Futsal & Football Coaching Community Come Together For Inaugural England Futsal Coaching Conference at Loughborough University
50 coaches, from across all levels of the game, travelled to Loughborough University on Thursday 9th April for a day of expert insights, networking and masterclasses from some of the best minds in the futsal, football and coaching practice spaces.
Image Credits: Sean Williamson (Instagram @sdgw.png)
Thursday 9th April at Loughborough University was a day of firsts for England Futsal as the first-ever Coaching Conference, powered by Veo, was delivered in the morning, with a wide variety of coaches travelling from across the country to connect and share in a joint-learning experience, before moving into the afternoon and watching the Lionesses compete for the very first time on home soil, against Slovakia, on the very same court which had hosted the morning’s practical masterclasses.
“It was great to get together with the futsal community and share experiences…”, said one attendee,“…as well as having speakers there with different facets and perspectives to share around both coaching and peripheral learning”.
The conference began with a keynote presentation to all attendees in the Sir David Wallace Sports Hall, delivered by Professor Leanne Norman, Director of the Women in Sport Research and Innovation Hub at Loughborough University. Her focus was on gender inequities within coaching systems, and drawing on national sporting research, she explored how culture, informal networks, recruitment practices and everyday norms influence women’s coaching careers.
It was then time for our attendees to pick from the rich menu of coaching content, with three 45-minute masterclass sessions, each featuring an on-court practical, with the use of our Women’s U19 Performance Programme players, and two separate classroom lectures, focusing on coaching theory and cutting-edge research within the sport.
Session 1 saw presentations by Tom Hartley & Heather Douglas from Play Their Way, Professor Bruno Silva from Indoor Data, and England Futsal’s very own Luciana de Martin Silva & Sion Kitson.
Session 2 then saw an on-court demonstration of key 4-0 principles by England Futsal Performance Programme lead coaches, Luis Mendonca & Mark Simmons, alongside classroom lectures from Scott Smith of Norwich City FC Academy, on the intergation of futsal into player development, and David Tapia-Owens, Head of Analysis at top flight Spanish futsal club, Malaga Ciudad Redonda FS.
The full-range of masterclasses available on the day
Elite Pivot Trends in Modern Futsal - David Tapia-Owens, Head of Analysis & Scouting at Malaga Ciudad Redonda FS
“The session by David Tapia-Owens around Pivot play was exceptional. He had a very engaging presentation style.
The material he delivered was on point and really connected with the subject matter. He was able to present it in a short period of time, without feeling he was rushing through it.
Really good content and plenty to take away to contemplate and reflect on.”
- Coaching Conference attendee
In between Sessions 2 and 3, the conference broke for lunch, providing the opportunity to network, share ideas and reflect on the morning’s learning with fellow members of the community.
During the break, coaches were also treated to a fascinating expert panel, filled by the four national team head coaches who were competing in the Men’s FIFA Futsal World Cup qualifiers during the week at Loughborough: Matija Dulvat (Sweden), John Tapia-Owens (England), Mico Martic (Switzerland) and Enrique Guillen (Northern Ireland).
The international quartet spoke openly to the audience about their personal journeys in coaching as well as providing valuable insights into their coaching philosophies and the rigours of preparing teams to compete on the international futsal stage.
National Team Head Coaches Panel
Unique insight into the world of international futsal from our four head coaches.
It was then on to the third and final session of the day, with our friends Michael Morton & David McGurk from Tactx delivering an on-court class around effective movement, Martin Corsie & Sean Dye from Solent University presenting their research study from the Men’s 2026 UEFA Futsal Euro Finals & University of Lancashire’s Professor Chris Yianakki exploring how to develop effective decision-makers in futsal.
Professor Leanne Norman delivered the closing keynote, with a talk around coaching in high-performance environments, before our attendees made their courtside once more to witness the first-ever Lionesses game on home soil. The ideal way to round-off an engaging day of futsal learning and coaching development.
A huge thank you from all of us at England Futsal to every single one of our guest speakers and members of the coaching community who made the day possible, as well as our official conference partners, Veo Technologies, who enjoyed meeting and chatting with our community on the day. You can explore the offers available on Veo cameras through our partnership here.
You can also find out more about each of our presenters, their work and organisations by clicking on the links in their names above.
If you attended the conference and have not yet received the materials from each presentation (emailed to all registered attendees last week), please contact us at info@englandfutsal.com and we will deal with your query promptly.
A final thank you to our fantastic venue partner, Loughborough University, who provided the perfect environment for what we hope will be the first of many England Futsal Coaching Conferences.
All Images Courtesy of Sean Williamson (@sdgw.png - Instagram)
