Reader,
If you’ve followed PDP for a while, you’ll know we have constantly tried to shine a light on the dangers of premature professionalism, discussing topics like specialisation, talent identification, growth and maturation, sports psychology, relative age effect and how to develop high quality environments for children.
Player development is a complex melting pot and at times, youth football can get all too serious too soon.
As the world-game continues to grow and the amount and quality of media coverage of the world’s best leagues continues to go to a new level, so too does the expectation of parents, clubs, schools and players.
This can lead to unrealistic expectations and pressure on kids to train more, train longer and take their football more seriously, pressuring young kids into an experience that (perhaps), they didn’t set out to have.
Sure, if a child is passionate about their sport, intrinsically motivated and is showing potential, good systems and programmes should have the capability to find a suitable challenge point to support the ambitions of the individual.
But how do we balance this with the desire for many children to just enjoy their football and play with their friends? It’s a real challenge for clubs everywhere when ‘competition’, not collaboration, is ingrained in the cultures we live in. Sport is often a reflection of society.
We have to be wary that in amateur football, or grassroots environments we don’t attach unfounded elitism to development programmes, labelling them ‘academies’ in order to attract players or generate revenue. We also have a duty of care to educate parents around the dangers of living vicariously through their children or putting pressure on kids to be a pro.
This is not to say we shouldn’t encourage kids to dream big, pursue their ambitions or create demanding environments, but we have to consider the purpose of our programmes and where they fit in a truly global landscape.
Creating positive environments should be our priority, we are in a position of privilege where we are shaping the sporting stories of young people and shouldn’t forget this.
Two things to consider.
- How regularly do you programme ‘free play’ or street football into your club or school settings?
- Do you allow for player led sessions or player led formations on game day within your programme?
- What language do you use in your environment? Is your programme labelled as ‘elite’, or an ‘academy’ because this perceived status is seen to attract players?
One thing for you to try this week.
Consider the topic of control. What are you prepared to ‘let go’ in your coaching to allow the players ownership, opportunities for creativity and most importantly, joy in the environment? This could be as simple as guiding players towards their own learning objectives, or allowing players to lead their own sessions at times. Moving from coach-led practice towards ‘facilitator’ or ‘guide’ for the players can drastically improve motivation in the environment.
One critical resource on the topic.
To better understand the risks of elitism, early talent identification and premature professionalism, check out this article from leading researcher and coach developer, Mark O’Sulivan on Talent ID: Survival of the Fittest or Survival of Talent? which challenges traditional models of development.
