COLCHESTER United legend Karl Duguid is offering footballers of all ages the chance to keep sharp – and be ready to go when matches start again.

The popular former U’s skipper, who racked up more than 450 appearances for the club during his two spells with them, is holding both one-to-one and group coaching sessions for both children and adults, helping them to prepare for when the grassroots game resumes again.

Duguid, who won promotion with Colchester in both 1998 and 2006, boasts a wealth of experience in the game and wants to use that to help footballers get back out on the pitch.

Duguid said: “I just think it’s something that will work and even pros in their off season can come and get fit – I feel I know what they know and what they want and I feel I can help them get that.

“If there’s a group of you, you can encourage each other and there’s nothing better than that achieving like that something together.

“They’ve missed a lot of football, they’ve missed a lot of training and what they enjoy doing.

“I’ll run it throughout the season too as they always want to do more.

“They normally train on a Tuesday and a Thursday and I’ll probably do it on a Monday evening and a Wednesday if I can, if all goes well.

“I’ll also be doing a Saturday morning session during the off-season.

“Initially it’s an off-season football fitness for all of these boys that have missed it and want to get as fit as they possibly can, ready to play again for the likes of Heybridge, Stanway and Maldon and to get them together.

“The group sessions are something I’ve been thinking about for a while and after what’s gone on, I think everyone has missed out on a lot of training and a lot of hours of football so it’s like an off season programme ready for your pre-season programme with your clubs.

“I’ve had a number of boys locally who have contacted me and want to get fit and I want to help them as much as possible.

“I really enjoy the one to one stuff and I think they definitely benefit from that.

“Sometimes you need a little bit of help and that’s what I want to do.”

 

Duguid, who is currently in joint charge at Pitching In League division north outfit Heybridge Swifts with former Spurs defender Stuart Nethercott, has been keeping himself fit during lockdown.

“At this moment in time, I’m as fit as I was when I played and I think I can help people get as fit as they can,” said the 42-year-old, who has now been coaching and holding one-to-one sessions for a number of years following his last professional game for Colchester in May, 2014.

“Being as fit as I could be was a massive part of my game and the fitter you are, the better you become as a footballer because you’re not lagging at the end of a game, you’re not tired and you can make that pass if you need to whereas if you’re not fit enough, you don’t do that and it becomes a bit more difficult.

“I think I can help – I played every position so I think I know enough to help anyone really!

“That’s my aim and hopefully I can get it going.”

Duguid enjoyed a superb professional playing career, helping Colchester achieve the highest-ever finish in their history back in 2007.

Now he says he is enjoying helping a future generation of stars take their first steps in the game.

“There’s a couple of kids I’ve coached that have done well and gone on to clubs and a couple are at Colchester and one at Ipswich as well,” said former U’s youth-team player Duguid.

“When I get the reports back from the clubs and they highlight the things they need to work at, I can help them develop that part of their game.

“It works hand in hand – yes, you get pleasure out of helping but then I’ll go and coach at Heybridge and you see something work that you’ve worked at on a Thursday and you’re like ‘wow, brilliant, that’s what we worked on’ and it’s nice when the players recognise that as well.

“I’ve really enjoyed that at Heybridge as I’ve tried to implement certain things and stuff like that.

“When Julian (Dicks) first took over and I was his assistant, we changed the shape and when you see it work it’s fantastic.

“We won the play-off final and the hard work paid off.

“It’s like anything; when you play, you train hard to win a game of football and play well and you get that pleasure.

“Now the pleasure is watching someone else do what you’ve helped them do.

“We scored so many goals from corners at Colchester, with Watto just clipping it in, a little flick at the near post and a back post header from Browny – little things like that.

“I’m sure Watto has done that corner routine at Billericay, Browny at Maldon and Kemi at Brightlingsea – we’ve certainly done it at Heybridge!

“Little things stick in your mind.”

Duguid played under numerous manager during his long playing career and the versatile performer says he took something from all of them – good and bad.

He said: “You can also learn from things that you didn’t like.

“Out of the managers I played under, there’s something in your head where you remember things they’ve done, playing under the likes of Parky, Peter Reid, Paul Sturrock or Geraint Williams.

“Geraint was a fantastic coach – probably one of the best, if I’m honest.

“Some of the sessions we did with him were excellent.

“Steve Whitton was the first manager who introduced playing off your back foot whether it was on your right side or your left side and he was doing that over 20 years ago.

“Steve Foley was doing a lot of the quick feet stuff when I was in the Colchester youth team – the things we were doing with Steve around 25 years ago, they show on the telly now, like the stuff Pep does in training.

“I watched the Manchester City documentary on Amazon and I think there was a session they were doing on there that we did up the Uni with Steve Foley in 1996.”

For more on Karl Duguid’s coaching sessions, visit his Facebook page.