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Player Development Centre

What is it?

The Player Development Centre initiative offers advanced football coaching with a developmental focus, for children of all footballing abilities and experiences. We have a strong belief that for players to be able to develop and reach their potential they need to train and play with others of a similar level. For this reason, we have a player pathway in place where players can move up or down so we can make sure they are in a group which is both challenging but also gives them a chance to have success. 

The overriding mission statement for SBitC Player Development Centres is ‘To provide high quality coaching and a positive coaching environment to support players in reaching their potential’. We achieve this by providing a positive learning environment that focusses on each individual player, rather than team results. 

We understand that all players are different, which is why we assess and coach players across all of ball, body, mind, and game. We also have a coaching syllabus to ensure all players in our centre are experiencing this holistic development. 

We don’t promise that players involved in our PDCs will become professional footballers, but what we do guarantee is a high-quality coaching environment that improves the technical and tactical understanding of those who attend. 

SBITC are a registered charity, therefore a not-for-profit organisation. This means that all costs involved in PDCs cover the costs of running the centre, rather than being focused on making profit.

More about the PDCs: 

SBITC offer a number of unique opportunities with CCFC; opportunities that you will not experience anywhere else, including, but not limited to:

  • PDC players being ball collectors for every Coventry City home fixture.
  • Friendly games, training, and trial arrangements with CCFC Academy.

The Coaches, Coaching and Facilities:

  • All our staff are FA Licensed coaches, meaning they have coaching, first aid and safeguarding qualifications including an enhanced DBS check.
  • UEFA B qualified coaches working on our PDCs – a course which takes up to a year to obtain
  • Our coaching curriculum is based on the Coventry City Academy curriculum, with a new curriculum for 2025/26, ensuring the best coaching topics and practices, in a structured and progressive way
  • Individual learning plans for each player, reviewed twice throughout the season by coaches
  • Specialist goalkeeper training, with FA qualified GK coaches
  • Player Assessments – Player feedback from coaches throughout the season
  • Physical Screening – we do physical screening a couple of times a season to assess players across areas such as agility, speed, flexibility. We have invested in some speed gates which will make this more accurate to test running speed (additional cost)
  • All training takes place on high quality 3G artificial grass pitches
  • Player pathway from Under 6 through to U18 age groups
  • Football Education BTEC qualifications available for post-16 players interested in a career in coaching or the sports industry, in partnership with Coventry College

The Games Programme:

  • 30+ teams from Under 7 to U18 playing in the Junior Premier League, Midlands Junior Premier League, East Warwickshire League & Mid Warwickshire League representing Coventry City
  • School holiday fixture programme against other professional football clubs including Wycombe, Northampton, Oxford, MK Dons and many more
  • All teams playing in these leagues that come under our England quality accreditation
  • Once to twice a season, our PDC Elite 1 groups get to play Coventry City Academy in friendly matches

 

The Success Stories:

  • Over 600 players involved in our PDC programme playing every week
  • Over 650 players having professional club Academy trials since PDCs started in 2010 – an average of 50 players a year
  • Over 150 players signing professional contracts with Academies – an average of 12 each year. This ranges from those starting out on their football journey to players getting scholars when they leave school
  • 100’s of young players every year enjoying themselves and improving their skills and personal development.

Player Information

The Player Development Centre fees, session times and locations vary dependent on your child’s age and team. When your child is allocated a team, all of the relevant information will be sent via Spond e.g. team such as “shadows u7” or “elite 3 u7” etc. Fees are set out within the player information pack which is sent out upon your child being signed on.