The problems with junior sport participation, including football, are very real.
And let's not think it's just "juniors" either, we're talking pre-teen and teenage participation numbers as well.
1 very crucial thing we must all remember when there is a change in how football is run at club or league level, is that it is highly likely aimed at a different age group as far as implications are concerned.
So a change at under 8 level is usually some forward thinking about under 10 - 12 level and the trickle down affect of that change on players 3 - 4 years into the future.
A change is only as good as it can improve the future, not the now.
Every month it seems that there is an issue brought up in the media about junior sport and I'd like to highlight 2 particular Twitter feeds from the last week isolating some comments and talking about them a little.
I've got a 9 year old son who started Auskick at 4 years old, 1 year younger that is allowed to register.
In our 4yrs at the team I play for now I was involved with the training every single night and in the last 2 or so years ran every Friday night, including introducing the Auskick 2.0 concept developed by
the AFL in 2018/19.
We moved from inner Melbourne to the western suburbs and found a new team for him of which he played his first year for last year.
He loves the training nights but not so much the games because "everybody is trying to get the ball".
I will keep him in footy for as long as I possibly can because having grown up in a footy club from a young age (8yrs old), I feel the life lessons you can get are huge as well as having other role models in your life besides your parents.
My dad left the family home when I was 5/6yrs old but we still saw him everyday pretty much with his task being to take 5 kids to after school sport weekdays and weekends, but he never really got out there and played with us.
He played footy when he was young but got kicked by a cow on the farm which caved his knee in and he never played again.
I had football hero's from the VFL as it was back then (CAPPERRRR!), but I also idolised the footballers from my local club in Warrnambool just as much, including into my early to late teens.
My football club was known as tough and uncomprising, bordering on thuggish at times but that instilled a sense of pride in whatever club I play for regardless of the results, and to not be intimidated by anyone, especially on the football field.
Footy isn't as rough and tough as it used to be, and for good reason, but at 41 and still playing senior/reserve grade football, by watching me play you would definitely class me as an old school type footballer.
I learnt to lose and lose often, being the youngest of 4 boys and being the smallest by a long shot.
In my first senior game at 16 I probably topped the scales at 55kgs at 167cms - the farm boy club we played against barely even noticed me, 1 bloke simply brushing me aside with his arm the very first time I got near the ball.
I saw many, many, many different coaches go through that club over the years, learning a lot about the methods they used both physically and tactically, and how they communicated with their players - another thing that you can take through life with you.
I can teach Archie these lessons myself but learning is best attained when you own the process and can learn your own lessons, what they mean and how they can improve you as a player and a person.
A lot of the lessons I learnt back in the 80's and 90's aren't the same lessons kids learn today - we know that, or should know that.
The world is completely different and we as people are completely different.
In grade 5 I was threatened with not being allowed to play school footy if I didn't behave better in class (my class teacher was the school's footy coach) and that straightened me up pretty quick.
Why?
In the 80's you played sport after school or pretty much did nothing.
We only had 2 TV channels so chances were nothing good was on either so sitting around was just plain boring.
Plus all your mates were playing sport anyway.
Can you use that same threat now with all the technology based entertainment kids have at their disposal, and love more then their own mothers?
No way.
Different time, different people.
Move with the times or get left behind.
OK onto these threads with the first one being AFL based:
https://twitter.com/3AW693/status/1226706809286610944
A child psychologist asks Gill where's the evidence that scoring can negatively affect kids participation in sport.
"...KIDS KNOW THE SCORE ANYWAY..."
Yes they do but they still play hard so does the score really matter either way?
If it doesn't then who really wants to keep score then, the parents, the coaches or the kids?
Who are we focusing on in this scenario then and are we focusing on the right one's?
"...HOW ABOUT TEACHING KIDS RESILIENCE, REWARD FOR EFFORT AND HOW TO BE HUMBLE IN VICTORY AND GRACIOUS IN DEFEAT..."
Yes sport can teach you all of those things as I mentioned it did for me when I was young but if you're a parent saying this then you better be teaching these lessons at home long before they start junior footy, instead of lumping them onto a coach/club and expecting them to do it all for you.
I'm not afraid to say that there's some parents who use sport as a babysitting service more than anything else which is fine if your child enjoy's the sport but that's what they're for - enjoyment - above all else.
No child says "Dad I want to learn about reiliency, can take me down to the local footy club?"
And you know what?
Leagues are simply saying at u8-10 level that scoring isn't important (which it isn't) and it's not that they'll never score and learn those types of things, it's just maybe they don't HAVE to at such a young age when a lot of them, especially boys, don't have the emotional maturity to do so.
I was a prime example, a shocking loser when I was pre-teen continuing well into my teens.
"...WE DIDN'T HAVE SCORING UNTIL AFTER U11'S IN OUR COMP 30YRS AGO - NOTHING HAS CHANGED. IT'S THE PARENTS THAT WANT SCORING, THE KIDS COULDN'T GIVE A SHIT..."
This bloke gets it.
https://twitter.com/nathanpeats9/status/1226471773253693440
The 2nd thread is about Rugby League eliminating tackling from u6/7 games and also not having finals until u12's or older but it touches on a lot of the same issues as we have in junior AFL.
"...IF PARENTS DON'T WANT THEM TACKLING THAN THEY WOULD PUT THEM IN OZ TAG/TOUCH FOOTY..."
What if the child loves every single other aspect about Rugby except the tackling at 6 years of age.
By taking them out of the game now they will more than likely never return.
Ever.
Like I'm doing with Archie, by keeping them in the game for as long as you can they will eventually be OK with being tackled and giving tackles but is it the end of the world if for a 7yr old that's not today?
Can't they play a modified version?
The kids that do like tackling will still play the tag version if that's what parents prepare them for - they won't know any different until they reach tackling age.
And again they'll start tackling sooner or later regardless.
Always remember the #1 rule for any coach of any team is to keep your players in the game, and at your club, for as long as you possibly can.
Then develop them as athletes.
Then develop them as players to the specific sport.
Then develop them to win.
Not the other way around.
"...JUST GIVE EVERYONE A TROPHY.."
That is the complete oppsoite of what is happening here, no one gets a trophy and that's the point.
Coaches/parents need to take on this line of thinking so more time and effort is put into develping players relative to their current playing level, and have this at the top of the list, not winning games in u7's, which is pointless now as there's no ladder.
If Kobe Bryant can see this, the most competitive and precise athlete that ever lived, then so can you.
"...NZ IS LIKE THIS TOO NOW BUT I GUESS 9YR OLDS CAN BE BUILT LIKE 15YR OLDS AND PARENTS ARE SCARED KIDS WILL GET HURT AGAINST BIGGER KIDS AND THE BETTER OPTION WOULD BE WEIGHT DIVISIONS..."
An extremely valid point and a particiption limiter for sure in all sports whether it's size or ability.
I'm not for the weight division option but there is a thing called bio-banding in sports, where you grade each player like you do teams, to see what playing group they would best thrive in.
So instead of 5 of your best 25 junior players getting all the kicks, they would play with kids on their own level, and you're kid would be playing against those more on their own level, giving every single a player to have the best experience and to have the most opportunities they can.
I really like this idea and it would be hard to implenent initially but it definitely has legs if worked on for mine.
"...CREATING A GENERATION OF ENTITLEMENT..."
2 age groups altering their structure a little?
In 1 specific sport?
A whole generation?
Language matters, it matters a lot.
"...NO FINALS UNTIL U13'S? YOU'RE ROBBING THE KIDS OF CHILDHOOD MEMORIES WITH THEIR MATES..."
Not sold on this one either.
We've all been kids and we all know what we remember - things we enjoyed - not neccesarily what we were good at or what we won.
"...THE BIGEST PROBLEM WITH COMPETITVE GAMES IS NOT THE KIDS ON THE FIELD, IT'S THE ADULTS ON THE SIDELINES..."
This bloke also gets it and it feeds my statement from above on who actually wants/needs scoring.
"...AS A KID YOU LIVED FOR TRAINING/GAME DAYS BUT 1 SESSION/WEEK AND NO FINALS U12'S IS RIDICULOUS..."
I agree with the first bit as that was me to a tee but I can see why training is being scaled back from a long term athletic dcevelopment point of view as research shows that doing too much of 1 sport from such a young age usually results in injury or drop out, far before senior ranks are reached.
And again, it's only for u6's to u12's who are dedicated to their Ipad's far more then team sports these days so if codes can decrease the committment slightly in order to keep them in the sport longer, then
I'm all for it.
Senior footballers train twice a week for about 2 - 3hrs total time so kids shouldn't need even 25% of that surely.
Less time on each sport also provides more time to take up other sports which increases your child's athletic range, resulting in far less injuires and decreases specific sport burnout dramatically.
"...RUGBY LEAGUE ISN'T FOR EVERYONE AND TRYING TO MAKE IT APPEAL TO EVERYONE IS JUST BRINGING IT DOWN OVERALL..."
Again we're talking changes to junior levels here, not all levels.
If coaches can't teach players all they need to know from age 12, with or without past experience, then they need to be better coaches or give it away all together.
There is still plenty of time for players to learn the game otherwise clubs wouldn't take any new players in to their club's under the age of 6.
"...PUT YOUR KIDS IN SOCCER OR SOMETHING..."
That's exactly what soccer wants you to do and by not moving woith the times that's what will happen and you're game will be virtually nothing in the future.
Yep great suggestion!
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