No football leagues for under 8's

[Loki]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7477154.stm

Interesting story on the BBC that the FA have looked to ban league competitions for Under 8's. No doubt some of the press will have a field day saying another competitive activity taken away from children, and were making a nation of softies etc.

However I think this really is a good thing for kids. They can still play in games that would be no less competitive whilst it takes away the pressure of having to win to finish somewhere in a table. So in essence more work can be done to help with the skills work.

I find this interesting as I am a coach for my sons under 7's team and they were due to go into their first league this September. I would much rather see the players develop their skills both as footballers and as people any day above winning a league.

The current system is forcing teams, coaches and players alike to be focused on the next match and the next 3 points. I think it is a bold step by the FA and one I applaud.

What you think

 

[nikebee]

I think it could be a good idea in principle - I mean lets face it there aren't going to be many kids that are leaps and bounds better than others at that age.

It may mean coaches aren't going to pick the same 11 kids week in and week out.

At that age, I don't see any harm really.

Although I'm sure some will say that "If my kid is good, and isn't getting picked every week and isn't playing in competitive matches... how is he going to get better!?"

Honestly, very few kids are going to progress that much before they hit 8 or 9 years old anyway.

 

[Visionary]

I think one of the biggest problems English football has is that kids start playing organised football too early. This is why we have no flair players in the England team, it seems as if any flair/individuality is drummed out of kids as coaches try to get them to submit to a system.

To me it's no surprise that the most successful national football team ever has kids playing on all surfaces in bare foot etc. for most of their childhood.

 

[Loki]

I think one of the biggest problems English football has is that kids start playing organised football too early. This is why we have no flair players in the England team, it seems as if any flair/individuality is drummed out of kids as coaches try to get them to submit to a system.

To me it's no surprise that the most successful national football team ever has kids playing on all surfaces in bare foot etc. for most of their childhood.

Indeed.

Although I have not payed that much attention to the Euro's from what I have seen Spain have been an absolute pleasure to watch with some excellent pass and move football. I don't think it's coincidence that they are in the finals when their coaching ethos is geared towards skill development, ball control on small pitches upto their early teens. Also worth noting that they have probably the smallest midfield in Europe. So it shows that the physical game is certainly limited

 

[drunkenmaster]

No, the biggest problem is crap like show boats and skill school tripe. Joe cole confuses being able to do a back heel, with creativity and flair. You don't need tricks in your game, Ronaldo would be the same player without his tricks, he still has the same pace to simply get around players, his most important skills are making runs into the box at the right time, fantastic shooting/heading technique and being able to pass AHEAD of play rather than behind people.

We confuse flair, and creativity, for doing tricks, one has NOTHING to do with the other. Fabregas might be one of the most creative players in the game today, and for a long time, and can do tricks but rarely bothers. Creativity, vision and seeing what will be happening in 10 seconds are what he does best and he's simply put, the best assist provider in the game, easily. He's set up, what, the majority of Spains goals, has been behind most of their good build up play.

We need our kids to learn the basics, passing, shooting, running, vision. THe most important thing is watching football to be honest but ignoring the tricks and watching when, how and why the best players make runs into the box and when the best defenders step up, intercept, follow the play, back off and make tackles. All those basics seem largely lacking from most of our English players. Things like skill school on Soccer AM, where people are more intent on learning fancy ways to do kickup's only encourages kids to devote time to practicing something you can't use in the actual game.

kids grow at very different rates aswell, 2 maybe 8/10/12yr olds, could be massively different in size, and all the "bigger" kids will simply be better, faster and gain more confidence by always winning, but they will also have to try less hard. Theres no reason these kids will be better footballers aged 16/18 or 35, but they will still be the ones pushed into football schools. So due to differences in size/growing/confidence as young kids we are leaving kids out who might otherwise have been Zidanes or Ronaldo's in the future. So no competitive football at that age is a very good thing IMHO. What age it should be introduced is very difficult to know to be honest.

Brazilians aren't good because they play in bare feet, thats tosh, at the moment Dunga's close to getting fired because he's running the team into the ground against awful opposition. Its about management, team effort and most crucially, the teams country not going absolutely ridiculously insane simply assuming they'd win before the qualifications have started.

We've had awful managers who for decades have let the press/popular opinion pick the team which is wrong time after time after time.

Aragones for instance very specifically didn't pick Raul or Guti, he's been massively slated for leaving them out and look whats happened, he got it right. Public opinion, is generally wrong most of the time. Raul/Guti simply aren't as good as people think they are and don't fit in with his style of football, he didn't want a tap in king, he wanted players who can all produce. Guti's always been inconsistant.

We need to get a manager, NOT pay them several million a year, NOT less ourselves get carried away, NOT attack the manager for making choices we think are wrong, and not influence team selection. We also need to be less arrogant and stop treating players like they are so much better. We need to stop paying players to play for england, we need to drop those who don't put in any effort, drop the gamblers, the criminals, the chronically injured, the lazy and the crap.

 

[wedgie]

It's not a terrible idea in principle, which could potentially be beneficial to developing players with a greater technical ability.

I played for club and school from about U8's up to U16's and even from the earliest age, the result was always the bottom line. Getting the basics right was often more acceptable than any individual flair. As a result of this, the quick/strong players were frequently the most prominent, which is all good for the results at the time, except these players aren't typically the ones that develop further later on.

Of course, the competition is a big part of why we love playing football, but in theory at least, removing the league placings could allow players to enjoy playing the game more, with only the pressure they place on themselves to deal with.

 

[aslco]

The best thing to do is do indoor football with 3 v3. And those 3's train together. Its what Brazil did in the 70's. Means you get uber skilled at passing in triangles, which is what the skilled game is about.