Manchester United team up with Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle in bid to improve academy

Hed Zitin

New Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2011
Messages
8,782
Location
Parking the bus
Manchester United have teamed up with gymnast Beth Tweddle in an interesting bid to improve the club's academy structure.

The Red Devils have been criticised over the last couple of weeks for falling behind neighbours Manchester City when it comes to attracting youngsters to the club and developing them.

And one of the first steps United have taken to arrest the slump is to appoint Tweddle, who recently set up her own Manchester-based gymnastics company, Total Gymnastics, to increase sports participation within the city.

United decided to team up with Tweddle after they recognised their young players were, according to the club's official website, "losing their basic movement skills associated with early years' outdoor play".

“We know there is a real opportunity to improve children’s basic movement skills and that’s why we are working so hard with our after-school Total Gymnastics classes and our in-demand primary schools curriculum," Cheshire-raised Tweddle said.

"We are delighted to be working with the young players at the world’s leading academy. This is a fantastic experience for me and my staff and exciting to think that we may be helping to develop the next world-class player to be produced through the United Academy."

United's head of performance, Tony Strudwick, added: "As a world-class club, we have to be associated with world-class providers and working with Beth and Total Gymnastics certainly ticks that box.

"I'm sure the inclusion of a gymnastic element into out younger development programme will result in players that move more efficiently, are better all-round athletes and become more robust.

"It's our duty to continually update our development programme to give our young players the best chance of becoming professional footballers."
Click to expand...
 
Louis would call it Totaal Gymnastics. :drool:
 
lysglimt said:
Gymnastics and Yoga are probably quite smart for footballers....will certainly improve balance and agility.
Click to expand...

Well its a bit too late to help those who need it the most :mad:

Radamel+Falcao+Manchester+United+v+Everton+mQ4QPIPE341l.jpg
 
It's a shame we didn't have this in place while Anderson was here. I can picture him now...

DxUFNWS.png
 
So today's youth players need gymnastics to become a Professional footballer now?.........K then,

Jesus wept what is happening to football.
 
I would have chosen dance over gymnastic but what do I know.
 
Yoga helped Giggs overcome his hamstring injuries and prolong his career. Hopefully this is a positive step in helping us overcome our injury problems that have been plaguing us every season since as far back as I can remember.
 
Big Ben Foster said:
Yoga helped Giggs overcome his hamstring injuries and prolong his career. Hopefully this is a positive step in helping us overcome our injury problems that have been plaguing us every season since as far back as I can remember.
Click to expand...

Gymnastic is really traumatic though.
 
diarm said:
It's a shame we didn't have this in place while Anderson was here. I can picture him now...

DxUFNWS.png
Click to expand...

Surprised you didn't say a certain other player who played at the same time as him
Pxy5uST.jpg
 
dannyrhinos89 said:
So today's youth players need gymnastics to become a Professional footballer now?.........K then,

Jesus wept what is happening to football.
Click to expand...
So a sport designed to assist in balance and coordination would not be beneficial to football?

It really baffles me that people so interested in a sport can be so oblivious to what actually encapsulates being a professional athlete and modern sports science. There is a reason modern players are so much faster and stronger than 20 years ago.


Oh and yoga is not just a Giggs thing. Most professional teams adopted yoga years ago because of the benefits to muscle fatigue reduction etc. the same reason that all of them conduct weights training sessions to condition muscles and reduce degeneration.
 
To be honest, I thought it was going to be a parody article when I read the thread title.

I can't wait until the club appoint Chris Eubank to help the reserves improve their 'basic showmanship skills' lost since the early days of playground football. Steve Backley to help David De Gea throw it further, and mikhail baryshnikov to work on the fundamentals of Rooney's footwork.
 
mariachi-19 said:
So a sport designed to assist in balance and coordination would not be beneficial to football?

It really baffles me that people so interested in a sport can be so oblivious to what actually encapsulates being a professional athlete and modern sports science. There is a reason modern players are so much faster and stronger than 20 years ago.


Oh and yoga is not just a Giggs thing. Most professional teams adopted yoga years ago because of the benefits to muscle fatigue reduction etc. the same reason that all of them conduct weights training sessions to condition muscles and reduce degeneration.
Click to expand...

Yeah I used to be a snowboard instructor and they gave us free yoga sessions to try help combat all the muscle injuries we were getting, especially from over stretching. We did actually see an improvement.
 
Samid said:
Didn't Phil Jones start doing yoga last season? Can't say it has helped him.
Click to expand...

Most Footballers probably do Yoga at this point. I was watching that behind the scenes type show they have of Crystal Palace and the whole team was doing Yoga. Most players in the NBA do Yoga at this point. And while Yoga has a lot of great benefits treating it like a cure all for injuries is not helpful at all.

This is probably a good idea for the academy. Gymnastics can help with balance, coordination, core strength and flexibility.
 
Steven Seagull said:
Agree should just be practicing slide tackles and smashing the ball into each others faces. Sissy boys
Click to expand...


I'd rather they focused on actually learning how to play football considering the vast majority of "professional" footballers struggle to do the basics of the game nowadays the fact there is so many average players in top teams(apart from barca, real and bayern).
 
dannyrhinos89 said:
I'd rather they focused on actually learning how to play football considering the vast majority of "professional" footballers struggle to do the basics of the game nowadays the fact there is so many average players in top teams(apart from barca, real and bayern).
Click to expand...

I'm sure they can do both at the same time if they feel it will improve them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.