Aspiring young footballers have been taking part in an intensive training camp giving them a “week-in-the-life” of a professional player.
Youth team players from both Dundee and Dundee United football clubs are being put through their paces during the week-long camp at Dundee and Angus College’s Gardyne Campus.
The Dundee Derby 2016 Pro Youth Summer Academy Camp aims to teach young people important skills such as maths through sport and inspire students to use sport as a way for learning.
It has been organised by the Dundee Academy for Sport, a partnership set up in 2013 by Abertay University and D&A College which uses sport to encourage young people to pursue higher and further education.
Players were also given strength and conditioning coaching, seminars on how to improve skills and performance and experience the intense training regimens professional footballers go through.
The young players were visited by Labour MSP Jenny Marra on Wednesday, who committed her support to the Dundee Academy for Sport and encouraged the Scottish Government to do more to encourage healthy living.
She said: “I strongly believe that sport provides so many opportunities for our young people.
“It not only provides them with the chance to be fit and healthy and take control of their own lives but it also provides so many options for the future.
“We’ve got great role models in this city like Liz McColgan and Dick McTaggart who have shown us what people from Dundee can achieve in the realms of sport.
“Initiatives like this are so important for young people to get the chance to be trained at the highest levels and get some of the best coaching available.
“The Scottish Government can’t do enough to make sure that our young people are fit active and healthy and getting in to the habits of staying healthy as they grow older.”
Ian Lowe, project manager for Dundee Academy of Sport, said: “We are delighted that Jenny Marra has been able to take the time to come and see the practical impact of the work of the Dundee Academy of Sport.
“This is a living example of Abertay University’s desire to reach-out and work in partnership with a broad range of organisations on innovative programmes to encourage those who might otherwise not be attracted to further and higher education to consider continuing their studies in some form.
“I hope that in the coming weeks, other local representatives will come to the various sessions being delivered over the school holidays and beyond to learn more about the Dundee Academy of Sport and how vital it is that it receives the necessary support to continue and expand the excellent work of this fabulous partnership.”
