RICHMOND SCHOOL FOOTBALLERS EXPERIENCE A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER.
Mr Beresford, one of Richmond’s two Girls Football Development Coordinators, provides this report from a recent trip he took to Durham University, for a number of our dedicated and hard-working football playing girls.
“A selection of girls from Year 7 and 8 from Richmond school were invited on a trip up to Durham University, Maiden Castle, to experience what a professional footballer gets up to in their day-to-day life.
Aisha Ali, Ellie Buchanan, Eleanor Dinsdale, Gracie Gaskell, Imogen Landray, Madi Leighton, Orla Noone, Daisy Richardson, Kezia Rodway, Charlee Stead, Charlotte Stone, Izzy Taylor and Phoebe Willis were selected for the trip due to their consistent dedication to training after school, week in, week out throughout the school year so far. Emmy Raggett, Year 11, was also invited as a thank you from the PE department for all the help and time she has given to PE, leading events, refereeing games and coaching the Year 7 and 8 girls.
The students had a full day ahead of them with sport science sessions, strength and conditioning sessions and an opportunity to watch the Durham women’s football team train as well as have a Q and A with some of the players.
The day started with a session in the labs looking at some basic fitness tests. The girls threw themselves into everything, completing a 30m sprint test to look at acceleration and top speed, a hand grip dynamometer to test their grip strength, reaction tests to see how well they reacted to a stimulus, a maximal back muscle strength test using a back dynamometer and a peak air flow test providing insight into lung function. This session was done to show the girls the wide range of tests players might do during pre-season, the playing season and any rehabilitation following an injury.
After this the students took part in a 45-minute strength and conditioning session where they were put through their paces, completing a range of exercises in a circuit including pull ups, press ups, goblin squats, box jumps, sled push and pull. This session was designed to highlight the exercises footballers might do when aiming to improve certain components of their fitness, including strength and speed or the exercises that could be done when aiming to reach full fitness following an injury.
Finally, there was time to watch the Durham Women’s football team train, in a light session following their result at the weekend. The team played 4 vs 4 games with the intention to practice either playing out from the back (defensive) or to press quickly, win the ball and score (offensive). This gave a real insight into a professional training session: how quickly the session transitions from one drill to the next and how information is passed on to each player – it really showed the standard of the professional game.
The students were then lucky enough to have the opportunity to talk to four of the players, Rylee Foster (GK), Abby Holmes (DEF), Beth Hepple (MID & Captain) & Michaela Foster (DEF) who all had very different backgrounds and experiences in football. The girls asked some fantastic questions, with subjects ranging from injuries, nutrition and diet, to playing in the World Cup. Plus, of course, the classic question – when did you know you wanted to be a footballer?
The day was very informative and a fantastic opportunity to really see what the professionals experience daily. A truly rewarding day for some of our brilliant Richmond School footballers.”