Arsenal Footballers Spend Get Pre-Season Tour Of Plymouth With Navy And Marines

Arsenal Football Club's under-18s team have spent a day of their pre-season tour of Plymouth learning resilience and teamwork from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.

The players spent the morning with Colour Sergeant Mike Beaton MBE, known as the Commando Chef, learning about his time in the Royal Marines.

CSgt Beaton explained how his commando training allowed him to overcome challenges, as well as how the resilience he learnt in the Royal Marines is vital when competing in professional sports.

Arsenal under-18s player Reuell Walters said CSgt Beaton "enlightened" the players on his journey with the Royal Marines.

"We learned a lot from him, he's grown up basically away from home from 16, he's experienced a lot of things in his life that most people would never experience themselves and it's just been a really refreshing talk to have," he said.

The footballers put these lessons to the test in a series of practical leadership tasks set out by members of the Royal Navy.

This involved players being blindfolded and led through a number of activities by their teammates – highlighting required skills in communication and leadership.

"We were blindfolded and trying to guide each other through obstacle courses and attempting to make shapes with ropes to try and become one as a team and understand that sometimes you might not be in charge," Mr Walters said.

Mark Walter, Player Care Manager for the Arsenal Under-18s team, said the lessons learnt are important for all the players "both as individuals" and "as teammates".

"The leadership tasks that the Navy put the boys through showed that the key was communication and working as a team, which was brilliant to see," he said.

The players are in Plymouth on a three-day tour which sees them play two games of football.

"We're so happy," player Reuell Walters said.

"We've spent a lot of time at home so honestly so happy to get back outside and to start playing football again."

The team's next game on the tour sees them take on Plymouth Argyll's under-18s – an opportunity to put into practice some of the teamwork and communications skills they learned from the Navy.

Cover image: Arsenal players taking part in resilience and leadership training with the Royal Navy and Royal Marines in Plymouth (Picture: Royal Navy).