Re-boot

I'm going to reboot this blog and give it another go. I need to write in order to truly think through my philosophy on football. I would like this blog to become a useful source of information and opinion for youth football or to at least make people think about why it matters. We can create clever, self-sufficient , ambitious, hard-working and dedicated footballers and people if we try. This can only happen if you want it to. If you are prepared to take the easy route of training and playing to win - and while this may seem like the harder route, it is not - then you have missed the greatest opportunity that working with young people will give you. This is the opportunity to give them the tools to maximise their own potential. It is never the case that you, as coach, have made the player into the player he is today. You have provided him - or not, as the case may be - with the opportunity to develop as far as you can teach him.

In addition to those thoughts, I have ideas about the way football should be played and what the purpose of football is. It is a game, yes, a sport, but it provides children with the opportunity to be heroes. I have no doubt that people who have played sport will look back fondly on times where they have achieved something that they thought beyond them. A volley into the top corner perhaps. A full length diving save. A dazzling piece of skill performed subconsciously because the player had trained and muscle memory took over. This gives great excitement and confidence. Some children may not be particularly good at school and may lack social confidence. Football or any other sport may act as an escape, or a great source of comfort. It is important to note that many children may not always equate success with winning. This is an adult mentality. Children tend to enjoy football a lot more when they have a job they understand and are good at. They often enjoy the game a lot more when they feel confident in what they are doing rather than being in a team that wins.

However, that is often balanced by the fact that few children enjoy losing. It is the environment which they are in which can determine the reaction to the loss. If the coach has framed the game as a win/draw/lose scenario then the child has clearly failed at the scenario they were presented with. As such, they will probably feel upset. If the coach frames the game around performance, then even a loss can have good and bad points. Goals scored to goals conceded will always be one of the primary ways of measuring a performance but if the coach highlights certain things he would like to see in the game rather than 'a victory' then he will see the players attempting that rather than going straight for victory. Children can often play a more direct game when victory is the end goal in an attempt to score as quickly as possible. This can do little for their development.

Anyway, this is just a general introduction to my philosophy. It always makes things clearer to have them written down (or typed out!).

Andrew