Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Wonderwall wrote:Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Wonderwall wrote:grass roots in this country are looking at moving way from competitive football and league tables until the age of 14. This approach has been the way they have done it in spain for many years. Its about letting the kids express themselves and not about results, there are pros and cons to both competitive and non competitive football. At least this way the parents might behave more.
I think that is overreaction as well. Kids are not stupid and are competitive. The problem is more about coaches and to some extent parents who don't let kids improve themselves as individuals. Personal efforts are rarely encouraged and it's all about implementing some crappy "game plan" of some random coach who fancies himself as Jose Mourinho of U9 football. The "game plan" being that "pass it to that big lad who has strong shot". Taking competitive edge off the game will not really help this though. It's more about guy trying a dribble and failing miserably and coach saying "well done Timmy, next time it will happen".
Oh, and Under ten year old's shouldn't be thought the defend in classic sense at all. They should be thought to steal the ball though, preferably in opposition half.
I would personally remove offisdes in Junior football up to U14. The refereeing standard is piss poor and often the fat bloke who doesnt have linesman to help him will rarely move out of the centre circle and just guesses whether it was offside or not. This is often a cause of arguments on the football field at junior level. A good referee makes a big difference to how enjoyable a game can be for coaches and kids.
That's a good call. Here until the age of 12 the offside rule is only in place within penalty box.
Funnily enough I was watching youth tournament today with my lad (attention span of a meerkat meaning 5 minutes of watching the game then 30 minutes of kickabout behind the goal) and witnessed the main reasons why we in Finland produce certain type of players (big, never-say-die attitude, zero individual talent) but rarely truly talented world class players. I was standing next to some parents watching U8 game. This one feller was kicking everything that moves and then in one situation came stubs first in purpose basically splitting this kid in half. Like really nasty even if it was adults game. Apparently this was one of these adults son. They started laughing and father of the boy said "he showed that kid who's the boss". WTF? 8 year old kid is not a fucking boss of anyone and if that was my lad I'd be furious. Then on other game there was this really small and shy looking boy who was head and shoulders above everyone else in tehnique. Really natural with the ball. He didn't really dominate though as he looked shitscared of the coach barking orders from the sideline (keep the formation, remember your position, the usual crap). So he missed one pretty ambitious pass which lead to opposition goal. That idiot coach immediately took him off the pitch. That should teach him never to try any of that fancy stuff and stick to the "game plan".
This type of coaching goes on in England all the time, I used to see it week in week out, where coaches have a win at all cost attitude. really winds me up. Thankfully the club where I coached have a great ethos and they want to kids to learns and develop and in training and warm ups, everyone has a ball at their feet and you can tell the difference, the kids are all smiles and enjoy it.
