Cheers Decentric, that is my plan - at the moment I just teach kids Sunday School but am looking to start doing the FFA coaching pathway later this year and depending on how I am led may stop Sunday School.

I have my teacher hat on again.


(':d

This is also excellent role modelling, Never Wozza.

It is good that you are coaching.

A couple of coaches I know who coach rep/state/NTC (institute) teams cannot play in games without competing too competitively.

They seem to have to win and to show off. Other coaches with similar ability go on the pitch and keep right out of the way, trying to minimise their involvement in active play, leaving their players to excel.

Sometimes parents/coaches can be useful as fickle players. The definition of a fickle player can be the player on the side of the team in possession, again with limited controls, like no dribbling, one or two touches, no scoring goals and no tackling.

That fickle player/parent/coach can be very useful in a game of 3 v3 with an extra player for the team in possession, taking them up to 4 players.

There is a consistent theme here.

The coaches who want to star, show off, play too competitively, etc, usually have big egos and clash with a number of other coaches.

The ones who actively minimise involvement in SSGs work well in teams and willingly share knowledge with other coaches.



Edited by Decentric: 10/5/2011 06:33:21 PM

I have my teacher hat on.

You really should be coaching juniors, GA.

You would have a lot to offer in terms of being a good role model.

(':d

Edited by Decentric: 10/5/2011 06:25:12 PM

Parents can be very frustrating.

Even organising meetings before the season doesn't make any difference for some.

I've also vowed never again to coach in a region listed as Australia's most socioeconomically disadvantaged. I've also worked there for the last eight, long, hard years, in my day job.

In a rep team the parents could be categorised into three groups.

Ones quietly appreciative that anyone would coach ther kids. They also provided little initiative and showed little willingness to help.

Another category was the club official, rep coach, club coach parent, very opiniated, and who conflicted with others over the seasons with machinations from junior interclub politics.

The third category were nightmares. Ones who would turn up to the ground drunk and abuse referees, even attempting to assault them. I would also have chats to them about their own kids bullying other players, swearing at opposition players and showing disrespect to me as a coach.

Not one word of thanks was received from any parent over a whole season, except for the few minutes after when this rep team won the state championship.

Just changing regions for coaching has helped immeasurably.

I'm in my old stamping ground.

I coached suburban junior teams for 6 years in this region. I had one stressful incident where a team I'd coached from under 7s onwards ended up being pretty cocky by under 10s. As a teacher I won't take any crap from any kids. That was it over 6 years - one incident.

Back in the same region the kids and parents I'm dealing with are pretty pleasant and supportive. Their regular coaches are only too willing to lay out cones, etc. Also, it is nice to receive positive feedback. The parents also show initiative by helping through proactivity.

The coaches are also willing to fill in for games where we want 4v4. They play with controls - one or two touches, can't dribble past players, can't score goals and can't tackle the kids. Their job is to try and keep the teams in diamond formations.

One comment from another member of this forum is to give parents no involvement whatsoever. I've found good ones can be of great value.

Edited by Decentric: 10/5/2011 06:37:27 PM

I like the idea of the kids boots.

I always cover it in my initial coaches letter to the parents and go through it verbally at the start of the season but your right it has to be reinforced throughout the year.

My eldest was involved with project 22 squad in the mariners academy and they trained quite a distance from the parents to limit their involvement. Some parents were still quite loud on the sidelines anyway so the coach took the extreme measure of kicking us all out of the oval so we'd have to wait in the carpark. It only lasted a little while but the parents soon got the message.

I recommend you call a parental meeting and lay down the ground rules for them. Some of them may not get it but try and let them know as strongly as possible with out being confrontational that they are there to provide support to their kids without providing advice.

Also as a visual aid you should bring along a pair of kids sized boots and shin pads and when you have an over exuberant parent go up to them with them and ask them if they fit because they obviously want to be out there playing.

I've coached all of my three boys in the 5-6 age group and have really bought into the SSG philosophy of their weekend games being just a supervised play session. I tried to stay off the pitch as much as possible and limited myself to making subsitutions and assisting with restarts and basically just letting the kids play. Some of the parents on the other hand were a nightmare. I had a lot yelling out for big kicks, or kick it out and it just drove me nuts because most of my training sessions were focussed on kids dribbling and ball control and just basically being relaxed and comfortable when in possession.

Parents should be restricted to passive observation of games, any breach should result in that parent being given a touch line ban. Let them play FFS.

Thanks for another interesting and thought provoking article posted in the Performance section, Distant Fan.

One common theme in football around the world is the sometimes awful behaviour of parents at games when they watch their children.


This article is one which has caused European football federations to suggest high numbers of touches in organised training sessions for kids at club level. Of course, Dirk Van Adidas, another 442 member suggests the quality of touches is important in game context and he is right too.

One thing in Australia which is in football's favour, is that it is played a lot in the playground at primary school. In northern Europe, with their wet, cold climates, kids may not be able to play outside in the playground at breaks as much as they do here.

Kids may play up to an hour a day in Australian schools. This is good. The only problem is, that there are often too many players in a game. The 4 v 4 SSG is often not achieved, as kids seem to love playing in big games such as 15 v 15.

Another advantage we have in terms of playground development for football is that the rugby codes and AFL sometimes have difficulty being accepted by school administrations. This is because of the perceived danger in tackling in these codes.

Edited by Decentric: 10/5/2011 12:23:58 PM

The ‘give us back our game’ idea is meant to complement the existing set-up of competition and training sessions not replace it. One 'GUBOG' option might be for clubs to set aside a couple of hours a week during the winter season for casual unsupervised games for any kids registered to the club. This is in addition to normal training.

Another option is to encourage kids to play during the long off season. For instance, last summer I invited parents of my own kids’ friends, local coaches etc to bring kids along to the local park each Thursday evening to have a casual game. It went from 6.30pm till dark. I provided cones and footballs but I left the kids to set up their pitch, ref themselves etc. Meanwhile, I played a casual game with a group of adults. We didn’t supervise the kids game but they were safe from harm as we were so nearby. (The alternative was enrolling our children into a summer league with all the competitive adult rubbish that goes on in those comps.) During occasional breaks in the adult game I’d look across at the kids games and see 7 year olds tackling 11 year olds, 10 year old girls scoring against 12 year old boys etc.

Small sided games are the way to go. My godson went from playing half-field to SSG and within about a year, his skills had markedly improved: control with both feet, better passing, decent shooting technique (he's only 9, so a way to go yet) but most of all, he's enjoying himself. That's what we need.

A few years ago, Paul Cooper an English community coach became concerned that kids couldn’t develop their football skills without the supervision of adults. He set up an organization called ‘Give us back our game’. If you accept his analysis then part of our 'coaching' is basically provided a safe environment to allow children to run their own casual kickarounds, as often as possible.

The following quotes from Paul Cooper give an insight into his thinking:

A recent study by Liverpool John Moores University found that “The Youth Academy players that went on to attain professional scholarship status at 16 years of age had accumulated significantly more hours in football specific playful activities (street football/free-play) between the ages of 6 and 12. This was in addition to their normal Academy training

Should we be looking to condition more structured club session games to try and recreate some of these constraints that appear in street football/free-play?

http://gubog.blogspot.com/


As coaches we should be concerned that 'the beautiful game' is in decline. Football for children is now very different from earlier generations when the only adult involvement was a call from your mum that your tea was ready. Football is no longer beautiful for our kids anymore: it's ugly.

In a world where children can no longer play outside without supervision, parents and coaches have taken over. And the competitive drive adults bring to the game means youngsters no longer have time to fall in love with football, to play for fun and thus truly to develop their skills.

Today's children learn from the grown-ups. Without the freedom of the streets and playing fields, their early experiences of football are organised, supervised and coached. They have no real say in what happens, and they don't have time to develop, learn and fall in love with the beautiful game.

We at Give Us Back Our Game feel that the problem areas are

•   Football is no longer the children’s game - it is controlled by adults;
•   Often, the same children are on the sidelines as subs or omitted every game;
•   Coaches and parents can too often be seen screaming from the touchlines;
•   Winning is prioritised before fun and development;
•   There is not enough free play where children can solve their own problems;

We need a game that is both child and player centred where children can be children, have fun and express themselves.

"I fully support the 'Give us back our game' campaign. It is about letting children be children and having fun. We have started to play 4v4 games at the under 9s age group in the Academy, and not only has it improved their skills and insight but the children, coaches and parents love it. During a break between games one of the teams said 'We want to swap positions'. We say, 'You decide for yourselves, it is your game'. They love having the responsibility to make their own decisions both on and off the pitch. It makes them better all round footballers and develops their communication and social skills." David Godley - Watford FC Academy


http://www.footy4kids.co.uk/newsletter22.htm#