Nice article Arthur however I will be steering my kids away from "competitive" futsal this offseason. I found it too structured and not very good value for money. As I've mentioned before our local tennis court has converted a few courts to five a side futsal and we can hire them for $22/hour. I get 10-14 kids and just let them play for the hour - no instruction, no keeping score (although they do) and definitely no positions. I keep the age groups roughly 7-9 and 10-13 and everyone seems to get a decent kick.

Have to agree with you wozza organised futsal can be very direct and tough, the agenda set by the centre and the style of refereeing.

The free play environment you have set up is perfect.

GOOD COACHES KNOW WHEN TO SAY NOTHING
http://sportingfutures.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/good-coaches-know-when-to-say-nothing/
Good learning involves a mixture of watching, listening, thinking, imagining, talking and trying things out. To be a good coach, the first thing is to get these ingredients in the right balance and in the right order.

Research has found that the more people try to remember what they have been told, when under pressure, the more their performance gets rigid or falls to bits. So a creative coach’s job is to nudge and guide learning, not to force it.

The best thing the coach can do is know how to do that skilfully. They can’t make learning happen, however much they show and tell and correct, or however loud they shout. Great coaches know that less is often more, when it comes to learning.

So a good coach needs to be sparing with their ‘good advice’.

Not many people can make mayonnaise these days. If you do, you will know there is one cardinal rule. You put the egg yolks and a bit of mustard in a bowl, and then you add one drop of oil, and beat it like hell. When that drop is worked in, you add another drop, and beat again. Only after you have added many drops one by one can you start to add the oil faster. If you don’t follow this rule, your mayonnaise curdles.

Good coaching is like making mayonnaise.

With young players especially, you add instruction very slowly, and allow them enough time to incorporate it through practise and experimentation. If you teach them too much too quickly, their minds will curdle, and in a game they will be trying to remember what you have told them, rather than having had the time to blend it into what they already know and can do.

Time spent consolidating stuff is usually time well spent.

Learning is 90% about what is going on at the learners’ end and only 10% about what a coach is doing. The learner is responsible for their mistakes and their successes. Effective coaches understand this principle and less effective coaches are very busy, noisy and often domineering, but rarely create the conditions for players to learn, as they don’t understand what is involved in the learning process and how their actions help or hinder it.

Any coach in any sport who believes an understanding of how their players learn is irrelevant is misguided and is unlikely to be effective.

John Allpress & Guy Claxton



Edited by Arthur: 23/7/2014 01:50:28 PM

Good article that offers realistic solutions to our enviroment.

Patrick Vieira is building a bright future at Manchester City... with a core group of English players City trying to bring through English players for the future
Vieira looks to replicate German model, creating stars such as Manuel Neuer
Devante Cole one of those highly rated at the club
City look to make great people, as well as great players
By Adam Crafton Follow @@AdamCrafton_
Published: 07:28 AEST, 6 August 2014 | Updated: 19:42 AEST, 6 August 2014

In broiling heat on the western tip of Croatia, Patrick Vieira is demanding that little bit more from his young Manchester City players.
‘Come on, come on, come on,’ he urges, with increasing cadence, as his elite development squad — or reserve team, in old money — play a two-touch, six-a-side game. ‘It’s hot, you are tired. Keep the ball. Never lose it.’
Vieira’s proteges, along with the Under 18 group, coached by former Blackburn winger Jason Wilcox, are in the quaint coastal town of Novigrad for a 10-day training camp set against the panoramic backdrop of the Adriatic Sea.

‘It’s not an army barracks but it’s also not five-star luxury and glam,’ says Mark Allen, head of the academy. ‘It offers the boys a taste, but we keep them grounded.’
‘We have a motto here,’ Wilcox begins. ‘Great person, great footballer. That means punctuality, appearance, work ethic, respect. You speak to cleaners how you speak to the manager.
‘You shake hands with every member of staff in the morning and when they leave at night. It’s vital.’
At the club’s Carrington training ground in Manchester, discipline is instilled in these young men. If they forget an item of kit, whether it be their water bottle or shin pads, they will not train. If they are late for a team meeting on match-day, they will not play.

‘It is basic good manners,’ Allen says, his face gleaming with pride. ‘Socks are rolled up, shirts are tucked in. I have a great picture where there are two players about to come on for England at youth level. You can tell immediately which one is a City player. His shirt is tidy, his shorts are right, shinpads are correct. It shows they are listening.’
There is a conscious effort to shield these teenagers from the trappings of fame. While adidas are already sponsoring some of City’s English 17-year-olds and agents have free rein to handpick the region’s finest talent, they are also given cookery and driving awareness classes.
City are looking to nurture players from the cradle to the gravy train of the Premier League but in the boardroom they recognise that improvement is required.
Since the Abu Dhabi takeover in the summer of 2008, no player has graduated from the City academy to cement a place in the first team squad.
Last September, City defeated Manchester United with 10 overseas, outfield players. English players Jack Rodwell — who signed for Sunderland on Tuesday — and Scott Sinclair started nine Premier League matches between them since signing two years ago.
‘We want to bring talent through our academy into our first team,’ says Vieira. ‘There are no borders in football but if there are seven or eight Manchester boys, then fantastic.’

Certainly, the potential is there: 30 of the 46 players in Croatia hail from the UK or Ireland. Light blue is increasingly the dominant colour in many of England’s young dressing rooms.
‘We had seven under-16s in the England squad last year,’ Wilcox reveals. ‘That was a record for us. We have some incredibly talented English players. Brandon Barker, Ashley Smith-Brown, Angus Gunn, Kean Bryan, Tosin Adarabioyo. The players are coming through.
‘Below the under-18 group, over 90 per cent of our academy is English. Recently we offered eight professional contracts and six of those are English boys.
‘Four of those six are local boys. It’s the ideal scenario but the wider you spread the net, the more chance you have of finding the gem.’


The seeds of talent are beginning to germinate. Last season, City’s Under 11s and Under 14s were national champions and the Under 18 side were northern league winners. Under Vieira, an Under 19 side reached the quarter-final of the UEFA Youth League. A 6-0 victory over Bayern Munich reverberated around Europe, with five English names on the team sheet.
Most are yet to be seen in the first team squad, something Vieira attributes to the ‘massive’ gap between youth competitions and the demands of elite football. It is why City are thought to remain receptive to discussions over B-teams in the lower tiers.
As the authorities prevaricate, City are single-minded in their aspiration and little encapsulates the journey from chip-fat to caviar quite like the money and dedication flowing into this academy.


Having invested heavily in the first team, securing two Premier League titles in three years, Sheik Mansour is now hard at work on City’s foundations.
Later this year, the £150m City Football Academy will open, a stone’s throw from the Etihad Stadium, where Tony Blair once intended to build a Super Casino.
It will boast facilities unrivalled in the English game and Rick Owen, a club kit man for more than 20 years, reflects: ‘We used to train on council pitches and do pre-season at a school between Stoke and Crewe. How times change.’
On this summer morning, it is a breathless training session in sticky, cloying conditions and Vieira has become irritated, noticing that his players have become attracted to the ball.
‘Stop, stop,’ he orders, his players freezing instantly. ‘Look at yourselves. Ten of you, all bunched together! How can you play like this? Look for the space, make the pitch bigger.’ He motions, spreading out his hands.
‘The boys need to understand this,’ Vieira insists. ‘When you have the ball, the pitch must be as big as possible. If you lose it, make it as tight as possible and then seven seconds, maximum, to win it back.

‘The best teams have a quick recovery. When you press, it is the whole team, high and fast, even the goalkeeper. Watch Manuel Neuer — unbelievable, he is like an old No 5. But he wasn’t born this way, he trained hard. If we start early, we can create these players.’
This, in a nutshell, is the club’s philosophy: an intoxicating brand of high-tempo, passing football that has been outlined by Allen, sporting director Txiki Begiristain and academy director Brian Marwood.
It is the identity that City now encourage at all levels, from the Under-11 group to the first team under Manuel Pellegrini.
Allen expands: ‘When I took the job four years ago I outlined a 10-year plan to really start to see a group of talent coming through together all playing the City way.
‘Cycles take time. In the late 90s it was France, then Spain, now Germany. Our moment will arrive.’
‘The numbers will not lie,’ Vieira concedes, puffing out his cheeks. ‘We have to make a report in 10 years on how many players are in the first team. Then we can say we did it right or we did it wrong.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2717240/Patrick-Vieira-building-bright-future-Manchester-City-core-group-English-players.html

Great stuff, Arthur.

I'll contact you in the next few days mate.

Why rugby players are turning to Aristotle for inspiration
Jules Evans explains how one rugby club is beefing up its back row with Buddha, Aristotle and Epictetus the Stoic

Saturday 06 September 2014



By Jules Evans

7:00AM BST 06 Sep 2014

Comments7 Comments

For the past year, I’ve been running a philosophy group at Saracens rugby club. Once a month, I go to Saracens’ training ground in St Albans and give a brief talk about an idea from ancient philosophy that can be applied to our lives today. Then the group – usually around 10 players and staff – use that as a starting point to discuss how to live well.

We’ve covered everything from “accepting adversity” to “what makes a good friend”, and have explored ideas from many wisdom traditions – Epicurus, the Stoics, Taoism, Buddhism – as well as looking at how these have been revived in modern psychotherapy.

It all came from a project I’m working on at Queen Mary, University of London, to see if philosophy can be useful beyond academia. I have run philosophy clubs in a mental health charity and a Glasgow prison, as well as the current one at Saracens.

I went in to the rugby club with zero expectations, and still find it strange to sit in a circle with Jim Hamilton, Owen Farrell and others, discussing Aristotle’s idea of the Golden Mean. But it’s been good fun for all of us. It was “the most popular thing we did last season,” says defence coach Paul Gustard.

Why do rugby players need to sit around talking about wisdom when they could be doing star jumps? Aren’t they living the dream already? Yes and no. A career in professional sport comes with some incredible highs. “Winning a big game is an ecstatic experience,” one player said in the philosophy club this week. “I don’t think people outside sport ever feel like that.” But there are some real lows too.
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We might think of athletes as supermen, but it turns out that a lot of their lives are beyond their control. Are they fit? Does the coach pick them? How do the media treat them? How does the rest of the team play? When those external factors are in their favour, they’re gods. When fortune shifts, suddenly they’re a nobody. The transition to life after sport is particularly hard. How will you get that high again?

What has surprised me, talking to various coaches over the past year, is how little attention most clubs pay to the mental and emotional well-being of players. Considering how big a factor the mind is in sport, you’d expect top teams to invest as much in mental wellbeing as they do in physical fitness. In fact, it’s more or less ignored.

This reflects the attitudes of wider society. If you get cancer, you can expect all the care and sympathy in the world. If you get mental illness, no one wants to talk about it. That’s particularly true of male culture. Men are not good at taking care of themselves or each other, and numb their pain with booze. As a result, suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50.

The values of professional sports teams can also be quite toxic. “It’s a fear-driven industry, focused on short-term success,” says Neil Burns, a mentor who’s worked with top cricketers. “Athletes often get used up and tossed aside. Values and wellbeing don’t usually get a look in.”

Saracens are trying to do things differently. When new management arrived, in 2009, they insisted that the character, values and wellbeing of the players were the top priority, and results would follow from that. They launched something called the Personal Development Programme, to support all the players in their lives and their careers after sport. They duly invited various people in to talk to the players, including mindfulness experts, a yoga teacher, even a philosopher (me).

The “Saracens revolution” has created a unique culture. Alex Goode, the 26-year-old Saracens and England fullback, says: “The old Saracens was not a particularly friendly place. There’d be quite brutal banter. Now, there’s much more of a feeling of togetherness.”

The esprit de corps has made the team stronger and better. Saracens won the Premiership in 2011, and broke the record last season for most tries scored and most league points won, reaching the European cup final and Premiership play-off final, both of which they sadly lost.

The Premiership final loss was to a dubious try in the last minute of extra time, after a disallowed try of their own. Defeats don’t come more cruel. But, as Brian Moore noted in his Telegraph column, the team handled it with impressive integrity and dignity.

Other teams are following their lead. The head of the Personal Development Programme, David Priestley, moved to Arsenal this season to develop a programme there. In cricket, after some high-profile burnouts, the ECB is beginning to recognise that “inner fitness is the foundation for long-term success”, as former England coach Andy Flower puts it. In the United States, the enlightened coach Phil “Zen Master” Jackson is putting values and wisdom at the centre of his basketball team culture.
It’s interesting to consider whether this focus on wellbeing could be transferred to other industries. Poor mental health costs the UK economy roughly £23 billion a year through absenteeism and low morale, according to the Centre for Mental Health. Yet, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), only a third of British companies offer any stress management or resilience training, which usually means one half-day session a year.

That’s not enough. What impresses me at Saracens is that it’s not a once-a-year workshop. It’s a values-driven culture, sustained every day in every interaction (or not). Just as importantly, it’s a pluralist approach, exploring various ways to live well rather than forcing employees down one path. There is space for players to discuss ideas and share their own experience. This helps create a culture of peer support, which is more powerful than a one-off workshop.

There is not one philosophical or scientific answer to the question of how to live well. But some philosophies have survived for two millennia because there is wisdom in them. The challenge for organisations is to offer useful ideas and techniques, while enabling employees to find what works for them. And if that sounds soft and fluffy to you, go and watch Saracens this season.

MIND GAMES:

Stoic resilience

The Stoic philosopher Epictetus taught that “it’s not events, but our opinion about events, that causes us suffering” – an insight that inspired cognitive behavioural therapy and modern resilience training.

Buddhist mindfulness

The Buddha said: “We are what we think. All that we are is created by our thoughts.” We can change our relationship to our thoughts through mindfulness meditation. Many organisations now practise mindfulness, and there’s even a parliamentary committee devoted to it.

Humanist happiness

Epicurus taught that the meaning of life is to be happy. We can learn to be happy, by enjoying the present moment and not striving after false desires.

Aristotelian flow

Aristotle thought happiness comes when we fulfil the drives of our nature for learning, connectedness, freedom and meaningful work – an insight that inspired self-determination theory in psychology.

Christian charity

The idea that companies should look after the wellbeing of its employees was pioneered by Quaker companies such as Rowntree’s, which had the first-ever welfare department, as well as a library, an in-house magazine, an amateur dramatics company and a company orchestra.

Jules Evans is the author of Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations. The Saracens philosophy club is part of a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/11074945/Why-rugby-players-are-turning-to-Aristotle-for-inspiration.html

04 September, 2014
The Science of Play – why adults structuring ‘unstructured learning’ is essential
We’ve all been there… the last five seconds and you need to score a header or a volley to keep the same goalkeeper in, or do you make the decision not to touch the ball in case you miss and have to go in goal yourself… the excitement of street games are endless and timeless. Well, I say they are timeless but are they?

Adults of a certain age, probably 25 upwards, almost had a rite of passage whereby playing Three and In, Headers and Volleys or 60 Seconds was a daily playground or after-school ritual. This bred a huge amount of different skills that were transferable to life and to football including;
- Self-regulation of games
- Ownership of rules
- Conflict resolution
- Volleying and crossing techniques
- Reactive saves from short distance

However, the change in society, less informal play and the structure of youth sports being adult-centric with young people relying on parents to take them to sporting activities has seen a decline in street games. I spoke to two U10’s at the Club I coach whilst they were playing some street games at training to ask them where they learnt about these games. One player said he had learnt them from a coach that used to do them at coaching sessions when he was younger and the other said he had never played them until he came to the Club at U9 and learnt them from other players.

I’m therefore going to put forward the case that coaches should actively plan time for informal play within their coaching sessions, actually allocate time for the children to organise their own mini-games without the adults intervention. Simply for the reason that these are games children enjoy playing!

It is well documented in literature that ‘play’ has a huge amount of benefits. It is a means by which children develop their physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and moral capacities. It is a means of creating and preserving friendships. It also provides a state of mind that, in adults as well as children, is uniquely suited for high-level reasoning, insightful problem solving, and all sorts of creative endeavours (Gray, 2008).

By definition ‘Play’ has the following characteristics and it is worth exploring how you can plan in your coaching for this development to occur:
(1) Play is self-chosen and self-directed; it is something they want to do, not made to do and they have the freedom to manage their own actions during play. Natural leaders emerge through the children’s choice, not because an adult allocate roles. If you try and lead it, this is no longer play!

(2) Play is activity in which means are more valued than ends; the joy for children involved in play comes through the process, not the outcome. Does anyone remember the score of a game up the park involving mates?! I asked some children in our village that I saw playing football who won in yesterday’s game. They said they had no idea and it didn’t matter in the slightest – they were just playing (and learning!).

(3) Play has structure, or rules, which are not dictated by physical necessity but emanate from the minds of the players; watching a pick-up game developed by children you can observe them change the rules, move players about to make the teams fairer or make one goal smaller (agreed between the players) because that makes the game better, for them.

(4) Play is imaginative, non-literal, mentally removed in some way from “real” or “serious” life; you often hear young players say “I’m Ronaldo today” and by that they are going to take themselves into a fantasy world where they pretend they are. They know they aren’t really Ronaldo but for that time during play, they are.

(5) Play involves an active, alert, but non-stressed frame of mind; evidence suggests this “flow” state is great for learning, where children can get absorbed in the process not the outcome without narrowing their views of the world.

Research about learning shows that strong pressure to perform well (which induces a non-playful state) improves performance on tasks that are mentally easy or habitual for the person, but worsens performance on tasks that require creativity, or conscious decision making, or the learning of new skills (Gray, 2008). The game of football is clearly the latter.

In contrast, anything that is done to reduce the person’s concern with outcome and to increase the person’s enjoyment of the task for its own sake—that is, anything that increases playfulness—has the opposite effect and will be more beneficial for player development.

Deliberate play situations allow children the freedom to experiment with different movements and tactics and the opportunity to learn to innovate, improvise and respond strategically (Cote, Baker & Abernethy, 2007). Organising games along the lines of things the children want from their football experience can be hugely beneficial for learning and development, and this isn’t exclusive to younger players either, teenage players need a sense of freedom, ownership and playfulness too. Give it a try!

Cote, J., Baker, J. & Abernethy, B. (2007). Practice and play in the development of sport expertise. In R. Eklund & G. Tenenbaum (Eds.), Handbook of Sport Psychology, pp.184-202. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Gray, P. (2008). Freedom to learn. The roles of play and curiosity as foundations for learning. Psychology Today.
http://youthfootballdevelopment.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/the-science-of-play-why-adults.html?spref=tw

23 April, 2014
Developing Creative Players...first you need to understand creative people!

One of the most common phrases I hear up and down the country is the distinct lack of creative players in the English game, currently possessing an English passport. Whilst we talk lots about wanting to develop this, the real question is, what do they look like and how do we foster these traits on the grass? I’m going to start by sharing some findings from a research study to help our understanding of just what it is we should be looking for within our children and I’ll attempt to add the football architecture to the plot.

1. Associative orientation: The people with creative talents may well be more imaginative, playful and have a wealth of different ideas. They have an ability to be committed yet slide transitions between fact and fiction.

In the football world, have you come across the player that wants to talk about lots of different ways to approach things? The ones that when you show them a tactics board will move all the counters, proudly saying “...and then he could run here, and she could pass the ball down to him, and he could run into there and cross it here....” – recognise those ones? Try not to miss the conversations these players are starting, as whilst they might not be what you want at that time and a little frustrating, they are sharing a unique insight into the creativity of their mind.

2. Need for originality: The creative ones will often resists rules and convention; not sticking to what is expected. Some really creative people will have a rebellious attitude because of a need to do things no one else does.

When you are setting up a practice and the focus of learning is on a particular skill, but one player doesn’t want to do that one, they want to make up their own trick and try something different - can you think of many players that do this? I can remember one boy I used to coach that used to drive me barmy doing this, not focusing on the learning I originally thought, but actually this is often where the best and newest ideas come from. The Cruyff turn? Ronaldo’s free kick technique? Ideas developed through play and exploration then honed through practice.

3. Motivation: Creative people have a need to perform, are incredibly goal oriented and possess an innovative attitude. They often have the staying power and stamina to tackle difficult issues.
Match day comes round, you’ve been working in training during the week on ‘when to pass and when to dribble’ yet all of this seems lost as Mr. Creative decides to try and take on two players in the middle of the pitch, loses the ball and the other team score... I think we have all been there. Our immediate reaction as a rationale adult with a fully developed brain is ‘has he not learnt anything this week’ but for that player, they were just having a go at something new! Rather than worry about the score as the outcome, engage them in a conversation on performance and allow them to start making the links.

4. Ambition: The people with bundles of creativity have a need to be influential, to attract attention and recognition.

It is very easy as an adult to confuse this with ‘showing off’, the player that likes to be centre of attention. Transfer this across different domains and think about this at school, through the eyes of the music teacher, drama teacher or art teacher. What does a creative child look like there? They may showcase their talents in a very different way and often the very best in those domains are not the showing off types. In a football sense, try and spot the players in your group that like to try different ideas, that aren’t afraid of getting it wrong in front of others. Under the surface their brain may be calculating different ways to make that attempt better.

5. Flexibility: Creative brains have the ability to see different aspects of issues and come up with optimal solutions.

Coaches have the ability to facilitate learning across a multitude of different levels; helping players get better at football is one way but also helping them become better people is vitally important too. The way you structure your coaching can help promote this. For example, when splitting up the team into small groups to develop tactics and strategies to solving a particular problem you have set them, consider the outcomes closely. There are certainly the specific football parts that will be developed but it’s vital you listen to the process as much as the outcome. Who has a different view to other people? Who offers something that others haven’t considered? Who see’s the problem from a different perspective to other people? They might be your creative talents.

6. Low emotional stability: Creative people have a tendency to experience negative emotions, greater fluctuations in moods and emotional state and a failing self-confidence.

There is no denying it, the most talented players of different generations are often the flawed genius, bringing with them challenges in other areas of their life, compensated by wild extremes. Do you recognise this in some of your players? We often associate these traits with different ages and stages of maturation, of which many are, but sometimes there is a knock-on effect to our coaching style also. How do we manage these young people? There is a great saying that coaches need to adjust their style of delivery to the learner, not the learner needing to adjust to them. Some players require an arm round the shoulder at times and if our default style is a little more towards the other end of the spectrum it is important we recognise this.

7. Low sociability: The most creative have a tendency not to be very considerate, are often obstinate and will find faults and flaws in ideas and people.

The creative ones will view a problem through a different lens to the other players, not in a ‘concrete sequential’ kind of manner, but with more ‘random and abstract’ thinking. If they don’t see their team mates sorting out a challenge in a way they would, when they consider their ideas to be better, they will often demonstrate frustration and criticise the plan. Managing this in terms of developing their people skills is important, helping them understand that listening to different views can be beneficial and it shows good emotional intelligence and empathy towards other people.

As you will notice, some of these traits sound positive, such as the motivation, but others can sound hard work within a team environment. The challenge for you as a coach is to recognise these exist and then manage them, not stifle their creativity. Managing your own frustrations is an important part and understand that by setting the right environment, you have the ability to foster some absolute creative geniuses, maybe not in the professional football sphere, but in their wider life. And that is really important.

Nick Levett
FA National Development Manager (Youth Football)
@nlevett
http://youthfootballdevelopment.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.ht-coaching.hu/aktualis/the-messi-case-hunting-territory-institute

How Heyneks Bayern dealt with Messi.

Lampard: Young stars need games

PA Sports 06/09/2014 08:00:00

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Frank Lampard feels it is harder for young players to make the transition into first-team football

Frank Lampard has revealed his fears for England's future as young stars struggle for first team opportunities in the Premier League.

The Manchester City midfielder, on loan from New York City, feels that the influx of top European talent is a major driving force behind the stagnation of home-grown talent.

Lampard, who retired from England duty with 106 caps after the World Cup, reflected on his progression through the ranks at West Ham and believes it is a lot different for English prospects today.

"I made my West Ham debut at 17 and was a regular a year later. If I was the same age now I wouldn't be anywhere near the Chelsea or Manchester City sides," he told The Sun. "Like the other kids I'd have had to go out on loan."

The 36-year-old, who is Chelsea's all-time leading goalscorer after spending 13 years at Stamford Bridge, acknowledged that coaching facilities are better than ever but there comes a time when players just need games.

"If it was my boy I'd think about sending him to Chelsea to have the best coaching from eight to 15 and, if possible, then send him to a club with less resources to try and get him in the first team at 18," he added.

"Rio Ferdinand and I were fortunate we experienced it at a young age. But the kids these days get lost.

"There's a stagnant patch where we hear of these good players of 15 and 16 and wonder where they are at 21."

Lampard highlights Jose McEachran as an example of this after he was widely tipped for big things but was then forced out on loan due to the plethora of top quality midfielders at Chelsea.

"He had his moments but I still think he got a bit downbeat about it," Lampard said.

"From being talked up he was always having to go out on loan - and where do you go from there? if the door's shut, it can stay shut."

However, the seasoned midfielder also thinks young players in this country can often get ahead of themselves to make matters worse.

"Then there's the fact these young lads have to focus and keep their heads when they start to earn very good money," he said.

"They have to realise they haven't made it just because everyone is talking about them at 18."

http://www.thepfa.com/news/2014/9/6/lampard-young-stars-need-games

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED223649.pdf

"Learning Outcomes negatively associated w/ friction, cliquesness, apathy & disorganisation" (Haertal & Wallberf 1980).

http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/01/are-you-learning-as-fast-as-th/

Are you learning as fast as the world is changing?

watched a group of SAP players play headers and volleys and they struggled big time, not used to unstructured play.
Nice to read stuff from footynick, as he did sound out a lot of coaches before he implemented his changes .

The 10,000 Hour Myth
Posted In Deliberate Practice, Problems in Youth Sports, Specialization
Tweet A myth is a false belief or idea that is widely held. One such myth that has enveloped youth sports is the idea that to become an elite athlete all one needs 10,000 hours of sustained, deliberate training. This is a myth in every sense of the word.

I recently gave a talk at a national soccer coaches meeting. I asked the audience if they had heard of 10,000 hour rule. Everyone raised their hand. Then I asked if they had heard it was not exactly true and a misrepresentation of the study of performance. Only about 10% raised their hand. Myth confirmed.

Ten years ago, very few people outside of academia knew of Anders Ericcson or his study that found a correlation between thousands of hours of training and elite musical performance. That all changed in 2008 when Malcolm Gladwell popularized the 10,000 Hour Rule in his book Outliers: The Story of Success.

The 10,000 hour rule has become the bedrock philosophy of many coaches and programs developing young athletes. They use the popularity of the rule to claim that kids need to train for 10,000 hours if they are going to become top players. They demand more commitment at younger ages. They demand specialization, which can be quite harmful to kids. They funnel every child into their “10,000 Hour System.” They take kids who want to play other sports out of the developmental pipeline, demanding complete allegiance in pursuit of the holy grail of 10,000 hours.

This is quite a shame, because the concept that 10,000 hours is needed to achieve elite performance status is not a rule. It’s a myth.

The examples of athletes whom have performed on an Olympic or professional level with far fewer hours of deliberate training are abundant (see Donald Thomas the Bahamian long jumper). A study of professional hockey players found that on average they spent 10,000 hours in sport participation, but only 3000 of those hours were in hockey specific deliberate practice. The list of players that have competed at an elite level in multiple sports is vast and ever expanding, yet none of these athletes put 10,000 hours into two different sports. ().

Even the originator of 10,000 hours, Anders Ericcson, says that the use and misuse of his research has created a complete misunderstanding on the role of deliberate practice.

That is not to say elite athletic performance does not require thousands of hours of dedicated, focused training and excessive commitment. IT DOES. As I have discussed at length in my book, the evidence shows that simply training deliberately for 10,000 hours does NOT make one an elite athlete, and there are many paths to mastery.

Unfortunately, the purveyors of the 10,000 Hour Rule have contributed to the “adultification” of youth sports, which has become far more about trying to develop tomorrows elite superstar than creating an environment that is enjoyable, physically and mentally rewarding, and breeds adults whom are active for life. This has resulted in an environment that causes many children to quit sports. Combined with the rise in popularity of computers and video games, a decline in access to PE and other sports programs, and a rise in obesity, these factors have created culture of inactivity in today’s children. The scary statistic: today’s 10 year olds are the first generation ever who will not outlive their parents!

It is high time to present the major issues with the 10,000 hour concept, and bring some sanity back to our youth sports programs.

The 10,000 hour myth is a problem for three main reasons:

1.It puts all the eggs in one basket -10,000 hours of training, and ignores the role of genetics/talent in athletic performance: This point has been thoroughly researched in David Epstein’s The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance and should be required reading for any coach. Even Anders Ericsson agrees that the simple idea that 10,000 hours of training will make one elite is not a true statement. Aside from genetics, there are numerous other factors, including access to coaching, the psychological factors that affect performance, even luck, that all play a part. Some people are far more sensitive to training that improves speed, while others can gain in endurance faster than a test group. We are all not built the same, and training will not overcome genetic shortfalls. It also ignores the fact that without enjoyment and intrinsic motivation, players will not continue to train at the required level of focus and intensity to become elite. In a nutshell, hours of training is a part of elite performance, but not the holy grail.
2.It is misused by far too many ill informed/misguided coaches to force children to specialize early in sports: This is my biggest issue with the 10,000 hours myth. On a weekly basis I get calls and email from parents asking whether they should commit their child to a single sport in elementary school because the coach told them “it is the only way to get your 10,000 hours in.” During the sampling phase of sports development (up to age 12), children can benefit not only physically, but psychologically and cognitively by experiencing a number of sports. This is how they develop autonomy and motivation. This is when they seek the sport that they enjoy the most. Yet many organizations try to force their “customers” to choose and commit to year round training and games far too young. The greatest benefactor of this is not the child; it is the organization’s bottom line.
3.It ignores the significant role of deliberate play in athletic development: This is an area where groundbreaking research continues to be done. The deliberate practice model sometimes discounts play, for it is an activity that focuses upon immediate gratification – enjoyment – and is not the delayed gratification that deliberate practice calls for. Research shows that play increases levels of autonomy, motivation and enjoyment, three critical factors in elite athletic development I have discussed previously. There is also evidence that children engaged in play spend more time on task (actually playing) then those in structured training environments, where they stand in line, wait for coaches to set up activities, etc. In an hour of pickup basketball, children will usually spend the vast majority of the time playing, developing motor skills through the game, while research on training environments demonstrates that athletes’ time on task varies between 25% to 54% of total training time. The benefits of feedback from experienced coaches may be outweighed by the amount of time not spent actually playing or practicing! This is why I advise coaches of our youngest athletes to “Just let them play!”
It is certainly clear that thousands of hours of deliberate practice are necessary for elite level performance, yet it is also clear that they are not sufficient. Factors such as motivation, genetics disposition and sensitivity to training, and access to the right coaching all factor in, and without them training alone does not predict elite level performance.

This is an important factor to consider as parents and coaches of young athletes. If you are involved with athletes age 14 and under, chances are that the vast majority of them will not become elite competitors, never mind professional athletes. Perhaps one athlete every few years will.

So why do we create programs that sacrifice the interest of the 99% for the slight chance that one kid will make it?

Why do we create excessive training environments for 9 year old soccer players and 10 year old baseball players based upon the myth that we need to get 10,000 hours of training in?

Why are we not creating environments that first ensure that our players fall in love with the game, and they show up and play because they want to, and not because they have to?

Why are youth sports organizations hoarding as many children as possible into year round programs at 8,9,10 years old, instead of doing right by the 99%?

And finally, can’t a great coach create an environment that serves the 99%, and the potential elite player at the same time, at least prior to middle school?

If we work harder, and educate our coaches better, we can create youth sports environments that focus on developing better people and better players, and create the next generation of fans, coaches, adult league players, as well as the odd college or pro player. Great coaches do this, and still create a pathway to excellence for those with the talent, motivation, grit and love of the game to achieve greatness.

I believe we can do this through better coaching education and oversight.

I believe this requires a shift in philosophy toward the greater good, instead of the elite few.

I believe the best coaches are not afraid to let children experience multiple sports, and take time off for a family vacation or school event. Those who threaten that child’s place on the team are not furthering their sport; they are cutting the legs out from under it.

I believe the youth sports organizations that see this first, and adapt to what serves all the children, instead of the infinitesimal percentage that have the tools to become a pro, will be the ones that thrive in the 21st Century.

I also believe that those of the Friday Night Tykes genre, the organizations across all sports that treat and attempt to train every single child like a future pro, who select them far too early and ignore the crucial importance of play and enjoyment, will eventually fade away.

Or at least I hope they will.

Please share your thoughts and questions on the 10,000 hour rule in the comments section below the picture.

Sources: (click links in text for additional resources and articles cited)

The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance

Baker, J. (2003). Early specialization in youth sport: A requirement for adult expertise? High Ability Studies, 14, 85-94

http://changingthegameproject.com/the-10000-hour-myth/

Practising perfection by 10,000 touches
To keep up with their Dutch compatriots, young English players should adopt the habit of kicking a ball 10,000 times every day

In the summer of 2001, I was fortunate enough to train in Holland for close to 16 weeks, playing with a local team from Enschede in friendlies and tournaments. I saw how young Dutch players trained, prepared and learned the game.

One morning, after playing a few hours of street football, I rode my bike to FC Twente's brand new training ground in Hengelo hoping to see the first team train. What I found was the club's youngsters, aged eight or nine, assembling on a small pitch just outside the main training fences corralled by a team of coaches all holding clicking hand counters.

Each player had a ball and assembled into groups of six and, after hearing instructions, the whistle blew. The entire field of players began a series of ball touches in unison while the crew of coaches clicked away with the counters. It didn't take me long to figure out what was happening; these players worked through rehearsed ball movements in sets of 100-200 repetitions, at match speed.

After rounds of toe-touches, Cruyff turns, drag-backs, pirouettes, juggles, dribbles, or paired one-touch passing the players rested, rotated to a different station, and began another set targeting a different skill. Admittedly, I was surprised at the smooth movements on display.

I watched for a few minutes, unknowingly inching my way closer before one of the coaches made eye-contact with me. He jogged over and spoke to me in Dutch. Gathering my awkward stammering and shy disposition, the young coach deduced I didn't speak Dutch, so in near-perfect English, he asked: "You want to play? You want to join today? We just started."

To my astonishment, I agreed, after all, I had ridden 11km to watch a training session, so the invitation to participate was exciting. An older, more experienced coach shook my hand and, placing a ball at my feet said: "Hup, you start. Stoppen, you stop. Good?"

I nodded. Nothing complicated, nothing elaborate. Each movement was modelled by one of the coaches before we commenced the training session. More importantly, each drill was a progression from the previous basic exercise into a more advanced movement.

Since I started after the group, I continued to train with a coach as the players moved to another field to play the older team – players my age. After 70 minutes, I was sore, I was tired, but most of all, I was exposed. This wasn't a fitness-focused session; I'd just never trained so rigorously and exclusively on fundamental movements.

My technique wasn't as polished as some of the younger players. The coach told me I had completed a 10,000-touch workout and that each of his young players did it once a day, at least six days a week, and I should do the same. He told me that they completed a variation of that workout daily, usually at home, and every player knew it was necessary. He equated the touches with putting money in a piggybank: a fitting analogy.

In the football world it's evident a visible gap exists between countries that take pride in developing talent and those content just to qualify for a tournament or be on the same pitch as the world's best. The countries developing great players have figured out a culture-centered and formulaic way to produce the talent in abundance that fills their club system (at all levels) and the national side.

The rest of the world, meanwhile, must unlock the secrets of building not only talented individuals, but a whole generation of players. The approach is a game of numbers. Increasing the number of functional repetitions each day builds a stronger foundation for more players to improve.

Before we delve into the theory behind the number made famous by Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller, Outliers, let's examine why there is a gap in youth development. Countries that plateau in developing talent certainly harbour high aspirations for their players. Unfortunately, they also fail to execute adequate solutions. These countries need to identify exactly what "world-class talent" looks like before initiating quick fixes.

Football's world powers, regardless of geography, breed players and fans that work to create distinctive national styles of football. For these countries, the sport is such a part of life that it's closely entwined with the larger political and social fabric of a culture. Young players don't look at football as a chore or extracurricular activity. For countries lacking success on the world stage, this disconnection between a country's culture and its football might be where the fracture lies.

As with any functioning system, there must be a process. A measureable input that yields a predictable output. Gladwell's book suggests that, in addition to peripheral factors like luck, mastery of a specific skill takes no fewer than 10,000 hours of focused practice and performance. His research reinforces the validity of case studies lodged heavily in the theoretic, and it's quite impressive to say the least.

But in football, 10,000 hours of application doesn't really guarantee mastery; so how about 10,000 touches a day on the ball? Admittedly, there are countless factors at play regarding whether a player becomes a professional. But what if the goal is to produce capable footballers at not only the professional level, but at all levels?

One example is the approach I experienced on the training ground in Hengelo. Holland consistently produces technically proficient players. These players are products of a culture that values successful attention to detail in youth development and scouting systems that feed the larger clubs. Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Sparta Rotterdam and Feyenoord continually churn out talented players.

Perhaps Rinus Michels's Total Football combined with the famed Coerver method has paid dividends. In these systems, ball mastery is not only an expectation, but a demand, as it allows players to dynamically affect a match from a young age, presumably producing happy players.

The Coerver Method is a coaching platform steeped in both pyramidal and pedagogical practices developed by Wiel Coerver, "the Albert Einstein of Football". The moniker is well deserved, as development under this system requires progression through a structured process, beginning with the basics of ball mastery, footwork, group tactics, passing and receiving, and eventually moving towards individual moves and clinical finishing.

The repetition leads to habitual patterns of play and techniques to a point where complexities become simple. Players integrating supplemental Coerver methods can easily get 10,000 touches a day. And this method is no longer exclusive to the Dutch style (total football). Styles in Spain (tiki-taka), Italy (catenaccio), France (carré magique) and Germany (gegenpressing) all utilise tactics requiring technically sound players with the ability to interchange positions on the pitch: a skill acquired through relentless repetition.

In South America, football has been a fundamental to the culture since it was introduced to the continent. As a result, the blend of football with culture has resulted in periods of domination by South American players and nations. Three countries from South America have won nine of the 19 World Cup finals.

Fans across the world are captivated by the creativity, flow, flair and completeness of both A Seleção and Le Albiceleste. In these cultures and systems, players learn to maximise their effectiveness through rigid competition both at the club level and in local games. The combination of futsal and street football stresses good technique and unrivaled creativity. Players are apt to get 10,000 touches a day.

Of course, these objective methods exist in the subjective world of football. One can look at the fact Holland has never won a World Cup and other nations have shown they can beat Brazil and Argentina. One can also look at the Dutch influence on Spanish football's tiki-taka stressing mastery levels of passing, receiving, dribbling and finishing, and contend that Spain defeated Holland in the 2010 World Cup final using Dutch-inspired methods.

For all the talk about producing better players in the US, England, or anywhere really, the approach needs systematic re-evaluation. Producing the next Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi is unlikely, let alone producing a generation of them. But looking at the discrepancies of players from countries hovering just above average at best, grooming players to strive for measurable development is essential.

Ultimately, a country's football association should identify what the ultimate end goal is before drawing any conclusions. Is it winning a World Cup? Many World Cups? Developing a strong domestic league showcasing and retaining domestic talent? Very few players will reach the highest level, but the elite players are always going to be the top players within a system.

A player doesn't need a coach to complete 10,000 touches a day, which is part of the problem. Some young players assume they need constant guidance and supervision and won't train otherwise, which is, again, a cultural issue rampant with reward-seeking and needy players.

Improvement occurs with correctly and consistently implemented fundamentals. The players at La Masia, Clairefontaine, La Fábrica, De Toekomst, Carrington and other academies understand the value of supplemental training, but most of those players accumulated thousands of extra touches prior to their acceptance in the academy. That may be why many of them were accepted in the first place. They separated themselves from the pack on their own. Coaches know those players put themselves ahead of the curve.

It's easy to side with the quality over quantity argument, but the best players in the world didn't take the chance. No, they played the numbers game. Perhaps 10,000 touches a day is like money in a piggybank – a tangible investment. The method is subjective, but there's truth to the saying "the more you learn, the more you find you don't know".

http://www.theguardian.com/football/these-football-times/2014/feb/14/footballers-practice-perfection-10-000-touches-day

Another great article, Arthur.

You and Damo Baresi constantly find some terrific stuff for the rest of us to read.

Everyone sees the advantages of juggling except for some of the English and Australian coaches.
One TD says if you can do 300 it is enough no way 2000 is as high as you need to go but then 1000 a day min.

+1

Brian Clough: Pat Murphy's memories of a unique character
By Pat Murphy BBC Radio 5 live
20 September 2014 Last updated at 06:24
It is 10 years since Brian Clough - arguably football's greatest character - died of cancer aged 69 on 20 September 2004.

His achievements in the game as a prolific goalscorer with Middlesbrough and Sunderland and legendary manager at Derby County and Nottingham Forest would place him in the football pantheon anyway.

But what set him apart was personality - his ability to transcend his sport. Clough was a genuine one-off and there are more anecdotes about him than anyone else in the game.

I knew Clough for more than 30 years. I wrote a book about him - His Way, The Brian Clough Story - and was one of the lucky reporters to have a fruitful working relationship with him. He truly was a remarkable man.
'That Sinatra, he's met me, you know'

Why Clough was a gift for reporters

I'm convinced that Brian would have made a good journalist.

He had a great ear for the telling phrase and he respected reporters who had done their time and had opinions of their own.

Not that anyone of us dared to impose our views when he was around. We just listened....

"That Sinatra, Patrick - he's met me, you know."

"That Portuguese bloke at Chelsea, Jose what's his name... He reminds me of me at the same age. But I were better-looking."

"What's coaching? I'll tell you - getting that Roy McFarland [who played for Clough at Derby County] to get his hair cut!"

"Which current managers remind me of meself? Alex Ferguson for his consistency and bravery. Neil Warnock - without the success."

"Our team's so young, it's like a school outing. Our problem isn't injuries - it's acne!"

We did a programme together for BBC's World Service in 2003 in which he picked his favourite XI - with Johan Cruyff, Gerd Muller, Bobby Moore and John Charles selected. I asked him who would be the manager and was not surprised at the answer. "Well it'd have to be someone who's played a bit, could talk about it clearly without waffling on as if he was Albert Einstein, someone who wouldn't be afraid to tell that Cruyff bloke to pass the ball. I suppose it had better be me!"

It was a tongue-in-cheek answer, but he was convinced he was the right man for the job. He had utter conviction laced with humour - his forte. The only thing he was afraid of was flying.

You turned up the volume when Cloughie was on the telly or radio. He was fearless and naturally funny. You may have disliked him, but you couldn't ignore him. That would do for him, young man.
What Clough really thought of the FA

Why Clough would have got bored managing the national team

Brian was a fierce patriot who desperately wanted England to do well.

In the summer he died, we watched several Euro 2004 games together and he railed against England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson's timidity and refusal to substitute captain David Beckham. He cared - but I am not sure he would have been successful as England's manager. In 1977, at the peak of his managerial powers, he was interviewed for the England job. The Football Association went for the safe option, Ron Greenwood, who at the time was general manager at West Ham.

Years later Clough told me: "The FA knew I thought they were all as weak as dishwater. I doubt if any of the big nobs around the FA's table shared my political beliefs. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I didn't get the job. I tell you what - it didn't go in my favour."

But Cloughie would have got bored with all the time between England matches.

He hated flying, had no time for dossiers or researching the opposition and would have bridled at all the necessary schmoozing with the media.

A diplomatic incident would always be possible when he was riled. How we all loved his comment to Italian journalists after Juventus beat his Derby side in the 1973 European Cup semi-final - Clough suggested that he does not talk to cheats, but in a very colourful way.

Above all, Clough loved club management, especially presiding over two games a week. He lived for matchdays.

"The best part of my job is when we've won away from home on a midweek night, we've stopped for a bag of chips and then we're having a sing-song on the coach - with all of us having a day off tomorrow. Almost as good as still playing."
The one-minute team talk

Why Clough preferred to play Frank Sinatra

I often used to think the Forest side of the 1980s was too relaxed at the start of a match. The players would run onto the pitch, seemingly without a care in the world.

That was because a Clough team-talk would rarely last a minute - no hairdryers, no ranting. He would place a ball on the physio's couch and say: "That's your best friend for the next couple of hours. Treat it like your wife or girlfriend - caress it, love it." This after making his players listen to Frank Sinatra, Matt Monro or the Ink Spots. The thoughts of that great punk fan, current Forest boss Stuart Pearce, were never sought by his manager.

"I had enough of tedious team talks when I was a player," Clough once told me. "Footballers don't have a long attention span; they are instinctive."

He would get irritated at the idea of micro-managing footballers and demanded that they relaxed once they knew what was necessary.

"Come and see my coaching certificates - they're called the European Cup and league championships," he once said.

Above all, Cloughie was respected by his players. For three decades after he left Derby in 1973, he was a regular presence at the old players' association functions, delighting in telling anecdotes and enquiring after the various families. Cloughie was a better listener and conversationalist than his egotistical image would suggest.

Republic of Ireland boss Martin O'Neill once told me that Clough had been his biggest influence.

"It was one of the great myths that he was a manager, not a coach," O'Neill said. "Every day was a coaching lesson from Brian Clough. You'd pick up something that would last you a lifetime."

It is now more than 20 years since his retirement, 10 years since his death, but I cannot think of a single player of his that has criticised Clough in the media.

Yes, many were wary of him and some disliked him, but they all respected his unique talent and knack of making them better at their job.
Dressing down his own player for fouling

Why Clough was perhaps too idealistic

Clough hated players surrounding referees and haranguing them - and in turn referees loved coming to the City Ground, where they were treated with respect by the staff.

"Discipline in football is too important to be left to the players," Clough once told me, as I gently suggested that Forest's fair but manly style of play was being steamrollered by ruthless, over-physical opponents who happily beat up referees verbally. Once Peter Beardsley had his shins raked by Forest's Netherlands international Johnny Metgod. It was missed by the referee but not by Clough. He hauled off Metgod, gave him a rocket and made him apologise to Beardsley.

It remains one of Beardsley's biggest regrets that he never played for Clough, as he admired his footballing principles so much.

So too did the great referee Jack Taylor, who wrote to Clough when he retired in 1993. "I'd never done that to a manager but I felt I owed it to Cloughie on behalf of all referees," said Taylor. "He was a great man."

Perhaps that's one of Clough's greatest legacies, the fact that his sides let referees get on with their job. I have no doubt he would still pursue the same philosophy today. He would say: "Discipline was a simple matter to me. I imposed it and the players did what they were told."

Some of Clough's managerial contemporaries wondered if that idealism rebounded on him.

Former Luton, Leicester, Tottenham and Sheffield Wednesday boss David Pleat told me: "His was an incredible stance when you see what goes on elsewhere and the advantage that is sometimes gained by it.

"A lot of managers have become winners by allowing that to go on."
'Give my love to your mam'

Why it was a privilege to know Brian

Cloughie was always very kind about the personal lives of those he allowed into his confidence.

When he heard my mother was dying of cancer in the summer of 2004, he sent her flowers and a touching note. Four days before he died, we talked for the final time. He was in hospital - just for routine tests, I thought, although he had lost weight alarmingly.

We were due to sort out our usual monthly column for a football magazine and he rasped out his thoughts in familiar forthright fashion - give Sir Bobby Robson support after his dismissal at Newcastle ("let's give him the support and kindness he deserves") and railing at Paul Sturrock's sacking by Southampton after only 12 matches.

After we had tidied all that up, he suddenly said: "Give your mam my love and tell her to get out of hospital. They're not much fun."

Sadly, Brian didn't make it out himself.

I did the last formal interview with Brian a few weeks before his death.

Arsenal were about to beat the Forest record of 42 unbeaten league games and, although he was very generous about their style of play, he saved a barb for Arsene Wenger: "That Frenchman needs a list of all the opticians around Highbury and Islington, because he never sees 'owt when his players are being naughty on the pitch."

When the interview was over and Brian dutifully took some more pills, his 14-year-old grandson Stephen, who sat in on the interview, said: "That was great, Granddad!" I've often wondered why he let Stephen stay with us while we did interviews. He was touchingly devoted to the boy and I suspect he knew it would be the last time he'd hold forth to a microphone.

And Stephen was right - it was great. And so was his granddad. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29145641Brian
Clough's famous quotes

"I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one." On his own success.

"If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he'd have put grass up there." On the importance of passing the ball to feet.

"We talk about it for 20 minutes and then we decide I was right." On dealing with players who disagree with him.

"Don't send me flowers when I'm dead. If you like me, send them while I'm alive." After the liver transplant which extended his life.

"Anybody who can do anything in Leicester but make a jumper has got to be a genius." His tribute to Martin O'Neill, who used to manage Leicester City.

"I thought it was my next-door neighbour because I think she felt that if I got something like that I would have to move." Guessing who nominated him for a knighthood.

"I want no epitaphs of profound history and all that type of thing. I contributed. I would hope they would say that, and I would hope somebody liked me." On being remembered.

http://jtaylorcoach.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/the-best-weekly-coaching-resources-54.html

Nice blog do yourself a favour and have a look.

Inside German Football: Great oaks from little acorns grow
Author Ule Hesse recalls how a new way of thinking about the game took root in Germany


Emmet Malone

Topics:
Sport
Soccer
International
Ralf Rangnick
Uli Hesse

Fri, Oct 10, 2014, 13:57

First published: Fri, Oct 10, 2014, 13:57

Like thousands of others with a love of the game, Uli Hesse, whose book, Tor, charts the history of the German game, drifted into coaching a kids’ team because his son was involved. The experience gave him an insight, at grassroots level, of the problems the DFB was grappling with in the professional game.

“I got into it the way most coaches got into it in Germany back then; you take your son to training, you watch too many training sessions and somebody will eventually come up to you and say, you seem to have an interest, would you mind (coaching the team)? So you do it.

“But I was shocked how backwards everything was. It was all dads who coached the teams and hardly anyone had proper coaching badges. And it’s funny, I was talking with my son about this just the other day and we were recalling that it was still, in the late 90s, normal to see an under-12 or an under-14 team come out of the dressing room and know exactly who is playing where. These are the full-backs, they are the wingers and so on and that’s how they line up, the tall, strong boys are at the back etc . . .

Inside German Football: Germany’s young guns clear the way for nation’s future
Ulf Schott: “After the World Cup in France, however, everybody said, ‘okay, yes, we have to do far more’.”Inside German Football: Vorsprung durch technique - Germany’s formula for success

“So I went and asked the German FA for the proper coaching manuals. Even back then they had more or less all the things that the Dutch did: How to have small teams so that everybody gets time on the ball, it was all there in these journals and things and it was all very interesting.

“What I learned from these coaching guides was things that were pretty logical, that the kids, they want to play, to run around the pitch so whatever you want to do or teach them, think of a game to teach them and I thought, that makes sense but then you go and have a training session and everybody else is running shooting practice that goes on for hours. Some coaches had kids running up stairs to build stamina. It was shocking.”

It was, however, a reflection of what was going on in the senior club and international game where the grip of traditionalists was only finally being loosened.

“People were only really ready for change in the build up to the 2006 World Cup. In the book and also in an article for The Blizzard I use Ralf Rangnick as an example. He had a new approach to the game; not in a way radically new, it was already taught to coaches, coaches like me, through the coaching manuals. But to people outside, to the other coaches at my club or the people who just watched the games, it was totally alien to them.”

His fellow coaches mockingly nicknamed Rangnick “The Professor” after he illustrated a detailed answer to a fairly basic question on a tactics board while a guest on a popular German TV show. The then 40-year-old coach of Ulm 1846 was just the first of a new breed who thought differently about the game and who would, over time, change the way, just about everybody else did too.
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/inside-german-football-great-oaks-from-little-acorns-grow-1.1959181

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/18/dennis-bergkamp-arsenal-british-coaching?CMP=twt_gu

Dennis Bergkamp: Arsenal, aesthetics and a blueprint for British coaching
The former Arsenal and Holland forward Dennis Bergkamp, now a coach at Ajax, on learning and teaching technical excellence

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17461391.2014.905983#.VENYERY08k5

bstract

This study examined the developmental sporting activities of the Olympic Champions 2012 in men's field hockey. The volume of organised practice/training and non-organised sporting leisure play in both field hockey and other sports through childhood, adolescence and adulthood was examined and compared between the Olympic Champions and (1) current national class players and (2) international medallists of one decade earlier. Analyses revealed that the Olympic Champions performed moderate volumes of organised field hockey practice/training throughout their career and attained their first international senior medal after accumulating 4393 ± 1389 practice/training hours, but they engaged in extensive other sporting activities during childhood and youth. It took them 18 ± 3 years of involvement to attain an international medal and they had engaged for 22 ± 3 years when winning the Olympic gold medal. The Olympic Champions did not differ from national class players in the amount of hockey-specific practice/training, but in greater amounts of organised involvement in other sports and later specialisation. They differed from the international medallists of one decade earlier in less increase of organised hockey-specific practice/training during adulthood and a longer period of involvement until attaining their first international medal. The sporting activities were characterised by sizeable interindividual variation within each subsample. The findings are reflected against the deliberate practice and Developmental Model of Sports Participation (DMSP) frameworks and are discussed with reference to the concept of long-term sustainability.

Some insightful comments by Deans and relating to "Football Culture" in the sport of Rugby and some issue that are transferable.

The importance of failure by Simon Nainby

http://undergroundathletics.co.uk/importance-of-failure/

A quick cure for ineffective practice by Daniel Coyle

http://thetalentcode.com/2014/10/20/a-quick-cure-for-ineffective-practice/

Internal vs external focus: Effects on motor learning by Cary Groner

http://lermagazine.com/article/internal-vs-external-focus-effects-on-motor-learning

Effective skill refinement: focus on the process to ensure outcome by Howie Carson and Dave Collins

www.cejssm.usz.edu.pl/attachments/article/248/EFFECTIVE%20SKILL%20REFINEMENT%20FOCUSING%20ON%20PROCESS%20TO%20ENSURE%20OUTCOME.pdf

How to learn better by Dr Jeremy Dean

http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/10/how-to-learn-better-evidence-for-well-known-but-little-used-technique.php

Differential learning and basketball by Brian McCormick

http://learntocoachbasketball.com/differential-learning-and-basketball

The Importance of People Skills from Brian McCormick

http://learntocoachbasketball.com/coach-education-and-business-school

http://explore.tandfonline.com/page/pgas/theme-of-the-month-sports/youth-sport-leisure

Another issue, I think Arthur and I discussed it off forum, is generational gap between coaches and players.

Apparently something like 40%, or even 60% of sports coaches in Australia are over 50 years of age. I'm 58.

I find it difficult to communicate with a younger generation in their twenties, who want to avoid face to face meetings at all costs . They also want to avoid phone conversations, but I have been told I talk too much by this generation.:lol:

They constantly want to send short texts with no resolution in sight. My generation prefer to have meetings, and leave those meetings with people having a clear idea of which tasks need doing and who is doing them.

The good thing I have in common with that younger generation is meeting in person to drink alcohol.:d