Junior Football Coaching Question (update pg2)

[Tbilisi]

Re: Junior Football Coaching Question

Update for anyone interested.

He's now played the last 3 weekends of the U6 tournament (year above) and all going well, he's been invited to go and train with Burnley and Liverpool so far.

His coach has also said that a certain Manchester club (:-) have shown an interest in him training with them, but not heard anything else on that so we'll see what happens.

The coaches I've spoken to at the tournament have said that he should stay playing at a year up until the time comes where maybe it becomes a struggle and then drop him back to his true age group.

The main thing is he's enjoying it and I get to watch football at the weekend through the summer with a bacon butty and a coffee instead of being dragged around the shops.Thanks for all the advice and feedback

Cheers

OxBlue

I coach an under 12s for the same reason,dont do shopping!

Also,think as he is enjoying it then thats the main thing.

I went on an FA Course recently to get my first level and have to say it was utter bollocks.Had us asking the lad questions after each training session about whether or not the exercise we had just done was social,pyscological or physical.I could just imagine the Brazilians doing that on Rio beaches.

Good coaching is rare in this country.

 

[kp789]

Re: Junior Football Coaching Question

Update for anyone interested.

He's now played the last 3 weekends of the U6 tournament (year above) and all going well, he's been invited to go and train with Burnley and Liverpool so far.

His coach has also said that a certain Manchester club (:-) have shown an interest in him training with them, but not heard anything else on that so we'll see what happens.

The coaches I've spoken to at the tournament have said that he should stay playing at a year up until the time comes where maybe it becomes a struggle and then drop him back to his true age group.

The main thing is he's enjoying it and I get to watch football at the weekend through the summer with a bacon butty and a coffee instead of being dragged around the shops.Thanks for all the advice and feedback

Cheers

OxBlue

I coach an under 12s for the same reason,dont do shopping!

Also,think as he is enjoying it then thats the main thing.

I went on an FA Course recently to get my first level and have to say it was utter bollocks.Had us asking the lad questions after each training session about whether or not the exercise we had just done was social,pyscological or physical.I could just imagine the Brazilians doing that on Rio beaches.

Good coaching is rare in this country.

I had that. I am hoping that further courses are more complex and indepth than what level 1 was.

 

[Tbilisi]

Re: Junior Football Coaching Question

Update for anyone interested.

He's now played the last 3 weekends of the U6 tournament (year above) and all going well, he's been invited to go and train with Burnley and Liverpool so far.

His coach has also said that a certain Manchester club (:-) have shown an interest in him training with them, but not heard anything else on that so we'll see what happens.

The coaches I've spoken to at the tournament have said that he should stay playing at a year up until the time comes where maybe it becomes a struggle and then drop him back to his true age group.

The main thing is he's enjoying it and I get to watch football at the weekend through the summer with a bacon butty and a coffee instead of being dragged around the shops.Thanks for all the advice and feedback

Cheers

OxBlue

I coach an under 12s for the same reason,dont do shopping!

Also,think as he is enjoying it then thats the main thing.

I went on an FA Course recently to get my first level and have to say it was utter bollocks.Had us asking the lad questions after each training session about whether or not the exercise we had just done was social,pyscological or physical.I could just imagine the Brazilians doing that on Rio beaches.

Good coaching is rare in this country.

I had that. I am hoping that further courses are more complex and indepth than what level 1 was.

Would not hold your breath with that one,I can spot an FA Coach a mile off,dont know how they get the jobs!

 

[kp789]

Re: Junior Football Coaching Question

I coach an under 12s for the same reason,dont do shopping!

Also,think as he is enjoying it then thats the main thing.

I went on an FA Course recently to get my first level and have to say it was utter bollocks.Had us asking the lad questions after each training session about whether or not the exercise we had just done was social,pyscological or physical.I could just imagine the Brazilians doing that on Rio beaches.

Good coaching is rare in this country.

I had that. I am hoping that further courses are more complex and indepth than what level 1 was.

Would not hold your breath with that one,I can spot an FA Coach a mile off,dont know how they get the jobs!

The one positive thing from the sessions was the emphasis on getting children to enjoy football rather than put pressure on them. But then when it actually came to coaching, it just seemed like we were given a book of some drills and asked to do one. Well you could get drill ideas of the internet. More thought needs to go into it perhaps.

 

[hallstreetblue]

Some interesting posts here. My opinion, seriously, it's all about fun at that age. Definately not about finding his position. He'll find that out when he's much, much older. Keep him with lads his own age, even if his team mates are picking daisies. What I will advise you to do, is when he's older, make sure he's at a place where the coaches know what they're on about and aren't just in it to coach their own kids. That seems to be a big issue in the UK. At the age of 5, as long as he's kicking that ball with a huge smile on his face, that's all that counts.

 

[Jasondh]

My opinion for what it's worth is this.

At this age it really doesn't matter as long as he's happy and training well in the right way.

He is still very young and mentally not quite at the age of golden learning 8-11ish.

90% of kids in elite academies are not there when they get to 12-13 years old so really do not hold too much precedence in that just yet. The concept is that pushing them too much at early ages can lead to them falling out of love with the game in their teenage years.

As long as he is encourage to push himself in an enjoyable and enthusiastic manner then do what you think is correct. I'd look at the coach more than the league postion or age group and make sure I was happy with him and his methods.

I believe that in the younger ages coaching the player is more important than coaching the team. The FA moving towards purely development football until 11-13 certainly follows this concept too.

Coaching wise I'm an FA Level 2 coach at present on way to UEFA B with Youth Award Modules 1 & 2 on route to 3.

 

[billfromthehill]

You cannot ask him about it ,he is 5 coming up to 6 ,it will iron itself out staying with the group he is with now should see him happy don't you think ,when some one says step up and work on your upper body strength don't get knocked of the ball ,don't sound enjoyable to a kid if that turned out to be true it would knock his confidence just let him play and listen to him
Clock when he is smiling when talking ,and then when he ain't
Good look to him all the same.

 

[hallstreetblue]

You cannot ask him about it ,he is 5 coming up to 6 ,it will iron itself out staying with the group he is with now should see him happy don't you think ,when some one says step up and work on your upper body strength don't get knocked of the ball ,don't sound enjoyable to a kid if that turned out to be true it would knock his confidence just let him play and listen to him
Clock when he is smiling when talking ,and then when he ain't
Good look to him all the same.

Well said mate. I coach in Germany and it upsets me every time I'm over in the UK, to see what state junior football is in over there. It's shocking.

 

[billfromthehill]

Re: Junior Football Coaching Question

If you get the chance to, watch the 2 potential teams play and see how they play football and how the coaches are with the team. Go for the team that are coached to play the best 'football'. You find in junior football a lot of teams revolve around the bigger lads who can just kick the ball hard. This in the long run is of no benefit to anybody. In a few years the smaller lads who have had to work on skill to compensate for their lack of strength will become better players. If your lad is playing with technically better players he will improve much quicker.

+. 1 here

 

[hallstreetblue]

Got this off footballspeak.com

Many of you, who don't know any different, may be asking yourselves, "What's wrong with our youth football?" I urge you to read this. I for one can relate to it. For a country the size of UK, we are an absolute embarrassment, when it comes to football.

There is a great deal of research available regarding the age bias effect and they are clearly highlighted in Matthew Syed’s book, ‘Bounce’ and Malcolm Gladwells book ‘Outliers’. It makes sense to adjust our age groupings to that of the continent which run from January to December and I am in favour of keeping schools football the same; September-August. The problem though is that schools football has been on the decline over the past 15 years as the power shifted from PE Teacher to academy manager. The district and county system were effective and gave a platform for the more talented boys in order to showcase their abilities. I am fortunate to work in the Independent sector where the popularity of football is growing faster than ever; however the burden of health & safety rules such as the necessity of having two members of staff in a mini-bus travelling to fixtures consequently means that in the state sector PE teachers are struggling to fulfil fixtures. Couple this with the decline in Saturday morning school sport and this now means that there are now less opportunities for children to play the game in an educational environment. Will we merely see a shift to a January to April age bias in the future, only time will tell.

Could we have switched to a two year age band as in the continent? In Germany, each ‘Jugend’ (youth category) runs from G to A as children get older with two year groups in each. The under 17’s & 18’s are the ‘A Jugend’, under 15’s & 16’s are the ‘B Jugend’ running right down to the ‘G Jugend’ for the ‘Pampers’ league of 5 and 6 year olds. I grew up in this system and for me it worked. When I went up to a higher ‘Jugend’ I would be playing and training with boys who as a July birthday could be up to 22 months older than me. However, in each Jugend there were two teams and in some cases three. This meant that for the more able boys, no matter what their age, they would play for the ‘A’ team and the weaker boys would play for the ‘B’ team. This was the norm and that’s how it was, if you were technically stronger you would play ‘up’ as such and if you needed time to catch up you could play ‘down’ a level. There was fluid movement between teams and you got to know a large number of team –mates. The interesting adjustment I found was in the C Jugend when I played both 7v7 and 9v9 (full sized goals on the edge of the penalty area) for the B team at this age group then switched to 11v11 when I had just turned 13.

The most striking memory of German youth football though is by far the sense of community at SC Rinteln, a small town of less than 20,000 inhabitants. The club like all German clubs I played at had excellent facilities, including two full-sized pitches and a well run clubhouse that had its own caretaker and grounds man. There are not many English youth football clubs who play in such a great environment and we really must place a greater emphasis on upgrading facilities in this country, including the introduction of 4G Astroturf’s in many clubs in order to raise standards.

I had my most important childhood years in Germany and the environment that I played football in clearly has helped me develop into what I am today. The day of the England – Germany game during Italia ’90 will always stick in my mind and the semi-final between the two countries in Euro ’96 as I was kept awake by the stream of BMW’s, VW’s and Mercedes beeping their horn’s down the road on the British estate.

Why do we always lose on penalties? For me, it’s all down to the mindset. In England, we focus too much on the outcome – are we going through to the next round and therefore the pressure that brings, whereas the Germans are all about the process – Vorsprung durch technik. Need I say anymore?

The German system isn’t necessarily the right system for English youth football, however it is quite clear that we need to take off our blinkers and realise that there is a lot we can learn from other countries. There is a growing consensus amongst grassroots coaches that change is starting to occur and debate will continue to evoke thought amongst those passionate about the game. In order to change our stereotype of the Germans we must first be willing to put our egotistical island mentality away and accept that they might actually be able to teach us a trick or two