A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland

A RESEARCH STUDY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH FOOTBALL TALENT IN SCOTLAND

‘The deep problem in Scottish football is bringing young players thorough to the highest standard. This can happen but it’s going to take time.’ -

George Burley,

Scotland Football Team Manager

Introduction The contribution of football in the lives of the people can be understood from the fact that more than one billion people watched the Football World Cup in June 2006 (FIFA 2006). The past 20 years of football has seen the upcoming of quality players like Fabregas, Zidane, Seedorf, Ballack and Pirlo produced by the countries like Spain, France, Holland, Germany and Italy. None of the players from Scotland have reported any such outstanding performance in the past 20 years. A child may display natural ability to become a great player at a very tender age and may start playing for a club at an early age (Owen 2005). If not supported properly, the training sessions can retard a child’s technical development, interest and take away all the joy of the game. Sometimes, he may even decide to quit the game forever (Nicolaou 2008). 1|Page

A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland The development of the young players in Scotland suffers heavily due to the youth set up in the country. Scotland boss George Burley (2009) believes that much needs to be done to bring forward the talent of Scotland, since the country has failed to qualify itself for major championships since 1998. He feels that the kids in Scotland are not being trained in the way they should be and are not showing enough development due to the fact that they are not playing enough football. The SFA is focusing attention towards the schools and is trying to promote the kids between 10-12 years of age to play more and more football. He further adds that kids in Scotland are craving to become professional football players but lack direction and proper training with full-time professional coaches as seen in Spain and Holland. This hampers their development. In this research, an attempt will be made to compare the situation of Scotland with Holland, England and Spain. We will study the various advantages and facilities that the young players of these countries enjoy and then compare it with Scotland. The research will lay focus on the full-time highly qualified coaching including technical coaching imparted to the young players in Holland and Spain in comparison with the quality of coaching available in Scotland. Also, a comparison between the size of the football fields in Scotland, Holland, England and Spain will be made. And the ways to improve the quality of fields in Scotland will be discussed. By studying the scenario in a strong football playing country like Holland, it becomes possible to carry out a relative study and incorporate their positive points in the country’s policies relating to the sport. Holland has adopted an approach which focuses on the individual instead of keeping the focus on the team. This has proved to be crucial in the development of the young talent in Holland. They motivate their player by awarding medals and awards. The players are not subject to criticism as it yields negative results.

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A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland A research questionnaire shall be prepared during the course of the project regarding the problems faced by the young football players and probable improvement they look forward to. The questionnaire shall be sent to the young players in different countries and their answers shall be analyzed. On completion of the research, a final thesis shall be drafted of the research, which will include a brief overview of the methodology, a summary of results and conclusions.

Literature Review

BEGINNERS’ AGE Holland has achieved miraculous success in football with professional league beginning only 50 years ago. A country with a population of 15 millions and lack of comparative resources still managed to compete and defeat even the most powerful nations on the earth. It has become an expert in young footballers’ development. No other country has show talent like Holland with scarce resources and today every corner of it is producing world-class football players. The reason is that apart from imparting regular training to the young players, they are being given time to practice on their own for the betterment of their individual talent. The fundamental of the learning procedure begins with the birth and one learns more and more each day. A child learns most of the things regarding the day-to-day life as he reaches the age of 4 years like smiling, talking, crawling, walking, running, playing, writing, and many other things. Football is the integrated development of all these various components including the motor skill and social capacities (Verheijen 1998). The fundamental of the learning procedure begins with the birth and one learns more and more 3|Page

A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland each day. The game of football is the one which is quite complex in nature as it is easily influenced by the physiological, emotional, perceptual and technical aspects of the player (Grant, Williams, Dodd & Johnson 1999; Hoare & Warr 2000). Based on this principle the children in the countries like Holland and France are encouraged to join football clubs at a very tender age. They begin with learning ball control, passing, awareness and cooperation at the age of 5 or 6 years. In New Zealand the governing bodies are planning to group the players according to their technical kicking ability and height (Helsen, Hodges, van Winckel, & Starkes, 2000). In Holland there are 2500 local clubs and almost 95% of them are fully functioning youth set-up. During the weekends, inter-club competitions are held for players of different age ground from 7 to 19 years. Therefore, Holland is able to produce large quantity of quality footballers each year. Socatots School in England, aims at providing assistance to the little kids ageing between 6 months and five years in learning the basic football skills through structure play. Michael Benwell, who takes up the coaching course at Socatots believes the Holland’s Ajax is light years ahead of them, but still he believes that throwing competitive feeling amongst the children at a tender age and wanting them to win at any cost, might appear like dominating their abilities. The most enlightened approach towards making football a part of their lives is to simply let the child run after the ball until it becomes a part of his life. The children at Socatots are allowed to handle the ball alone for sometime. It is firmly believed that competition should be introduced at the age of 12 or 13 years. The school trains the children to stand on one foot and perform activities with the other one. This helps in better coordination. The training sessions are accompanied with music and during warm-up the song The Wheels on the Bus is played (Russel 2007).

PITCH SIZE 4|Page

A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland In countries Brazil, Holland, Germany and England, there is a set up for the training of the children. These set ups include especially designed training complexes with permanently place small-sized pitches (Payne 2007). These small pitches ensures that the child will not only see more of the ball but will also be able to make more passes, goals, dribbles, shots and hence will become more and more capable of handling the ball individually. The 4v4 games also enable to develop a child’s capacity of taking quick decisions (Davids, Chow & Shuttleworth 2005; Williams & Hodges 2005 Bunker & Thorpe 1982; Singleton 2006). For instance, when tennis is played on short tennis courts and lowered nets, children enjoy the game comparatively more (Lee 1993). In Holland, there are institutions to suit the needs and aid the development of the young player. Government also provides funds for set ups to train the 5 years old young players. There are custom set ups and systems for children aged 5 until they are adults; these are free of charge and are open for all (DeShon & Alexander 1996). In Scotland, it is normal for a child playing at under 11 level to take a step forwards and play on a full-sized pitch with full size goals in competitive leagues. Young footballers displaying their talent on the full-sized grounds undoubtedly helps them improve their strength, power, awareness regarding different positions in the game which will help them in future when they play a full-fledged game (Hanin 2000). The coaches also get a better chance to work in some of the tactical aspects of the game so that the young players are more tactically familiarized as compared to the children of the same age in Holland. This could be one of the reasons for Scotland’s success in the U19 in 1982 when they won the U19 European Championships and finished runners up in 2006. But while talking about the senior national team, it has only qualified for the finals twice, first in 1992 and then in 1996 and has failed to qualify this campaign for 2008. Thus, there is something missing in the Scotland pitch and professional coaching. There is somewhere a loop hole which is 5|Page

A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland hampering the development of football talent in Scotland. It has been noted that the players who focus on smaller sided games are far more superior in terms of technique. By the time they begin to play on the bigger pitches, they surpass the all round level of Scottish players and probably that’s the reason for the poor performance of the Scottish national team. All this results in a chain reaction in which first a player suffers, and then the club suffers a set back and ultimately it is the nation that suffers. If more money is spent on youth development there will be more Scottish talent available with less and less slipping out episodes. Lee (1993) suggested that the football field size should be designed according to the age and size of the players for developing accuracy in their kicking ability (US Youth Soccer 2007). An 8-year-old boy may be able to kick and pass the ball comfortably till 20 yards but he is unable to cross a ball 50 yards as his legs possess only about 50% of the strength and length of the full adults, and hence it is impossible for him to cover the same distance as the adults cover comfortably. According to another research in USA it was explored that in an 8v8 game of 60 minutes, every player held the ball for about 3:45 minutes in average and in 11v11 it was 2:44 minutes. On a smaller ground, players were able to handle the ball for almost 38% more time and therefore in USA the pitch size depends upon the size of the steps and length of the kick of a particular age group players (Lee, 1993; Huddleston & Huddleston, 2007; US Youth Soccer, 2007). If the 10-year-old group displays 60% of the capacity of an adult, then the size of the field should be 80% of the adult sized ground that is about 35 yards by 60 yards. The head of the PSV Eindhoven’s youth academy Edward Sturing, one of the renowned youth club of Holland explained the process of development of an individual player. According to him, children between 7 and 12 years of age should be allowed to play 6|Page

A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland on their own and exhibit their individual talent. Then they should be shifted to one-on-one situation and then into one defender and two attackers. Later, they should be gradually exposed to 8v8 game which basically lays emphasis on taking risks and playing an attacking football game. Winning or losing the game does not matter during such games. Players like Arjen Robben developed football skills using the same strategy. While playing 11v11 the player should adopt 4-3-3 game which is a difficult system but it indicates that the players can adapt more comfortably. For every U17 team there should be 2 head coaches.

PROFESSIONAL SET UP In countries such as Holland and Spain the professional youth clubs hire the services of highly qualified coaches for training at every level of the game and for different age group of players (Salmela 1995). In Scotland, not every professional club can afford to hire the services of youth coaches and the facilities required. Sometimes, volunteers and parents of the players, who lack qualifications or have little knowledge about the game, mainly run the football clubs. Not all the clubs in Scotland have youth teams but those who have offer qualified coaching to their teams. But they lack in the technical coaching which they should receive according to their age group and the late developers are left with minimal change of getting into a professional club. The SFA chief executive Gordon Smith believes that with passion, commitment and supportive plans Scotland will be able to train its young footballers to prove that they can achieve the highest levels in their national game. Lack of investment has hampered the development of the young talent for years but still there has been a lot of remarkable work and Scotland is now beginning to see more and more upcoming young talent. He feels that this is the right time to recognize and train these players for future by devoting sufficient resources in their development. 7|Page

A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland Wim van Zwam - the Dutch national youth coach admits, “We easily forget to deal with the players as individuals. We should treat them as individuals. This has been one of the reasons that Holland is able to produce some great players. They care for individuals and motivate them to give their best by awarding them medals and awards and giving accolades. Young players do not like to be criticized and often react negatively towards criticism”. In addition to this, the world’s best coaches are produced in Holland. In 1999, FIFA awarded Rinus Michels as the coach of the century. During the World Cup 2006, four Holland coaches were present which included, Marco van Basten (Holland coach), Dick Advocaat (South Korean), Leo Beenhakker (Trinidad and Tobago) and Guus Hiddink (Australia). And today around 100 coaches from Holland are imparting training to the players all over the world. In case of a child, his psychological and physical characteristic influences his playing capacity. When a child is allowed to play in a suitable environment and conditions fit for his age, he is sure to give best results (Snow 2004). For instance, it may be difficult for the young player to show his skill if asked to hit on a full sized adult pitch. Where as it may be appropriate for him to display his talent when asked to play on the small–sized ground (Renshaw, Davids, Shuttleworth & Chow, in press). At the end of the training sessions when the kids are allowed to play without coaches, it develops more unstructured play in youth soccer. This helps a child to grow and develop his talent and interest in the game. For some the idea of more play with fewer instructions may not be easy to grasp (Balyi 2003). For instance, when the children were playing in the 4v4 small-sided games at the end of the training session, a parent shouted instructions to his child. When asked not to do that and let the child play on his own, he said that he wanted to make sure that his child was leaning while playing (Winter 2005). 8|Page

A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland I strongly feel that if Scotland wants to produce high quality footballers it should provide more and more opportunities to the children to play under the guidance of qualified coaches at a very early age. SFA should take a step forward in the youth set up and scrap football in competitive leagues so that the young players can prove their talent with more freedom. Introduction of 4v4 games would increase the comfort level of the kids and the coaches should try to focus on individual performance and training rather than group. Individual coaching to kids can help them become better. PROBLEM UNDER INVESTIGATION The study regarding the size of the pitch is necessary as we address the research topic. The players normally spread out in the field in order to facilitate the passing of the ball. They normally stand at an approximately comfortable distance from each other. If the size of the pitch is very large, naturally the distance between two players will be wide enough and it may interfere with the run, dribble or pass decisions of an individual player. The player standing at a far off distance will have to wait long till he gets a chance to kick the ball. Now, imagine the situation when children are asked to play on such a field. Therefore, this research will investigate whether the young players in Scotland are satisfied with the level of coaching they are receiving or they want some change. It will also examine the level of satisfaction they acquire from 11v11 game and whether they want to change it to a 4v4 game. Also, a focus will be held on how much satisfied the footballer players feel with the coach instructions while playing in the pitches of different sizes. RESEARCH QUESTIONS SHOULD THE SIZE OF THE PITCH BE ALTERED TO MATCH THE CAPACITIES OF THE CHILDREN AGEING BETWEEN 7 TO 14 YEARS OF AGE IN SCOTLAND? IS THE SATISFACTION FROM THE COACH MORE WHEN FOOTBALLERS PLAY IN A PITCH OF SOME SPECIFIC SIZE?

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A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland THE MAIN AIM OF THE RESEARCH IS TO PROVIDE THE CHILDREN WITH PITCHES THEY ARE COMFORTABLE WITH AND WHICH CAN HELP THEM DEVELOP THEIR ABILITIES AND STRENGTH IN ORDER TO BECOME AN OUTSTANDING PLAYER.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A research questionnaire will be prepared during the course of the project regarding the problems faced by the young football players in Scotland and probable improvement they look forward to. The questionnaire will be sent to them and their answers shall be analyzed. This quantitative research conducted through online questionnaire will aim to explore individual player’s attitude towards football and the grounds on which they feel comfortable while playing. We also want to analyze the youth set up in Scotland football and try to find out if it is preferable for a child to play 4v4 game and other small sided games rather than directly playing 11v11 on huge pitches. A comparison will be made with the scenario in Holland, England and Spain, so as to make the situation more and more encouraging for the upcoming talent of Scotland.

PROCEDURE The questionnaire shall be sent to 40 young players of 7-14 years of age in Scotland, Holland, England and Spain. Each questionnaire shall take maximum time of 25-30 minutes

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A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland for completion. Once the questionnaire is complete they will mail it back or in case of any doubt or query they will be free to write to me.

SET UP 

The players from four different countries will be analyzed during the study, that is, Scotland, Holland, England and Spain.

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The focus will be on the quality of coaching imparted to these players in different countries.

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Questionnaire will be sent to the players and they will be asked to complete it with the help of their coaches, parents or team managers.

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Analysis will then be made on the basis of the answers received from the players of the different countries.

DATA ANALYSI S Once the results are received, analysis of the data shall be carried out in order to study the set up in Scotland including the problems they face during their practices, level of satisfaction and changes they look forward to. Also we shall analyse the data to reveal whether it is comfortable and advantageous for the children to play the 4v4 game until they grow strong enough to handle the pressure of 11v11 game. Data analysis shall be carried out on the basis of different age groups of players. Data analysis carried out will consist of correlations between the responses of questionnaire obtained from the football players in Scotland with that of the responses of questionnaire obtained from the football players in Holland, England and Spain. The effect 11 | P a g e

A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland of pitch size on performance will also be correlated between them. In addition to this a correlation will be carried out between the pitch size and the level of satisfaction from the coach’s attitude. There may also be an attempt made to identify any trends in relation to the participants’ ages, genders or other demographic information, in relation to performance in a particular size of pitch. After statistical analysis, relevant illustrative statistics will be used to further highlight the extent of any relationships found.

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REFERENCES

Balyi, I. 2003, Long-Term Athlete Development: Trainability in Childhood and

Adolescence, Windows of Opportunity, Optimal Trainability, Advanced Training and Performance Ltd, Victoria, Canada.

Bunker, D., & Thorpe, R. 1982, ‘A model for the teaching of games in the secondary schools’, The Bulletin of Physical Education, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 5-8.

Burley, G. 2009, ‘Youth so important’, Scotland boss believes developing nation’s youth is key, Retrieved on: February 23, 2009, Available at: www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12017_4842677,00.html - 85k

Davids, K., Chow, J. Y., & Shuttleworth, R. 2005, ‘A constraints-led framework for nonlinear pedagogy in physical education’, Journal of Physical Education, New Zealand, vol. 38, pp. 17-29.

DeShon, P. R. & Alexander, A. R. 1996, Goal setting effects on implicit and explicit learning of complex tasks, Organisation of 13ehavior and human decision process, University of Akron, vol. 65.

Grant, A., Williams, A. M., Dodd, R. & Johnston, S. 1999, ‘Physiological and technical analysis of 11v11 and 8v8 youth football matches’, Insight: The Football Association Coaches Journal, vol 2, no. 3, pp. 29-30. 13 | P a g e

A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland

Gredsen, W. 2008, Investigating suitable pitch sizes for young football players in New Zealand, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.

Hanin, Y (ed.) 2000, Emotions in sport, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, Retrieved on: February 22, 2009, Available at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0880118792/o/qid%3D972889372/sr %3D8-1/ref%3Daps%5Fsr%5Fb%5F1%5F3/104-9294845-6899124

Helsen, W. F., Hodges, N. J., van Winckel, J., & Starkes, J. L. 2000, ‘The roles of talent, physical precocity and practice in the development of soccer expertise’, Journal of Sports Sciences, vol. 18, pp. 727-736.

Hoare, D. G. & Warr, C. R. 2000, ‘Talent identification and women’s soccer: An Australian experience’, Journal of Sport Science, vol. 18, pp. 751-758.

Huddleston, D. & Huddleston, K. 2007, Soccer field size, Retrieved on: March 06, 2007, Available at: http://www.soccerhelp.com/Soccer_Field_Size.shtml

Lee, M. (1993). Coaching children in sport: Principles and practice. London: Chapman & Hall.

Nicolaou, D. 2008, How Your Child Has Been Coached out of Being a Great Footballer, Retrieved on: February 21, 2009, Available at: 14 | P a g e

A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland

www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/43729/.../how_your_child_has_been_coac hed_out_of_being_a_great_footballer.html - 101k -

Owen, A. 2005, ‘Talent identification’, The FA Coaches Association Journal, pp. 32-34.

Payne, S. 2007, Let Children Play Football Like They Do in Brazil, Retrieved on: February 20, 2009, Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml? xml=/sport/2007/11/28/sfnbra128.xml

Singleton, M. 2006, ‘Reasons for small-sided play at all levels of soccer in Massachusetts’, The Bay Stater Magazine, pp. E1-E4.

“Youth Football in Scotland: Structure and Development Review - Executive Summary”, PMP Consultancy, Retrieved on: February 22, 2009, Available at SFA’s website: http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_football.cfm?curpageid=457

Renshaw I., Davids K., Shuttleworth, R., & Chow, J. Y. (in press), Insights from ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory can underpin a philosophy of coaching, School of Human Movement Studies, Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Russel, S. 2007, ‘SOCATOTS prove they’re on the ball’, East Anglia Daily Times.

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Salmela, J, H. 1995, ‘Learning from the development of expert coaches’, Coaching and Sport Science Journal, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 3-13.

Snow, S. 2004, Small Sided Games, US Youth Soccer, Ohio, USA.

US Youth Soccer 2007, ‘Fitting practices to ages’, National Soccer Coaches Association of America, Retrieved on: March 06, 2007, Available at: http://www.nscaa.com/subpages/20060331172505123.php

Verheijen, R. 1998, The complete handbook of conditioning for soccer, Spring City, Pennsylvania: Reedswain.

Williams, A. M., & Hodges, N. J. 2005, ‘Practice, instruction and skill acquisition: Challenging tradition’, Journal of Sport Sciences, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 637-650.

Winter, H. 2005, ‘Youngster’s Learning Curve – the 4v4 Approach’, Daily Telegraph, London.

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RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE

Individual information: 

Name:



Date of birth:



Height:



Weight:



Step length:



Playing experience:



Lengths of lower limbs:



Average kicking distance:

Questions: 1. What is the best thing you like about football?

2. Briefly describe your training schedule?

3. Are you satisfied with the training schedule?

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A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland 4. What is the worst thing you feel about football?

5. Which factor/s attracted you towards football?

6. How many days in a week do you get the training?

7. Which days of the week you want relaxation from training?

8. Do you want to add or delete any rule of the game?

9. Is there any piece of advice you would like to give others who want to become football players?

10. After the training in the school and college level do you wish to continue to play football?

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11. Do you wish to play for your country in near future?

12. Do they wish to offer your services to any club in future?

13. Do like to play 11v11 game?

14. How comfortable do you feel while playing an interclub competition on big grounds?

15. Do you think playing on small grounds is better than playing on large grounds?

Please tick whichever is applicable: 19 | P a g e

A Research Study on the Development of Youth Football Talent in Scotland S. No.

Questions

1.

How do you regard your training program?

2.

Are you satisfied with your coach’s attitude towards you?

3.

How do you feel while playing a 4v4 game?

4.

How is your performance in the 4v4 game?

5.

Are you satisfied with your coach’s attitude while playing a 4v4 game?

6.

How do you feel while you play an 8v8 game?

7.

How is your performance in the 8v8 game?

8.

Are you satisfied with your coach’s attitude while playing a 8v8 game?

9.

How do you feel while playing a 11v11 game?

10.

How is your performance in the 11v11 game?

11.

Are you satisfied with your coach’s attitude while playing a 11v11 game?

12.

How are your relations with the rest of your teammates?

13.

How do you grade the facilities you receive in your training sessions?

14.

How would you regard your club/training institute?

15

Do you feel satisfied with the rules of the football game?

16

What is the level of satisfaction you derive after playing football?

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Excellent

Satisfactory Unsatisfactory