Yesterday, at after school pick-up, I bumped into a father of one of the boys I coached in the under 7s last season.
A delightfully natured kid, happy-go-lucky, much like his dad, he still addresses me as ‘Coach Tony’ a year on.
Except, that this season, owing to the club and the local association’s grading of under 8s players onwards, he had a different coach.
After the grading process at the start of the season, designed to place players in teams and divisions of similar ability, he ended up in a team a few grades lower than one I was coaching.
Not the quickest or sharpest kid on the ball, he had enjoyed his football last season, and his dad was pleased that he was growing more comfortable on the ball, lifting his head up and looking to pass to teammates.
I asked him how his son’s season had gone and how his game was developing.
“His game’s gone backwards”, came the familiar line from a parent subjected to the age-old lottery that is football coaching at grassroots level.
He lamented that his son hadn’t really evolved his understanding of the game, and nor was he enjoying it as much.
It’s not that the coach, volunteering his time, wasn’t passionate or committed. It’s just that the messages weren’t particularly great.
Rather than being encouraged to put their foot on the ball and keep it, the kids were invariably being instructed to get rid if it and get it forward. It was back to square one, his father felt.
This is not a piece to point to my methods or ideas as being the best. Far from it.
Indeed, apart from the enjoyment of guiding the kids, part of my motivation for being involved in coaching at a junior level was the sheer fear of the quality of coaching out there and what type of messages my son would be subjected to by another parent “happy to help”.
I had some first hand experience of this a couple of years ago.
At the end of the 2012 winter season, we decided to put our son and a few of his friends that I’d coached in the under 6s in a privately run local summer competition.
Commitments elsewhere meant I wasn’t able to coach the team in this comp, but we reasoned that at least the boys were still playing football and would enjoy continuing their season into Christmas.
They certainly did enjoy the competition, going all the way and winning the grand final. My wife, who attended most of the games, excitedly reported that our boy had scored the winners in both the semi final and final.
I asked to see some of the iPad footage and was left less than impressed by seeing him scoring goals by shooting from inside his own half.
The words I used had a familiar tone: “His game’s gone backwards.”
Rather than being encouraged to dribble, take players on and keep the ball, the kids were being told to hoof it forward, and shoot from anywhere. Results, kick and rush football.
Needless to say, the process of rebuilding that confidence in the under 7s last year was a slow one.
The frustration for this parent and many others is the complete lack of consistency in the way kids are being taught and nurtured, even within a local club which has seven under 8 sides.
The FFA has made a song and dance about rolling out its national curriculum and how it “creates the roadmap to international success” by adopting a “proactive”, “possession-based” game.
The author, Han Berger, says: “It is aimed at a fundamental transformation of the way football is played and coached in Australia, especially at youth level, in order to develop future generations of players and teams that will enable Australia to maintain a leading position in world football, particularly within the Asian Football Confederation.”
Fundamentally, it is a great guiding template, and if executed well it has the potential to deliver on its promise.
But its success will be in its execution, in whether the concept and the detailed delivery gets down to the coaches on the ground.
How many grassroots coaches, for example, at under 6s, 7s, 8s and 9s, know they working in the “discovery phase”?
How many out there are actually playing four versus four at 6s and 7s rather than five versus five or six versus six? How strictly is this enforced by the clubs and associations?
Sure, it all looks great on paper, but what’s the actual implementation?
Yes, at the beginning of the season, the coaches are generally invited to a three-hour junior coaching session where they obtain a Grassroots Coaching certificate, but it’s generally discretionary.
Often it involves travel, meaning only a handful of the committed coaches are exposed to the right messages.
Then it’s a question of whether they’re able to implement these messages, and often this is done without any proper oversight from clubs, associations, and state and federal bodies.
The losers in all this are the kids and parents who end up with a coach who, despite their best intentions, hasn’t the knowledge and tools to impart the requisite level of development.
Sadly, to these eyes, those on the losing side remain the large majority of players and parents.
Throughout the season I explored the quality of junior coaching beyond the local association level by venturing out to some Skills Acquisition Program (SAP) games, and the gala day held at Blacktown Sports Park a couple of weeks ago.
These, after all, are the National Premier League and state league clubs charged with the responsibility of developing the best of our kids through the ages of under 9s to under 11s.
What is clear here is the gulf in quality. There are a number of clubs and coaches doing some exceptional work, developing their kids to the letter of the curriculum.
No doubt they are fuelled by a sound education base and general football knowledge, and surrounded by good mentors.
These clubs and coaches will serve the purpose of producing the next batch our A-League and national team players, and I’ve seen plenty of talent over the past couple of years to know there are some good ones coming through, playing the right way.
But then there are many other SAP clubs and coaches where you wonder if the players might be better off in their community clubs rather than paying $1500 for coaching that’s nowhere near the level expected.
It all remains hit and miss, right across the scene. To the parents I speak to, I encourage them to educate themselves, and then assess the messages coming from their coach, and whether their child is moving forward.
As customers, parents have every right to be asking questions about the quality of their kids’ coaching.
It ought to be less of a gamble to get kids exposed to decent coaching.
One of the biggest hurdles, of course, remains the cost in time and money of spreading this education right down through the elite pathways into the under 6s in community clubs.
Yet, if Australia is to truly capitalise on its rich junior numbers, it’s paramount that FFA find a way to make coaching education more affordable, accessible and of a consistently strong standard.
http://www.theroar.com.au/2014/08/28/better-coach-education-key-capitalising-australias-junior-football-numbers/