Placement enhances Michael's skills and knowledge
Michael is a second year BSc (Hons) Performance Analysis and Coaching Science student who is currently on an Industrial Placement Year (IPY) with West Ham Utd Academy. During his first year Michael completed a year placement supporting Team Derby Performance Badminton, before spending his second-year placement with Derby County Academy supporting their school programme. Michael tells us here how his studies and applied experience has benefitted him on his IPY with West Ham Academy.
What is your role at West Ham?
Starting from a match day for the U18s my role would involve filming and ensuring all small pieces of information around set pieces are up in the changing room ready for kick off. The day after is usually the schoolboy game and because I’m responsible for the U9-12s analysis, I film and live code where possible to ensure I can be efficient with my time and reduce the workload during the week. I then create our post-match report for the U18s in a digital booklet, which includes the match stats whilst also comparing these to their seasonal performance for that wider context. The booklet is nicely presented so the players and coaches can easily and quickly look at the information they desire.
Moving on to the next part of the week, which is preparing for our next game. If the games have not already been coded by Wyscout then I’ll code the game for all relevant indicators, set piece, and in/out of possession information ready for the opposition analysis meeting later in the week. We then have individual meetings with some players where I’ll get clips of positives or areas of improvement from the last couple of games – I try to match them up with an example from a professional player to demonstrate the relevance for their development towards men’s football.
I’ll code every single game from the weekend for the schoolboys, output our scripted window, and send this off to the phase lead. I’ll then upload all the work to Hudl so it can be accessed wherever is convenient. Through this I created separate individual playlists on Hudl, so for when decisions are made at the end of the season regarding release/retain, each player has a considerable bank of clip evidence to reflect upon, use within their development, or help them gain a new club if they were to be released.
Finally, I’ll put together a short ten minute presentation based on the weekly analysis topic that is engaging, interactive, and fun for the players to enable them to be actively involved. Over the course of the year, I’ve been able to work out what really works and what doesn’t, which has helped my development when delivering to a wide range of ages.
What did you learn in Level 4 and 5 that helped you prepare for this experience?
The use of Hudl is a big stand out for me. Other aspects such as creating a code window and how to develop this to be more effective, more efficient, certain tips, and trips. I was given a code at the start at West Ham, but I’ve developed it as the season has gone on. The creation of engaging output windows related to the game or block of games has been very useful for this role. The use of CPAC (Centre of Performance Analysis) to practise coding, creating, and experimenting to ensure I can get things done much quicker. Also, I think the presentations in assessments or after tasks in class has been hugely beneficial towards my development. The sessions are practically focused, so it’s not just sitting down in an exam or writing endless essays, it has a real link to applied practice.
What would you say the placement year has shown you?
I think having that exposure to the day-to-day running of a professional academy is invaluable. I’m in the office with all the coaches, analysts, and other support staff. You get to understand loads of different departments and what their actual role in the development of the players is. I think that being able to talk to everyone has allowed me to develop how to carry myself and how to communicate with individuals, including players themselves, in an effective professional manner. It has opened my eyes massively to how different it is between U18s analysis and the foundation phase for example. The boys can easily listen in the U18s and not be distracted for ten minutes but for the foundation phase we had to ensure engagement was achieved in a slightly different manner. And of course, building those relationships throughout to have those connections down the line has been positive as well.
Have you seen any examples of the research from class throughout the placement?
Linking to my dissertation which is looking to focus on the relative age effect - I went away for a Hudl course and one of the things they spoke about was relative age effect. Then from seeing our players, their performances each week, where their ages are banded in terms of the quarters throughout a year, and just seeing the findings/output from that research throughout my applied work is interesting.
What advice would you give to a current level 5 student to best prepare for an in-year placement?
I think you should do it because it’s something where you get another year's experience which is really valuable down the line. It’s a full year’s experience, you can then come back in your final year, and you do another year placement elsewhere, followed potentially by a masters. I think it’s good to see how different clubs operate in the performance analysis space and at different levels (First team vs Academy). Then in terms of preparation, I would encourage other students to complete the Hudl Level 1 and 2 as I’ve been able to use the skills straight away. Of the back of this just make sure you play around with Hudl as there is so much that can be done using it. There are also a lot of ways to make your life easier so definitely ensure you have this nailed down within your process.
What is a highlight that you will remember for the rest of your career?
I think from the U18s it would be beating Southampton on penalties, being part of the analysis team who put together the research on Southampton. And when we ultimately got the win, I had the biggest smile on my face. I thought, this is a big competition and I've been able to help us get to the next round because it's gone all that way and you win on penalties, you've had all that build up, the adrenaline of ‘Are we going to win?’. It’s exciting.
Also, the opportunities I've been given to go away with the U12s where I went away to Luxembourg for a tournament. It was great being able to go there and see how appreciative the coaches and all the players were with the work I was doing. Having the coach ring me at 8:00pm saying, ‘I'm really going to miss you when you leave’. Comments like that really mean a lot. One of the coaches asked the boys, ‘what is your highlight from the trip?’ One of the players said sitting down with me (Michael) and going through his clips. It meant a lot for a young player to openly appreciate the work you were doing to try and make them better players.
How are you feeling about your future career prospects now?
The course at Derby has allowed me to get to where I am now in terms of getting my first placement with Team Derby badminton. And then Derby County in my second year, before this current year with West Ham, and then having a further placement during my final year of study at Stoke City. I think having three invaluable years of experience at top organisations should give me a great foundation to build from. If it was not for the course, I don’t think I would have been able to get all this experience. It has been really positive in terms of developing me for where I want to go long term and allow me to reach the goals that I’ve set myself.
