Alumni On The Sidelines
Eric Udelson played for the Boston Bolts throughout his entire youth soccer career before playing at Boston University. He is currently the Academy Performance Coach for the Philadelphia Union.
Playing for the Boston Bolts not only helps you develop your abilities on the field, but also provides valuable experiences that transfer into other career paths within the game of soccer.
Bolts Alum Eric Udelson is an Academy Performance Coach for the Philadelphia Union. Eric played his entire youth soccer career for the Boston Bolts, including four seasons at the Academy level. Eric went on to play four seasons at Boston University, where he was awarded Patriot League Academic Honor Roll on three occasions (2015-2017). During that time, he also was a key contributor for the Boston Bolts USL2 team for four seasons.
After graduating from Boston University’s PT program, Eric went on to get a Masters in Exercise Physiology from the University of Virginia. During his time at UVA, he worked as a Graduate Assistant Performance Coach with the Men’s Basketball team, and an Interim Head S&C Coach for the Women’s Basketball team.
Eric’s primary goal was to work in professional soccer. After finishing at UVA, he worked for Austin FC as a high performance intern to gain experience at the MLS level. This past month, he made the jump to Philadelphia Union for a full-time role as an Academy Performance Coach.
As a player, Eric had a fantastic attitude and commitment to the game. We’re excited to see him carry those qualities into his coaching career, and impact the next generation of young players at Philadelphia Union. Read below for key insights from Eric on how to be a successful Bolts player.
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What was your favorite part about being a member of the Boston Bolts?
The lifelong relationships made along the way. I was lucky enough to play with a similar group of guys during much of my time with Bolts and to this day they continue to be people I can have a laugh with but also lean on for advice. It’s always encouraging to see everyone who you remember growing up with now moving on and being successful in their next stage of life.
What parts of your Bolts experience have you taken with you into your coaching career?
Under all forms of effective coaching there must be an expectation that the group of athletes will bring a certain mentality to the work whether that be performance coaching or sport-specific coaching. There are certain times of course to be loose but when it is time to work players must possess the ability to flip the switch and dial in so that the task can be done with a purpose. I remember this being a theme that was constantly drilled into us at Bolts and it is always an emphasis for any group I am in charge of.
As a coach, what traits do you look for in your players?
As it relates to performance coaching, the players that stand out to me are those who consistently bring a high level of grit and intensity to the sessions. There is just a certain body language that signals they are attacking each challenge put in front of them and getting through the work with quality. Ultimately, these are the athletes who are most fun to coach as you can assume that they appreciate the value of the performance work and how it can improve their game.
In your experience, what is the biggest factor for any player who's looking to have a successful playing career?
I would argue that the greatest driver for any successful playing career is the ability to be bulletproof mentally. At the elite-level the margin for error becomes increasingly small so even very gifted players will be left out of the squad, released, or must face some other type of adversity. Simply, if you don’t possess the resilience to maintain belief in your ability even through the hard times, it will always be an uphill battle if you want to pursue a career in the pros.
What's one piece of advice or lesson that a coach taught you that will stay with you forever?
One thing I learned during my time with UVA Basketball and my mentor Mike Curtis was the concept of “ultimate accountability.” This is the idea that there is an expectation of everyone to be sound in how they go about their work whether you are a player OR staff. So for instance, if you as an S&C coach mixed up the order of the warmup for lift, you have 5 pushups just the same as a player if they made a mistake. To me it is a fun way of gaining the players’ buy-in by showing them that we as coaches hold ourselves to the same high standards as the athletes.