Cambridge United FC sign with Core Cambridge for 2010-11 season
We’re delighted to announce that Cambridge United Football Club have agreed a contract with us to provide the Strength & Conditioning support for CUFC’s whole club structure (Scholars, Development squad and Seniors) throughout the offseason, pre-season and in-season of 2010-2011.
Whilst the headline fact is that Cambridge United have asked us to provide strength & conditioning coaching for the forthcoming season, we’re really excited because the reality goes somewhat further than that – the club have approached us with a really clear vision of how they want to build the club from the ground up over the next few years, with the focus of growing new talent via their youth academy structure.
To be approached in this manner is obviously music to a Strength & Conditioning coach’s ears because it gives us an opportunity to set up a multi-year academy designed to progressively develop a player’s “physical literacy” from junior athlete through to their ‘graduation’ as a senior player.
With this in mind we’ll be putting a system into place whereby the young athletes learn movement patterns and develop basic strength – and by the time they’re ready to play for the seniors, they have an outstanding strength and fitness base to build upon with their senior skills.
Another major bonus point is that Martin and his coaching team are looking to integrate a full-season S&C plan into their coaching structure. This methodical approach is what every fitness coach dreams of, and will soon lead to the reduction in injury and improvement in performance that the club are looking for.
“It’s brilliant to have Core Cambridge as part of the team going forwards.” said Jez George, Director of Football at Cambridge United, “They will be working with us to develop the performance of all of the players in our club – from the young scholars right the way through the development squad to the seniors.” “Core Cambridge have a massive role to play in helping us to develop the club from the ground up over the forthcoming years.”
Martin Ling, Cambridge United Manager, said “We’ve been hugely impressed with Core Cambridge’s professionalism and expertise when they’ve done pieces of work at the club in the past few years. This agreement gives us the opportunity to implement their methods for the whole of the club across the whole of a season.”
“We’re massively excited about this opportunity to implement a club-wide strength & conditioning plan from all the way from grassroots to professional,” said Ed Hallam, Director of Performance at Core Cambridge, “To excel in the modern game, it’s not enough just to be able to play football; you need to be a highly qualified athlete. Martin and his team have given us the remit to lay all of the foundations required for an outstanding academy system that should lead to profound improvements in performance and reduction in injury over the forthcoming seasons.”
Our work will start in just a couple of weeks, straight after the last game on 24th April, when we’ll be putting in place a plan for the players during the offseason. The next step after that will be working on the six-week pre-season plan with the rest of the coaching staff ready for when the players come back to training from the summer.
