How much football should youth players play?

[Danishfurniturelover]

I was reading a report earlier about chamberlain at arsenal who i think is a good player.

Said that when he was at school he played mainly cricket and rugby because it was a private school. He thought it helped him become a better player because he experinced a different sport and it meant he was not over coached.

Wonder if the is something in that, maybe im saying it as my son only plays tennis and i still have hopes he might run out one day at the lane, i would die of happiness if he did.

Read years ago about some atheletes doing different sports on purpose because it improved their coordination and used different muscles. I think we should in our new trainning ground have some squash courts and also give the young players the chance to try some other different sports, i know a lot count golf and as much as i enjoy golf i do not see how that could improve there football game.

Do we still have special skills trainning for young players i remeber we had that ricardo fella when jol was with us. From a few different things i have read it seems you can get some really good footballers who actually barely play the game till there in their teens. The was one of the african ones as well who said he had not played football till he was 14, might have been that new guy at Saudi Sportswashing Machine.

 

[milo]

I think that the main issue in the UK and one of the reasons why our players tend to have poorer technique, is that at youth level we play too many competitive games and start playing on full size pitches too early.

When it comes to players who are on the verge of breaking through into senior teams, you are ready when you are ready. The problem for oxlade-chamberlain is that Arsenal are already relying on him too much. I can't help thinking that moving onto a bigger club who would care more about his development might be better for his long term prospects

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

I think that the main issue in the UK and one of the reasons why our players tend to have poorer technique, is that at youth level we play too many competitive games and start playing on full size pitches too early.

When it comes to players who are on the verge of breaking through into senior teams, you are ready when you are ready. The problem for oxlade-chamberlain is that Arsenal are already relying on him too much. I can't help thinking that moving onto a bigger club who would care more about his development might be better for his long term prospects

You mean like barkley at everton? im not sure his progress has stopped through not playing enough same as delph at villa who had to go out on loan to leeds for some game time and bostock with us though i think he is not suited to football and jut doing keepy ups.

Not sure whether i agree with you about playing to much football when there young, i see what your saying and that the skill is coached out of them, i remember a spurs youth coach saying the same. But then you also get a lot of coaches moaning that in europe they get to train their players for more hours at a younger age then we do in this country because of a government restriction. I guess it is finding the balance.

Really i think i just want my boy to pack up the tennis and get signed by spurs so i can get free tickets, i assume family get free tickets to games.

 

[WookieD]

I agree Milo. Full sized pitches and at lower levels the scourge of competative dads.

I have to say that I think a few other sports would be good too though, especially anything that helps balance and flexibility. But there needs to be more focus on technique and knowledge and less on winning games.

It's why I'm impressed with Sherwoods comments whenever he's interviewed

 

[metalgear]

i think priorities for young ones are a complementary set of individual skill (ball retention and passing) and teamwork (system of attack and defence). because of their size and fitness level and mental capacity/acquity, it make sense to scale the game to the levels they are capable of, to maximize development at every age.

with respect to Ox's comments - i think in countries like Spain or Germany where there is a system, if you don't start young, its going to be hard to fit in to the system later.

but in England where no such integrated system exists, i don't think playing other sports would do any good/harm to his game.


http://www.uefa.com/trainingground/training/drills/video/videoid=1503659.html?autoplay=true

take a look at video of barca 14 yo training ... imagine what you'd be missing out if you were playing cricket instead!

 

[Wriggly]

fudging lots, lots more tomrrow, fudging tonnes today and much more yesterday. I'm serious.

 

[braineclipse]

*I have never coached football at any level.

There are some things that to me seem pretty obvious.

If you play a match you fairly rarely get to actually touch the ball. Loads of running around, couple of touches. Nothing more. Compared to how many touches you get when doing passing or keep the ball exercises in small groups it seems rather obvious that too much focus on playing games isn't the way to go.

I remember when playing football we used to do warm up exercises and just running around for stamina. Without a football in sight. Seems ridiculous to me now, why shouldn't every playing running around warming up be dribbling a football around as they do so? If there aren't enough footballs why shouldn't players pass a ball in between them as they run around.

I remember reading that Maradona used to dribble a football down the street on his way to school and home every day. Essentially everywhere he went he had a football at his feet. Can't hurt (unless you get run over by a car cause you weren't paying attention to traffic, that would hurt)

 

[punk_is_back`]

What we should be doing is having less emphasis on competitive football and more on building tactics and skills. Managers in youth teams nowadays just stick the biggest, quickest, most hardworing kids in to ensure they win games. Due to this, these kids get the contracts that more talented yet less physically adept players should be getting. This sort of system favours cloggers or athletes more than it does true footballers. Luckily spurs don't seem to judge on pace and size anymore we seem to stick with kids with technique and skill which is why we have players like Carroll, Mason, Coulibally in the youths instead of bigger lumps. In fact 7-8 years ago Arsenal had a policy of signing big kids, according to a mate of mine who's best friend was in their youth team but at the end of the day they were terrible footballers and couldn't trap a ball to save their lives. Wenger in the past 5 years has looked more at skill than size nowadays, which the reason why players like Miyaichi and Wheelchair are getting a look in.