On Tuesday night the Davies Sports Team visited Little Wembley beside Oldham’s home ground Boundary Park on Furtherwood Road. Around 100 people attended this event which consisted of a classroom session and an on-field coaching session run by Mike Phelan.

Firstly, the Springhead U13s were the team being coached where Mike Phelan carried out a possession-based football drill in an attempt to build the team’s ability to maintain, control and dictate the play. By focusing on passing accuracy, decision-making, communication, and teamwork, this drill enhances the fundamental skills required for successful possession-based football. An objective of this training session is to see how players handle possession while being under pressure of an opponent. As time progressed developments began to become visual as the players spread more into space and became more composed. To show progression the area was then made smaller to see how the players could deal with the pressure and tighter angles of passing.

After this the Oldham Athletic A.F.C U16 Girls were coached; where they were given the STATSports systems to monitor their performance. Data science is an ever-increasing aspect of sports coaching in terms of coach intelligence, ensuring evidence-based coaching takes place, the psychology of goal setting and athlete improvement among other things.

Although STATSports systems are primarily used by the world’s elite footballers it is now universally apparent that school, college, and grassroots players also benefit from the utilisation and understanding of both data metrics and performance analysis. Generation Z learners and google/mobile device students be it school or in sport require evidence for action and they live in a world of beating or unlocking levels. In addition, performance measurement, data analysis and subsequent action is also a prime skill for applied educational attainment and future employability skills across all walks of life. STATSports provides exactly this through a sporting and healthy analogy.

Throughout this session Mike Phelan focused on a possession-based football drill with attacking scenarios involved. This type of drill aims to enhance players’ technical skills, decision-making, teamwork, and understanding of offensive play. This exercise is meant to make the squad more confident and efficient in retaining possession, managing the game, and setting up scoring possibilities. It is a cornerstone of many teams’ game plans, especially those who prioritise patient buildup play and ball retention to exploit the defence of the opposition.

The training session was 30 minutes in duration, and it was clear to see the determination and hard work from all the girls as a collective across the 13 STATSport vests, it shows as a collective they covered 42.7 km. The greatest distance covered in the session (3760m) was by Eve Power (9). The average distance covered taking all players into account was 3281m. Of the fourteen players measured, 8 players were below the average who were: (1) Maddison Heptonstall, (2) Charlie Moore, (3) Gracie McConnell, (4) Chloe Morgan, (6) Ellie Usher, (11) Natasha Pope, (14) Angela Egbon and (16) Francesca Warrington. With (10) Ella Pearson being on average and the rest being above average. It’s important to note that stamina is just one aspect of a player’s overall skill set, and it should be complemented by technical, tactical, and mental attributes. For an Under 16s team a player below average may be tired or injured and is therefore a concern, this concern may be valid but have a logical answer such as playing other sports or activities recently. On the other hand, the player may have an advanced tactical knowledge of the game and therefore move more gracefully. The players working above average can then allow themselves to focus more on developing their technical and tactical side of their game.

The greatest average speed was set by player (9) Eve Power who was closely followed by (15) Libby Newton, (5) Karren Moyo and (12) Poppy Taylor. These 4 players were averaging around a 15% greater average speed than every other player. For these players we can now tell they perform well physically which will allow them to focus on developing other aspects of their overall game. The measurement of average speed can help to show and compare endurance, tactical strategies, positional differences, player performance and it can also help to monitor injuries and recovery over time.

The greatest sprint distance (355m) was (3) Gracie McConnell who had nearly double the distance of all 13 other players. The average sprint distance was around 70m which was only exceeded by 4 players and was greatly boosted by the big outlier from (3). The players who cleared this average were (3) Gracie McConnell, (4) Chloe Morgan, (12) Poppy Taylor and (9) Eve Power. The overpowering distances from these can help to show that they have a clear development of speed, explosiveness and physical fitness already in their game. The reasoning behind these great sprint distances may be due to the attacking threat that they provide such as from counter attacking football or due to a high defensive work rate tracking back a lot

To conclude there is full VEO footage of both sessions available.