Manchester United Youth Development Philosophy

Manchester United head of athletic development Tony Strudwick oversees the Manchester United youth system.  While ensuring that his athletes are well rounded in their motor skills and comfortable with movements outside the soccer realm, he shared his thoughts on the American youth development system.

“A big part of our philosophy is making sure we’re working outside of the football environment with athletic training and conditioning,” Strudwick said. 

Stressing the importance of multi-sport athleticism has been a growing priority of his for years.  More often than not, Strudwick says, the best athletes in the world are able to distinguish themselves from the pack thanks to a range of motor skills beyond what is typically expected in a given sport. For example, the footballer with a background in gymnastics is likely to have significantly more potential in the long haul being able to contort their body and move more fluidly than the one-sport ‘specialized’ player. 

Adult obsession with winning is killing youth sports in America.  “The best methodology is simply identifying that’s it’s a journey, and not just selecting the big kids at U-13 and U-14,” he said. “One thing unique to American teams is they’re always fit and they’re not behind from an athletic point of view. There aren’t many sports where America is not one of the very best in the world, so you’ve got to look at participation rates and what their approach is to training at the younger ages.”

“For me it’s about skill development and motor control at the early ages,” he continued.

Chalk Strudwick up with the growing list of well-qualified proponents for not specializing in one sport at an early age.