Staring into the abyss: Why youngsters need to be thrown into the deep end

jb, thanks for the history. Interesting to me as my intermittent involvement with football slipped away to nothing in the 1970's due to having a young family (wife & 2 daughters) and commencing a new business. My first son was born in 1974, and 8 years later he decided he wished to play soccer. My involvement was reignited, and became fairly intense for the next 20 or so years. I gained a reputation, locally, as a development coach, with one 4XXXX League coach apologising for taking two of my 16-17 year olds from local football. He was somewhat astounded when I applauded the moves. These were two of four players from the U/12 Harry Linning Cup team I coached in 1990 who went on to play first grade 4XXXX League. So, to the subject of a curriculum. Do we need one? Yes, very definitely! Is the current document satisfactory? After wading through many pages of what can only be described as a glossy presentation, I doubt the efficacy of this document. Many diagrams of unbroken lines, both curved and straight, interspersed with many dotted lines of similar designs. Many colourful photos, and equally colourful graphs and tables, frequently repetitions of previous content. Reminded me very much of a coaching manual authored by a Mr Alargich (spelling?) in the 1970's/80's, without the colour and repetitive content. Mention is made of the thousands of hours of practice necessary to acquire high levels of skill. The reader is then told that training should be restricted to single digit hours a week at young age levels (and rightly so), leaving one to wonder where the thousands of necessary hours will come from, particularly as we are warned to actively discourage any player from training/practising in isolation. Training should be performed in a holistic manner. Not sure what great players of the past would think about such advice! To date, I have found no mention in the curriculum of how to coach first touch. As you state, small sided games are expected to provide players with more touches, but will these touches be quality? Nor have I found any meaningful KPI's by which a player's progress can be assessed. These matters can, of course, be addressed. Some thought is required, hence the "too difficult basket". To my way of thinking, it is a matter of "KISS". But of course, if one endeavours to keep things simple in this day and age, one will be accused of over simplifying the situation. But, the answers are very simple. JMHO. Cheers pc

jb. I'm not an educator, but I'd say any reasonably advanced society would codify Best Practice ideas for education that should be adopted across the whole country. 50 years ago, maybe "word-of-mouth" was an appropriate way to transfer education knowledge from the one generation of coaches, to the next. But, we now live in the 21st century & there are better ways of ensuring Best Practice education standards are adopted across the whole country.

Pacman - There is evidence that the whole "curriculum "idea was misinformation on a grand scale, perpetrated upon the football fraternity through the decision making processes of the "power men" in football at any given time. The basic content of the curriculum is aimed at how the rank and file in our game (the grassroots) should go about teaching the game to youngsters. In the main, the basis of doing this successfully is, while at a young age , 5-11 a child should be shown ,and encouraged to "learn" the game in a "fun" environment and to do this the small sided games on smaller fields become the main "weapons" to ensure a youngster gets more opportunity to get more "touches" at the ball. The knowledge to formulate these "improvement situations" was first introduced into Australian football, not in 2009 as we are encouraged to believe, but as far back as 1974 when the information was widely available to anyone who attended a 'live in" coaching session as was practiced country wide at that time Unfortunately, lack of money available for "coaching enhancement" at that time, saw this information allowed to "wither on the vine" only having been learned by a handful of coaches around the country. The "lack of money" was caused by the banning of cigarette advertising. We then move to 2009, when at huge expense, the "Dutch system" was re-written (twice) and served up as the cure to all our troubles. Has it been successful?. With the coaches selected, again at great expense, to "spread this gospel" now long gone from the Australian game,we are left with a situation that sees local men trying to"catch up" on a system of football education that should now be a belated 8 years into "showing results" ,for 10 year old's in 2009 are now aged 18. For your interest the coaches hired by the present ruling body to implement the "new" knowledge were co authors- Rob Baan - a 16 club veteran in a 40 year coaching life who "retired" to turn up in India doing the same job Han Berger - a 13 club in 33 year coaching life,who joined Sydney fc and is now back in Holland. Jan Versleijen - a 14 club in 18 years who was given the job of "teaching" our Under 20 and 23's. Now unknown. Pim Verbeek - another 18 club veteran who took the Socceroos to the WC finals.Last reported in Oman.. Now you can only imagine what those appointments cost the FFA and ,what a tragedy, if only the same amount could have been allocated back in 1974 what would we see today as results from our "curriculum". Cheers jb..

I agree with jb & RK. "Artificial" solutions are unlikely to work. One should be asking, "how long before the FFA Curriculum commences producing visible results?". This is the burning question. The aim of the Curriculum should surely be to produce young players capable of taking the next step, that is, being capable of further development under the auspices of a professional club, be it in the A-League, or an overseas league. The players who come through both stages of development then become candidates for Socceroo selection. And please, let's not have any more quotes along the lines of "...Two of their rising superstars, Sam Kerr and Alanna Kennedy, both made their debuts in the W-League at the age of 15." If I recall, the Matildas were soundly beaten in at least one trial match against an A-League club's youth team. And, when I write "soundly beaten", I am being extremely polite. We need to stop comparing apples with oranges, or boys with girls.

You make some interesting points JB. The 'GAP' between the NPL sides and the A League is the real problem. The FFA Cup highlights the problem, and when the Cup is made equal for all clubs, [an open draw] the size of the gap will be even more pronounced. Remember the semi-final between SFC and SMH. Forcing clubs to use younger, less experienced players, is not the answer, the answer is to ensure the quality of the youngsters is improved. I believe in the old saying, "If you're good enough, you're old enough" the reality is that there are few who are good enough at a young age.

Nicholas- The problem you describe is not new, it has been around out "top" football for some years now, even going as far back as the NSL. You cite all the salary cap "restrictions" but they are only "excuses", the decision to give young Australian born players "a go"is a decision that has to be made by the management of a club, and once started ,has to be maintained. I have had personal experience in this type of situation and as far back as 1981 put teams on the field in major games that had 3 local born and bred players in the walk on side and at least another 3 filling "bench" positions. However even that "edict" had problems, for the creation each season of "new" places became extremely difficult and it is this area of operation a bit of lateral thinking could perhaps help to build a bridge between HAL and NPL identities. I refer of course to the "loan system" presently working in.Europe where a player can be loaned to a club and enjoy a level of football better than what he would experience were he to play in his club's "reserve " league. So far the only measure we have as to our "standard" is the FFA Cup and from the final 2 in each year it is obvious that a "gap" still exists in our standard and it is that "gap" that has to be reduced. Would it be "reduced" over a season if a "bench player" at say Victory was allowed to spend a season playing in the HAL with say Welligton Phoenix. It is only a suggestion but one that is infinitely better than what exists now. Cheers jb.,