young footballers celebrating on a pitch

Des Ryan – Youth Athletic Development – Injury Rehab Network

The first Injury Rehab Network event in October 2024 with BASRaT featured a presentation from Des Ryan. The online event took place on the evening of Tuesday 8^th October with 175 sports rehabilitation practitioners in attendance.

Des discussed examples of evidence-based Youth Athletic Development programmes. The recording is available to watch here.

Des Ryan's profile

Des Ryan, Director of Sport & Physical Wellbeing, University of Galway

Des Ryan is the Director of Sport & Physical Wellbeing at the University of Galway, where he leads the strategic development and management of the university’s sports programs and facilities. With a distinguished career in sports management and performance coaching, Des brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his role.

Des joins the University of Galway from his position as Director of Coaching & Athletic Development at Setanta College and prior to that Des was the Head of Sport Medicine & Athletic Development at Arsenal Football Club Academy, which he held for 9 years and where he has re-shaped the concept of player development within the world of football. He has also previously served as Head of S&C at Connacht Rugby and as Fitness Education Manager within the IRFU, where he spent over 13 years developing the IRFU’s coach and player development system.

Over the years Des has presented at the UKSCA, ASCA and the NSCA conferences as well as many other conferences around the world. He also has worked as a consultant to World Rugby and the National Cricket academy in India.

Des has a Masters in Strength and Conditioning and is also an Accredited Strength and Conditioning coach with the UKSCA. He has achieved the High-Performance Sports Accreditation from the British Association of Sports and Exercise Science and is a chartered scientist.

As the Director of Sport, Des Ryan is instrumental in shaping the university’s sports landscape, overseeing the implementation of high-performance training programs, Sport for all programmes, and ensuring the provision of top-tier facilities for student-athletes. His passion for sports, coupled with his dedication to promoting physical activity and wellbeing, underscores his commitment to creating a dynamic and inclusive sports environment at the University of Galway. Des’ leadership and vision are integral to the university’s mission of supporting and empowering its sports community to achieve their full potential.

Youth Athletic Development

young footballers celebrating on a pitch

Des’s presentation considered examples of evidence-based Youth Athletic Development programmes. He shared examples from Arsenal Academy and also from his years of experience working in Youth Athletic Development, Supporting Girl and Boy players in the club, school and academy environments. Biological maturation was discussed, and how to use that information to reduce the risk of growth-related injuries. Des shared some excellent resources that are available to coaches in the community to support Youth Athletic Development.

High Performance Youth Sport

Des Described National Governing Bodies Focus on Youth Sport with pathways from a participation/ recreation level to sub academy centres, performance academies and high-performance academies. Des considered physical development of your athletes with late, on time and early developers.

Arsenal Academy

Des shared insights from his role at Arsenal Academy from 2012 – 2021.

Building a Sport Science and Medicine Team

Des discussed how he was fortunate to work as part of a great team at Arsenal including management, coaching and medical staff. Des’s aim was to reduce time lost due to injuries. The Sports Medicine and Athletic Development team included practitioners in strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, medicine, nutrition and personal development & psychology.

Des considered the importance of values and working with athletes to ensure they have a positive attitude to youth development and how it contributes to performance. Des showed videos of how players attitude and physical performance improved.

Values

Des described the Arsenal Academy vision to develop Strong Young Gunners through the mission of the most challenging and caring football academy in the world. Shared values of respect, discipline and humility are the foundation of the academy with a range of practitioners supporting the work of the coaching team. The aim is to create effective team players who are lifelong learners, efficient movers and have a champion mentality.

Philosophy

Des shared the Arsenal philosophy. At Arsenal the football philosophy is centred around players being able to express themselves, being technically able and composed on the ball, whilst demonstrating exciting combination play between players. This philosophy is lived and breathed across the club. In relation to physical development the philosophy is for physically able players with high-speed qualities, speed repeatability and excellent skills.

Vision, Mission & Pillars

Des described the importance of having a clear vision, mission and pillars. Des showed a video clip from an interview with Scott Robertson (New Zealand rugby union coach), who described vision as having clear sight/ aspiration with a picture of where you are trying to get to. Scott then considered mission as the detail of how you will get to where you want to go.

Des considered the pillars of the Arsenal vision:

Effective team player: Influences the game, performs within the playing style, adapts to any football situation.
Champion mentality: Driven to improve, challenge and win.
Most efficient mover: Executes better football actions, maintains good football actions, maintains many football actions.
Lifelong learner: Puts education first, commits to personal development, studies the game.

Des described development of the Elite Player Performance Plan at Arsenal together with facilities at the Arsenal training ground.

Physical Development Framework

Des described the IRFU Physical Development Framework and Functional Approach which is based on functional competence, movement skill, integrated conditioning, and recovery.

Des has also supported the development of long-term athletic development in Gaelic Games. The Gaelic Games approach to athletic development is based around force, game speed and endurance.

Des considered the Arsenal Academy approach to physical development of young players which focuses on functional competence, movement skills, integrated conditioning, planning and periodisation. The frequency and volume of athletic development sessions increases as players progress through the stages of the academy through to professional football.

Principles

Des discussed the importance of sticking to your principles. Principles at Arsenal include be mannerly, be objective and tell the truth. Des showed examples of the high-quality training undertaken by athletes in the gym and in sessions on the pitch. Des believes that if you praise youth they will flourish.

Growth and Maturation

young athletes growing up

Des discussed growth and maturation of young athletes and showed images of how players of the same age can vary is size and stages of growth.

Des has recently worked with Sean Cummings from the University of Bath to deliver a workshop with the Scottish FA about growth and maturation.

Des considered peak height velocity with peak growth in centimetres per year ranging from early (around age 12), on time (around age 14), and late (around age 16). Des looked at normal distribution in the general population where around 70% of young people experience peak growth on time with 15% late and 15% early. However, in an academy setting with male players there can be a bias with around 70% of players from the early growth group. Des described how it’s important to keep young people engaged in sport whether they grow early, late or on time.

Des discussed maturity timing and the point at which people reach 100% maturation. Physeal injuries in academy football peak at around U13/ U14 for both Sever’s disease and Osgood Schlatter’s disease. Des described how practitioners should consider growth and maturation and adjust training during peak growth periods to reduce the risk of injury.

Player Pathway

Des is part of a working group that has developed the Gaelic Games Player Pathway. The vision is to support healthy and holistic player development by facilitating players, coaches and parents to apply sports science in an integrated manner consistent with the values of the Gaelic Games.

The player pathway focuses on athletic development with support for nutrition, sport psychology, performance analysis, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, and skill development. Modules and resources are available for coaches and players to access.

Mentors

The final recommendation from Des for practitioners is to work with mentors to continuously learn and gain feedback/ advice.

Resources

Des recommended some useful resources for practitioners:

Follow Des Ryan

University of Galway

Q&A

Des kindly answered questions put forward by practitioners who attended the session. Please see the presentation recording for the insights from Des to the questions.

Presentation Recording

The recording of Des’s presentation is available to watch here

2024 Injury Rehab Network events

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