If we see chaos on the pitch, it means everything is OK.
Have you ever seen a child dribbling with the ball past four or five players before eventually losing possession?
Probably a lot of times.
But have you ever thought about the benefits of the situation?
“He dribbles with the ball, always against an opponent, he makes decisions, he learns how to play football”, points out Paweł Guziejko, founder of the Pav Funball coaching programme for children.
“If the child regularly takes players on, it’s OK. If he is good at it, but remains unable to use the skill at the right time, this is what we [as coaches] are there for, to help him.
“Do not tell him not to dribble, but [instead] try and give him a challenge, for example: ‘listen, think about when to dribble and when to pass’ [the ball].”
Guziejko, who has worked as a coach in Poland, United States and England, is a big believer in the psychological and social development of children, rather than players.
He discusses various aspects of foundation phase football with Breakthrough.
KEY OUTTAKES
1. “Ninety-five percent of the human brain is developed by the age of five.”
2. “We are only able to remember two or three pieces of information.”
3. “The two most important features are creativity and curiosity.”
4. “The brain needs a dose of positive emotions during training.”
SIMPLICITY
“A child only needs a ball and two goals.”
‘SUPER INTELLIGENT’ CHILDREN
“We have nothing to say. Leave them alone and do not disturb them at all.”
SMALL-SIDED GAMES VS BIG PITCH
Question: do we, as coaches, progress to games involving more players too early?
“To begin with, everything has been drawn up by adults. We don’t ask children. We believe they have no right to speak and are generally quite ‘silly’. What’s the point of asking children what their needs are and what they want to do on the pitch?
“Everything that was created for children such as school, football and other sports, every programme has been designed by adults, without taking into consideration whether children are interested in it.
“Above all, there are two questions to be asked. First, how do children learn? This is the basic thing. And second, are they ready to progress to the next stage?
“Overall, children need to play in small spaces and in big spaces. If you look at senior and 11-a-side football, there are small-sided games [within the ‘big’ game] and sometimes there is a lot of space. It has to balanced.
“But if we stubbornly do everything ourselves and do not let children speak, their whole process of learning will be very much slowed down.
“For example, let’s say there is a five-a-side, under-8s game and we throw children at the deep end. Let’s look at how the goalkeeper or indeed any other player behaves. They have so many options to choose from. If you have four of them, it’s already an awful lot. And if you have six of them in a seven-a-side, it’s a complete disaster for the child’s brain. There is so much information from everywhere. Only ‘super intelligent’ children will be able to quickly adapt. But there’s so few of them.
“If you play 3v3 or 2v2 [games] for a long time, the child only has one or two options to choose from and they learn, for example, when to pass and when to dribble. In a simple, 2v1 game that will then also occur on the big pitch, the child’s brain will remember the good choice. Then you repeat the situation for a specific amount of time and you later move from 2v1 to 3v3 games and so on.
“But the learning process does not last one or two weeks because we learn all our lives really. It’s a process. The child will then play a 5v5 game and will find themselves in the same situation on the pitch, 2v1, but because they already solved the same problem in the past, having only one teammate and one opponent, it will be a lot easier for them to now solve it in a 5v5 or 7v7 game.
“The decision will be made quicker and easier. The brain remembers the choice and the child remembers how to behave in a given situation. They will be a lot more effective in solving the problem and making not always good, but better decisions.”
THE CHILD
Questions: where lies the balance between what the child wants and what good for them is?
“There has to be a balance, but if you understand the child and you know how the child learns… What do you know about the child outside of football? Do you talk to the parents? Have you asked them how the child learns? Only then you will be able to find the balance.
“If the child likes something, I believe it is good for them.
“The main problem is that coaches compete for qualifications, tactically and in copying and pasting training sessions from the internet into their notebooks.
“But the little human being in front of them comes to training for one main reason: he wants to be with his peers, first and, second, play football. And because little kids are not brave enough to tell the coach that they don’t enjoy something…
“If the coach is approachable, it’s a lot easier.
“The balance also lies in chaos which we, as adults who have a ‘shaped’ way of thinking and a ‘shaped’ way of what senior football should look like, don’t like.
“As for children, there will always be chaos because brain develops until the age of 25. Their brain is completely different and learns in a different way, they never think logically.
“If we see chaos, it’s the best for child’s development. But we immediately intervene. Let’s say there is a 5v5 game. Eight-year-olds play, there is chaos and suddenly the match is stopped. ‘No, you have to position yourself there, you need to be there’. And the child looks at you as if you were silly and thinks: ‘what does he want from me? I’ve come here to play and have fun!’
“This is our adult intervention into not understanding the child, how they learn, how motor habits are formed, how neurons appear and so on…
“The latest research around the world shows that chaos is best for child’s development and learning. Children will always play football chaotically.”
COACH’S EGO
“The problem is that people working with children seem to think that because of the fact they obtained qualifications and can call themselves ‘coaches’, they know everything and are there to teach football to the little kids who themselves are there to listen to the coaches.
“As long as such relationship is maintained, some individuals will still progress, but football will be permanently losing a lot of children.”
INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT
“A lot of teenagers have shortcomings in their individual game understanding, in the technical-tactical competences such as self space management, timing, positioning, changing direction – when and how to do it – receiving the ball, what to do when you’re marked and when you’re unmarked and so on.
“If you don’t possess individual skills at a required level, it will be very diffcult for you to learn group and team tactics.”
Paweł has also worked as a Football Association skills coach at the foundation phase level and at professional club academies as foundation phase and youth development phase coach. He is a book writer, too. You can follow him on Twitter
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