Its absolutely ridiculous that in 2012 and we are still taking about kids aged 11/12 years playing 11v11 football on adult pitches. What is wrong with these committees and/or boards of mainly old men, that they can’t see that this is clearly not what kids want.
Why do they continue to go against nature and push kids into the 11v11 game some 2 years before they are prepared and ready to do so. Why? We know that all the studies go against this process!
What do kids love about football?
Well, they love to PLAY, they love to SCORE and they love to get plenty TOUCHES of the ball. Playing 11v11 at u12s is preventing this from happening, even the 9v9 games has its downfall but it is 100% better then playing 11v11 on adult pitches, where kids get an average of 11 touches per hourly game.
Drop down to any park on a Saturday or Sunday and witness for yourself; few keepers are taking the kick outs due to the mentality of getting the ball forward (stick the big centre half on them to pump it up the field) and the pressure to win. You will also find that most players rarely get a chance to touch the ball, spending most of their time idle on the far side of the pitch.
11v11 Game is for adults NOT KIDS
The 11v11 game comes with adult rules and adult demands and many kids just aren’t ready for the step-up so why are we pushing KIDS to become adults even before they have experienced what its like to be a kid?
Well, I’ll tell you why?
The reason is because most league committees are made up of adults and not kids, if the league committees were run by the kids imagine how much fun kids soccer in Ireland and across the world would be…..!!!
Unfortunately kids will never really have that say but we, ‘the coaches’ can speak on their behalf . Soccer committees in Ireland will continue to be run by adults with adult interests in mind. Most committees have a combined age of well over 250 years, that’s about 239 years out of touch with a child age 11.
“We have to keep pushing for better conditions for the kids and age related games that only have kids interests at heart”.
When was the last time they asked the kids what they want?
I truly hope the committees of all the leagues in Ireland take the steps to improve the game with the kids interest in mind and extending the small sided game into u12s would be a welcome change for season 2012/2013.
PS. keep size 4 ball into u13s also! I say u12s but really we should be looking at u14s until we play 11v11.
Great post by Nick Levett http://youthfootballdevelopment.blogspot.com/
