Coaches from the West Ham United Academy took part in a coaching development workshop in India on Wednesday afternoon.
Academy Head of Coaching Kalam Mooniaruck and U18s Physical Development Coach Toby Griffiths took part in the panel at Corporate Reliance Park in Navi Mumbai as part of the Premier League Next Generation Cup.
Over 30 clubs from around India were in attendance at the panel hosted by the Reliance Foundation as they put questions to staff from the Hammers, Everton, Stellenbosch and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The panel explored a number of different topics around player development, as well as sharing ideas and information about techniques used at their respective clubs to get the most out of their young players.
Mooniaruck was up first, speaking alongside his counterparts about the finer points of developing young players and about day-to-day life at Chadwell Heath for coaches, as well as how his team get the very best out of the player, but also developing the person.
Griffiths, who has been working at West Ham United since August 2021 spoke about the work that he does with the U18s, as well as looking at the development of players and moving them through the different age groups in the academy.
Questions were then asked by those in attendance from the Indian Clubs, as they looked to squeeze every ounce of knowledge from the coaches.
The Hammers are out in India competing in the Next Gen Cup, finishing in second place in Group A having drawn against Stellenbosch, ISL side ATK Mohun Bagan and beaten Bengaluru FC.
Alongside the matches, the team have taken part of a number of cultural activities, which included a trip to the slums of Dharavi.
Speaking after the event, Mooniaruck said that he hopes that the panel talk will help the coaches in the audience continue to develop players here in India.
“It was brilliant to be involved in the panel at Reliance Corporate Park,” he told whufc.com.
“Hopefully the chat that we had and the opportunity for the Indian sides to ask questions to us will continue to inspire them to develop some really good players.
“We have seen some real togetherness from the two Indian Super League sides that we faced in the group, and I’m sure that as time goes on things will only get better for football here, and tournaments like this one will really go a long way to developing the game in this country.”
Griffiths echoed Mooniaruck and said that he hoped that the topics talked about will help other teams out in India.
“I think we have a really good opportunity to share the knowledge and experience that we have at our disposal,” Griffiths said.
“Obviously the Indian clubs have different limitations in sports science and physical development prevision, but if they can take one thing from our discussion today to improve their provision for the better then this has been a worthwhile day of networking.”
