Hampton Senior Football Tour: Loughborough
By Alex Watson
For many years, Hampton have held a pre-season training camp for their senior footballers, to prepare them physically, mentally and technically for the new season. Its only recently, however, that the location of this training camp has shifted to Loughborough University, where the high-level facilities are used to provide Hampton players with an extremely useful and enjoyable training programme.
The four-day camp began on the 25th of August, as, after some fitness testing on the school site, around 60 boys, comprised of pupils from the Fifth Year and Sixth Form, made their way onto the coach for the three-hour trip up to Loughborough. After a team meeting upon arrival, as well as a brief look around the rooms, Hampton’s footballers were sent out for a short training session. This was quickly followed by an intense 6-a-side tournament to round off the day’s football, made doubly difficult by the fact that it was played on 11-a-side pitches. It had been an intense beginning to the four-day programme, but a delicious dinner enabled the boys to somewhat regain their energy. Throughout the stay, the food served by the University was excellent, and was no doubt a contributing factor to the success enjoyed by all Hampton teams during the trip.
The following day, after an early morning jog (much to the squad’s displeasure) and breakfast, the players were sorted by position into three groups – defenders, midfielders and forwards. The groups then split off into one of three theory sessions – nutrition with Mr Hurst, psychology with Mr Haines, or tactics with Mr Burke – which were followed by position-specific training out on the pitch.
The first matches of the tour were played in the afternoon. All three teams representing Hampton – the U18As, U18Bs, and U16As – recorded comfortable wins, scoring 17 goals between them and conceding just 2. The U18As managed a particularly impressive 6-0 win over Aylestone Park.
Away from the football, the Hampton boys had plenty of time to relax and enjoy themselves on the tour, and were provided with a great source of entertainment every evening. Each day, anyone who had turned up late to a meeting or, more commonly, the morning jog, was made to sing a song in front of the whole squad – extremely enjoyable for the vast majority of the team, not so much (so) for those involved.
The final full day of the training camp proceeded in similar fashion to the one before. Theory sessions in the morning were followed by team training, before another round of fixtures for all three squads.
The U18Bs travelled off-site to Nottingham Trent University, for a match against Mickleover FC, where their quick, incisive forward play and tireless work ethic combined to lead them to a 5-0 victory. Their fellow senior footballers were equally successful, as the U18As, not to be outdone, recorded a comfortable 6-2 win against Gresley Rovers. However, it was the U16s who had the pick of the results, winning 10-0 against the same opposition in a free-flowing, dominant performance.
6 wins out of 6 on tour, then, and all in the midst of a high-intensity, high-level training programme. Yet despite the non-stop football and fitness, the biggest challenge for the aching limbs of the Hamptonians would come the next day, the final day of the tour, in the form of a much-needed recovery session. A gruelling mixture of yoga, spin classes and active stretching at the University’s first-rate sports centre proved an arduous and painful test for the senior footballers (yoga being particularly challenging), and by the end they were very grateful to be able to get onto the coach for the return journey back to Hampton, tired but, importantly, injury-free.
All in all, the tour was a great success, and Hampton’s senior footballers can now certainly feel both well-prepared and excited for the 2025-26 season. Already the hard work put in at Loughborough has come to fruition for our U18s, who were recently crowned winners of the prestigious ISFA Sixes competition at Kimbolton School, after a 2-1 victory over Royal Russell in the final.
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