Reds Elite Training

For a long time, players at community football clubs who wanted extra development had limited options. They could attend a private academy. They could pay for sessions at an independent coaching centre. Or they could settle for what their weekly team training provided and hope it was enough.

None of those felt right to us.

Virginia United FC has the coaches, the facility, and the football knowledge to offer something better, and it is our responsibility to make that available to our players. Reds Elite Training exists so that development stays within the club. So that players never have to look elsewhere for the quality coaching they deserve. So that the standard of football development at VUFC reaches every player in our community, not just the ones on the elite pathway.

This is about access. Real access, to real coaching, at your home club.

Reds Elite Training is a structured, coached development program that sits alongside your regular team environment, not instead of it.

It is not camp-style. It is not one-size-fits-all. It is a purposefully designed program built around individual player development - small groups, qualified coaches, progressive sessions with a curriculum that builds week on week.

The environment is different from team training by design. In your team session, the focus is the team, the shape, the system, the result on Saturday. 

In Reds Elite Training, the focus is you. Your technique, your decision-making, your 1v1 ability, your positioning, your strengths, and the areas of your game you want to develop.

That individual attention is something a team session of fifteen or twenty players simply cannot provide. Reds Elite does.

Everything delivered under the Reds Elite banner is held to the same standard we apply across our FQA Academy and high performance programs.

The program is directed by Ellis Shaw - Virginia United's FQ Academy Junior Technical Director and Head Coach of our Youth program. Ellis brings Academy-level coaching methodology into the community development environment. The curriculum, the session design, and the coaching approach are all the foundation of how we develop players at the Club to the top level. 

The program operates under the oversight of Head of High Performance Stuart Kelly, ensuring the quality and professionalism of what we deliver never falls short of what our players deserve.

Every coach involved in Reds Elite Training is suitably qualified. That is not a box we tick, it is a standard we set and maintain. Players and families can come into any Reds Elite session knowing they are in the hands of coaches who know what they are doing and are invested in their development.

Goalkeeping is a specialist position that deserves specialist coaching, and Reds Elite Training includes a dedicated GK program to reflect that.

Reds Elite GK Training is led by Jon Crowe, Virginia United's own senior goalkeeper, currently playing at FQPL level. Jon brings something that no formal qualification alone can provide: the lived, current experience of playing the position at a competitive level every single week.

GK Training covers the full range of goalkeeping development, shot-stopping, handling, footwork, positioning, distribution, and 1v1 situations - in a structured, progressive session format. It is part of the Reds Elite program and held to the same coaching standards.

Reds Elite Training is for Virginia United FC registered players who want more from their football development.

It is for the junior player who loves the game and wants more time on the ball. The teenager preparing for a step up in level. The player who wants to sharpen a specific part of their game. The goalkeeper who knows they need dedicated work outside of team sessions.

It is not an elite pathway program - that is what our FQA Academy and ASP programs are for. Reds Elite Training is for every community player at this club who wants to develop. It is designed to be accessible, structured, and genuinely worthwhile.

The programs we launch are the beginning of something larger.

As Reds Elite Training grows, so does the range of what we offer. Specialist position clinics. 1-on-1 private coaching sessions. Programs across more age groups. Development opportunities across more areas of the game.

Our goal is to build a genuine development culture at Virginia United - where players at every level of the club have a clear pathway to get better, and where the quality of what we provide reflects the ambitions we have for this club and for our community.

Reds Elite Training is how we get there.