Students from the Chelsea FC Foundation Coaching & Development degree at St Mary’s University, Twickenham (SMU) recently went behind the scenes at Chelsea FC Men’s U21s fixture versus Leeds United.
Students had the opportunity to develop their match observation skills, support their module understanding, and gain some practical experience ahead of upcoming assessments.
As part of the evening, students spent time with Chelsea FC Academy Technical Director Glenn Van der Kraan and Head of Academy Analysis and St Mary’s alumnus Jamie Sellers.
Student Frank Madden said, “It was incredibly inspiring to hear from Glenn and Jamie, as they shared their insights into player development & performance analysis. The in-game tasks set by the lecturers gave us a valuable opportunity to gain some practical experience of doing live analysis, which will be useful for my future assessments.”
During the match, students were set tasks by the academic team related to their upcoming assessments. Level 5 students were tasked with observing key game moments, such as final third entries, as part of their ‘Research Methods’ module.
Level 6 students were tasked with observing in-game problems that the Chelsea players faced as part of their ‘Advanced Coaching Through Games’ module. Students will now use the problems they identified to design and coach sessions for their assessment.
Alex Cattini, Course Lead at St Mary’s University, said “We are very grateful to Glenn and Jamie for being so generous with their time and knowledge to support our students. This event is just one example of how we try to continuously provide students with real-life experiences, which will support them as they work towards a career in the industry.”
Chelsea FC Foundation Coaching & Development degree allows students to study a wide variety of modules that gives a unique insight into the world of football, as well as valuable work placements across a variety of programmes.