Individual Player Development & Analysis
Course Details
In recent years, professional clubs have hired specialist Individual Development Coaches & Analysts as football evolves. In this course, you’ll learn to build an individual player development plan, how to measure progress, set targets and use insights to better design training & feedback for players.
You'll learn from:
- Exclusive video interviews with professional Analysts and Development Coaches
- Tasks to learn how to measure key performance indicators for individuals
- Case studies on the inner workings of professional clubs & players
- Real-life examples of individual development plans and how they impact the training design process
Mike Rigg - Former Man City & Burnley Technical Director
You'll learn to:
- Build player profiles based on position and style
- Set targets, measure and use insights to drive decision-making
- Reinforce Super Strengths and work on weaknesses
- Design more targeted and apropriate training sessions for the individual
Alex Ackerley - Sunderland AFC Individual Development Coach:
This course provides a step-by-step guide to building and implementing an individual development plan. Work through the modules and complete interactive tasks, watch exclusive video interviews and read case studies into professional player development. Learn how analysis can help research & profile players, set them targets, measure success and use insights to drive session planning and player feedback. Learn about developing Super Strengths, and how to develop the individual like professional Clubs and Individual Development Coaches.
Throughout the course you’ll build a working individual development plan for a player to take away, use and replicate.
COURSE TUTORS
Mike Rigg
Mike Rigg is a technical leader and strategic thinker with over 25 years experience in the professional game. Mike has served as Technical Director for Man City, Burnley, Queens Park Rangers and Fulham as well as the Welsh Football Association. Mike has also been Academy Manager at Sheffield Wednesday, Head of Talent Management at the English FA and Chief Scout at Blackburn Rovers.
Matt Pilkington
Matt Pilkington is the Head Coach of New York City FC II. Known as one of the best player developers in North America, Pilkington was one of City Football Group’s first hires when they expanded in MLS, understanding their player development pipeline would be crucial to their long-term success.
Oliver Gage
Oliver also launched an analysis education platform for players and coaches named CoachTech which has ceased operations as he joined the APFA.
COURSE MODULES
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Get to know the course contributors, complete your first basic task and start your plan.
Experience an example professional player development story, how he set specific targets and improved before earning a blockbuster move to a leading Premier League team.
See why professional teams are beginning to see the value in specialist individual development coaches, how they work and how it impacts player improvements. In this module you’ll also complete a task comparing two Man Utd strikers, and how their development needs differ.
Learn why our approach to player development must be based on facts. See insights from a Premier League winning team and how their Individual Development Department benefits the club.
Learn why we must be clear in what we’re trying to achieve with our players, and how we can boost player development with smart, proactive planning. In this module, we’ll set development goals for our player.
In this module we’ll perform tasks using real life data from the Premier League. We’ll compare two world class strikers, see the differences in their game, and how we can use these lessons to better understand our own players and set more appropriate targets. We’ll support this task with video examples from Premier League games.
Learn about Super Strengths, how to identify and develop them, and how players might benefit from aspiring to a position and role-specific hero.
See how professional clubs involve players in the development process, how it can benefit player development, and how you might be able to implement these lessons yourself.
Learn how professional Analysts can help measure what’s sometimes considered impossible to do so. How can this benefit us as player developers and help us boost development.
Using the lessons from previous modules, we’ll set position and role-specific targets for our players, ensuring their development path is aligned with our objectives.
We’ll look at performances from a Premier League striker and how to identify patterns in development. Using these insights we can identify areas of focus.
See how professional teams and coaches interact with their players and how information from performances is communicated.
One of the most important aspects of player development – how do we train differently with better information? See how all of the lessons throughout the course result in more appropriate, and better designed training sessions.
See some real-life player development processes and stories from professional clubs. Having learned the content from the previous modules, this one will close the loop and show the full story from planning development through to a much improved player.
Submit the Individual Development Plan you’ve been working on throughout the course to be assessed, await your certificate of completion and feeback from a professional.
Completing the course:
- Submit your Individual Development Plan to be reviewed by a professional Individual Development Coach
- Receive feedback and a certificate of completion
Matt Pilkington - Head Coach, New York City FC II
Frequently Asked Questions
Anybody who wants to better develop individual players like professional clubs and understand how analysis plays a vital role in this process. The course has been tested and taken by professional Coaches & Analysts as well as those aspiring to gain a paid role in the industry. It’s suitable for coaches or analysts in US colleges, academies, semi-pro and professional teams.
The course is online and on-demand so you can learn on your own schedule and at your own pace. All the course content is embedded in webpages, so as long as you have an internet connection you can access it.
A combination of the APFA ambassadors and course contributors. Everybody who had input to the course has worked as a professional Individual Development Coach, Analyst or Head Coach.
Most people take 15-20 hours to complete the course, but you can go at your own pace.
Your final report will be reviewed by a professional Individual Development Coach. The APFA has an extensive network of people who want to help others progress their career and upgrade their skills.
No. Although the course could easily be split into different levels, the APFA has reviewed this strategy and it’s commonly used to boost income for companies rather than add learning value. This is against the core beliefs of the APFA. The APFA does offer a course dedicated to using data in opposition analysis, which would compliment this one.
Course fees help fund the APFA in giving back the football community. They help us power the website, put on networking and career events, host webinars and fund opportunities for under-represented groups. The APFA also donates to charitable causes. For more information on this check out the ‘About Us’ section of the site.
Probably not. This course requires watching and probably pausing videos and creating an Individual Development Plan. You’ll need to download PDF’s, excel documents and build something for yourself. You might be able to do it on a tablet with a larger screen, but a laptop would be best.
When you’re ready, purchase the course and you’ll receive a confirmation email with access details. The course will also be available via your membership account which you either already have, or you’ll create during the checkout process.
Example player profiling task:
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