that are focussed on player development and a having long-term relationship.
The annual conference will become a cornerstone of the program, aligning with our open dialogue with clubs about how we can help them turn their potential into excellence.
Details of the next conference will be available by the end of this year and will be open to coaches from non-partner clubs.
There will be exclusive content that is available only to partner clubs, so if you would like to discuss becoming a Partner Club, please contact Matt Sanger on [email protected].
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