Former Walsall man Wayne Thomas makes success of football live streams
ACE Academy's trial for their virtual football school was a resounding success as owner and former Walsall player Wayne Thomas now aims to take it to the next level.
The 41-year-old, who played for the Saddlers from 1996-2000, has had to shut down his academy's sessions due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Now, after taking inspiration from Joe Wicks' online PE lessons, Thomas has kicked off with his own football sessions, which he streams live on the ACE Academy Facebook page.
"I lost signal once and a massive bee came into the garden, and my five-year-old ran inside, but it all added to the human side of it," Thomas said.
"I got loads of great engagement and overall we had 20,000 views with a reach of around 60,000 over the three hours.
"It's hard to quantify how many are looking in and how many are doing it, but if only five per cent did it, that's 1,000 kids – I got a big reach with it.
"I got photos of kids in Ireland doing it and Ray Graydon's grandson doing it in Southampton.
"What people enjoyed, which was a little bit different, was when we took a break I asked people if their kids wanted a shout out.
"There's a lot of people just pushing content out at the moment but I wanted to make it fun and engaging.
"I wanted to get feedback off people and it all looked great – really positive."
Thomas ran three one-hour sessions, catering for children aged four to seven, eight to 11 and 12-16.
His three sons, Brody, aged five, Jude, aged 12 and Ryley aged 16 – who plays for Shrewsbury Town's academy – helped Thomas put on the sessions.
The plan going forward is to host sessions on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for free during April, although the academy are asking for donations from anyone who can afford it.
"We're the same as most academies, all of our revenue streams have been shut off," Thomas added.
"I don't want to limit anyone so for the rest of April we just ask that if you feel we're adding value and you have the funds, you can make a donation.
"We wouldn't ask for a donation of more than £10, but if a kid did every session it's less than £1 a session."
After April, Thomas is considering a plan for players from May to August, which would include a small fee.
Anyone interested in the sessions can access them, and further information, by visiting the ACE Academy Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/footballaceacademy.
The sessions will be streamed live on Facebook and then uploaded to the academy's YouTube channel to be viewed at any time. The channel can be found via: shorturl.at/hijL6.
Donations can be made at: https://bit.ly/33XRXKL.
