Villa: good guys (again): Bryan Jones on young footballers/England & W.C.

[spartacuss]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047wfym

Totally sacrificing the street cred I've never had, listened to Radio 4's "You and Yours" and its offshoot "Face the Facts" today and at 14m 33s our very own head of our academy, Bryan Jones, talks about the way the current Premiership/League set up is very exploitative and destructive of potential young English players (some as young as 5 or 6!).  These kids are taken on by many clubs (but not our own) and then cynically discards them without any follow up.  What he says about the current England team and future W.C. prospects is controversial to say the least... but needs to be said loud and long.

Pity the latter issue - potential young English players being ill-served by coaching facilities - was not accompanied by a consideration of the other elephant in the room of football provision for the young: the massive sell-off of playing fields started under Thatcher, a slight fall-off under Thatcher-lite New Labour and now again in full spate by this current shabby crew that's supposed to govern for the majority of people in this country.  Since the the late 1980's over 11,000 part or whole playing fields have been sold off, but, hey, it only affects 93% of the children who attend publicly-funded education. (Tory and New Labour opinions especially welcome on this progressive policy.)

[Small Rodent]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047wfym

 What he says about the current England team and future W.C. prospects is controversial to say the least... but needs to be said loud and long.

What does he say?

[andrew08]

Not exactly on topic but a big factor in sacrificing my own personal future, and retiring in poverty, by privately educating my kids was diminishing sporting facilities in state schools. I don't necessarily agree with the principle of private education but they do do sport well.

Currently for Son 1 that means he's had to sacrifice his love of God's game for a school obsessed with bloody egg chasing but the principle remains as they do Rugby really really well. Almost professionally for the older lads.

And although I hate to say it the national rugby side is a lot closer to being world champions again than the footy team.

[paul_e]

Not exactly on topic but a big factor in sacrificing my own personal future, and retiring in poverty, by privately educating my kids was diminishing sporting facilities in state schools. I don't necessarily agree with the principle of private education but they do do sport well.

Currently for Son 1 that means he's had to sacrifice his love of God's game for a school obsessed with bloody egg chasing but the principle remains as they do Rugby really really well. Almost professionally for the older lads.

And although I hate to say it the national rugby side is a lot closer to being world champions again that the footy team.

The improvement in rugby is down to the change of approach at youth level, all players that are affiliated to a decent professional club will be expected to be good rugby players first and then a good 'flanker/prop/fullback/etc' second.  So they all learn to tackle, pass (off both hands), clear out at the ruck, catch the high ball, present the ball from a tackle, etc as their core skills, and that core skills training is always there, even at first team top level sides.  Having players who have total confidence in their core skills makes it so much easier to be successful, if you can cut down the error count it's easier to put the tactical plans into effect.

Taking away parks and playing fields has done us no favours but the bigger problem is the approach to the teaching/coaching of sport.  Starting with state schools all dedicated PE teachers (not a maths teacher who has a free session and plays sunday league football with the guys from the pub) should be encouraged to complete the basic coaching badges for all core sports (football, rugby, cricket, netball, athletics, maybe others) with the underlying principle being that most kids should be given the basic skills to do at least a couple of those activities as a hobby as the minimum.

[john e]

when I was at school some 40 years ago, school football was where it was at, if you were good enough to play for the school team that was quite possibly the only competitive football you got until you left school and went on to play for the local pub/club

there has to be more kids playing competitive football today then ever before, every Saturday and sunday there are thousands lining up for there local sides from ages 6 upwards
I'm not saying the competitiveness is a good thing, but there is more opportunity today than there was years ago
although playing football every single night on the street or local park seems to have gone, and that might play a part

what I'm saying is that whilst selling off school sports fields is an absolute tragedy, it cant be blamed for kids not playing football or having the opportunity to do so

[andrew08]

Going back 40 years myself (gosh) you couldn't play anything other than school footy if you played for your school, there was a definate progression from school, to county level, to a professional club at 14 at the earliest. Even then the lad in our school who played for Leicester had to play for the school as a first priority rather than Leicester. It was only the non school team players who played Sunday morning footy really.

Funny how it changes.

[paul_e]

when I was at school some 40 years ago, school football was where it was at, if you were good enough to play for the school team that was quite possibly the only competitive football you got until you left school and went on to play for the local pub/club

there has to be more kids playing competitive football today then ever before, every Saturday and sunday there are thousands lining up for there local sides from ages 6 upwards
I'm not saying the competitiveness is a good thing, but there is more opportunity today than there was years ago
although playing football every single night on the street or local park seems to have gone, and that might play a part

what I'm saying is that whilst selling off school sports fields is an absolute tragedy, it cant be blamed for kids not playing football or having the opportunity to do so

Those competitive games for 6-12 year olds are a big part of the problem.  The key to coaching at that level is about getting lots of time with a ball and getting loads of touches.  a decent sized grass pitch with 7-11 a-side means a lot of those kids are 'playing football' without actually spending much time with a ball.  You get the 1-2 kids who are a bit special and are involved in everything and the rest of the team turns into a delivery mechanism for them.

[Mister E]

You should listen to Bryan's contribution here. It's controversial vis-a-vis England. The rest of it is interesting, too.
Thanks for posting this, 'cuss.

[john e]

when I was at school some 40 years ago, school football was where it was at, if you were good enough to play for the school team that was quite possibly the only competitive football you got until you left school and went on to play for the local pub/club

there has to be more kids playing competitive football today then ever before, every Saturday and sunday there are thousands lining up for there local sides from ages 6 upwards
I'm not saying the competitiveness is a good thing, but there is more opportunity today than there was years ago
although playing football every single night on the street or local park seems to have gone, and that might play a part

what I'm saying is that whilst selling off school sports fields is an absolute tragedy, it cant be blamed for kids not playing football or having the opportunity to do so

Those competitive games for 6-12 year olds are a big part of the problem.  The key to coaching at that level is about getting lots of time with a ball and getting loads of touches.  a decent sized grass pitch with 7-11 a-side means a lot of those kids are 'playing football' without actually spending much time with a ball.  You get the 1-2 kids who are a bit special and are involved in everything and the rest of the team turns into a delivery mechanism for them.

I agree,
it was the selling of school pitches that I was saying isn't a viable excuse for the state of our game, although I do think its a crime

[Steve R]

Only a very small part of the justification for retaining school sports ground lies in supporting a successful school team and having some ultimate positive effect upon the country's professional sports. Physical Education is no more a nice to have in the school curriculum than history of geography.

[Legion]

PE in schools, especially at Primary level, is the latest biggie:

Link leading to more links

We have @£9000pa to spend on sporting provision.

[Legion]

We have also just been awarded the Youth Sport Trust Gold Status as well as Sainsbury's School Sport Silver Kitemark. Knackering, but worthwhile.

[steffo]

2 points....

No acadamys to have players before the age of U14.

Charter Standard FA Junior football clubs to have at least 1 fully FA funded UEFA B coach working full time at each club. This is funded by any non-qualified English professional player having a levy of 10% of his wages paid to the FA (Yaya Toure £5 million wages per year = £0.5 million)

[dave.woodhall]

2 points....

No acadamys to have players before the age of U14.

Charter Standard FA Junior football clubs to have at least 1 fully FA funded UEFA B coach working full time at each club. This is funded by any non-qualified English professional player having a levy of 10% of his wages paid to the FA (Yaya Toure £5 million wages per year = £0.5 million

Good luck in getting Wayne Rooney to stump up thirty grand a week to pay for coaches.

[FrankyH]

2 points....

No acadamys to have players before the age of U14.

Charter Standard FA Junior football clubs to have at least 1 fully FA funded UEFA B coach working full time at each club. This is funded by any non-qualified English professional player having a levy of 10% of his wages paid to the FA (Yaya Toure £5 million wages per year = £0.5 million

Good luck in getting Wayne Rooney to stump up thirty grand a week to pay for coaches.

Oh I don't know, didn't he pay £200 for a packet of fags one night !