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[Football] Sussex youth coaches - Russell Martin Academy



Sarisbury Seagull

Sarisbury Seagull

Solly March Fan Club
NSC Patron
Nov 22, 2007
15,122
Sarisbury Green, Southampton
For the youth coaches in Sussex we have on here, one of my under 11’s teams is playing in a tournament on Monday and we’ve been drawn against a Russell Martin Academy team.

I don’t know much about the academy other than what I’ve heard about some disagreement between the Albion and RMA. Is it like some of the academy’s round here where the kids have limited talent but parents with deep pockets or are they generally a high standard?
 




B

BevBHA

Well-known member
Jan 23, 2017
2,568
It’s not cheap, so the deep pockets part of your post is definitely relevant. There are different levels of training available at RMA.

Their ‘development centre’ players as they call it are invite only, so their best players. I believe these are the players that compete in matches for RMA. So I’d imagine they’ll be pretty good.
 


Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo

Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo

I believe in Joe Hendry
Oct 4, 2003
12,212
I believe they work with kids of all abilities. They have an elite and emerging pathway for players that have been let go by professional clubs or otherwise slipped through the net. They also have sessions that any player of any ability can attend.

As well as that they also run educational programs for kids that don’t currently access mainstream education using football and other educational methods to keeps the kids learning (my oldest son has recently accessed a similar program but based around martial arts coaching).

I would imagine it would be players from the elite/emerging pathways that would be taking part in tts tournaments).
 


Skaville

Skaville

Well-known member
Jun 10, 2004
10,243
Queens Park
It all depends what kind of team they put out. The coaching is excellent. They are mixed ability, but go up to a very high standard, sometimes playing fixtures against the academies of professional clubs.

My lad did a big tournament with them in Sandhurst a few years ago. They took three teams. One entered the top (shield) competition, the other two were in the plate. They won both competitions and the other team lost in the semi.

One thing that will affect them is availability. They will have players attached to all the better clubs. If those clubs attend the tournament RMA won’t be able to select them.
 










Insel affe

Insel affe

HellBilly
Feb 23, 2009
24,497
Brighton factually.....
Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo said:
I believe they work with kids of all abilities. They have an elite and emerging pathway for players that have been let go by professional clubs or otherwise slipped through the net. They also have sessions that any player of any ability can attend.

As well as that they also run educational programs for kids that don’t currently access mainstream education using football and other educational methods to keeps the kids learning (my oldest son has recently accessed a similar program but based around martial arts coaching).

I would imagine it would be players from the elite/emerging pathways that would be taking part in tts tournaments).
Click to expand...
This.
My daughter trained with them for a while, the coaching is good.
She never actually played for them in a game, due to other commitments.
Brighton schools and her Sunday team at the time.
She is now at the Albion academy, to be honest the training is not that different to be honest.
To be honest her Sunday team has the best training and coaches who encourage the girls mentally as well as physically.
 




El Turi

El Turi

Injured
Aug 13, 2005
7,207
Argentina
Nobby Cybergoat said:
They play out from the back with ludicrous abandon and concede masses of goals, but still insist that's their philosophy and won't change.

High press em, and you'll win at a canter
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They actually do encourage all the RMA teams to play that way!

The development centres are open to all. My understanding is that they then pick the best players from all the centres to create a team for each age group.
 


DarrenFreemansPerm

DarrenFreemansPerm

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sep 28, 2010
17,500
Shoreham
Insel affe said:
This.
My daughter trained with them for a while, the coaching is good.
She never actually played for them in a game, due to other commitments.
Brighton schools and her Sunday team at the time.
She is now at the Albion academy, to be honest the training is not that different to be honest.
To be honest her Sunday team has the best training and coaches who encourage the girls mentally as well as physically.
Click to expand...
Appreciate the honesty.
 


DarrenFreemansPerm

DarrenFreemansPerm

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sep 28, 2010
17,500
Shoreham
For those of you who’ve been doing this for a while, is it standard practice for academy teams to have fixtures against regular clubs?
I coach an u7s team in Southwick and we recently had to play against an academy from Crawley, absolute waste of time.
 
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Sarisbury Seagull

Sarisbury Seagull

Solly March Fan Club
NSC Patron
Nov 22, 2007
15,122
Sarisbury Green, Southampton
Played them today in the group stage of the tournament and drew. They were obviously decent but not as strong as I thought they might be bearing in mind the team was full of ex pro club academy players. TBF, my team is too so it was probably a good match up.

What did surprise me though was that we got knocked out in the semi’s by a really strong side who went on to win it - Storrington! They may have roped some ringers in from academy’s etc as that happens in tournaments but are Storrington known for being strong at youth level?

The West Sussex boy in me was quite proud to see them come in and beat the best that Hampshire had to offer!
 




Timbo

Timbo

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
4,325
Hassocks
My lad is under 11 and plays at RMA as well as Hassocks. If you get the right coach at RMA the coaching is exceptional and they'll also act if something isn't quite right. It's a very good set up to be fair and about in line with most set ups (45 quid a month).
 


Timbo

Timbo

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
4,325
Hassocks
Sarisbury Seagull said:
Played them today in the group stage of the tournament and drew. They were obviously decent but not as strong as I thought they might be bearing in mind the team was full of ex pro club academy players. TBF, my team is too so it was probably a good match up.

What did surprise me though was that we got knocked out in the semi’s by a really strong side who went on to win it - Storrington! They may have roped some ringers in from academy’s etc as that happens in tournaments but are Storrington known for being strong at youth level?

The West Sussex boy in me was quite proud to see them come in and beat the best that Hampshire had to offer!
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We've come across Storrington a lot over the years at this age group. The coach is a top man and a massive Albion fan and his lad is a very talented player who's at the BHA academy so he may have roped in some 'help'!

I'm guessing this was a 6 or 7 a side tournament as they have a very good base but there are better sides around in their league, namely East Grinstead and one of the Southwater teams.
 


BNthree

BNthree

Plastic JCL
Sep 14, 2016
11,505
WeHo
Sarisbury Seagull said:
For the youth coaches in Sussex we have on here, one of my under 11’s teams is playing in a tournament on Monday and we’ve been drawn against a Russell Martin Academy team.

I don’t know much about the academy other than what I’ve heard about some disagreement between the Albion and RMA. Is it like some of the academy’s round here where the kids have limited talent but parents with deep pockets or are they generally a high standard?
Click to expand...

Basically yes. It’s a paid for academy anyone can go to. They do have different tiers (elite and the like) but fundamentally it’s an academy in name only.
 


S

Seagullinhove

New member
Oct 31, 2024
19
Academies, pathways, elite🤮.

Glad my son no longer plays. It all such a con. 99.9% of all these players won’t go professional. But hide it all with a fancy name and people fall for it (I was one of them).

Professional teams would have mopped up the best players so I wouldn’t worry too much about playing an “academy”.
 
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H

Half Time Pies

Well-known member
Sep 7, 2003
1,593
Brighton
DarrenFreemansPerm said:
For those of you who’ve been doing this for a while, is it standard practice for academy teams to have fixtures against regular clubs?
I coach an u7s team in Southwick and we recently had to play against an academy from Crawley, absolute waste of time.
Click to expand...
Wait until you play Eastbourne All Stars...parents play a substantial monthly fee plus additional fees for each match, coaches are professional and the teams train 3/4 times a week. The younger age groups tend to be exceptional, before some of the players are inevitably snapped up by professional academies. They always enter teams in to the local junior grassroots leagues and will hammer teams week in week out.

My sons team at u9/u10 was one of the best in the brighton area, they lost 10 nil to the all stars who at one point were playing with a rush goalkeeper! Afterwards one of the parents told me it was their hardest game of the season! Pretty demoralising for teams that are coached by parents on a voluntary basis and train once or twice a week!
 


DarrenFreemansPerm

DarrenFreemansPerm

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sep 28, 2010
17,500
Shoreham
Half Time Pies said:
Wait until you play Eastbourne All Stars...parents play a substantial monthly fee plus additional fees for each match, coaches are professional and the teams train 3/4 times a week. The younger age groups tend to be exceptional, before some of the players are inevitably snapped up by professional academies. They always enter teams in to the local junior grassroots leagues and will hammer teams week in week out.

My sons team at u9/u10 was one of the best in the brighton area, they lost 10 nil to the all stars who at one point were playing with a rush goalkeeper! Afterwards one of the parents told me it was their hardest game of the season! Pretty demoralising for teams that are coached by parents on a voluntary basis and train once or twice a week!
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Sounds like great fun 🙄
The team we played were EDC (Elite Development Coaching). Sounds identical to the Eastbourne set up, professional coaches, kids train 3/4 times a week, it’s a fully paid up service, they’ve got kids on Fulham and Palace’s books. Quite snide attitudes as well, calling our players trash ands telling them that our club is trash too. They’re 6 and 7 year olds. Bit grim tbh.
 


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