{"id":1152,"date":"2019-07-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/why-the-first-overseas-nfl-academy-will-prove-to-be-a-success\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:31","slug":"nfl-academy-london-will-bryce","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/nfl-academy-london-will-bryce\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the First Overseas NFL Academy Will Prove to Be a Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Jul 18, 2019 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Why the First Overseas NFL Academy Will Prove to Be a Success<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Coaching & Development<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/nfl-academy-london-will-bryce\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n
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Will Bryce, Head of Football Development at NFL UK, hopes to expand the reputation of American football beyond the US while giving British teenagers the opportunity of a lifetime.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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While the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium provided a fitting backdrop for the NFL Academy Stadium Showcase, it is the potential opportunities for the 150 teenagers in attendance that resonated most.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

The earnest and eager adolescents gathered in north London on the first Tuesday in July to be put through their paces in combine-style drills as part of the new NFL Academy UK\u2019s final tryout for its first intake.<\/p>\n

The Academy, the first of its kind outside of the United States, opens its doors in September on the campus at Barnet and Southgate College with the aim of giving students aged 16-18 the potentially life-changing opportunity to combine their education with life skills and intensive football training under full-time professional coaches.<\/p>\n

Keeping a watchful eye over proceedings on a warm summer\u2019s day in Tottenham was Will Bryce, NFL UK Head of Football Development, who later spoke to the Leaders Performance Institute about its aims and aspirations.<\/p>\n

Will, what were some of the major considerations when opening the first overseas NFL Academy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong> We want to make the game as international as possible. The most important thing is establishing more roots and a legacy that allows us to be more present in the UK market all year around rather than in just October and November when we have the games on and the teams over. We want to try to make more of an impact on the sporting landscape. To go along with that, I think it helps to have an outlet for a younger generation to access the game. It does remove some of the barriers such as paying for equipment of travelling long journeys to practise at the weekend because it\u2019s still just a club sport. That\u2019s important; and it\u2019s key really with the success we\u2019ve had with players like Efe Obada, Alex Gray, and Christian Wade; you can prove that they can achieve making it into the NFL at least at a later age; there\u2019s so much promise and possibilities for kids to access this sport at a younger age.<\/p>\n

What were essential components brought over from the US and what needed to adapt in your UK model?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong> You always find yourself explaining this model to British people and British parents and you have to explain the same thing back to American parents in a different way. It cannot be just \u2018plug and play\u2019. The biggest thing is sport and education, the two go hand in hand; it\u2019s more of an American model where to become a professional you go to high school, you play in university, and then you get drafted into your various sports leagues like baseball, basketball, or American football, which isn\u2019t the case here. We\u2019re really emphasising the educational component; it\u2019s a huge plus for everybody that kids have to succeed in the classroom in order to succeed in their sport. I think that\u2019s certainly the first thing that comes to mind. I think the biggest thing we\u2019ve had to adapt to this market and what we\u2019ve learnt from other sports in the UK as well as the model in the US is the importance of a life skill component, really trying to engage, connect and support these young men as they go through this journey at a very impressionable moment in their lives. We have a dedicated Student Welfare Officer on hand every day working with them and monitoring them, the coaches, the teachers, providing guidance when needed. We want these kids to leave the Academy knowing how to function and how to contribute to society in a positive way.<\/p>\n

As an overview, what does the programme look like for a student-athlete in terms of content and duration?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong> At the moment we practice three times a week, meeting three times a week, sometimes more, depending on what our timetables end up looking at once the kids have enrolled, and then looking at access to the weight room, there\u2019s access for them to work every day with strength coaches and to schedule time depending on their needs and individual strengths and needs, whether that\u2019s working on basic things like their flexibility and how they move, their competency and balance or coordination; it could also be being in a weight room and getting bigger, stronger, faster. You\u2019ve got to have measured approach to that component because kids are going to come from all sorts of different experience level and, of course, different age groups. A student that\u2019s coming in at 16 and has never lifted weights in their life is going to be very different from your rugby player who has just finished their A-Levels \u2013 you can\u2019t train them the same way, especially with the different body types that American football possesses; you have some really big guys and you can have some smaller, more agile players and their needs are going to be different as well. It\u2019s really looking at providing as much variety and individualised attention as possible.<\/p>\n

How is their progress and development measured?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong> There will be daily communication on how the kids are progressing, coping with the rigours that they are being put through, whether that\u2019s communication between the coaching staff and school teachers to the Student Welfare Officer. Then you\u2019d have more sort of structured meetings and reports on their progression and achievement of goals that they would identify in conjunction with their coaches at the outset of the year; and then over that you would have more of your wellbeing and sports science type of monitoring so that we can really understand what impact we\u2019re having \u2013 good and bad \u2013 on the kid and how they\u2019re feeling because it\u2019s not something they\u2019ve done before, certainly not on this level. If we\u2019re monitoring their wellness, for example, and it could be around exam time, they\u2019re feeling a bit more stressed than normal, they\u2019ve been having a bit less sleep, then that\u2019s going to help our coaches to understand how to modify and monitor them and modify practice because education comes first, and there\u2019s no point creating more stress and a really hard training environment around exam times because that\u2019s going to be a very conflicting situation to put on a young man. What we\u2019re trying to prioritise is that we\u2019re always doing the right thing for these students.<\/p>\n