Understanding the Elite Player Performance Plan: A Breakdown of Football Academy Categories

I’m delighted to speak with UEFA football coach and lecturer, James Barraclough this week.

James has worked as a football coach for over 20 years. He has coached extensively in academies and holds both the UEFA B and FA Advanced Youth Awards.

James has an MSc in Sport Psychology and has consulted with athletes and teams from grassroots up to world champions. He is currently undertaking a Professional Doctorate in Elite Performance examining psychosocial skills in academy football. 

James teaches Sports Coaching and Sport Science at UCEN Manchester. He is also a sport performance consultant supporting a number of mixed martial artists, athletes and football teams.

In this episode James and I discuss a paper he led along with Prof David Grecic and Dr Damian Harper which looked at academy managers’ experiences of how psychosocial skills and characteristics are identified and developed in youth academy soccer players.