I'm always interested in reading how other sports and clubs from around the world set up their junior programs as I strongly believe we could be doing it much better over here, especially for Aussie Rules Football.
We have huge dropouts from under 12's to u16's and that definitely filters into senior ranks down the road with many teams struggling to field a reserves teams these days and some even struggling for stand alone senior sides in both men's and women's competitions.
The number 1 focus for junior football is participation which results in more fun per player which leads to greater retention so club' should be aiming to keep players in football for as long as possible and instead of bragging about incoming player number each year, they should strongly look at out going player numbers and really focus in on that.
Here are bunch of basic programs and idea's used by other junior sporting clubs around the world from all different sports. which shows you don't need to do what everyone else is doing, nor what you've always done, as there's many different types of clubs and to think they can all perfectly fit a single model is ridiculous.
Hopefully you get some idea's out of this to improve your own club's junior program.
HURLEY
This particular program focuses on skill development of junior Hurley players by breaking up the foundation skills of the game and then breaking them up into specific aspects of that skill and layering them through practice.
The foundations skill categories are fundamentals, stick control, ball control 1, ball control 2 and ball control while moving and each category has up to 6 - 7 specific aspects to them.
For example ball control 1 consists of ground strike, striking from a pass, hand pass, lift and strike, overhead strike and stick pass and in the article they were classified as R1 through to R6 respectively.
Once the skills were broken down then the aspect of that skill is moved to an age group where it is is focused on.
Using striking again, over a junior program it looks like this:
Under 6/7's x R1/Ground Strike
Under 8's x add in R2/Striking from Pass and R3/Hand Pass
Under 9's x add in R4/Lift and Strike and R5/Overhead Strike
Under 10''s x add in R6/Stick Pass
I'm not that big in deconstructing tasks and over-constraining players, especially junior players who simply need room to explore every possible action they can come up with, but frameworks like these but not necessarily on skill development, can really help clarify what/how to run practice for junior coaches who are often inexperienced to start with.
RUGBY LEAGUE
League is often played by kids who have bodies that fit the sport and it's requirements and therefore there can be kids the same age but 25cms and 25kgs apart but also the difference in skill can also be as wide ranging.
Bio-banding is grouping kids on training/playing age rather then chronological age which means early maturing players receive greater physical and technical challenges at a level much closer to their challenge point.
Late maturing players perceive less physical and technical challenges then early maturing players and with bio-banding they'll have a far more opportunities to demonstrate technical and tactical abilities against similar level competition.
Players will have greater enjoyment levels and have a perception of less injury risk as well.
Last year my son's under 12's team played against a much bigger player who was overage but also on the spectrum and allowing him to play against competition closer to his own, will hopefully keep him in sport longer then if he was forced to play in his own age group.
There should be way more of this in junior football, way, way, way more.
AUSSIE RULES FOOTBALL
Shane Pill is a coach/teacher based in South Australia who has done a power of work around games based coaching and I reviewed one of his books a couple of years back on this blog his preferred method of setting up junior programs is similar to mine.
He proposes:
Under 8/9's x 9v9 consisting of 3 backs, 3 mids and 3 forwards per team but for lesser players you should also look at 6v6 so the strong players don't just get all the kicks and limit opportunities for the lesser players.
U10's x 12v12
U14 x 12v12 up to 16v16
U16's and up - 18v18
Yes you're reading that right - teams don't reach adult stages until at least under 16's.
You'll also need to adjust the field sizes to fit the team numbers and yes, teams don't reach full field until under 16's as well.
And I agree entirely.
LOCAL SOCCER
I have a heap of Soccer examples and this one from Shane Smith is similar to Aussie Rules, proposing:
Ages 5 - 8 x focus on fundamental movement via play and games
U9's x 4v4
U10's x 5v5
U11's x 6v6
U12's x 7v7
U13's x 8v8
U14's x 9v9
Again teams aren't reaching adult team/ground sizes until they are 16.
GERMANY MINI-FOOTBALL
Germany recently redesigned their junior requirements with the basic concept being 2 teams of 3 rotating to attack and defense of mini goals on a small pitch.
Every team has 1 substitute player and it must be made after each score by both teams.
Goals can be only be scored inside the attacking area and there are always 3 balls waiting on the sidelines to be used for an immediate restart.
Instead of leagues, games are played at carnivals where teams compete against each other on the day, dramatically lessening the need for the 12+ volunteers required for every individual game of junior football.
The game can be expanded to 4v4 or 5v5 but it's 3v3 where this truly shines.
Without corners, off sides and throw ins it really forces players to decide how to move the ball around.
Is not designed to replace junior soccer but is definitely an alternative and can be adapted to include a goal keeper where shots can now be taken from the half way line and the keeper is also swapped out after every game because in the smaller games they get far more keeper opportunities so need not to stay there for multiple games.
TENNIS
I've posted recently on Philip O'Callaghan, a Tennis coach who does a heap around a constraints'led approach, of which I posted a couple of long Twitter threads on earlier this year and he loves to use scaling in his teaching on junior tennis players.
Scaling refers to altering the equipment used in your sport, and for tennis reducing the height of the net and court size contributes to acquiring successful serve patterns while showing an increase in first serve success, more aces and more un-returned serves.
GAELIC FOOTBALL
Similar but far less technical than the Hurley version above.
U12's x Kicking, Hand Passing, Tackling, Fielding
U14's x add in Protecting the D, Complex Skills/Applied Skills/Overloads
U16's x add in 3rd Man Angled Runs, Restart Contests for Possession
U18's x add in Support Play Formations, Introduction of the Principles of Play and Tactical Awareness
YOUTH SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Rob Gray is a Skill Acquisition Specialist from the US who is always presenting new studies completed and this particular one looked at 10 and 11 year old soccer players completing 22 weeks of practice involving small sided games but not any traditional technical instruction like we always see and do.
The goal for the players was to instead for them to learn skills like dribbling and passing in game situations.
Dribbling and passing skills were assessed pre, half way through and post the 22 week program.
While there were no made in the half way assessment, there were significant improvements in decision making and in the execution of the skills in the post program assessment.
So while it may take longer for basic skills to emerge, in the long run athletes develop the same fundamentals we see in traditional isolated training but recent commentary from reputable coaches suggests fundamentals as we think of them, don't really exist, and I agree.
The fundamental concept comes from the long assumption that there are basic building blocks that we must put together to become skilled, that development is linear and that it works in an order of steps which it doesn't, and why I wasn't a huge fan of the intricacies of the Hurley method above (but liked the framework).
At it's core, fundamentals fail to recognise that skills are highly specific to the information available in the environment.
LOCAL YOUTH SOCCER
The Salisbury Rovers Football Club is a local club from the UK who have totally transformed their junior program in the last couple of years to really focus on participation, enjoyment and thus retention.
They've done as good a job as anyone on taking club ownership on their own junior program and running it in line with their values.
They're thinking is that kids must have fun, kids voices are prioritised, there's a clear view on how kids acquire skills, there is no standing on and dribbling around cones and it's all about long term participation.
Every kid has the right to play with no trials, no selection, equal playing time, the choice to play, the choice to make choices and what that looks like.
Adults are expected not to shout directions at the players during games/training, kids voices should be the loudest and always encourage independence and confidence.
There's a huge focus on free play by offering lots of it without adult intervention as self motivation drives development and kids that play more get better.
It's non-competitive which means they don't play in leagues but that allows flexibility from rigid team sizes, structures and adult control that builds competitive and resilient kids that lead and support others.
NORWAY v USA YOUTH SPORT
Footy is very similar to this with a huge proportion of draftees each year attending private schools on scholarships but junior player fees are also a bit out of control with my under 12 son costing $250 plus uniform expenses on top of that.
I come from a family of 4 boys in a single parent household and there's no way even one of us could have played football in the current climate, let alone all 4 of us at once.
USA x players specialise in 1 sport from an early age (wonder why NBA draftees break down in their first couple of seasons?), exorbitant fees, travel fees, don't play in any other sport in case they get left behind, parents screaming from the sidelines and constantly questioning the coach, parents then lecture their kids on the way home, parents want to brag about their kid's achievements on social media above actually supporting them and striving for college/national spots.
Norway x kids play multiple sports at the same local club whether they;re good or bad at them, nominal fees but free if you can't pay from lottery subsidisation, volunteer coaches, no standings/competitions until age 11 and sometimes older (as we've seen above), kids free to choose their own sports and decide what they do in practice, no specialisation until high school.
As you can see it's ego and money v fun and the fact that the NBA is now dominated by overseas-born players is an indication of this.
Keeping kids engaged in sports can save money on universal health care in the back end if they're still healthy in their 60's and 70's.
Part 2 Tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment