The Club aims to give young aspiring female football players the opportunity to access elite levels of coaching and support within a professional environment. The Girls Academy currently consists of an Emerging Talent Centre, Club Pathway and Professional Game Academy.
The Girls Academy currently operates across eight age groups, with teams at U9, U10, U11, U12, U13, U14, U16 and U21 (See more information on our U21s here).
The Academy is split into three phases: Foundation Phase (FP), which covers players between ages 8 and 11, and the Youth Development Phase (YDP), which covers players between ages 12 and 16. The U21s then sit within our Professional Development Phase. Listed below are the main components of each phase:
Foundation Phase
(8 - 11)
- Specific Foundation Phase syllabus
- Training on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 18:00-20:00 at Aston Villa Inner City Facility
- Matches are played on Saturdays - Under-10s, and Under-11s at a neutral venue. Under-12s play home and away
- The teams play in the Boys’ Junior Premier League, alongside fixtures against other Girls Academies.
Youth Development Phase
(12 - 16)
- Specific Youth Development Phase syllabus
- Training on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 18:30-21:30 which is two hours pitch based and one hour gym based
- Matches are played on Saturdays - home and away. Home matches are played at Bodymoor Heath Training Ground
- The teams play in the Junior Premier League against local boys teams
- FA Youth Cup participation (current semi-finalists in the 23/24 season)
Benefits
High level training and education programme (4-6 hours weekly), including:
- Two pitch-based sessions per week (Four hours). Also, an U16 day release model, find out more information here.
- Two strength & conditioning sessions per week (U13s, U14s and U16s)
- Comprehensive competitive games programme
- One educational workshop per week (nutrition, education, safeguarding, psychology, lifestyle and more)
- Analysis - training and games are recorded and uploaded to Hudl for athletes to review performance
Training at Ason Villa Football Club's first team training ground; Bodymoor Heath, with acess to:
- Excellent grass pitches
- High Performance Centre
- Medical room
- Analysis suite
- Classroom
A highly experienced Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT), including:
- Technical Coaches (UEFA A & B qualified) - Two per age group
- Foundation Phase Lead
- Youth Development Phase Lead
- Goalkeeping Coach
- Medical Lead
- Physical Lead (Foundation and Youth Development Phase)
- Performance Psychology & Player Support
- Education Lead
- Nutrition Support
- Safeguarding & Welfare Lead
- Analyst
Additional Support
- Individualised Strength & Conditioning Programmes
- Individual Development Plans - performance feedback (Four reviews across the year)
- Technical Home Programming
- In the 20/21 season we were the first Girls Academy to start a Day release programme which now runs across our high potential U14s and U16s
- We pride ourselves on being able to offer an inclusive, fully-integrated pathway to potential young athletes, and are passionate about creating a welcoming environment in which individuals are able to realise and reach their full potential - both as people and footballers
Testimonials
Under-10 Player
"It’s not just about the football at Aston Villa. It’s about me as a person, they give me everything I need to be the best person I can be."
Parent U14 and U16
"The professionalism and detail to every aspect is second to none: The intensity of every training session, S+C session, pre match warm up etc is relentless"
Under-12 Parent
"Our daughter absolutely loves her time at training and at games and is delighted if there is a Zoom meeting planned. The half-term week was fantastic. The staff and coaches are phenomenal and take the developing of the individual as seriously as they do the developing of the footballer. The expectations and standards are always high and we, as a family, feel our daughter is impeccably cared-for and looked-after. We couldn't ask for anymore."
