Building Relationships With Suffolk FA

The Hub building relationships to affect change.

News and Stories by Nino Severino

Building relationships with athletes, coaches, parents, clubs, academies, and associations is very important to The Hub team. We recognise that relationships are the foundations of all the outcomes and objectives we are all aiming for.

We reached out to James Morley, Football Development Officer for The Suffolk FA, to explore the potential of an official partnership, we provided him with the portfolio of components we could offer the Suffolk football community.

James was instantly connected with the support and development opportunities the players could access, and how our components focus on the body and mind. There was a long period of exploration, e-mails, calls, Zooms and face to face meetings, shaping and evolving a programme that would work perfectly for the footballing family, and the culture and environment they experience on a day-to-day basis.

We both agreed that the support programme and all the resources should be 100% inclusive, offering value to all in the footballing community:

• Players (Female, male and disability)
• Coaches
• Referees
• Parents

We both wanted to ensure that we could penetrate every area of the footballing community with the invaluable knowledge, experience, and support that the Hub Team can offer each of the groups above. I believe that in some shape, way, or form, each of the groups above will affect the others in some way.

Coaches will support players, parents will support coaches, players will support coaches, parents can support the referee’s job, referees will support the players, etc, etc. The level of benefits they will offer each other will depend on the level of skills each group possesses.

As part of our programme, we offer The sporting Trilogy ™, focused on working with the athletes, coaches and parents as a unit, facilitating the way they work with each other. This is a programme that includes mental skills, linked to the players and their performance, the coach, and the way they deliver their skills, and parents, supporting them to build strong relationships with athlete and coaches. The programme also upskills them, supporting the way they take on, and overcome the challenges of living the life of a sporting parent.

Both James and I were totally committed to offering the referee’s support as well, their job is a very challenging one. It involves robust physical fitness, and at a very high level if they are committed to joining the top ranks of the refereeing fraternity. As importantly, the mental strength, and psyche to enable them to constantly make the correct decisions throughout the duration of the match. The mental robustness, intelligence and sharpness cannot be underestimated as part of the refereeing skill set. The virtues they must possess across the portfolio of mental virtues is broad. They must also cultivate a personality and character that can survive the challenges that will present themselves, not only from a decision-making point of view, but also the demands of the players, and their expectation of the refereeing quality.

Our aim is to launch the programme in June 2023, this will be led by Wez Pooley one of The Hub’s top table senior consultants, his credentials speak for themselves:

FA England Women S & C, Premiership Football S & C, National Educator for Apec, Coach to Elite International Athletes, Wezley went on to develop into a Strength and Conditioning coach for International Rugby and Premiership/International Football teams, as well as now working with GB athletes.

Wez has a degree in Sports Science, master’s in teaching and is a qualified sports coach. He has worked in the education and fitness industry for 20 years including being a professional athlete, personal trainer, class instructor and training trainers. He completed a sports science degree and played professional and international rugby before becoming an educator in the Health and Fitness industry.

The Hub training, support and education is delivered from multiple sites, by The Hub team of experts