Diving in youth football

I don't like it, but then again there's equally the problem of bigger kids kicking the shit out of anyone who can actually play so we have issues at both ends of the scale.

Nail on the head. It's applauded if anything, I've seen loads of managers of youth teams openly tell their players to boot anyone that's half decent.
 
In every game on TV half the fouls (or more probably) given are for a player going to ground will minimal or no contact. It still annoys me after all these years when a player has the ball and tight against the deadball or touchline and deliberately slows up so the tackling player runs into the back of them and they fall like a sack of spuds and always get a free kick. The tackling player also annoys me as they know it's going to happen but still fall for it time and again. What's the betting each team has a session on falling over during training!
 
Almost all players can stay on their feet from a challenge but choose to go down. Its become so normal to watch you don't batter an eyelid anymore.

Watch some highlights from the late 90s and early 2000s you expect players to go down but stay on their feet.

Kids just copy what they see and this is the new normal. Football has become like basketball without us even realising it

I wonder what the amount of spot kicks awarded back in the early days of the premier league compared to what we get now? The professional game in the premier league is becoming all about slight touches in the box as they know there will be someone looking at it practically wanking themselves off to award a penalty.
 
It won't be long before the kid's are trying to purposely flick the ball up at defenders in order to 'win' an handball like their do 'heroes' in the PL.
 
Nail on the head. It's applauded if anything, I've seen loads of managers of youth teams openly tell their players to boot anyone that's half decent.
I wouldn't tell my daughter to do that but I have to confess, i have told her if she is taking a free kick, kick it as hard as you can into the wall. There aren't many 7-9 year old girls willing to stand their ground and the goalkeeping at that age can be suspect. That said, if one of the girls on the other team stands her ground, fair play to her and I will cheer as loud for her as any parent from her team.
 
If you're old school, you would have learned your football from casual games playing in the park with other kids, some older, some younger. At this level there was obviously never a chance of having a referee present so basically you would have to be kung fu kicked to get a penalty and then not definitely - hence we stayed on our feet, plus you wouldn't be around very long if you were diving all the time. I also remember the long arguments about whether a it was a goal or had hit the non-existent post above the jumper and gone wide but that's another story.
 
Playing football in Maine Road Platt Lane car park was not very conducive to diving...
 
Before my lads introduction to city ( Wrexham at home div 2) I tested him out at Bridge Celtic he was only 4 we got home and had a kick about in the garden every time he kicked the ball he “fell like a bag of hammers” mimicking most of Bridge team , I had to explain most of the team were still pissed from Friday night and that next week he won’t see that at Maine Rd. since then he’s now 25 never saw him fall to the ground again whilst playing for numerous teams upto him being u16. Since then he has reverted to the antics first seen at 4 but hasn’t kicked a ball in anger since turning 16.
 

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