Ep 20: The Art of Building a Football Academy that Stands Out

A football academy is more than just a business; it's a commitment to quality coaching, reasonable pricing, and most importantly, fun. As we dissect the growth strategies of both Skillz & Lambeth Tigers we uncover the underestimated power of word-of-mouth and organic growth. 

This is great advice for budding entrepreneurs which highlights the importance of strategic pricing in the early stages of business. 

We also delve into the process of building a successful team, from sourcing the right staff, aligning them with the core values of the business, to the challenges and rewards of this pivotal process.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:03

So I had a great time with Lambeth Tigers. That was one of my favourite club shoots.

Speaker 2 0:06

Yeah, definitely Always good to get out and speak to the club owners, be out on the road, especially for the football guys Hello.

Speaker 1 0:13

Hi, how are you? How am I? What's going on? Daz is joining us for the podcast.

Speaker 3 0:18

In the studio as well. Pretty sure we spoke with us. I'm meeting hours in the app then.

Speaker 1 0:23

Oh well, daz and I might have had a meeting without you, because I needed somebody who actually knew what they were talking about when it comes to football.

Speaker 3 0:28

Is this because I don't have a clue about football?

Speaker 1 0:29

Yeah, that time you froze and couldn't speak to footballers there's been many times actually.

Speaker 3 0:33

yeah, okay, fair, do as well.

Speaker 1 0:35

So we brought somebody with the expertise and the knowledge onto the podcast that they could help us go out and chat to footballers and get the best out of the podcast.

Speaker 3 0:41

Because we took him out to Lambeth Tigers and we took him out to Skills also Superstars camps. That is why he's here. I suppose he pays attention to things, yeah, unlike you. So this is Daz, if we hadn't already introduced him, and Daz has been coming out with us to our football podcasts and our club shoots to add a bit of actual intelligence towards the conversations we have around football Because, as we just said, I really don't have a clue about football and it's very obvious to footballers as well.

Speaker 2 1:11

That is very true.

Speaker 3 1:12

Is it really, though? Did you smell it off me?

Speaker 2 1:15

No, seriously, but there's nothing wrong with that. You've got your other skillset. What was that?

Speaker 1 1:19

Playing guitar.

Speaker 2 1:20

Exactly.

Speaker 1 1:21

Well, do you want to hear it now? No, please don't. Let's not bring that into the podcast. Let's not do that to the viewers and listeners, please.

Speaker 3 1:26

Well, why is Daz here now then?

Speaker 1 1:28

Because when we were in London recently visiting Lambeth Tigers and Skills, we took Daz on the road with us so that we could do some really interesting podcasts around starting football academies and growth. So yeah, Daz, do you want to tell us a little bit about what it was like to record your first podcast?

Speaker 2 1:41

Yeah, I very much enjoyed it. Obviously, speaking to like-minded people with a passion for football like myself, it was fine. It was just like having a normal conversation with these people. I'm used to doing it over the phone, so it was great to get out and speak to them in person and just see how they interact with the kids and just see what their business is like in the flesh. So very much enjoyed it and hopefully get the chance to do many more in the future.

Speaker 3 2:04

So this one's a bit of a special one. We've never done this before either. So we've now got a new host, guest host, who we're going to bring on in the future as well for the football podcast. But this one is a double podcast, yep, because we're going to do both Lambeth Tigers and Skills and Superstars camps. Thank you very much. And the same podcast. So if you want to kick it off, we'll let Daz kick this one off.

Speaker 1 2:26

Yeah, so do you know what we normally say? I'll wing it.

Speaker 2 2:29

I'll wing it my name's Daz and welcome back to the Class for Kids podcast.

Speaker 3 2:34

It's called In the Club oh my God.

Speaker 1 2:36

Are you a listener? I?

Speaker 3 2:37

don't think he's ever listened.

Speaker 1 2:38

Right, okay, that's it, he's off. Cut, cut, cut Come.

Speaker 2 2:42

Yeah, great to be here and crowding with our good friend and long-term customer, ashley from Skills UK. Ashley, how are you doing Very well.

Speaker 4 2:49

Thank you, yeah, oh good.

Speaker 2 2:51

Good to see you again. I think the last time we seen you was at our future coaches event a couple of months back. But yeah, great to be down here. As always out on the road meeting our customers, it's something we love to do. So today I just want to have a quick chat with you around your football academy. So Skills UK, as I mentioned, very successfully run academy. You've been doing it for how long now?

Speaker 2 3:14

10, 11 years now so yeah, 11 years, nice, we've been doing this Excellent, and I just want to take you back to the start of your journey, really, and just chat about some of the decisions you had to make around about that time when you were starting the academy. So first thing I want to kind of touch on is what were the key foundations that you had to think about? So it's 2012. You've decided I'm going to start my own football academy. What was your process like for that? What did you need to consider before you kind of kicked into that journey?

Speaker 4 3:47

So there was a lot of research that went into it. So I started planning for it back in May 2011. So that is a seven month period before we actually launched. So, yeah, just did a lot of research into the local area to see what was out there, see if there was any sort of local coaching companies or there's a football club crystal palace around here as well to check what they were doing. And then I just had to kind of think about where we wanted to launch.

Speaker 4 4:11

So I had to source a venue, automatically, thought about my old secondary school who helped me out getting the higher. And then it was just about kind of using all my experience from my previous coaching jobs and taking bits from each of them to see how I wanted to position skills and what I wanted our ethos to be, and it was always going to be just about the kids focused on that. That was our sort of selling point, if you like Developing them through football, but making sure it was super fun and super engaging for them. Yeah, and then that gets. Finally, the last little thing was making sure we had a way of marketing it. So Back then the digital scene was probably still growing, so we went very old school and did about a thousand flyers and dropped them off to all the local primary schools around here, including the one we're in today, and, yeah, managed to get quite a few people through the door.

Speaker 2 5:01

Cool and just obviously you've got a back down and football with your previous coaching experience. But in terms of the areas that you maybe don't have as much experience on the market and the flyers, all that sort of stuff how did you go about that? Did you have support from from someone else? Where's it? Just you kind of winging it at the time. What was that like for you?

Speaker 4 5:20

that the non football stuff I didn't have any sort of support in terms of Knowing what to do. We use the designer to design the flyers and the print company. But yeah, I think I spoke about in the future coaches event that I read a book on innocent smoothies and I just really like their ethos and how they, how they started, how they kind of pushed themselves out there, and it was just about trying to make us look a little bit different in our design, in our website, to your typical coaching company. You probably don't spend much time on Advertising, branding etc. But yeah, it was just kind of learning as we went along. Obviously work for other coaching companies and work for Chelsea as well and their foundation department where they did little things that you could kind of nick the ideas from us slightly. And yeah, that was it really just perfect, did my own sort of research into it?

Speaker 2 6:10

No, and you mentioned a sort of seven month planning period. Do you think without that, if you'd maybe not spent as much time on that, you would be doing as well?

Speaker 4 6:19

as you are now. It kind of fell into seven months. It was probably meant to launch in the September time, I would say, but just didn't quite work out, wasn't ready to do it. But yeah, I was in. The more time you plan and prepare, I think, the the better. Yeah, but a chance it gives you. But yeah, maybe we could have done as well.

Speaker 2 6:35

Yeah, I think I think that's crucial. Obviously, we speak to loads of new businesses and youth football academies who maybe They've got big, big teams, big plans, but they don't actually take the time to map out and go through the things, such as how I'm going to market, how I'm going to Stand out from the other clubs in my area, and so I think that's great, really crucial obviously to your success. Yeah, moving forward.

Speaker 4 6:57

And I think from May to September is still a fairly long time. Yeah we'd launched in September. We still have had enough time. Yeah, planning, I guess, to the January, just give us a little bit more time to tweak things and not rush Totally.

Speaker 2 7:08

And obviously at that time I presume you were doing other work, other coaching. Did you have to make some sort of short term sacrifices to Give up certain things that you were doing, just to put all your energy and focus and to and the skills?

Speaker 4 7:22

I actually had two, three jobs at the time of launching. It's all part time, so I had to kind of Lie a little bit, yeah, with one of the employers To make sure that I was free on a Saturday morning to get down here. So yeah, actually, like I said in the coaches event, I didn't come back here. I did the first three weeks here of launch and then I had a couple of coaches that took over from me and I would pop in sort of like half terms with my schedule quieting down a little bit. So, yeah, it took a lot of maneuvering, I would say, to get it done for sure.

Speaker 2 7:55

And if you could go back and kind of talk to yourself from back in 2012, would you sort of advise that you're going to need to make some sort of short-term losses, but you know, in the long run that's just what you need to do. You're not going to get immediate success and understand that it's a bit of a process to belge a business and belge a brand. Is that kind of advice you would like to give?

Speaker 4 8:15

me. Yeah, I didn't pay myself for eight months so the money kind of just got pumped back into the business. Obviously, my other job supported me. I lived at home at the time. So yeah, I knew it would take time. I went into it with the focus that it would be a long-term plan and I wasn't looking for any sort of short-term gain. And even when I could pay myself, I still didn't pay myself what I could have done because we had to reinvest the money all the time and it was self-sustainable. So yeah, I always knew it would be quite a long process to get it done.

Speaker 2 8:46

Yeah, totally. I think that's a really important message to young aspiring coaches that want to start their own business, that they shouldn't expect immediate success and they need to understand that it is a process and you need to slowly build over time, as you've done with your brand, adding more members of staff and in different things. And again, just going back to those, those early days, did you have any sort of financial support? Is there anything at all in terms of, like council or government, anything that they could kind of support young coaches or you kind of were you out on your own?

Speaker 4 9:18

We were out on our own, we toyed with the idea of setting up as a community interest company, which it's not quite a charity but it's more charitable and it opens you up to more funding. So local councils have funding for sports a bit different nowadays, I think, but there's still budgets there. When you're a private entity, it's more difficult, which is why you've got to be careful with your money. You've got to make sure that you've got enough money to be able to buy equipment, pay our coaches, pay yourself eventually. So one bit of advice I would say is we set up a bit of a partnership with the school we worked at and hired on the Saturday morning, where we would give free coaching to them and in return we would get free venue hire. So our outlet at the beginning was really really small, which obviously allowed the cash to build, and then we go from there.

Speaker 2 10:03

Yeah, that was going to be my next question, just around venue hire. It's always a hot topic with football coaches and clubs. Just the price of venues, asset or pitches are extortionately priced. So I think what you've done having known someone in a school or just using a previous connection to get a whether it's a cheaper venue space or a free venue space to use would you recommend kind of dipping into other areas of life and using connections just to try and gain any sort of advantage that you can just think of a sort of cost-cutting measure just with who you know.

Building a Successful Coaching Business

Speaker 4 10:37

Essentially, yeah, I think who you know in this world is absolutely everything really Networking. You make so many different connections in different industries or different parts of your business that you could use. So yeah, like I said, I emailed into this or wrote a letter to my old PE teacher at the school. He remembered me, he supported us, we offered a free hours coach and I think it was on a Monday and we got a couple of hours free on a Saturday morning. So, yeah, the best you can do with it, I think it's the right way to go. You're just trying to save money and get creative and build your reputation a little bit.

Speaker 2 11:09

Do you think without those previous connections you would have maybe struggled a little bit more at that early stage, just in terms of financially having to pay maybe more for a venue?

Speaker 4 11:20

Yeah, I think so, and I think nowadays it's even more expensive. Yes, some of our venues we paid maybe six times the amount we did maybe six years ago. So it's the prices have gone through the roof in certain aspects. So, yeah, I think it would always be more difficult. We've got we're still at this base 12, 11 years later. We've got the sports hall that we use here. We used to run at holiday camps here as well when we used to do them. We get to use their fields. So, yeah, it's been a good partnership.

Speaker 2 11:47

I would say Excellent good and again, just the initial stage of when you launched. Did you use anything at all in terms of whether it was summer camps or any kind of holiday camps out there to attract children? What did you do to kind of stand out and grow the business and get kids in the door at that early stage, obviously as a new business? Nobody's gonna have heard of you, nobody's been to any of the sessions. What was your kind of tactic for getting kids to the door?

Speaker 4 12:16

Just doing a good job. Yeah, on the pitch. We still say it to today. We've got more of a marketing budget now we've got a bigger name, but if the coaching is no good, yeah, none of that counts. So, yeah, we just made sure that we I was very hot on making really good partnerships and relationships with the families that we coached. So the parents I would always talk to would make the session super fun for the kids. It was really cheap back then as well. So word just kept spreading and spreading. They would bring a couple of friends and another kid would bring a couple of friends, and eventually we went from I think we had 10 on our first week or seven on our first week, to we had like 81 weeks. It was as you go back in the day. So, yeah, it just it grew organically. Yeah, and that will always happen if you do a good job on the pitch for the kids.

Speaker 2 12:59

Yeah, do you think you know just around pricing of your sessions, making them a bit cheaper at that early stage again, taking maybe a short-term hat for the long-term success in terms of your program size growing? Is that something you would maybe recommend to to coaches? Just to be reasonable and understanding of I'm under the business here, I'm gonna need to maybe charge best and I had planned just to get kids in the door and then I'll go and we'll.

Speaker 4 13:24

You can maybe up that as as time goes on yeah, and I think it depends on your experience as well. So, although I had quite a bit of experience behind me back then, I was still young. Yeah, the product was still new, so I didn't want to charge too much because I didn't want it to be a disappointment in terms of the value that we're offering. Likewise, though, if you went a little bit more expensive, then you're showing that you're a bit more of an expert, but I think being an expert at a young age is very limited, so going at a lower price point would help boost your reputation big time.

Speaker 2 13:54

And how long was it before you employed any other staff just to assess you with things?

Speaker 4 13:58

So it was initially, I always had a coach working with me when I was here for the first three weeks, and then we got another member of staff who was a friend of mine, who took it over with him when I stepped out. So from the off we had it. I would say probably 2016 was when, or 2015 was around the time, we started having proper part-time coaches where they were doing more than just a Saturday morning, and then 2016 we had our first full-time member of staff and it's kind of grown from there. But again, you don't want to over commit because you're trying to always get work on board to fill their hours and, yeah, I'd take that process slow if you can.

Speaker 2 14:36

And you mentioned just, the focus of yours was the quality of the coaching and making sure you stand out in that regard. How do you go about finding the right staff? That's another challenge that I think football academies face. As we're defining these coaches, how do I know who to hire? Essentially, how did you go about that?

Speaker 4 14:55

They needed a personality, because our brand was all about a bit like your own brand, a bit like having a good personality to carry out the sessions. Over the years I think we've developed what we like to call values of the brand and the company, and if the coach doesn't match those brand values, it's things like energy, confidence, enjoyment, all that sort of stuff. We don't take them on Nowadays because we've got so many systems in place and so much experience and session plans that I plan out for the team. We can actually get a coach that maybe isn't the most amazing football coach, but it's got the right values and they can deliver that session perfectly for us and we can help them become better coaches. So it becomes easier, whereas probably about six years ago we were always looking for level two coaches or your way for B coaches, and they were few and far between and it was really difficult to find them.

Speaker 4 15:46

Usually those sort of coaches are running their own thing or working in an academy or whatever it might be. So if you can make it as easy as possible for your staff and find the right type of person that fits in with your brand, then you'll always win, I think.

Speaker 2 16:00

And those core values that you set. Was that right back in the start? Was that one of the first things you'd done when you started the business? Did you have a vision of? This is what I want to promote. These are the type of coaches I want to get on board. Was that something?

Speaker 4 16:14

that you'd wish Probably not in writing, but in my head I knew they had to be similar to me. We didn't always get it right. We did have some coaches that didn't quite fit in and they got found out quite quickly by the parents, especially if they took over from someone who was really energetic and they maybe weren't that kind of energetic personality. So yeah, always in my head I had the ethos and you used to get drummed into the coaches this is how you do the games, this is the energy you bring. Things like high fives, all these little small details of how you can engage a kid. I was quite hot on it at the start and still am today.

Speaker 2 16:46

Of course I can see that just in the coaches, obviously. We've had a walk about today and seen how enthusiastic they all are and how good they are with the kids as well. And just in terms of the coaches, do you think a bit of a blend in their personality, mixed with some maybe more experience and skilled coaches, and then just mashing that together for your brand? Essentially?

Speaker 4 17:11

We've got a B licensed goalkeeper coach, we've got a soon to be A licensed coach and we've also got level one coaches. So having a mix is good and I think having some younger coaches and some older coaches is a real good blend as well, because it does hurt sometimes when you're doing like four hours of coaching yourself when you get to my age 33. I know I'm still young, but it's different when you're sort of 22, 23, you can do loads of coaching. I think also the kids like it when there's younger coaches, because they can relate to them a little bit more.

Speaker 4 17:39

So yeah, I think it's helped our team having quite a diversity, I think, within the team is really important.

Speaker 2 17:46

Cool. And again just going back to the early days of skills, were you begatall on sort of goal and target setting for yourself? Did you have a plan in place? Did you map out an ideal first year, for example for the business, or was it very much just a let's go for it and see how it goes?

Speaker 4 18:03

No, I did a business plan. I think I did a three year forecast. Doesn't always work out, but I think it's a good reference point. And when I say a business plan, I kind of mapped out how many sessions I wanted to get to by the end of the year, how many schools we wanted to work in. It might have only just been one or two initially. I did make sure I planned it properly. I didn't just start until I'll see where this goes. I had a good sort of vision of what I wanted to happen. Never expected it to get to this stage. I always kind of expected myself to be coaching. It's a bit of a self-employed business. But yeah, I think it's a good starting point see where you need to go and what you need to do and then you can work backwards from it.

Speaker 2 18:44

Is that something you would recommend for younger coaches who do want to start their own academy, that they can't just wing it and go for it? Would you recommend having a solid plan and some foundations?

Speaker 4 18:54

in place for that? Yeah, 100%, and I think I see a lot of people not planning and they quit after a couple of years because it's not quite worked out for them. So, yeah, I think if you've got a good plan in place, it will always put you in good stead to reach in your vision. When we do this with our franchisees that are about to launch as well, we make sure we've got kind of targets for them. But the targets are there to show them what they could build into and what they need to do to get there.

Speaker 2 19:17

Well, thank you very much, Ashley. Great to see you again, great to be down. It's been great to chat with you again and we'll hopefully see you again soon.

Speaker 4 19:24

Yeah, thanks a lot.

Speaker 2 19:25

Cheers. There we go, there we go. That was our chat with Ashley Thomas from Skills UK and Superstars camps. Ashley has been a class for kids customer for a long time and it's always great to go out and see them and see how his businesses are getting on. And speaking of businesses getting on, we are speaking to David from Lambeth Tigers next on Growing their Academy. He's pretty good isn't he?

Speaker 1 19:48

Yeah, he's alright.

Speaker 2 19:50

Welcome to the class for kids podcast, David. Great to have you on. If we could just start off by telling me a little bit about yourself and the role that you play here at Lambeth.

Speaker 5 20:00

So my name's David Marriott. I grew up in South London, brixton. Growing up football was my life and my main objective growing up was to try and build a foundation for the youth in the community in football. So myself and Jamal Jarrett, we all head together and come up with Lambeth Tigers. So my role at the club I'm head coach, so I kind of monitor the foundation phase of coaches and players coming through and my job is to coach and get the best talent and give them an opportunity in academy football.

Football Academy's Focus on Youth Development

Speaker 2 20:38

Yeah, I know how big you are on actual development of players and your coaches as well. We'll get on to that a wee bit later on, but not great. And just on, obviously, yourself and Jamal Co-Dun in the club and your massive on providing opportunities for kids in the local area and stuff what does that kind of involve? So what's your sort of day to day routine Like? Are you still quite hands on coaching wise? What does that look like for you?

Speaker 5 21:02

Yeah, very hands on. I coach at least three times throughout the week, obviously, during the other stuff I do, so yeah, it's a busy week to me, making sure the coaches have their session plans ready for their boys. I go and watch all their sessions throughout the month and help out the coaches what need help in regard to developing the young players that we have. So, yeah, it's really busy daily routine.

Speaker 2 21:30

How do you find balancing this with the stuff you're doing at Arsenal and Crystal Palace previously?

Speaker 5 21:35

Yeah, it can be tricky, but the good thing for myself working at Arsenal now I have that flexibility, so that helps. So yeah, it could be worse, but yeah, I managed to find a way to make it happen.

Speaker 2 21:50

A lot of other academies out there might focus more so on results and winning games, but you're clearly focused on the development of young players and your coaches as well. Why is that so important to you? Why do you focus on that so much?

Speaker 5 22:03

Because the element of technical ability now is growing in football. If you look at people like David Louise Real.

Speaker 2 22:10

Third now was most probably the first of that kind Was that head of his time.

Speaker 5 22:14

Yeah, at the defender. So yeah, stones technically really good for the defender and I think that's where the game's gone now. If you look at people like Alexander Arnaud, back in the days it would have been no one was going to be in a defensive there, but now my thing, defense being a friend, to play now is like being a turn of field or something.

Speaker 2 22:33

Yeah, I was going to say as a kid, obviously I played football at a semi-professional level and if I was a kid and I was starting out, I'd want to be like a fullback, a right or a left back because you get so much of the ball and you get to enjoy it and you get maybe a bit more time and everything's in front of you as well. No, brilliant and again it's clear to see just from looking at your sessions you're quite focused on, like the ball mastery stuff and technique and all that as well.

Speaker 2 22:55

So no, fantastic. And how do you find putting that mindset onto the coaches, so getting them to buy into you and Jamal's way of thinking in terms of you know big on development? Are they quite bought into that way of working?

Speaker 5 23:10

No, I think the generation now of coaches now are a bit different to myself and Jamal coming through Coming into the game. For me was a lot of it was voluntary. If you wanted it, you'd go and do it voluntary and you'd learn your trade. Now, I think, because everything's paid, the coaches, just like their interests, are in money now and paid, so that makes sense. So the mindset has to come from them. It's for me and Jamal to identify the best coaches who have the mindset of wanting to be a good coach. So, yeah, we have a few which we're proud of and we're trying to nurture now.

Speaker 2 23:47

So your big answer say if you were recruiting for a new coach, the first thing you'd look at would be their personality mindset before actual coaching ability.

Speaker 5 23:56

Yeah, the coaching ability I believe that me and Jamal can nurture that, that's not a problem at all. But in regards to having that will to want to coach, is you kind of have to have that yourself? So yeah, it's a bit.

Speaker 2 24:08

And do you provide training or courses or anything? What do you put the coaches through in terms of actually levelling them up and helping them through?

Speaker 5 24:18

Coach will come to Lambda Type 6 if they don't have anything. We do everything in our power to make sure we make that happen. So, with the level one and the level two and some of the coaches now going on to their B license, we're lucky enough to get emails from the FA and there's normally courses going for half price or sometimes for three for these boys if you're under 24, I think it is. So, yeah, we try to get as much of the young coaches on these courses as possible.

Speaker 2 24:47

Knowing you guys and looking at the website and different things, the amount of players that you've produced that have gone into the professional pyramid. How have you gone about that? What has set you guys apart from other academies? Why have you produced so many good players?

Speaker 5 25:02

I don't know. I think it's just mainly our mindset. We had, me and Jamal sat down prior to doing Lambda Type 6 and had an objective of what we wanted to achieve from it, and that means we were developing players and giving them opportunities. And I think, in regards to our model of developing players, it's allowed players to go on to professional clubs. So I didn't think we were thinking about the professional clubs per se, it's just about development. But again, if you're developing right, then opportunities occur.

Speaker 2 25:30

Yeah, do you think maybe the mindset that you kind of put forward to them, I think that's helped them as they've gone into the professional game, because obviously football is mentally demanding, it's tough, it's challenging, especially on young players. Do you think you've kind of stood them in good stead from the roots of coming here?

Speaker 5 25:45

I think one of the main things we do at Lambda Type is not just developing them, we give them that resilience. I think that's helped a lot of our players. I think that's what we have so much players in academies still and not released because they have that mindset, and the ones who have been released have gone on to do fantastic, amazing stuff. So, yeah, we just keep giving them that mindset and the rest is kind of done by themselves.

Speaker 2 26:10

Obviously, it's a two way thing. They need to be good enough and willing to take on the information that you're giving them as well, and just around that more on the coaching side of things, what's your kind of session planning like? How far in advance would you plan sessions? Do you plan for the week? Is it a month? How does that side of things go.

Speaker 5 26:27

So for the younger players it's kind of the same. We concentrate heavily on technical sessions and stuff. So for the young one it's more technical. For the older ones that would change depending on the coach, because a coach might have a game coming up against a team that plays long balls. For instance, if I'm an under 15 coach and the team plays long, I'm playing against that. My tactic throughout the week or the philosophy may change just for that particular game.

Speaker 2 26:58

Just get a bit more adaptable.

Speaker 5 27:00

So in the foundation phase we concentrate heavily on technical. On the older phase it's more kind of game playing, game understanding.

Speaker 2 27:08

Yeah, totally. And again, one of the main I think parts of the ethos here is helping kids stay off the streets and be involved in something positive like football. Again, why is that so important to you guys and why is that being a big factor of the academy?

Speaker 5 27:24

Yeah, for me, obviously, me and Jamal, growing up in Brickston was really difficult. My brother died through gang crime, so that was difficult for myself. So I kind of made a decision that I'm going to try and prevent this from happening. It's a massive ask because, as you can see, the crime rate is still quite high, but I am trying to give my part and, jamal, we're doing our part in the community to make sure we prevent as much as we can. Yeah, that's why that happening.

Speaker 5 27:53

So, if I'm going to be honest, I think we're doing a good job. As you can see, we've got so many children here today and the older boys. If you look at some of our coaches, they've come from being at the club from under 14, 15, and now they're coaching at the club. So I just kind of think staying in contact with them and keeping a good relationship with them and giving them opportunities as they get older, if they don't maybe become a professional footballer, what's the next in line to do in a coach? And if so, we're here for you and even if you want to do anything else, we try to help them, to put them in a good position to be able to do that.

Speaker 2 28:25

No, it's great. You're obviously providing a pathway for coaches and kids, not just footballers as well, and obviously the percentage of people that are going to become a Premier League footballer is quite low. But even if you can just set them up for life and provide life skills and do you know what? I think that stands them in such good stead and obviously keeps them busy, keeps them away from other things that you might not want to be involved in, it's fantastic. And just again, it's great being down today just seeing the venue and obviously you've got the cage and stuff built. How helpful is that being? How did that all come about?

Speaker 5 29:00

Yeah. So we were initially not far from here, about five minutes from here, on a grass pitch, and they started to build houses there. So we were there for about maybe two years. Then they said they were going to build houses. So the parents, myself and Jamal we had no understanding on what to do. We just thought if they're going to build houses, they're going to build houses, nothing we could do. And I wonder parents that they can't just kick you off and give you nothing. So one of our parents many years ago said listen, we'll go to the newspaper in regards to it. So we went to the South London Press and the housing company at the time I think was Higgins, I think it was they decided that listen, we're going to try and help you out. They spoke to these guys here and they kind of adopted us and we've been here ever since.

Speaker 5 29:52

So we came here initially with just the cage. The pitch was really bad and we were also using another facility and a child in the community had died in that facility while we were using it. So Nike were fantastic. They came up and said, listen, we want to help you guys. And Jadon Sancho came in and they gave us a brand new pitch. And Jadon Sancho came and launched the pitch for us and I thought that was fantastic and what I'm to do that for us was amazing.

Speaker 2 30:20

How was that for the kids having like a with you? I've been at United at the time was it Dortmund.

Speaker 5 30:24

It was at Dortmund at the time. What was that?

Speaker 2 30:26

like for the kids and stuff. Seeing like an England international.

Speaker 5 30:30

It was amazing. It was amazing. I remember him coming down and the smiles on the kids' face literally priceless. Myself and Jamal was happy for them. So yeah, it was an amazing experience to have him down. He spent a lot of time with the children. It wasn't a five minute visit. He kind of spent maybe two, three hours, signed a few boots and got some great pictures and it was just a great day.

Speaker 2 30:56

It's invaluable for the kids, isn't it? Just seeing a footballer in person and being able to spend a bit of time with them and chat with them and stuff. So that's great. And obviously you guys have got other connections in the professional game. Is that something that happens quite regularly or was that a bit of a one-off? Do you have any other?

Speaker 5 31:14

experience. No, we have a lot of players come down Jason Punchin, the good friend of mine. So initially Jason Punchin was the first one to come and consistently spend a lot of time with the boys. So anytime he was free he would come and he would stay again the whole day. So he was fantastic. I think Jason Punchin is a great ambassador for the community. I think he's not spoke about enough. So get on a beautiful platform like you guys, someone we need to kind of acknowledge because he was amazing for us.

Speaker 2 31:46

So, yeah, it happens all the time and since you got the Kinecage and the Ashletuff and stuff, has that allowed you guys to keep growing and increase your numbers and get more kids through the door? Was that beneficial for you in the long run?

Speaker 5 31:58

Yeah, one of the problems we have is the size of it. So we were lucky enough to get our new facility in Dullidge, the Griffin Sports Ground, so now we're in a position to provide more opportunities for the community and kids in the community. I think we can now have up to like. I think on a weekly basis here we have maybe four to five hundred kids who have passed throughout from Monday to Sunday, which is fantastic. By having Griffin we can maybe kind of do double now.

Speaker 2 32:26

Yeah, that's good and that can lead you more nicely, just to round things off. So what's next? What's in the plans? You guys have achieved so much already. You're doing great things. What's what's next for Lambeth Tigers?

Speaker 5 32:39

Just to grow it. We want it to be even bigger. We want to give more opportunity to coaches. We want to. We want the community to get involved and back up, like these back to us up until now, and just keep providing opportunities to the children. As much as I'm an Arsenal now and I love it, I'm enjoying it my heart is the community. My heart is Mike. The community is going to be number one to me, so maybe I have a few more years there and I'll pack it up and concentrate even more on the community. Yeah, so for me and Jamal, it's community. We're community based and we just want to grow it and make sure we can give these young boys and girls the best opportunity in life no, amazing.

Speaker 2 33:15

I think you're doing a great job and looking forward to seeing what what you're doing next, and thank you very much for coming on the class for kids podcast David cheers.

Future Coaches and Talented Kids Impressions

Speaker 1 33:22

Mike, thank you, thank you yeah, it was really great podcast as well done and on the first time on the class for kids podcast, impressive, thank you. And but I don't know about you both. But what I really took away from that was the fact that Jamal, when he was up for our future coaches campaign future coaches right there and he talked about nurturing talent and building different development pathways and he talked about the quality of his coaches been really important and I didn't know what to expect when we went there. But actually the care and dedication that these coaches have to these young kids was just like so prevalent from the get go it was unreal, it was different.

Speaker 3 33:56

While there probably one of the most attentive coach sets we've seen anywhere that we've been, an incredible talent.

Speaker 1 34:02

I mean dad's will be able to talk to that a little bit more, but from what I've seen, from what the kids were playing, absolutely incredible and potentially future stars of the world of football definitely.

Speaker 2 34:10

I was really impressed with not only the kids but the coaches as well, and I think a lot of them will have a future in the game at a very good level either playing, coaching or some sort of involvement in football. So look forward to seeing how they all develop.

Speaker 1 34:23

Two very different clubs. You know instinctually in what they're doing, but actually their ethos and vision for the future is very much about nurturing kids and giving them the best, best ability to be able to do what they can achieve. So, yeah, I had a great time in London. I think it was a really good trip. Thank you very much, and Brian, for accompanying me on a great trip to London.

Speaker 3 34:38

Brian's behind the camera cheers Brian. Yeah, it was great, and I think we'll finish this the way that we always finish it. Are you a listener?

Speaker 1 34:46

Yeah, how do we finish the podcast? This will be. Proof is in the pudding. I actually have watched a few recently as well, okay well, we'll start by saying it goes one, two, three, and then we say one word, he's never listened to anything like this. We'll do it ourselves.

Speaker 3 35:03

One, two, three, bye.