Solent master's and undergrad football students had a once-in-a-lifetime visit to St George's Park, the England training ground

Solent football students train at the home of English football - St George's Park!

Student experience

Sport and fitness

Students arriving at St George's Park. Panning shot of decorative graphics showing the site and the England women's team, with text reading 'The home of England' and 'It all starts here'

Chris Neville
So we've come up to Saint George's Park, which is the training centre for the England teams, the national teams, football teams here.

Female student at St George's Park training pitch, talking to camera. Cutaway shots of a billboard with text reading 'Home to all England teams'.

Khadija Kazmi
This is the home of the Lionesses. And we're here to see what the England teams do, how they go through their training schedules.

Male student at St George's Park training pitch, talking to camera. Cutaway shots of the students arriving at St George's Park, England's trophy displays, and one of the training pitches.

Alexandre Santos
We're taking part in an amazing opportunity that Solent offered us, to come to the England national, pitches to get a bit of their reality. What do they do? What infrastructures do they have? And have a bit of run through every activity that they do here, which I think is amazing. And it's a unique opportunity that I'm really glad I'm being part of.

Solent lecturer Chris Neville at St George's Park, in the training gym with students learning behind him. Cutaway shots of students warming up in the gym, students being tested by the sport science staff at St George's Park.

Chris Neville
Of course, all our students, all 14 students here are studying football. They've all come from different areas, but they all studying football with us here at Solent. And so to come here is the pinnacle, I suppose, of training facilities across the country - it’s where all the best players in the country come to.

Female student at St George's Park training pitch, talking to camera. Cutaway shots of students in the gym, being tested by the sport science staff at St George's Park.

Saima Baig
I was very excited to come here, just thinking that some of my idols have been coming here, they’re training here. So it's very exciting for me, and I'm enjoying every bit of it since the moment I entered.

Male student at St George's Park exterior, talking to camera.

Zeus Balsara
Basically this was the first time I've come to Saint George's Park, and being an international student coming from India, I'd say this is an incredible opportunity to see where England players train.

Female student at St George's Park training pitch, talking to camera. Cutaway shots of students in the gym training on static bikes.

Khadija Kazmi
it's just so inspirational when you come here. I'm from Pakistan, and we obviously don't have these facilities, but just all I can think about is, imagine coming here as a kid. And then you see that this is something that you can dream about and actually get there.

Solent lecturer Chris Neville at St George's Park, in the training gym with students learning behind him. Cutaway shots of students in the gym training on static bikes, and of students gathered around a whiteboard with St George's Park training staff, discussing performance.

Chris Neville
The students start off here in the gym, and then they'll move out onto the grass pitches and then finish in hydrotherapy as a recovery session before they have a tour of the facility. So that's just following in the footsteps of all those famous players that have been over this site.

Josh Owens
So I enjoyed like doing the fitness tests because the England players you see like on YouTube, them doing it, so having a go was quite fun!

Female student at St George's Park training pitch, talking to camera. Cutaway shots of students warming up on the David Beckham training pitch.

Khadija Kazmi
So it's amazing. I think I've enjoyed every aspect of it – being in the gym, all the testing that they've had, being on the field... I’m very, very excited to see the recovery equipment that they have. And also just the whole experience that they've curated when you go in and all the pictures and everything that they have absolutely love all of it.

Male student at St George's Park training pitch, talking to camera. Cutaway shots of students warming up on the David Beckham training pitch.

Alexandre Santos
So it was really nice to get to know their gym, get to know what type of assessments do they do, physical wise? Now we're doing more on the pitch side, more like a practical one, which is really interesting to know what dimensions they use, what type of training will they do?

Male student at St George's Park exterior, talking to camera. Cutaway shots of students training on the David Beckham training pitch.

Zeus Balsara
So we've done different types of drills for S and C (strength and conditioning). We've done recovery workouts, which makes me understand basically how an athlete should train, recover, cool down, warm up, all aspects of it, basically.

Female student at St George's Park training pitch, talking to camera. Cutaway shots of students training on the David Beckham training pitch.

Khadija Kazmi
So just seeing how the facilities are laid out, what is important, what's not... England is the home of football, and they've kind of mastered everything in terms of making sure that the technology and making sure they're up to date with everything.

Male student at St George's Park training pitch, talking to camera. Cutaway shots of students training on the David Beckham pitch.

Alexandre Santos
I found it really unique to have such practitioners with so much knowledge... in each exercise, it gives you little details that boost your knowledge in some way, some way that you are not expecting, and always telling you why you're doing certain stuff, and what is the long term and short term benefits.

Zeus Balsara
From the staff would be basically how to monitor different athletes’ strength and conditioning. So let's say if an athlete injures his hamstring, how to maintain his workout; or let's say if his ankle is broken and he's injured, how to maintain his workout and then how to help him recover and become better.

Male student at St George's Park exterior, talking to camera. Cutaway shots from St George's Park hydrotherapy and recovery pools, including students training in the pool.

Josh Owens
So I've received, quite a few tips from, like, the guys that are taking the sessions. It can help me incorporate different bits of, like, the actual, like, real game type analysis and also with the recovery element as well. If I was ever to take a team or myself in a recovery area, I would know a little bit more about how it works and how it's actually good for recovery.

Female student at St George's Park training pitch, talking to camera. Cutaway shots from St George's Park hydrotherapy and recovery pools, including students training in the pool, jogging on underwater treadmills, and using recovery hot/cold pools.

Khadija Kazmi
So just experiencing that and being able to see how we can expand that, especially in the women's game, and what we can bring to other countries as well, I think is just in terms of that just kind of opens up the perspective. And yeah, I think it's just a great experience to have an absolutely help me in any step that I take within football.

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