The Liverpool Way

Our twins recently attended Liverpool International Academy’s three-day football camp at Liverpool Football Club 's flagship AXA training centre in Kirkby.? It may have been a “little” out of the way from our Surrey home just for a holiday camp, but the kids love football, love LFC, and was a great excuse for some quality family time in one of our favourite cities.

If all those reasons weren’t enough, my interest peaked when I saw that the camp was advertised as: Learn to play the Liverpool Way.

We arrived on day one, with 100+ other excited kids (and parents), all donning various Liverpool kits (apart from one Arsenal strip!).? The children were all shown which group they were in (group 5 for James and Lily) and asked to go and join their team for the week.

We were about to leave, when the head coach addressed us all. It wasn’t just the usual speel about pick up times and signing out procedures, but 20 minutes of explaining the what, why and how of Learning to play the Liverpool Way.? And he did the same at pick up where we were ALL part of the de-brief.

He explained that The Liverpool Way?forms part of the club’s core values and weaves through everything they do: how they live and how they act.

Their Values – Ambition, Commitment, Dignity, Unity – are part of their fabric of their players, staff and fans and are recognised all over the world. This sets them aside from other football clubs.

An example of playing 'The Liverpool Way' was epitomised during the 2019 Champions League semi-final when the seemingly impossible come back became reality through the determination, team spirit and commitment of the players.

The result proved to be the catalyst that would see the club go on to lift the trophy and the following year become Premier League and World Club Champions.

The club pride themselves in creating the best environment possible for the development of young players, both as footballers and as people, and there has been a consistent tradition of developing top class players, from their Academy, such as Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Each day at the Academy camp, the coach would start and end the day on asking the kids to remind everyone of the four core values, and provided us with examples of each:

• Ambition: Who was brave enough to take a risk?? Who learned from a mistake?
• Commitment: Who went that extra mile?? Who was the most enthusiastic?
• Dignity: Who was respectful to their teammates?? Who took pride in all aspects of their training?
• Unity: Who worked together to bring the best out of one another?

On the last day of camp, we were invited back 30 minutes before the end to watch their awards presentation. Each award was linked to the values and every child was given a personal assessment report marked on skills, fitness and how they upheld the values.?

It was a great experience for the kids, and a great example of not only how to implement values, but how to live and breath them in everything you do and make them a part of your environment.

• Do you have a Liverpool Way for your business?
• Is everyone across your business truly living them?
• Do they set you aside from your competitors?

BW

Martin

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Martin Norbury

Investor | Business Mentor at?Advocate?| Author of?I don’t work Fridays