For the first time since the programme commenced, the Hampshire FA Academy welcomes two partners, BlazePod and Ultimateinstability as joint Main Sponsors.

As part of the 2-season partnership agreement, BlazePod and Ultimateinstability will be supporting players and teams with game-changing products and training, utilised around the world by professional football teams, elite athletes and coaches.

BlazePod: World-Leading Flash Reflex Training System

BlazePod is a sport- and fit-tech product designed to enhance training through reactive and reflex technology. It has already proven itself a vital tool in the coaches arsenal across many sports, including football at grassroots through to international professional teams. The product recently had a dose of high-profile publicity when a recent video circulated showing Victoria Beckham and David Beckham going head-to-head using the product as part of a home workout.

With its touch-sensitive Pods and adaptive, customisable drills, BlazePod improves athletes' reaction, balance, speed, stamina, agility, strength and cognitive skills. Supported by the BlazePod App (available on iOS and Android devices), teams and coaches can track progress and record live data, placing an emphasis on overall performance improvement and adding the motivational, fun and challenging elements.

UK and Ireland Sales Director of BlazePod, Trevor Mills, commented: “We’re delighted to partner with Hampshire FA. Our innovative flesh reflex technology has quickly become an essential part of the training toolkit, especially in football, where we’re seeing significant benefits to players, teams and coaches. Our goal is to help teams perform better, and we know this partnership with Hampshire FA will allow us to reach more players.”

Ultimateinstability: Ultimate Form of Instability Training

Ultimateinstability is the market leader in hydrodynamic resistance and stability training for sports coaches, therapists, and fitness pros. Their versatile product range consists of the Aquabag, Aquaball and Hydrovest - made out of durable raftering material, compact in size, and easy transportable.

But it’s Ultimateleinstability’s philosophy of movement optimisation and education which helps athletes and coaches look at movement in new ways by adding disruptive challenges to workouts and drills. Designed specifically to support and enhance movement patterns, Ultimateinstability helps gain long-term performance enhancement by improving adaptability, resilience and robustness backed by evidential research.

Studies show that training with unstable resistance like water-filled equipment will induce compensatory activation up to 15% more than movements with traditional equipment, activating greater trunk muscle activation, resulting in greater stabilising function for anterior, posterior and lateral core muscles.

Head of Marketing and Sales, Maarten Hermans, said: “This is one of the first partnerships we’ve embarked on as we enter the UK and Ireland market. Through becoming the main Hampshire FA Academy sponsor we hope this demonstrates our commitment to the grassroots football community, and those training to become skilled and educated professionals in their own right. We can’t wait to see teams and coaches using our products to enhance their movement education.”

With these two partners joining forces, the Hampshire FA Academy is well equipped to help ignite and further the development of players and teams. Hampshire FA CEO, Neil Cassar, commented: “We are thrilled to have BlazePod and Ultimateinstability jointly partner to support the Hampshire FA Academy. The brands and their products will be incorporated at different stages in Academy training. As such the product training as part of the agreements will indeed be put to the test to measure their effectiveness for individual players. The students will have full access to the products in the event they would also like to work on a specific area of their training and fitness outside of the training offered by the Academy, so there are always opportunities to support their development needs. Both BlazePod and Ultimateinstabilty will offer a new dimension to Academy training and we look forward to seeing them in use by the students.”

Find out more about BlazePod and Ultimateinstability.