Pioneering Football Vests Boost Young Player Performance
Tonbridge Angels Football Academy provides 16-19 year old students the opportunity to play football full time, whilst gaining nationally recognised qualifications. Their mission is to make sure that all their students are immersed across a wide variety of sporting subjects, enabling them to develop the skills, confidence and knowledge they need to progress into further education or full time employment.
About the cause
Tonbridge Angels was introduced to us by FFT Associate Greg Brown, whose son is an A Level sport student at Hugh Christie School in Tonbridge. Tonbridge Angels runs its academy course in conjunction with the school, comprising three training sessions each week, and a weekly match with local teams.
Tonbridge Angels was looking for sponsorship for a set of technically pioneering GPS football vests with the ability to offer ground-breaking insights into player performance.
The data produced by the vests has the power to show players their strengths and areas for improvement, and coaches get to use the metrics to tailor training sessions so that students can improve their speed, power and aerobic performance.
How we helped
We were proud to sponsor 16 of the £200-a-piece vests, helping Tonbridge Angels on its mission to enrich students’ skills inside and outside of sport, and improve the overall academy experience.
The metrics relayed by the vests can be used to help players see their strengths, as well as areas in which they could improve. Coaches are able to use the data to tailor training sessions, helping students improve speed, power and aerobic endurance.
What’s more, the data ties in with the BTEC course being studied by the students, and so provides valuable input into their coursework.
Coach and teacher, Tommy Parkinson, said:
“We are truly grateful for the sponsorship funding for the GPS vests. We are hoping that we will see fast improvements in players’ performance short term as we can quickly identify strengths and weaknesses, and then create sessions to help improve an individual player’s power, speed and aerobic endurance, as well as use their heat maps to get them all working better in their positions.”
Our social value commitment
The sponsorship of the GPS vests for Tonbridge Angels fell under our anniversary Twenty for Twenty initiative. The programme covered four themes: People Skills Development, Health and Well-Being, Charity and Social Value, and Innovation and Technology.
By sponsoring the vests, we encompassed all four themes and helped to fuel our mission to support community supports and leisure activities designed to provide an opportunity for young people to learn valuable skills, and build confidence in the process.