About Me

Hi, my name is James So and I am currently the academy physical development coach for the 9-16s at Leeds United Football Club.

I currently oversee the physical development programme for the 9-16s age groups and also assist in the delivery of the U18s programme. My roles include the delivery of physical development content through gym sessions, and on-field warm-ups and training, monitoring and physical profiling of academy players that is in line with the Premier League Elite Player Performance Pathway (EPPP) requirements, and working as part of a multidisciplinary team with physiotherapists, sports coaches, performance analysts, psychologist, nutritionist to ensure that a holistic approach is taken for the players’ development.

I am an accredited strength and conditioning coach (UKSCA) who has been working mostly in the youth development environment. Prior to my role at Leeds United, I spent 2 years working in the athletic development of the Millfield Institute of Sport and Wellbeing at Millfield School. In my role at Millfield, I worked across a wide range of sports (netball, athletics, tennis, triathlon, rugby) and age groups from 13-18 years old, delivering the athletic development programme. I have also had previous experience interning at university athlete level at Sydney University and University of Bath, where I completed my undergraduate studies.

Working in the youth development sector is my passion. Although I am still relatively young in my coaching career, I have found that I thoroughly enjoy working with adolescent athletes, supporting them in their development not just as athletes, but as good people first and foremost. I care about the people that I coach and place an emphasis on building good relationships with the athletes I coach and the colleagues with whom I work. An important part of my coaching philosophy and practice is critically reflecting my work and being genuine in my thoughts and values. I believe that this is a crucial part of my process in developing myself as a coach.