Ringwood U18s
FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/FOOTYFOCUSMAG
Ringwood U18s
FOOTBALL CLUB
The Ringwood Way – Developing the U18s
History
I have been involved at Ringwood
Town FC since moving over from Holt
Youth FC in 2012 when, working with Alec
Wimbleton and Paul Hopper, we coached
and managed the then U13s. Ringwood
Town FC then had two teams at this age
group and was made up predominately of
local Ringwood lads.
Every coach and Manager at this age
group will recognise that keeping lads
involved in football from this age group
onwards is no easy task – with other
distractions and school commitments of
study taking more focus.
What we did was `open the catchment
area’ up to other towns locally, including
Verwood, Wimborne and Bournemouth
with our mantra being that we will
50 Issue 70
develop players to be the `Best that they
can be’ - through engaging coaching
sessions week in week out.
It worked for us as word spread
about the fun the lads were having at
the time with their football and with a
few tournament wins and promotion to
Division 1 Bournemouth it was clear we
were doing something right.
We believe that a football match is
simply a process win, lose or draw; it is
far more important that the team takes on
board what we have helped them with in
training and pre-match discussion and
then follow that through – not a win at all
costs attitude; but with an edge created by
desire and the mental strength of the lads.
Over the years we climbed to the
top of Division 1 Bournemouth league
against some superb local sides including
Christchurch FC, Bransgore FC and Poole
Town FC, eventually winning the title in
the 2014/15 season.
It was then that we realised that our
methods and approach was something
we needed to maintain into U18s and so
we managed to secure funding from the