The future of football is small - Part 1
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008As registrations begin around the country, tens of thousands of volunteers will be doing their bit to get things moving and all of us parents are rushing off to fill out forms and pay the fees for the tens of thousands of youngsters who are about to embark on their own adventure in the new 2008 junior football season.
While some kids are dusting off the boots for another go, the lucky few may even get a fresh pair of the latest design going around. Regardless, anticipation levels among the kids will be high.
So it’s a great time to revisit some of the areas affecting the grass roots and which will play critical roles in whether the kids both enjoy their football to the absolute maximum, and are allowed to develop fully in to the players they idolise, such as their Socceroos or Matlidas heroes.
One of the most topical issues right now is the introduction of small sided games, which seems to be causing some consternation at junior level, not surprisingly considering this is the largest and most fundamentally important structural and cultural change for the game in decades.
This is the first critical step forward towards positively influencing the experience our young kids have of the beautiful game and of altering the way they play. To build better footballers capable of excelling at the truly top level -being the top five football clubs in the world and ultimately a World Cup winning Australian team.
Having launched a national football plan the time is now, when every football parent is naturally concerned that their child is given the optimal environment to play in, for the FFA to be selling the wonderful and vital benefits of small-sided games.
The fun and involvement that brings a smile to every kid’s face, not just the talented ones who usually dominate games on larger pitches, the tenfold increase in development of every player when placed time and again in football situations and encouraged to express themselves and solve problems and the general rise in standard of kids across Australia - giving this country the greatest platform to then apply better coaching standards to a more competent playing population, increasing our international competitiveness.
But the education process from the FFA thus far is too little too late, principally because they still have no-one in their football department who has either played the game, or even more incredibly has actually worked in a junior club or association in this country and thus understands the issues facing junior clubs in this transitional period.
It has largely been left to the states and, ultimately, to the volunteers to sell the move, to explain it in detail, and to educate themselves enough to be able to overcome the understandable concerns many parents have about any change affecting their child.
Nevertheless, we are moving in the right direction, and for those clubs and regions making the move to small-sided games, well done, you are working in the best interests of the kids and the game.
I know this first hand because I have spent countless volunteer hours over the last three years selling the move, showing the research behind the small pitches and small playing numbers, watching it being implemented, speaking with parents to assess feedback and reaction, answering the questions of those who can’t see the reasoning, and I have seen the process which over the course of a season has the vast majority of stakeholders evangelising the format and what it has done for their children, both the talented and less so.
Small-sided games is the single most positive story for our kids to experience the game in decades, and is only bringing us in line - twenty years too late in reality - with the world’s best football countries and their age-specific development models, such as Spain, the Netherlands, Japan, Portugal, France, Italy, Brazil, Argentina… you get the picture.
If you want further reassurance, the world’s best clubs -
The key is that football for young players should be precisely suited to their requirements and abilities, including cognitive, to enable them to learn most effectively.
So, for all the club secretaries and registrars, the coaches and parents who want to feel comfortable you are doing the right thing, be assured you are.
This move to small fields and small teams will give your son or daughter the greatest opportunity to enjoy the game as well as to develop better skills and awareness, leading to either a lifetime of enjoyment because they can actually play and therefore don’t have to rely on running and tackling as an adult, or to excel and become a superstar, if that’s the path chosen and ordained.
I know it is difficult and laborious to change in any respect. I know this is added work for the volunteers and stress they could do without. I know those of you who deal with the parents will find that, regardless of the sound rationale behind, some will just never accept change no matter how beneficial to their own child because I have seen it happen in the last three years.
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