Sharing knowledge with Urawa Red Diamonds

The first week started off with observing training sessions of the Feyenoord youth teams and meetings with the Academy Director, Academy Manager, Head of Youth Scouting, Head of Physical Training and Coordinator of Education. They gave Uchidate a glimpse into the successful way of working used within the Feyenoord Academy. Besides that, Feyenoord’s U17 Head Coach Melvin Boel granted the Japanese coach the opportunity to have an in-depth look into the style of play of his team. Afterwards he could immediately see how it was implemented into the training session of the Feyenoord U17 team. On the weekend, Uchidate saw what the training was leading to in a day full of matches as the program had the U8’s all the way up to the U19’s playing a league match.

The next week of the internship started off with a meeting between Uchidate and his former Urawa Red Diamonds Head Coach Wim Jansen. To provide Uchidate with an all-round insight into the Feyenoord Academy, he also had many 1 on 1 conversations during the second week. He was able to learn more about Feyenoord’s way of working due to chats with the Technical Director, Head of Video Analysis and the coordinators of the Development Phase and Goalkeeper Coaching. Last but not least, U19’s Head Coach Dirk Kuyt spoke to Uchidate to tell him more about his team and way of working.

Feyenoord and Urawa Red Diamonds signed a letter of intent to form a talent and coaching development partnership back in May 2019. The internship of Hideki Uchidate was the first step taken within the cooperation. ‘Japan is a country with a lot of football talent. By providing coaches of Urawa Red Diamonds with this kind of opportunity, we want to contribute to the development of the youth development program of our partner club’, said Gido Vader, Manager of International Relations at Feyenoord. ‘In the upcoming phase, we will review the Urawa Red Diamonds training plan and support the club whenever possible’.