COVENTRY University opened up its state-of-the-art facilities to youth football teams across the region last month.
Girls and boys teams aged between seven and 13 from Nuneaton and Bedworth, Tamworth and Coventry, took part in a series of one-day Football Science events at the university.
They took part in a series of fitness tests that the university uses with professional senior and academy-level footballers.
They also experienced how motion capture is used to assess kicking in real football and video games such as FIFA.
The youngsters also got to learn about decision-making on the pitch using eye-tracking technology and they took part in practical coaching sessions with UEFA A qualified coaches.
During the sessions, Coventry University researchers analysed how the children moved whilst practising different skills and sporting movements while ensuring they were in a safe environment.
The university’s professor in applied sport and exercise science Michael Duncan said:
“Serious ACL injuries are more common among women footballers than men.
“While there is considerable research into such injuries among adult athletes, there is much less among children.
“One of our aims is to identify which kinds of movements children make which could potentially increase their likelihood of getting injured as they become adult athletes.
“Such work could be used to improve the quality of their training and we’d like to share our findings with larger sporting organisations such as The FA.
“If we’re to develop successful footballers and help them avoid injury, it’s important learners do the basics well first.”
