Stuck in the Mud - My look at Grassroots Football

Good Morning to my fellow Spurs fans.

Been a lot of focus on here over the last few weeks and days about our style of football, atmosphere at White Hart Lane and the usual AVB-Redknapp stuff. I've tried mix things up and have written something that I have been meaning to do for a long time, which became accelerated by the appointment of Greg Dyke and his fabled FA commission. It's not strictly a Spurs article, but focused on grassroots and I am sure that you will all be able to offer your own opinions (maybe we could form a Spurs Commission) and also i'm sure posters have funny stories about their time at grassroots level.

I'll start with two disclaimers - Firstly the post is pretty long (so allow yourself some time before starting to read it) but is quite a big topic to tangle with and attempt to be interesting. Second, at no stage am I claiming I would have been the next Lionel Messi. Cheers all, hope you enjoy.

Stuck in the Mud - My look at Grassroots Football.

‘We’ve got another Joe Cole here’. As a Spurs and David Ginola fan this comparison wasn’t exactly what my ten year old self wanted to hear, but nonetheless the praise was nice and the comparison obvious. Small, shaved head and had just attempted yet another step over. It might also have been due to the training session being part of the West Ham community programme.

I had been attending these sessions for several months. Just another kid with a dream. Under the guidance of the FA Qualified coaches I had been training in a variety of different sessions from two and three touch football to specific skill focused training. The close of training would see short sided matches with a twist. The focus being on the skills learnt throughout the evening, such as needing to make a specified number of passes within your team before a shot could be taken.

In short, these training sessions were intense, well structured and had a clear message. As you developed the coaches would move you into a separate group more concerned with advanced skills. This particular evening ended on a with an interesting message from my groups coaches.

Over the next few weeks we would be assessed for an opportunity to join the West Ham Academy. With regards to my life in football I was no longer Joe Cole, I was Gwyneth Paltrow. This was my sliding doors moment. This was my final training session before the big house move and my transfer to the local village side was days away. Alas, I had missed the train.

The above reminiscing is not a self-absorbed bitter look back at how life could have been. It leads me to a point.

Greg Dyke speaking to the BBC’s Football Focus on Saturday spoke of barriers preventing young English talent from playing at the top level. Amidst the controversy of the make-up of his commission, quotas for English players and winter breaks have been mooted as possible solutions. These suggestions and Dyke’s talk of barriers caused me to look back and consider two main questions:

Why just two years after having a potential opportunity to join a Premier League academy did I quit playing a sport I was and still am passionate about? Does grassroots football need greater scrutiny to solve this crisis?

A key concern with grassroots football is the quality of the coaching that young players receive, particularly within the Sunday league system. Almost a decade on from my own experience of youth football the vast majority of teams are still run by parent coaches, who have given up their time and money to take a Level One coaching badge (recent years a FA Youth Award) to ensure that their children can play football on the weekend. Unfortunately this is a key issue.

These parents are not aspiring professional coaches with the time and focus to attend courses to further their coaching abilities. There is no incentive for them to undertake further qualifications as youth coaching is unlikely to become their career focus.

Following England’s exit at the 2010 World Cup the BBC published statistics highlighting the gulf in coaching standards between England and other top European nations, with England having as few as 2,769 Uefa Pro, A or B licensed coaches in comparison to 34,970 in Germany, 29,240 in Italy and 23,995 in Spain. It remains unsurprising that a shortage in quality coaches at youth level has led to a lack of top players being developed.

I experienced the vast difference in the quality of coaching at youth level and the effects of playing eleven a side football at a young age. During my first Sunday league training session I was asked by my parent coaches what my strongest foot was. I had always been told that I needed to use both feet and had been trained as such. Apparently this was unusual in youth football. The consequence of this was that I was now a left back, being the only member of my eleven a side team able to use my left foot.

The nature of eleven a side football and being a left back had another effect due to the offside rule, as the coaches had instructed us that we couldn’t play offside in their half. When attacking our back four remained firmly on halfway, mirrored by every team that we played. We all knew our positions, we all knew the rules, we just didn’t know how to play football.

Ultimately I had gone from structured training sessions, with a fluidity in positions to being trained in a fixed position and being taught the rules. The problem of having a set, regimented position from a young age still exists in youth football.

Certainly coaching standards played a key reason in my decision to eventually quit football. I had been called over to one side by my school P.E teacher who explained that I was ‘good enough, but not strong enough’ for my school team. Ultimately the teacher would be judged on the success of the school team and not the overall development of young players.

It was probably the correct decision for him to make. The muddy pitches played on at both school and Sunday league level are not exactly tailored to that of a small technical player.

It still surprises me that youth football predominantly takes place throughout the winter months, where the pitches are at their worst and young players often find themselves standing outside in freezing conditions, battling against mud. Results were dependent on who had biggest and most powerful players.

Is it a surprise that they would choose to be indoors playing Fifa? Is it a surprise that we aren’t producing technical players when the ‘kick it out of the mud’ mentality exists?

Recently Maidstone United’s co-owner Oliver Ash responded to Greg Dyke with suggestions on how to improve the national game. His argument centred around the use of all weather 3G pitches which he believes have revitalised his club financial whilst strengthening ties with the community.

Ash’s stated that as a direct result of the 3G surface that there are ‘students, football academy players, youth teams and soccer schools all over the pitch for many hours a week. We rarely get postponements now because 3G looks and plays as well in darkest December as it does in sunny August’.

His comments interested me having experienced playing on the 3G pitch of Kent University in January in the pouring rain, with the only change being the increased speed in which the ball moved. The following day the same facility was being used by Gillingham FC’s academy, whose younger age groups are regularly users of the surface.

Would investment in regional 3G facilities provide a greater link between clubs and the community as it has done with both Maidstone and Gillingham? Could youth football be based around these types of facilities providing a consistently good surface for young players, while allowing clubs to run their eye over the next generation? Could the facilities draw in better coaches to train youngsters and prevent parent led teams?

Possibly.

Does grassroots football need greater scrutiny to solve this crisis?

Absolutely.

(A link to Maidstone United's Co-Owner Oliver Ash's comments for anyone who is interested) http://maidstoneunited.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/speaking-up-for-our-national-game.html