Underage soccer clubs that welcome all abilities

Cuttlefish wrote: »

OK so looking for some advice and guidance in relation to my nephew

He is going into secondary school next Sept and he loves soccer, now he recently joined a well known soccer club in the city and has been going to training and went to his first match out in Tramore last week but was never used during the game (along with a few other boys from what I understand) - he was visibly upset as you can understand

Now gonna say up front he is not a great footballer might even say below average nonetheless he loves soccer and would like him to be encouraged and included!

Firstly is there a common ethos that clubs at this level adopt with regards to "sport for all" and including all kids who attend training and want to play REGARDLESS of their level of ability or (probably answering the question myself here) is it - win at all cost and do so by playing your best players???

I was hoping that maybe the club may have formed a "B" team for boys of lesser ability so they could enjoy the beautiful game

Does anyone know of other clubs in the city that adopt a policy that all kids are involved and encouraged??
Would really love him to feel involved with a club and not feel left out

He is training again this evening but I dont see him getting much involvement bar basic training

I know some if not a lot of kids are better than him but as they say some of us open our presents later in life!!

What suggestions does anyone have

Thanks

Really disappointed to hear this, i kind of thought this type of nonsense at underage was gone, hope he gets sorted.

Villa FC have a great setup for kids and run summer camps too.

I coach U12 there and we have 3 U12 teams at the moment and the ethos is that all boys get game time, even if it does cost us a result. It's more important that players learn the game than coaches get a win under their belt.

As a coach, I could never have a child on the sideline not getting any time in the game. That's just horrible and goes against what coaches are taught in the FAI Safeguarding course. A child's safety isn't just about protecting them from the unwanted attention of others. It's also about protecting their self-esteem.

If I was you, I'd be sending a message to that club's schoolboy liaison officer.

Your boy would be more than welcome at Villa, Bohs and Crystal where each club has 3 or 4 teams at each underage bracket.

I never went along with this whole let everyone have a game craic you could easily be hindering another child that could make it at a career level by taking minutes away from them just to be inclusive, the fact is the majority of us aren't good enough and we compensate by playing Sunday league, 5 a side etc and still love the game

Milanative wrote: »

I never went along with this whole let everyone have a game craic you could easily be hindering another child that could make it at a career level by taking minutes away from them just to be inclusive, the fact is the majority of us aren't good enough and we compensate by playing Sunday league, 5 a side etc and still love the game

I'd agree to an extent particularly as kids get a bit older. We've gone way too far to the other extreme here. Kids will naturally be competitive and, particularly when they approaching teenage years, they'll focus on winning and that shouldn't be completely discouraged in my view.

However, if you're gonna ask kids to travel to games, you have to give them game time. The answer here should be that you stream the group so that you have multiple teams with players at a similar level and everyone plays.

Milanative wrote: »

I never went along with this whole let everyone have a game craic you could easily be hindering another child that could make it at a career level by taking minutes away from them just to be inclusive, the fact is the majority of us aren't good enough and we compensate by playing Sunday league, 5 a side etc and still love the game

The kids can’t play Sunday league or 5 aside as they are kids and any sport or club that isn’t doing it’s best by children needs to take a good look at itself.

I'm guessing this lad is u13 now. The new u14 season starts in September.
This is old to be joining up and expecting to get game time with any A teams.
However, clubs will have weaker teams for beginner/weaker players. Quite possible to progress up the teams with training and time.
An adult needs to have a chat with a club rep and find a suitable team for this lad.
If the club doesn't have anything suitable then another club will.

It was unfortunate that he didn't get any game time. There may be a legitimate reason such as the season is now well underway and they are a serious competitive team, and this lad's ability is still unclear.

There is definitely teams that will be delighted to have him.

I coach u7/u8 football and GAA.
The main focus of our coaching is to introduce basic skills in a fun way - but my personal goal is that when a young lad is asked if he wants to come back next week - he replies "YES".
Job done then, in my opinion.

gscully wrote: »

Villa FC have a great setup for kids and run summer camps too.

I coach U12 there and we have 3 U12 teams at the moment and the ethos is that all boys get game time, even if it does cost us a result. It's more important that players learn the game than coaches get a win under their belt.

As a coach, I could never have a child on the sideline not getting any time in the game. That's just horrible and goes against what coaches are taught in the FAI Safeguarding course. A child's safety isn't just about protecting them from the unwanted attention of others. It's also about protecting their self-esteem.

If I was you, I'd be sending a message to that club's schoolboy liaison officer.

Your boy would be more than welcome at Villa, Bohs and Crystal where each club has 3 or 4 teams at each underage bracket.

Its changed since I played there in the late 80s. Although to be fair, I was the worst player in the county if not the entire country. That being said I did get to make some appearances as an impact sub. I.e. come on with 5 mins to go when we were 5 goals down when I could no longer have a negative impact on the game.

I am nonetheless sending my kids down there for the summer camp and hoping that they get into it earlier than I did and hopefully enjoy it even more than I did (and all things considered, lack of talent aside I did love it).

Cuttlefish wrote: »

My thoughts exactly - my nephew went to Tramore for a game last Wednesday and just stood on the sideline for the whole duration this was after rushing from his swimming classes!!
Yes agree it is in their nature to be competitive and should be encouraged however not all kids are so skilful nonetheless ALL kids should be encourage.

If my nephew is playing for a team suited to his level them I think it would be great

Personally, I think that's disgraceful if he's made the effort to turn up. Some underage coaches think they're the next Mourinho. I do a bit of coaching at under 10 level and for the matches I spend a lot of time trying to manage subs and rotating people into goal so everyone gets equal time. A couple of times that's been counterproductive if you have a lot of subs but I think it's wrong if the kids aren't getting proper game time. Particularly with their parents on the line - it's kinda humiliating.

Played a friendly game last week against a team whose coach brought a tactics board to instruct his players. They were great but I thought that was a bit much for 8 and 9 year olds personally.

if he's not good enough he shouldn't play......how that's managed on a club level is open to question whether they should be a, b, c teams. But the idea that he should play just because he showed up isn't great.

It's all well and good saying everyone has to play win or lose, what happens if he costs the team the game ? how would the rest of the team feel then?

Unfortunately he's at that age where sport gets a bit more intense in terms of competition and some players trying to make a career of it or to win what they can locally.

Cuttlefish wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply - I didn’t once say just cos he turns up that he expects to get a game !

Another point - who is good enough and who determines that ??

The jist of my thread was to determine if clubs have adopted a win at all cost ethos or inclusivity

Yes if they have weaker teams then if he good enough for those teams he could fit in there

He is 13 not 18 or 23 and your idea of making a career well if they good enough they will already be across the water before they turn 10

You'd be surprised how the young lads will be realistic enough about their own abilities even at this stage. Often they're more aware of that than their parents - many of whom are totally unrealistic.

I think the previous poster was making the point that regardless of the club's ethos, he could be under pressure from the other boys if he's a weak link and out of his depth. Doesn't matter if you're playing U13B or over 35s astro league, nobody wants to be that guy. He will enjoy that even less than standing on the sideline.

The key here now at the moment is to find the right level and the right environment for him.

bradolf pittler wrote: »

Maybe i'm wrong here but isn't it the job of the coach to train and try to improve the whole squad of kids on the team regardless of results?
I'm involved in a totally different sport but having coached and attended some seminars on coaching at underage levels the role of a coach should be to try and continuosly improve the standard of the team or players he/she is in charge of.
It saddens me to hear of young kids dropping out of the sport they love through poor or non-existant coaching.
All it would take is a 10 min 1 on 1 from his current coach to build up this kids confidence and make him feel wanted in the team.
I hope things get better for him and all the other kids in similar situations

But if he coaches the not so good kids and his team loses he won’t be able to tell the lads in work on Monday about another great victory that came about by his great coaching.

ec18 wrote: »

if he's not good enough he shouldn't play......how that's managed on a club level is open to question whether they should be a, b, c teams. But the idea that he should play just because he showed up isn't great.

It's all well and good saying everyone has to play win or lose, what happens if he costs the team the game ? how would the rest of the team feel then?

Unfortunately he's at that age where sport gets a bit more intense in terms of competition and some players trying to make a career of it or to win what they can locally.

This is the thing, throwing a young lad of that age into a team of players and against opposition players that are better than him will do more harm to his self esteem than not getting on at all. At his age, the club are dealing with a core group of lads that have probably been playing for the last couple of years so the coaches know the better players and know the weaker ones. Either the kid in question is brand new to the club and brand new to the sport because the club should have him on a weaker team as some suggested. I know very few if any schoolboy teams in Waterford with only an A team.

He’s about to go into secondary school so he’s not too young to know how sport works. All age groups up to U11 were about having fun and inclusion etc but if you don’t start taking things a bit more serious from U11 then what happens is your club gets left behind because other clubs are taking things more serious. The knock on effect is a club that has spent 3 or 4 years developing a young lad with decent ability will lose the player to another club because things are done better. At that age, you just want to win and I know at that age if our manager was costing us games because he had to give everyone a run then I’d have been on my way out to a different team.

I’m not trying to be smart but schoolboy soccer is nowhere near as cutthroat as juvenile hurling or football. Clubs are manic about winning nowadays and they’ll play their best players at all times.

Cuttlefish wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply - I didn’t once say just cos he turns up that he expects to get a game !

Another point - who is good enough and who determines that ??

The jist of my thread was to determine if clubs have adopted a win at all cost ethos or inclusivity

Yes if they have weaker teams then if he good enough for those teams he could fit in there

He is 13 not 18 or 23 and your idea of making a career well if they good enough they will already be across the water before they turn 10

You kinda did though, this thread is about him showing up and not being getting some game time.

Clearly the coach determines who the best players are. They are the ones that are at training and picking the team. You've said yourself he's not the best player.

That's fair about going across the water already. It doesn't mean that the rest of the team don't want to win games or leagues etc. Just because he didn't get to play doesn't mean the club has a win at all costs mentality? Maybe they have a the best trainers get played?

Look if he's not the best football player he's in for weeks like this for a while until he finds a team/league level that he's competitive at. Anything else is just putting off the inevitable.