Are the FA doing the right thing with anti competitive youth football?

[jaybee]

I help coach young boys for our club, and the age group I am most involved with is currently under 8's. Next year has always traditionally been the year that the boys look forward to (under 9's) in that this becomes the first year they can play in "competitive" leagues with published results and hence tables with points. This is being stopped. All under 9 age groups next season will not be allowed to do this. The season after in 2014/2015, it is being extended to under 10s as well. So my age group cannot play "competitive" football for a further 2 years despite that we have played in knock out tournaments already at this age group.
Players also now stay playing as 7v7 until the age of 11 when it changes to 9v9. Under 7's play as 5v5 but this may be changing to under 8's play as 5v5.

What does "competitive" mean?
It means you can play in leagues and have leage tables published with results.

What other way is there?
It's usually referred to as "festival" based or friendly mini soccer. You may still play in groups and/or be tiered to make the games as fair and competitive as possible, but these will not be leagues. Results must not be published anywhere online or in papers etc. Boys names cannot be used. If you write a match report the guidelines state that it must use things like "we then came foward and scored".

Why are the FA doing this?
The thinking behind it is to try to prevent a "win at all costs" attitude and to change coaching. It is trying to make results less important and to stop coaching that is aimed at "winning tactics". i.e. Hitting it long and direct for example. It aims to focus on long term player development, and to provide a playing environment for young players where they are not as under pressure or concerned with results and can play football and be taught "properly" to play the game and explore new football ideas and techniques in order to help promote better development and standards at mini soccer level.

It also aims to give more players more touches of the ball with the smaller team numbers. Emphasis is on Small sided games (SSG's).

We as a nation are apparently very behind on coaching methods. This is supposedly the way our fellow Europeans have been running youth football for years.


So do we have to follow the FA's guidelines?
Yes, they are mandatory in all organised youth football in the UK as far as I am aware.


What are the main arguments against the above approach from the FA?
- It won't change coaching.
- Life is competitive so why shy away from competition.
- Overly protective (politically correct) of children losing.
- It spoils the enjoyment for many.
- It does not reward players/teams who want to compete at a high level at young ages which goes against the key "development" emphasis.
- No sense of achievement. "What are we playing for?"
- Most young players actually want to play in leagues with scores and points if you ask them, even at very young ages.
- Why/how ultimately, will this help develop more home grown English talent?
- Football is about competing to win and success should be celebrated
- Losing is also an important lesson and should be accepted by players too

There is that saying that "it's the taking part that counts". I think this would sum up the FA's new approach. The other extreme would be "play to win".

What is your opinion on this?




EDIT: Also a poll would be good:

Do you think the FA are doing the right thing banning competitive league play until under 11's age group?

1: Yes it's a good idea.
2: No it's a bad idea.

 

[jaybee]

Some good points raised. Although I would argue against:

Winning isn't important at that age.

I feel it is still important. Ultimately, we don't train and go to matches to lose. We go to win. The objectives of football go hand in hand with competing to WIN the match, by scoring goals. Of course it is not ALL about this. Not at all. We play to have fun and enjoy the game. But, if there were no goals in football to score into, it would not be football. If there was no winning and losing, then there is no match. It's not something we should be scared of. Our young players can take it.

I have experienced players in our squad crying at a tournament when they lost in a final to penalties. It was a knock out tournament. They were crying because THEY wanted to win. They soon got over it. They picked up their runners up trophy and were praised by parents and coaches massively due to their efforts. That day they learned to accept a painful defeat. They also learned to make the most of what success they had and deserved to get runners up.
Nobody has been hospitalized by losing.
Nobody wants to quit due to missing a penalty.
Nobody was so under pressure that they did not enjoy it. The boys loved every minute of it but just got emotional.

Sometimes I feel that without competition like the above, it would be a shame for the boys and for football.

Lose the passion, and you lose football some would say.

Since when was 'hitting it long and direct' a winning tactic?

A lot of youth football coaches play with tactics such as this to win games. They will often field teams with physically matured players that despite being clumsy, are very big and strong and dominate possession. Often we see teams that are told to "get rid of it" and to "clear it" or to "hit it long" straight towards the goal route 1, which is often very effective. Not pretty, but effective. I have seen and witnessed first hand goal keepers that are told to go for goal in tournament games with smaller pitches. Yes, I mean literally will drop kick from their hands from the edge of the box and aim for goal. You would be surprised how many times they create a goal or even score directly due to young players not being competent in goal with high bouncing balls.

The point is, not to develop players to play like Stoke, but rather to have the confidence to play like Barcelona. Plenty of individual skill and touches and passing and movement.

 

[jaybee]

Loki, at our club we are lucky to have some really nice parents. They are generally very well behaved and a great bunch. They totally respect our decisions as coaches and we have already been playing behind FA respect lines for all of last season and some of the one before, where they are a) behind a barrier back from the sideline and b) the other side of the pitch to coaches and players. This works well. I have seen parents and coaches are already learning to follow FA respect guidelines. There is massive emphasis on fair play, sportsmanship and achieving charter standards. Each game is scored by each team on the opposition for parents, manager and player behaviour.

There are always going to be an unfortunate minority that spoil things. I would say 80% of coaches I meet week in week out, are nice guys and behave as expected. The other 20%....well...I have seen some incidents that we have had to report including abuse to refs being the main one. It's hard to watch young 14 year old refs take abuse. I have seen coaches come onto the pitch and argue in the middle of a game. Yes some of the refs (which are also scored) make big mistakes, but I always stand by their decision and we have always done this as a club. Say nothing, let them ref. The worst incident I have heard of this season, is of a ref being physically abused. The person that did this is likely to lose his CRB and all football related qualificiations and be banned from the youth football for life.

Parents. I have seen OTT aggressive shouting at players. I have seen a parent run onto the pitch to celebrate a goal with their son doing an aeroplane celebration. Yes really. At under 7's level!

But all of this is dying out as people learn that they are scored and reported for such behaviour, at least in our league anyway. I say league, I mean league without results You know what I mean.

I think generally the steps they are taking to promote better coaching and general behaviour and sportsmanship in football is great, but I'm just not sure a total ban on scores/results is called for. A lot of my boys are really dissappointed about this and have even talked about giving up. The problem is, that they are the first year to experience this. They have grown up with parents and brothers telling them that "next year will be where you play for real points in leagues" and is something they look forward to as the next step into playing more grown up football. I think waiting till age 11 to do that is OTT. I have a 4 year old that knows how to win and lose and is a fantastic little footballer already. He must wait 7 more years to presumably be considered ready to play in competitive leagues. It just doesn't seem right to me.

Coming bottom of the league never hurt anyone. If your feelings hurt that bad from it, then turn it around by playing better. That's how my team got good when we were young. We wanted to climb league tables and go places. Why shouldn't highly competitive and talented young 8 year olds be allowed to be competitive and rewarded for continued effort and performances week in week out? That's my beef.