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NEWS
NOVEMBER: UNDER 7s SHINE
The under 7's from FDS Development Centres produced some excellent individual performances from Saturdays (5th) small matches.
During the morning at Grendon Hall, the 24 players were devided up into 6 teams of four and played a number of small matches , which were used to help the boys develop a basic understanding of match play, while encouraging the boys to do all their skills in a more competitive environment.
Looking for young people to take responsibility for themselves cannot just be an over night development, the process needs to start earlier within their youth giving them greater confidence to tackle different situations and environments as they get older. For the FDS Development Centre players this development starts when they first come to train with our coaches within one of our centres.
Believing that our players need to take responsibility for themselves is not the easy option for the parents, players or coaches. We do believe though that it is a major contributing factor to players pushing on with their football from the age of 7 and right through their footballing career.
Developing the environment of responsibility for the children during the matches at Grendon became the centre of the coaches attention, with the children being asked to do a number of tasks by themselves, which had before been taken care of by the parents. Changing was the first key area which the coaches had to address as the boys were asked to change without their parents envolvement. This was important as the players need to get used to the changing room environment and being able to focus on the job in hand rather than the parent doing everything for them. With there being less parental envolvement the coaches were able to give the children the infomation they need rather than the parents again gaining control of this area. As coaches you can learn heaps about the person behind the player by just involving them.
Moving onto the matches, the coaches again asked the parents to remain supportive while not instructing the players, and allow the boys ownership of how they would play. Again the coaches would find out what the players understood and whether they could take on infomation. If a parent is telling their child how to play with constant talking/shouting from the side line the child will inevitably follow their instructions, taking away the responsibility from the child and in most cases giving them infomation on the contary to that of the coaches. At FDS we are professional coaches, and we would not tell a doctor how to treat a patient or a mechanic how to fix a car, as that is their specialist field. The same surely should apply in sending your child to learn a sport properly, taking them to a specialist of that field.
By the end of the mornings play the coaches believed that they had made the first steps in helping the players along the road of taking responsibility for themselves. A journey which is long, but nessasary in developing the boys into responsible football players/people.
