The Big Interview: Ellie Maybury
The English-born Head of Performance has been with the number one side in the world since 2015 and offers a fascinating insight into developing the best players in the world both on and off the pitch.
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Ellie Maybury is perhaps one of the best English coaches in the women’s game that people within the four shores of her home country will know little about. Heralding from Lichfield just outside Birmingham, Maybury may be a familiar name to those close to home, but to others her work has perhaps gone unnoticed.
That is because what she does goes on primarily behind the scenes, yet has a huge impact on the number one team in the world right now, because Maybury is the Head of Performance for the US women’s national team, and has been since just after the 2019 World Cup.
Maybury has become one of the specialists to lead the way when it comes to rapid advances in sport science and data technology, so much so US Soccer sought her out personally just as she was ready to walk away from the field in search of a more a stable income as a paramedic.
She admits her journey has not been “smooth”. A former player at Birmingham City, Maybury studied for an undergraduate degree at the city’s university in sport science and materials technology, before going off to work for Nike in Amsterdam and eventually returning to the club she played for where she first raised the idea of sport science.
“The real honest answer is they make it so easy for me…”
Maybury discusses all that and more in fascinating detail over the course of our chat, but really, it’s all about where she is now, her role with the number one team in the world and how she is trying to raise the bar even further for a group of players already known to be the best when it comes to physical performance.
“Good question,” she laughs. “When I came into my current role I was a little bit worried if I’m being honest. How am I going to do that? Help the players stay where they are. How am I going to contribute to that success?
“The real honest answer is they make it so easy for me. Their mentality, even when I came to America, you realise it’s something you don’t teach, you don’t provide, it’s just engrained in them. That mentality to be the best, do everything they can every single day to be the best is something they bring and we are a little help system.”
Maybury arrived in the USA in 2015 to work with the women’s youth teams, predominantly at under 17 and under 20 level to prepare the respective teams for the youth team World Cups at each level.
After a successful four-year period, she was promoted to the first team to work as part of Vlatko Andonovski’s backroom staff and ensure the world champions remain at the top both on and off the pitch.
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