The Coach Diary Football Blog

Category: Irish Grassroots Football

  • Girls Soccer Festival

    Girls Soccer Festival

    I don’t talk enough about girls football so always delighted to give it a bit of a plug and taking place on Saturday August 20th in Sportslink (Santry) from 1pm-3.30pm the FAI in conjunction with Fingal County Council’s Harmony Cup Tournament are running a girls fun soccer festival.

    The fun girls only blitz element of the day is open to two age groups u11 & u13 and teams or individuals are welcome from clubs, communities and youth groups.

    Multiple entries from teams or groups are welcome as the format for the blitz is 4v4.  To register for the festival blitz please contact paul.keogh@fai.ie or 086-0444435 or your local FAI/Local authority Development officer.

    Girls Soccer Festival

    Speaking to Paul recently and commenting on the girls soccer festival Paul added “it should be a great day with teams registered already from Wicklow, Kildare and of course Fingal.  It is open to all and there is a capacity to cater for a large amount of teams.  Alongside the fun blitz event will be an inflatable football pitch, a speed radar challenge and a shooting accuracy test as well as other activities.”

    Spread the word peeps and if you know of any girls looking to get into playing this beautiful game, no better chance then to try out theirs skills down at the Harmony Tournament.

    I have attached a poster to this post which you can download and put up at your club, community centre etc Girls Soccer Festival 2011

    Application form also attached FCC Harmony Cup-FAI Girls Festival – Application Form

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  • Sport in Ireland

    Sport in Ireland

    I recently read a report by the sports council on School Children and Sport in Ireland. These are some of the excerpts from this report.

    The Facts – Main Findings of the ERSI School Children & Sport in Ireland

    The main health benefits commonly associated with physical activity for children are improved increased academic performance, cardiovascular performance, strengthening of the musculoskeletal system, reduced stress and anxiety, enhanced self-esteem, reduced risk of chronic disease such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

    The relationship between lack of physical activity and obesity has become a particularly important issue in recent years because of concerns about the rapidly rising incidence of obesity among children and adults (National Task Force on Obesity, 2005).

    Children’s Physical, Personal, Social and emotional Development

    In addition to its benefits for health, sport also makes an important contribution to children’s physical, personal, social and emotional development, a fact that underpins the place of physical education in the school curriculum (see, e.g., Department of Education and Science, 2003). While the contribution of physical education to children’s overall development is widely recognised, it is often lamented that sport and physical education are the poor relations of the school curriculum and receive less time and attention than examination subjects (MacPhail and Halbert, 2005).

    However it has also been recognised that, whatever the role of PE in schools, extra-curricular sport is a central focus of the life and identity of many schools and plays a major role in defining what Lynch (1989) calls their ‘hidden curriculum’ – the ethos and informal structures and processes that play a large role in defining the character of schools and the overall educational experience encountered by students (see also Lynch and Lodge, 2002).

    In order to appreciate the role of sport in schools and thus in children’s education and development, it is therefore necessary to look beyond PE and take account of extra-curricular sport and the sometimes central significance it has in school life.

    The surveys on the Health Behaviour of School-aged Children generally found lower levels of physical activity: less than 40 per cent of girls and just over 60 per cent of boys reported that they exercised four or more times per week (Kelleher et al., 2003, pp. 64-65; see also Hickman et al., 2000).

    Indirect evidence suggests that children are less active now than their counterparts of 50 years ago (Boreham and Riddoch, 2001).

    As the Surgeon General in the United States has pointed out, a typical fast food meal consisting of cheeseburger, French fries and soft drink (1,500 calories) would take 2½ hours jogging at 10 minutes per mile to work off, and one jelly-filled doughnut is the energy equivalent of one hour of walking at a moderate pace (Department of Health and Human Services, 2001).

    At primary level,

    PE is delivered by class teachers rather than specialists. Primary teachers often undertake a PE element in their basic professional training or in-service training in PE but the general perception is that primary teachers are poorly equipped to deliver PE (MacPhail and Halbert, 2005, p. 300). Other problems at primary level include the lack of facilities and insufficient time, all of which lead to a general under-provision of PE at primary level (ibid.; see also National Children’s Office, 2004, p. 25).

    The remit of sports policy extends over the whole field of competitive and recreational sport for the entire population. Its key aims include increasing public participation in sport, raising performance levels in sport and supporting high level sports competition (Irish Sports Council, 2003).

    At the same time, increased reliance on sports clubs and the funding they receive under sports funding programmes as a means to support PE and sport in schools may have drawbacks. The most obvious is that the sports that some people view as already too dominant in schools – that is, team based competitive sports – may become more dominant still. Thus, for example, the Youth Field Sports programme is wholly oriented to GAA games, soccer and rugby, typical examples of the kinds of sport that cause concern in this regard. A further possible problem is that supports to schools delivered through local sports clubs could be supply driven rather than demand led: they will be distributed not primarily on the basis of the needs of schools but on the basis of the capacity of sports clubs to deliver – and that capacity might be in greatest supply in better-off areas where sport in schools may be already reasonably well catered for.

    The minimum amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity now widely recommended for young people is 60 minutes per day on all, or most, days of the week.

    Indicates relatively low levels of physical activity overall, especially among girls (we must keep in mind here that the data for weekdays refer to an average over five days, which might often entail a combination of some days with a lot of exercise and other days with little or even none). Averaged in this way, only 49 per cent of boys and 31 per cent of girls exceeded the one-hour exercise threshold per weekday, while 4 per cent of boys and 4 per cent of girls did no exercise at all on those days.

    Attitudes to Sport – Page 38

    Students were asked two sets of items that tapped into their attitudes to sport. The first set, which asked for their responses to a set of statements about sport that were generally favourable in tone, is displayed in Table 3.15. The striking feature of the students’ attitudes revealed by these items is how positive they are. The vast majority of students indicate that they enjoy PE and sport; they think they are good at sport, their families encourage them to play sport, and they consider themselves as sporty types. A smaller majority agrees that that they enjoy sport only if they are doing well at it, but one-third disagrees with this view. Attitudes are more divided in connection with playing when there is lots of pressure to win: half the students like to play under that circumstance but 43 per cent do not.

    Full statements – ‘I enjoy PE and sport in school’; ‘I enjoy doing sport and exercise in my leisure time’; ‘I am good at sport and exercise’; ‘My family encourages me to do sport and exercise’; ‘I only enjoy sport and exercise if I do it well; ‘I am a sporty type of person’; ‘I like participating in sport where there is lots of pressure to win’.

    Page 39

    A second set of attitudinal items examined students’ feelings about a number of possibly negative aspects of sport (Table 3.17). The majority of students were not particularly bothered by most of these items, though substantial minorities had problems with most of them. For example, 29 per cent minded getting hot, sweaty or dirty either ‘a lot’ or ‘a bit’ and 38 per cent had similar attitudes to playing sport in bad weather. The one aspect of sport that a majority of students did not like was ‘If you get left out because you are not good enough’: one-third of students minded this a lot and a further quarter minded it a bit. Thus, the risk of feeling excluded in sport stands out as a widespread negative concern in what otherwise is a generally positive picture.

    School Children & Sport in Ireland – 5th and 6th Grade – Page 60

    Principals in primary schools report that the vast majority of schools provide PE classes but the number of those classes per student is low. As Figure 5.1 shows, 62 per cent of schools provided timetabled PE classes once a week and 31 per cent did so two or three times a week. Of the 137 schools sampled, only 3 held timetabled classes less than once a week, and 3 held classes four or more times a week.

    Table 5.1 shows the range of activities children undertook in PE, based on a question to children about the sports they played in PE over the past year. Soccer was the most common, having been played by 72 per cent of children, and Gaelic football was next, with 69 per cent. Basketball was the most common sport among girls, having been played by 71 per cent of girls. It is notable that the proportion of primary school students who recorded swimming as an activity they had undertaken in PE over the past year (53 per cent) was much greater than the corresponding proportion among second-level students (13 per cent).

    As Figure 5.2 shows, the main reason that the primary pupils give for not participating more in sports is the feeling that they are already doing enough. This is the case for both boys and girls (58 per cent of boys, 43 per cent of girls). Not having enough spare time and the school not offering the sport are two other reasons but on a much lesser scale. The results on this question indicate that there is no general feeling of discouragement with sport among the pupils, nor that girls feel very differently on this question from boys.

    Pupil Teacher Ratios and Teachers involved in Sport

    Table 5.6 shows the numbers of teachers and students in the schools in the primary school sample and the ratios between them. The pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools is on average 16 pupils with a maximum of 26. Out of a total average staff of 9 teachers per school, 6 were involved in sport with the pupils. There are, on average, 25 students per teacher involved in sport.

    Travel

    As Table 5.7 shows, the majority of Irish primary school children are driven to school, either by car (55%) or by bus (18%). Almost one in four children walk to school and less than one in twenty cycle to school. Of the children who walk or cycle to school the vast majority spend a quarter of an hour or less doing so (89.1 per cent for walking, 87.7 per cent for cycling). Thus, as in the case of second-level students, it is clear that travel to school is not a significant source of physical activity for primary school children.

    Television viewing and other Extra-Curricular Activities

    Table 5.9 shows that high levels of television viewing are common, with one in five boys and almost one in six girls watching more than four hours a day during the week and somewhat higher proportions doing so at the weekend. One in ten boys watches six hours or more television a day at weekends. The largest groups of children watch two to three hours of television per day, both during the week and at weekends.

    Over Weight and Obesity -School Children & Sport in Ireland (p.73)

    This chapter has been concerned with overweight and obesity among students in the second-level and primary schools samples. Among second-level students, 4.5% of boys and 3.8% of girls were found to be obese, and a further 15.4% of boys and 16.6% of girls were overweight. Taking these two categories together, approximately one in five second-level students was either obese or overweight. In fifth and sixth classes in primary schools, levels of obesity and overweight were of a broadly similar magnitude: 3.8% of boys and 4.3% of girls were obese, and a further 15.7% of boys and 15.8% of girls were overweight.

    Among second-level students, 4.5 per cent of boys and 3.8 per cent of girls were found to be obese, and a further 15.4 per cent of boys and 16.6 per cent of girls were overweight. Taking these two categories together, approximately one in five second-level students was either obese or overweight. In fifth and sixth classes in primary schools, levels of obesity and overweight were of a broadly similar magnitude: 3.8 per cent of boys and 4.3 per cent of girls were obese, and a further 15.7 per cent of boys and 15.8 per cent of girls were overweight.

    Obesity Conclusion

    When we examined the relationships between measures of sports participation and physical activity on the one hand and body-mass on the other, we found no strong patterns of association. This is in keeping with the findings of research in other countries, where relationships in cross-sectional data between physical activity and risk of overweight or obesity have sometimes been found to be present and sometimes not, and when present, have usually been found to be weak. The lack of a robust relationship between physical inactivity and risk of obesity in research findings may arise either because measures of physical activity do not adequately capture real variations in energy expenditure or because variations in energy expenditure are too small to counteract the effects on weight of other factors, of which diet is likely to be the most important. There is some indication from our data that very high levels of exercise, well in excess of the minimum levels recommended by international authorities, may have an effect on body mass. This possibility has recently been raised in international discussion of the adequacy of existing recommendations regarding minimum levels of physical activity required to avoid weight gain, but we would need more refined measures than those available to us here to explore this question further.

    Main Findings of the ERSI School Children & Sport in Ireland

    Sport in Primary School

    As in second-level schools, PE is widely provided in primary schools, but usually only once a week. Again echoing the situation in second-level schools, extra-curricular sport in the school and sport in clubs outside the school are more important than PE as outlets for physical activity among children. Team sports dominate the activities undertaken in the school – and here too, as in second-level schools, basketball is an important sport in the school but is much less prominent in the non-school context. Primary schools differ from second-level schools in the prominence of swimming and dance in the activities they undertake, both in the school and out of it (dance in this context presumably often means Irish dancing).

    Primary schools seem to be worse off than second-level schools for sports facilities – they are more dependent on off-site facilities (except for basketball) and generally have access to a narrower range of facilities. Over 60% of children in fifth and sixth class in primary school watch two hours or more of television per day. Of the factors in children’s lives that were measured in the data, parents’ participation in sport had a positive effect on children’s participation in sport. So too did participation in other extra-curricular activities such as music or singing classes, suggesting that the more active children tended to be more active across a number of domains. The level of sports facilities in school had a positive effect on sports participation in the school, while television viewing had a negative effect on sports participation outside the school.

    To see the full report go to http://www.irishsportscouncil.ie/

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  • Indiscutibles Reyes Del Mundo

    Indiscutibles Reyes Del Mundo

    Living in Portugal for many years, going to Spain was always something to look forward to. At least once every summer we would head off by car across the Portuguese Spanish boarder destination Badajoz. Which is situated close to the Portuguese border along the Madrid/Lisbon railway line. It over looks the river Guadiana and the town is a fortress.

    Pop Rocks in Badajoz

    As you can imagine going from one country to another in a day was a great adventure for any young lad; After Badajoz had different sweets to Portugal and it was here that I first encounter the Peta Zetas popping sweets or Pop Rocks as they are known in English. Even back then I had a great admiration for Spain, after all my Grandmother was Spanish and we accompanied her on so many of these trips.

    Obviously growing up in a fanatical fútbol country like Portugal you were exposed not just to Portuguese soccer but also to Spanish and if Portugal wasn’t on the TV then Spain was, so you always had someone to support and unlike the English/Irish situation, I actually supported Spain as if they were my nation but only when Portugal and Ireland weren’t playing.

    So for me Spain have always been that dominant power (over Portugal and Ireland) in world football and it seems today is no different, only history tells us otherwise.

    The Underachievers

    Before 2008, Spain was one of those national teams labelled as a “tournament underachiever”, meaning they often failed to deliver after so much promise. They hadn’t won a tournament since Euro 1964 and a series of near-misses and disappointing results finally came to an end in Euro 2008. It’s not that the Spanish have lacked quality, but their star players often failed to reproduce their club form on the international stage.

    Now with dominance at all ages and lets look back at this year alone in world Futbol, Barcelona conquers of Europe made very little of the best team in UK, which will go down in history as one of the best displays of Tiki-Taka football the world has witnessed. Spain in both men and ladies soccer have been sweeping nations aside like no other and as we know, only the other day the 4 time winners (u19s) reached yet another final in a convincing display of brilliance as they demolished a very good Irish side 5-0.

    Ruling the World

    In June they won the u21’s in Denmark, yesterday the Spanish u17s Ladies beat the French 1-0 to take the u17s crown, the u20s beat Costa Rica 4-1 in their opening game of the World Cup in Colombia and today the u19s play the Czech Republic for yet another title.

    Having watched Spain alot this year, I cant see the dominance coming to an end anytime soon, and one would think that with an ageing Spanish National side, this could be end to an era, how wrong we are. Take for instance FCBarcelona Academia they have 6-7 outstanding talents at every age group, you only have to take a look at today’s u19s crop of Spanish talent to see how superior they actually are and don’t forget they also have a team at the u20’s world cup in Colombia. So not counting the Senior team they have at least 50 world class players currently playing in top competitions around the world. (Not forgetting the likes of Thiago Alcantara 20, Andreu Fontas 21, Jeffren 23 all currently with the FCB first team squad and that’s only the Barca players).

    So the premier league is the best league in the world?, funny how the likes of Fabregas, David Villa, Reina, Torres can’t even get into the National team yet the we consider the English league to be better!!!

    To top that all off, every single nation is now trying to play Tiki-Taka football, from young kids right up to senior level. Everyone wants to be Spain, but success as they are now experiencing  does not  come over night, it started many many years ago influencing coaches to nurture the same way, they had a philosophy, they played to their strengths and they stuck to it but it took someone to bring it to the forefront and after the failure to reach the group stages at Euro 2004, Spain changed manager, with the man who ingrained the style of play we are familiar with today, Luis Aragones, being installed at the helm.

    The rise to greatness started slowly, with a disappointing crash in the 2006 World Cup, reaching only the last 16 inspired Aragones to change mentality, knowing that the team would not be able to physically, with strength, out wit their opponents, having more technically talented players like young and upcoming Cesc Fabregas, only 19 at the time, Sergio Ramos, 20 and Andres Iniesta, 22, he adapted the “tika-taka” approach, and made the team play to their strengths, with the ball and their feet, used by the Barcelona team at the time, having been implemented by Johann Cruyff when he was in control of FCB between 1988 and 1996. Cruyff was part of the 70’s Ajax team that played ‘total football’, so maybe, thanks to him, we enjoy today’s Spanish and Barcelona play.

    They have been virtually untouchable and unstoppable for the past three and a half years since winning Euro 2008, covering any challenger in a blanket of supremacy. Undisputed kings, rois incontestes, they are, no doubt, the Greatest National Football Team of our modern footballing era and long may it last!

    So what for Ireland?,

    well if you have the same people doing the same thing then that’s what you get “If you do what you have always done, you will get what you always got.”and that’s ok if what your getting is success at all levels. I suppose for us a a nation maybe we need to decide what sports we want to be successful at?  We don’t do to bad considering we have Rugby, GAA and Soccer all competing for the top players, but I firmly believe that with the right structures and ideas about how we decide to PLAY feeding down to the youngest ages, we could do so much better.

    Our game needs a complete overall and that includes age appropriate games, pitches, size of goals, size of balls. Yesterday I watched two very good footballing Dublin teams play (age 2000s) and both the goal keepers had difficulties kicking past 20 yards for goal kicks, which meant the only time the ball reached the other half was when the keepers kicked from their hands or when played out from the back with no pressure.

    Bring on the Horst

    Next month Horst Wein is back in town and them more I indulge into his mini soccer 3v3 games of which he has 21 different variations for age 7-9s the more I know we have it all wrong. We can do no worse then approve the methods of Horst. His Spanish version of Developing Youth Football Players is the official textbook of the Spanish Football Federation and is in its 5th printing addition. It was commissioned by Angel Maria Villar Llona, the President of the Spanish Football Federation (since 1988), he has been vice president to Sepp Blatter on 2 occasions. He has also served as vice president of UEFA.

    If “Imitation is at least 50 percent of the creative process” then copying 100% of what SPAIN are doing and adding 50% of our own philosophy should bring us to near 100% Irish Youth Development process..

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  • Water – The Essence of Life

    Water – The Essence of Life

    HOW DO YOU GET DEHYDRATED?

    Through activities of daily living, the average person loses about 3- 4 litres (about 10-15 cups) of fluid a day in sweat, urine, exhaled air and bowel movement. What is lost must be replaced by the water/ fluid we drink and the food we eat.

    “We lose approximately 1-2 litres of water just from breathing. The evaporation of sweat from the skin accounts for 90% of our cooling ability”.

    Exercise, sweating, diarrhoea, temperature, or altitude can significantly increase the amount of water we lose each day. The most common cause of increased water loss is exercise and sweating. Even though we are all at risk of dehydration the people most vulnerable are infants, elderly adults, and athletes. They are either not able to adequately express their thirst sensation or able to detect it and do something in time.

    HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE DEHYDRATED?

    If you are thirsty, it means your cells are already dehydrated. A dry mouth should be regarded as the last outward sign of dehydration. That’s because thirst does not develop until body fluids are depleted well bellow levels required for optimal functioning.

    Monitor your urine to make sure you are not dehydrated:

    • A hydrated body produces clear, colourless urine.
    • A somewhat dehydrated body produces yellow urine.
    • A severely dehydrated body produces orange or dark-coloured urine.

    The effects of even mild dehydration include decreased coordination, fatigue, dry skin, decreased urine output, dry mucous membranes in the mouth and nose, blood pressure changes and impairment of judgment. Stress, headache, back pain, allergies, asthma, high blood pressure and many degenerative health problems are the result of UCD (Unintentional Chronic Dehydration).

    HOW MUCH WATER DO YOU NEED TO DRINK? WHEN TO DRINK?

    To better determine how much water you need each day, divide your body weight in half. The answer is the approximate number of water ounces you should drink daily. You should drink half of your body weight in ounces. If you weight 200 pounds, you should drink 100 ounces water (3.13 quarts, 2.98 litres or about 10-12 cups of water a day). If you weigh closer to 100 pounds you will need only about 50 ounces of water or about four 12-ounce glasses daily. Individuals who are physically active or live in hot climates may needs to drink more.

    WHAT SHOULD WE DRINK? WHAT SHOULDN’T WE DRINK?

    We are designed to drink pure, natural water.

    • Avoiding sodas/soft drinks to provide your fluid needs. The high sugar content and artificial flavours in soft drinks are harmful to your health.
    • Tea, coffee, soft drinks contain water, but the diuretics contained in these caffeinated beverages flush water out of your body. Don’t count on them to replenish fluid loss.
    • It is OK to drink them occasionally, but if you drink them constantly and don’t drink enough pure natural water, then you are severely compromising your long-term health.
    • Natural pure water is the best choice. If you are committed to a healthy lifestyle and long-term health, make water a habit and a priority in your life

    CAN WE DRINK TOO MUCH WATER?

    During intense exercise the kidneys cannot excrete excess water. The extra water moves into the cells, including brain cells. The result can be fatal. For that reason, athletes should estimate how much they should drink by weighing themselves before and after long training runs to see how much they lose, and thus how much water and salt they should replace.

    The studies that found 13% of the runners tested drank too much water, resulting in abnormally low blood sodium levels. The low sodium levels made many of these people very sick, and close to the point of death. The importance lesson here is to balance your water intake with your sodium intake.

    HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR TAP WATER IS SAFE TO DRINK?

    Almost all-municipal water in is of high quality and very drinkable. The best source of specific information about the water quality in your area is your local water supplier. Water suppliers are required to send their customer an annual water quality report. Contact your water supplier to get a copy, or see if your report is posted on line.

    It is important you know your local sources of water quality, and the quality of your local drinking water. To get facts and information about your tap water, drinking water standards and contaminants, contact your local water supplier. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and American Water Works Association (AWWA) are the two credible institutions that provide information you need regarding quality of your water.

    WHAT ABOUT BOTTLED WATER?

    Bottled water’s biggest advantage is convenience. The Americans now drink more water from bottles than any other nation. Bottled water in is a $16 billion-a-year industry.

    EPA sets standards for tap water provided by public water systems. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets bottled water standards based on EPA’s tap water standards. Most bottled water is simply tap water put through conditioning filters to make it taste better. Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coco-Cola Co’s Dasani are both made from purified tap water. This doesn’t make it bad, but is something to consider when adding up cost and benefits.

    Bottled water is safe to drink if it meets the standards. Contrary to popular belief the FDA does not carefully regulate the bottled water industry; therefore even bottled water can be impure unless it is the right kind of water. There are indeed many right kinds of high-quality bottled water that come from great natural water sources, such as spring, glacier, and mineral water. High-quality bottled water may be a desirable option for people with special health needs and those who can afford the price.

    Just make sure your choice of water does not become a limiting factor to drinking it. If you are drinking less water because of the cost of bottled water, supplement your bottles with reusable bottles or just fill up a previously used bottle with H20 from the tap.

    WHAT ABOUT FILTER AND FILTERED WATER and What about problems with dehydration?

    It is always wise to get a filter unfortunately at medical and professional sport level we can not be sure how safe tap water is.

    There are many water filter products on the market at many different prices. But you need to know what a filter factually reduces, or removes; you want water that has been filtered via a reverse osmosis (RO) process that removes chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals, chlorine, fluoride, bacteria, and viruses. Then you want water that provides safe drinking Ph. RO water is acidic.

    The government regulate that tap water has to be 7.0Ph minimum. Doctors Health specialists, Nutritionists, Strength and fitness coaches all experts in their field recommend a Ph of 9.5. So a filter system that can clean via RO and then add balanced minerals, provide a Ph of 9.5 and Antioxidants is without question the optimum hydration choice. As stated below by Top Sports Nutritionist Matt Lovell

    “If you’re going to opt to filter your water at home, your sports club, professional or amateur. I recommend a Reverse Osmosis filter with alkalising benefits, if that is too expensive then opt for a straight RO system and eat lots of green veg and have green supplements as well.” – Matt Lovell

    Matt Lovell is the Sports Nutritionist for the England Rugby Team, London Wasps, London Irish, Saracens and Leicester Tigers Rugby clubs and team GB track and field.

    Research: Pure Ionic, World health Oranisation

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  • Embrace the mistakes and use them as a guide to improve

    Embrace the mistakes and use them as a guide to improve

    One of the most difficult problem we have as adults is to learn to recognise children make mistakes and including during games. That’s how children learn how to play the game and they will continue to make mistakes  – lots of them. If you can’t deal with children making mistakes, then you shouldn’t be coaching.

    Let the game be the teacher

    Too many adults act on their tendencies to want to point out and to correct every mistake a child makes during a game but fail to realise that the game is the time to make mistakes and training is the time to rectify that. All you are doing is intimidating the developing player and stopping  him/her from taking risks, making a decision for themselves, being creative and to often they end of playing a game that is more about the coach and less about them.

    In every other walk of life you would probably be arrested for this sort of abuse and told to stay away from children for life, yet we allow this to happen every single week out in the open in front of players, parents and even the men/women who control the game the referees; yet know one ever stops a game to arrest an abusive coach.

    MISTAKES

    • Mistake are the stepping stones to achievements.
    • You should always give encouragement after mistakes are made.
    • Never highlight mistakes with anger. (They know they did it)
    • If the players know how to correct a mistake, than encouragement alone is suffice.
    • Mistakes are what kids worry about the most.
    • If we can create an environment where mistakes are ok and part of the learning process, it will help to develop mental toughness.
    • Reducing fear of mistakes allows the player to focus more of his/her energy in the game.
    • Mistakes Ritual (Superman Pose) Football for all – It belongs to the kids.

    As a coach it is up to you to get the training started, be organised and make it age appropriate and fun. When you come to the game again at the youngest ages it should be “Make a lot of mistakes because that’s how you’ll learn” Let the game be the coach and the coach be the mentor. Too often coaches are concentrating on what the book says (or how they were coached) and it is important for underscoring the dramatic differences between what a book suggests and what the reality is today for many kids in soccer.

    I think we have now come to over coaching the kids at the youngest ages, I see coaches trying to play a Barcelona style game at u7s and u8s and already judging kids ability and athletic potential. Only the other day I heard of coaches telling 8 year olds they weren’t good enough to play football. Is this what the game has come too, not allowing kids to play and be active, taking away their dreams and confidence even before they can barely kick a ball. No one has the right to tell any child he/she can’t play soccer; a recreational game played all over the world by boys and girls of all ages. The game belongs to them not us.

    We as adults need to step back and put down the remote. Let the children, no matter how old, take charge of some of there game. in practice, let them come up with some of the games strategies, let them figure out who should play which positions and never, ever, allow things to get so serious that it stops being FUN!.

    -end

    I always like to hear your opinions. Please comment below or email me info@thecoachdiary.com If, you don’t have anything to add then please forward this on to a friend. Thanks for reading. I’m also on twitter @Coachdiary

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  • Not in Wein

    Not in Wein

    So Horst has been and gone and if you’re sorry you missed this professor in action, worry not, he’s back the end of September for a 3 day workshop.

    To find out more or register for this exclusive event with limited spaces contact dermot@thebeautifulgame.ie or visit his website www.thebeautifulgame.ie

    Time to reflect

    So after a couple of days to take it all in and look back on last weekend’s events, I was never in doubt about Horst methods, his passion and honesty.  What I didn’t realise is how long Horst has been travelling the globe talking about his ideologies ( 54 countries now) and how stupid the world of football is or even how greedy men controlling the game are.

    I wonder how Horst can keep going, flight after flight, country after country,  coach after coach, federation to federation; speaking of his simple ideas of age appropriate games to game intelligence but very few seem to make change. It just shows that people involved in the organisations of children’soccer should be locked up for failing our kids and as host put it allowing children “to wear adults shoes, when they should be wearing ones that fit”

    Such a modest man

    Anyone who attended could have warmed to this man, he is an absolute genius and I don’t think anyone can have an opinion on his methods, ideas and games unless you have seen it with their own eyes.  I was however disappointed to see not one representative from the NDSL (supposedly the league that is looking for change), DDSL (wouldn’t have expected anyone) and SDFL (was actually expecting someone, but no one came).  However representatives game from the Longford and Drogheda leagues.

    With that poor showing it assures me that the change will come from people like YOU, the beautiful game and many of the passionate coaches who attended Horst talks and the ones who have been doing the right by kids for so long now, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

    “Nurture decrees that children should be CHILDREN before they become ADULTS. If we try to alter this natural order, they will reach adulthood prematurely but with neither SUBSTANCE nor STRENGTH”

    Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    We need balls

    The issue with the top men running CHILDRENS leagues is that they have too much at stake; they have too much to lose and not a lot to gain. MONEY and POWER are a big part of these decisions and although many of the leagues hierarchy will flirt with ideas, very few will be implemented down at grassroots level. Many in the SFAI have a lot to answer for and you might think I’m being harsh and I’m well aware they’re not all rotten apples and in fact I know some very smart men involved in leagues all over Ireland but collectively as a group they have very little intelligence!!

    Unless clubs go it alone and decide this is how we are going to develop kids from now on, things will not change as quickly as we would want. I’m fully behind the beautiful game and Horst ideas, I don’t believe anyone else has come up with a better Youth Development System. Horsts 3v3 games of which he has 21 different variations are some of the best games kids of all levels and abilities will enjoy playing.  I highly advise clubs to implement these at the youngest ages. I know many are doing 3v3 but not to the extent and in the same way Horst has created for the kids. many do not know even why they are…….I for one have not been doing it right and will never stop learning.

    Coach Education

    The FAI coach education have to be complimented for showing up to see what Horst was about, it shows that they are open minded and willing to listen to new ideas about Youth Development. It was a shame that the people who make the POWERFUL decision in the leagues did not have the same curiosity.

    So let’s see you comes to spend 3 days with Horst late September, if you come and you don’t like it well at least you came, but I don’t want to listen to people who have an opinion but have never actually heard the man speak.

    “In Ireland there is no model that enables young people to grow. The growth process of a player takes at least 12 years. I can not say that Guardiola has applied my two books word for word. I know who bought them and that he liked and that definitely took me some ideas. In Barcelona, we respect the time of the boys. We are waiting because they are products of nature. You can speed up these processes with “aid” outside. We want to develop their creativity, their imagination, not can exploit. In Ireland you think that football is played with the feet first, instead of the whole head. We are in 2011, Ireland has remained in the Middle Ages.”

    Horst Wein

    In live an open mind is a virtue but not so open that your brains fall out – “Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can – there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.”

    To find out more about Horst Wein visit thebeautifulgame.ie

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  • Coerver Coaching Diploma

    Coerver Coaching Diploma

    Its great to see, finally so many different coaching clinics, workshops, camps etc now in Ireland. This year along we have already had FCBarcelona and Ajax coaches inspire our own great coaches and with Horst Wein here this weekend could we have asked for better, I think not…

    I firmly believe the intelligent coach is catching on and a restructuring of the entire game starting at the youngest ages is really want we all want. For too long now, we have been implementing everything England does and now its time to look to the like of Spain, Portugal and Holland etc. This is where Youth Development is at its best.

    “All we have to do now is get rid of the people running these leagues, who will not accept  the change the children so badly need”

    Coerver Weekend

    Which leads me to Coerver a global soccer coaching programme inspired by the teachings of Wiel Coerver and created in 1984 by Alfred Galustian and Chelsea great, Charlie Cooke. The very first Coerver Diploma Course will be conducted at the Oscar Traynor Centre this August and although is not for everyone i’m certainly interested in learning what its all about.

    If anyone is interested in doing the Coerver Diploma they should contact anthony.oneill@coerver.ie. The course has already attracted 4 from London & the South East and of the 32 counties they have coaches from 25 attending. Tells me coaches are also interested in it!

    The book will be closed at 110 coaches for the 2 day seminar on August Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th and I have been told everyone attending must be pre booked and paid, they will not accept any walk ins on the day.

    The Course

    The purpose of the Coerver® Coaching Youth Diploma is to give attendees, whether you are a professional academy coach, junior coach, teacher or parent a greater understanding of how to plan & deliver more effective coaching sessions.

    Camera crews & Media Photographers will be at the event along with several Irish & UK sports journalists.

    All attendants will take away all the sessions in book format which will also have DVD references on each session for easy reference in future, along with new 5 set DVD.

    * Book with all sessions from weekend in colour and ref guides for DVDS

    * New Coerver DVD set.

    * August edition of our media partner 442 magazine.

    * Tactx – our session planner, used by UEFA. Offer of 50% off 1 year subscription, look on www.uefa.com/trainingground

    * Coerver Youth Diploma Certificate.

    * Copy of group photograph of the course.

    Times both days is 10am-4pm. (Registration on the first day is no later than 9.30am. They will start 10am sharp!)

    So with only a few places left on the Coerver coaching course and if you were thinking some weeks ago “I would like to do that”, then I suggest you head straight to the booking page and grab one of the last few places available.

    Like I said it may not be for everyone but no harm in feeding the mid with more football coaching techniques.

    I hope to be there!!

    http://www.coerver.co.uk/youthdiploma


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