Most often what people remember of goalkeepers is their mistakes. Of all the positions in the game of football it is undeniably the harshest because one error can overshadow all the good work that one might do through the rest of the ninety minutes. And yet, for those called to the role, there is nothing better. “I wanted a better chance to influence whether my team won or lost,” says Justin Bryant a former professional goalkeeper, current goalkeeper coach and author of the book 'Small Time: A Life in the Football Wilderness.' ”When I was a young player, I got tired of losing games because whoever had reluctantly gone in goal kept letting the ball dribble through his hands. After that happened two or three times, I volunteered, and never looked back.” This interview talks about why he kept on going in goal, what he learned and his ideas on coaching for the role. Blueprint for Football: When did you decide that this was something that you wanted to do for the rest of your career? Justin Bryant: It didn’t take long. I immersed myself in goalkeeping almost immediately. I would say that by the time I was fourteen, it was my identity. I never considered anything else. BfF: What level of coaching did you receive? JB: None, at first. I grew up on an island on the east coast of Florida in the 1970s. Nobody in that area had any appreciable background in the game. When I got to the high school level, I was lucky enough to have an expat Englishman, John McGeough, as a coach. His goalkeeping background was limited, but he knew enough about the position to help me understand the basics. I got a lot from reading interviews with Ray Clemence and Peter Shilton in old ‘Shoot’ magazines, and from watching professional goalkeepers in the league we had in the States at that time, the NASL. BfF: You've written a book about your experiences playing in a number of leagues. What brought that about? JB: I’m not really an ex-player who wrote a book; I’m more a writer who just so happened to have been a goalkeeper when he was young. By the time I wrote ‘Small Time,’ I’d already published a novel, had a dozen short stories and essays in journals, and earned a Masters in Creative Writing from New York University. So, as a writer with a footballing past, it only made sense to write about my experiences as a player.
BfF: In the book you write in detail about the stress and anxiety. Is that part and parcel of a goalkeeper's role more than other players? JB: I think some element of stress and anxiety is unavoidable. The potential for catastrophic, humiliating mistakes is there. Just look at YouTube. I skewed to the more extreme end of the anxiety spectrum, although my problem wasn’t simply pre-match nerves. I had them, but so does everyone else. My problem was much bigger and more overriding. I put huge pressure on myself to succeed, because the only identity I could imagine for myself was professional goalkeeper, and anything short of that would be not just professional but also personal failure. That was a pretty heavy burden to live with every day, and long term, it took a toll. Outfield players have to deal with pressure too, but they have more opportunities to make up for mistakes, as they’re generally more involved in the flow of the game. My anxiety is not gone. It’s much less severe now, and I know how to manage it far better, but it’s still there, even at age 50 and with the pressure of chasing a career in professional football decades in my past. So it’s not something I can blame on goalkeeping. Indeed, going in goal these days is an absolute joy. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to do it, so I treasure it now. BfF: Going by your own experiences, what do you tell other goalkeepers today who struggle with anxiety? How important is getting the mentality right and do you think you developed that aspect of the game? JB: If someone gets to the level of anxiety I had, they really need the professional help that I didn’t get at the time. If it’s the more standard pre-match nerves, or fear of mistakes, my preference is to focus on the positives of nerves. That adrenalin coursing through your body can help you make saves you simply can’t make in training. Pressure also helps you narrow your focus. So I try to help them accept the nerves, and make them work for you, rather than against you. Getting the mentality right is at least half the battle. If a goalkeeper has the ability but not the mentality, you are not going to see consistently good performances. More and more, I think of these things in a holistic way. If a goalkeeper is struggling mentally, I ask them what it is they want from the game, what they hope to achieve, why they play. Is it fun? Okay, then have fun. Is it an identity, a calling, like it was for me? That can drive you to higher levels, but almost inevitably comes at the price of peace of mind. I think I did develop the proper mental approach to goalkeeping, but it took time. I didn’t have the right balance until the last year or two of my playing days. BfF: How does a goalkeeper deal with letting in a goal largely because of a mistake he made? How do you recover? JB: Well, there’s how a goalkeeper recovers, and how a goalkeeper should recover. Many goalkeepers - young ones, especially - will dwell on the mistake. This will either negatively affect their confidence, or force them into acts of crazed bravado, in an attempt to ‘make up for it.’ A far better reaction is to allow yourself a natural moment of disbelief, anguish, and regret, and then file it away to be dealt with later, getting on with the game in the meantime. It’s not easy. You might, after all, have ten or twenty minutes with little else to do following a mistake, so it’s natural to dwell. It’s not a bad idea to have some sort of ‘move on’ trigger, like saying “That’s it” aloud to yourself, to refocus.
BfF: What is harder a match where you are constantly in action against a superior team or a game where he rarely touches a ball but is then called into action? And how does one prepare for both? JB: For me, the latter was always much more difficult. The longer you go with nothing to do in a game, the further you get from the time when you were handling shots and making saves in the warm-up. That’s one reason I admired Ray Clemence. In his and Liverpool’s prime, he often had just one save to make in games, and he would usually make it. BfF: What are the biggest misconceptions that pundits say or fans think about goalkeepers? JB: For a start, there’s the myth that getting beat at the near post is somehow worse than getting beat anywhere else. In some cases, such as from very tight angles, it is, but commentators and pundits use this as a catch-all critique, and it is generally nonsense. Put it this way: if a keeper gets beat at his near post, by a shot just two steps to one side, it would be just as bad if he got beat to the far post by a shot just two steps to his side. The mistake isn’t that it was at the near post, but that it was a shot well within reach. ‘Goalkeepers are crazy’ is also largely a myth. I have personally known hundreds, perhaps close to a thousand, goalkeepers in my life. The overwhelming majority are perfectly normal men and women who just so happen to enjoy diving around trying to catch a ball. A surprising number of pundits and commentators don’t seem to understand direct free kicks. If a goal is scored, they will question the goalkeeper’s positioning, even when it is perfectly orthodox. I also cringe when I hear a pundit say that every ball inside the six-yard-box should be the keeper’s, taking no account of how many players may be obstructing or challenging the keeper, the pace and trajectory of the ball, etc. Along these same lines is ‘dominate the box.’ Who dominates the box these days? The game has changed. Some people use the phrase ‘good shot stopper’ in a pejorative way, with the implication being that shot stopping is not what really matters. This is ridiculous. Goalkeeping will always primarily be about making saves. I could probably give you a very long list of answers to this question!
BfF: You're now a goalkeepers' coach. First off, what does your day to day job entail? JB: There is no typical day, really. Often, at UNC Wilmington, we have a morning team training session, followed by some time in the office with the rest of the coaching staff, sorting out administrative tasks. I get into the gym most days, and do session planning and coaching education stuff in the afternoons. While you can watch goalkeeper training sessions from all over the world on YouTube, I firmly believe a goalkeeper coach should come up with at least some of their own drills and activities. Otherwise, you’re using someone else’s drill without really knowing what the coaching moments are. So I spend some time every day on the white board, experimenting with new ideas. Two evenings a week, I train youth goalkeepers for a local club, Wilmington Hammerheads. The schedule is different on match days and the off season. BfF: Why do goalkeepers need their own coaches? JB: Goalkeepers need to be trained to perform specific tasks in a consistently repeatable way under match pressure, with almost no margin for error. This needs to be done by someone who understands the technique needed for these specialist tasks, and can train, coach, and correct as needed. That’s the dry, factual answer. But beyond that, most goalkeepers benefit from spending time with a coach who understands and can relate to the unique physical and psychological demands of goalkeeping. Put simply, goalkeeping can be a lonely pursuit. Most of us can use an ally. BfF: Do the coaching needs of someone who is largely a reserve goalkeeper and the regular keeper change? JB: I think so, yes. I think you prepare a reserve keeper to be able to represent their best form when needed, but you’re flying blind, to a degree, since, without games, you don’t really know what their current form actually is. You also often have to be a little more encouraging, since they aren’t getting the games most players thrive on. You have to guard against them feeling unloved or sorry for themselves, and thinking that putting in hard work isn’t worth it. With the first-team goalkeeper, you can tailor training to what you’re seeing from them in games. I like to find ways for them to have success with aspects they may be struggling with, while reinforcing what they’re already doing well, to keep their confidence high. It should go without saying, though, that every goalkeeper is different, and you have to train the individual in the manner that is most effective for them. I can put a goalkeeper I don’t know through a decent training session, but once I get to know them, their personality, and what motivates them, I can put them through a much better session. BfF: How does one go about ensuring that there is a good understanding between the goalkeeper and his defenders? JB: They have to train together as a unit, under match-realistic pressure from attackers. Nothing else can replicate that. Ideally, you overload them a little - give the attackers a numerical advantage, award them free kicks in dangerous areas, etc - but not so much that the defensive unit has no chance of success in training. I know most people think defensive football is boring, but I love the sight of a goalkeeper and back four coordinated in their thinking and actions.
BfF: What skills are essential for a modern goalkeepers? And how have things changed from the past? JB: It’s mostly the same skill set as always: good handling, reflexes, agility, power, and explosiveness, along with the mental skills of judgment, decision making, and emotional control. The biggest change from the past is being comfortable receiving and passing the ball under pressure, and of course, dealing with back passes, which a goalkeeper could pick up when I started playing. There are some more subtle differences, too, borne from changes in the game as a whole. Compared to decades past, the ball is lighter and moves more unpredictably in the air, the pitches are better (at least at the professional level), leading to less direct, more possession-oriented attacking play, and referees are inclined to protect goalkeepers a little bit more. All this has combined to see a gradual shift away from big, bulky goalkeepers who were relied upon to deal with aerial bombardment, to leaner, more athletic goalkeepers valued for shot-stopping ability. BfF: Do you see any changes or evolution to the role in the coming years? JB: A lot of people seem to think Manuel Neuer is revolutionizing goalkeeping, and that his ‘sweeper-keeper’ style, by virtue of being modern and different, is inherently the best way to keep goal. I don’t. This is nothing against Neuer, who is a fantastic goalkeeper. He plays in a way that suits his skills and his team’s needs, but it’s not for everyone. Thibault Courtois and David De Gea don’t spend much time playing passes outside their box, and they’re both quite a few years younger than Neuer. So I haven’t seen a trend towards it, at least from top pros. Perhaps the next generation will take it to a new level, but I think we are close to being at a point of diminished returns regarding the sweeper-keeper. The value a team gets from the goalkeeper making successful interventions outside the box is balanced by the risk of those interventions. It only gets riskier the further from goal the goalkeeper takes touches, and most managers are risk-averse to begin with. So I don’t think we’re going to see the sweeper-keeper role evolve much more than it already has. If there’s further evolution coming, it may be in response to another big change in the laws of the game, like we saw with the back pass law in the early 90s. Whatever it is, it will be designed to increase scoring, so goalkeepers will need to change and adapt along with the game itself.
Special thanks to Justin Bryant for taking the time to answer Blueprint for Football's questions. Enjoyed this? Want more? Sign up to Blueprint for Football Extra and as a free bonus you'll get a copy of our exclusive e-book Blueprint According To...Volume 3 that features interviews with six football coaches on how they go about their building their knowledge.
Anyone who is involved in jobs with a heavy vocational calling need to be constantly questioning themselves over the reason for which they are doing such work. If you’re a nurse or a doctor, for instance, then caring for people has to be your main priority. Same goes for teachers who must put the education of those placed in their charge as the reason for which they go to work every day. That is not to say that money shouldn’t be important to these people or that they don’t deserve high salaries. Indeed, the experience of the Finnish education system – one that regularly ranks as the world’s best - where teaching jobs are both highly valued and well remunerated proves that this isn’t the case. But these are jobs that need individuals for whom money isn’t the main motivator. Clearly, the same applies to football coaches in particular those who are involved with the development of children. There is no doubt that they should be paid well in professional environments but it is worrying when coaches take up roles purely because of the money that is on offer. Not because they will necessarily do a bad job of it but as eventually their output will start to suffer. People are naturally inclined more towards others who are passionate about the work they’re doing. They’re influenced by how people act and if they see someone who is clearly enjoying what they’re doing then it will show in how they respond.
An examination of the abilities that distinguished the game’s most legendary managers from the rest will reveal a number of similarities. To a man they were visionaries; capable of transforming the way that football is viewed and played. They managed to build their teams around the abilities of their players and also shaped the talents of their players to fit into the way they wanted their team to play. And they always ensured that their players were willing to do whatever they demanded of them. That latter ability used to be described as the capacity to motivate players. What those managers did, however, was more than that: they could understand what drove their players and acted in a way that built up that drive. For most of them, all of this either came instinctively or else had been shaped by their life experiences.
Today’s managers and coaches, however, do not have to rely on fate or fortune. There is now a whole discipline – sports psychology – that is devoted to helping coaches deal with players and their mentalities. That is not to say that to be a good coach you need to know whatever a sports psychologist knows but it is essential that one is at least aware of how to deal with different issues. This was best explained by Dan Abrahams, a sports psychologist and the author of the book Soccer Tough. “I believe that a coach must be creative and to do so they must seek as much information as possible in the four major areas; technical ability, tactical ability, physical conditioning, and psychological strength,” he said in an interview with Blueprint for Football. “A coach must understand the physical talent but what is often overlooked is mental talent. The kids that are naturally gifted in terms of concentration, discipline and dedication; that is something important that is often ignored.” “The other thing is being a 1 percenter: I want them to leave no stone un-turned. Find all the 1% shifts you can to help your players excel.” Quite frankly, it isn’t good enough for a coach to simply give up when a player seems to hit a mental barrier. “Too many coaches say that they have players that have lots of physical talent but 'he doesn't want it' and there's nothing that can be done. That is rubbish. Of course something can be done. This is where I get back to seeking that no stone is left un-turned. Going to FA modules, reading books like mine can help you get a better understanding. But don't just stop there, put into practice what you read.” And Abrahams agrees that the ability to leverage psychology is what distinguishes the great from the good. “All managers do psychology within their role and some are better than other. A key factor is the culture they develop within their club. If you look at the leading managers - Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger - they've developed different cultures but also sound cultures that help develop their team and their commitment. They've built a culture of success and achievement.” Join Blueprint for Football Extra to ensure that you don't miss future articles and get the full transcript of the interview plus a free e-book in the process. Other Blueprint for Football e-books available here (international version here).
Join Blueprint for Football Extra to ensure that you don't miss future articles and get the full transcript of the interview plus a free e-book in the process. Other Blueprint for Football e-books available here (international version here). Football is a highly conservative game so it is hardly surprising that those who work in it tend to be conservative as well. None more so than experienced managers who hold on to ingrained opinions on how to achieve success and who refuse to look at ideas that challenge those opinions. It is for this reason that there are managers who still do not fully trust the benefits of a healthy nutrition regime, of proper training or of the use of statistics to help shape tactics. There is little doubt that the majority of these managers possess a huge wealth of knowledge about the game of football. Most of them have spent their whole adult life working within the game and in all probability know little else apart from football.
And therein lies the problem; there is a point at which the laser focus on the game at the exclusion of everything else hinders rather than helps. Their lack of curiosity about anything other than football leaves them with a poor frame of reference with which to look at any new idea that they come across. Or, to put it another way, they aren’t equipped to absorb and learn new ideas. “As we grow older we tend to become less active explorers of our mental environment, relying on what we’ve learned so far to see us through the rest of the journey.” So writes Ian Leslie in Curious, a book that deals about curiosity and the role this plays in our lives. “If you allow yourself to become incurious, your life will be drained of colour, interest and pleasure. You will be less likely to achieve your potential.” Sound familiar? It should especially if you’ve heard ‘traditional’ managers talk dismissively about the value of statistics in football or negatively on the notion of rotation in managing the squad’s fitness levels. That is not to argue that coaches should be curious for curiosity’s sake. Indeed that kind of curiosity – diversive curiosity – often results in wasted effort. What people should be trying to foster is what Leslie terms as epistemic curiosity, which is a more structured and deeper form of curiosity that can ignite the desire to learn and attempt to do things that one would not normally consider. There is much that coaches can learn by being curious at what is happening in other sport, to come up with one obvious example. There is much to admire and think about if you spend some time looking at the ideas that underpin the success of the All Black rugby side, for instance. The same can be said of other team sports like basketball or hockey. Will all that can be found in such examinations be immediately useful for coaches? Probably not, but they will sow seeds that will blossom when their time comes. Steve Johnson, author of “Where Good Ideas Come From” calls this the slow hunch. “Rather than coming out of the blue…the best ideas are the result of hours, days, sometimes even years, of digging into a subject and pursuing the hunches that slowly emerge as a result,” he says.
Think back to when you were at school and the teachers who most left a lasting impression on you. What made them stand out? Why were they better than other teachers? Was it because they knew the subject more than others? Probably not. What made them different was the ability to make you interested enough to get excited about and understand - possibly even love - a tough subject. They explained it in a way that resonated with you. For some coming across such teachers is a life changing moment. As a coach you have to be like that kind of teacher. You have to get players excited about learning the game. This might seem like an easy enough task until you look into the detail of it. For most people football, like any other skill, requires a lot of practice and repetition. Take the teaching of a simple ability like passing the ball. Sure, you can (and need) to be inventive in the drills that you have the players practice but ultimately it is all about how you explain it to them. You have to make them understand what you want from them and why. If they do it wrongly you have to explain what they have done wrong and how to correct it. And do all this in a manner that doesn't put them off. It is the same at every stage of a players’ development regardless of the complexity of what it is that you want them to do. A manager’s ability to communicate clearly is never as tested as it is during a match. The message has to get across despite the player trying to focus on what is going on around him. Complex instructions have to reach players without putting them under any additional pressure (and, above all, without senseless ranting or shouting). That too, is built on the work that a coach does on the training pitch. It is there that the basis of his method of communicating has to be instilled in his team. The importance of communication is best reflected in a phrase which Sandro Salvioni – a journeyman Italian coach – told me during an interview. “I was at Parma when Arrigo Sacchi arrived as manager,” he said. “At the time I was 32 and I would say that it was only then that I truly learned to play the game of football.” “I wouldn’t say that I took nothing from my previous managers but Sacchi was something else; his approach to the game, the pressing high up the pitch, his offensive outlook, everything.” Imagine being a veteran player with more than three hundred professional appearances in your career and probably thinking that there wasn’t anything in the game that you didn’t know only to suddenly coming across a manager who can teach you a completely different way of viewing football. That is the power that a manager who can properly communicate his thoughts can hold over his players. Join Blueprint for Football Extra, our free newsletter, for more great articles on football coaching.
Whilst it is always easy to appreciate when a club gets something right, it is not as simple to understand what they did to get it right. This is particularly the case as far as the development of players is concerned where changes that are carried out today will take years to be proven correct (or otherwise). It takes an equal amount of foresight, conviction and experience to lay down the foundations of any long term project. Such a balance is very difficult to achieve which is why many often prefer to look at what others have been successfully doing in order to base their own work. It is a sensible decision but it is also a risky one because what seems to be the accepted wisdom today might be proven to be the wrong view in a few years’ time. Fifteen years ago, everyone was looking at developing big, strong midfielders to act as a shield in front of their defence. Nearly every team felt that such a player was essential and consequently everyone worked to identify those who had the raw abilities to become such a player. It was a desire fuelled by the tactical opinions of the era rather than a vision of where the game was going.
Today, people argue over the importance of allowing younger children the time to develop their skills above anything else. It is a view that is in line with what Barcelona have done in developing a generation of players with fantastic technical ability; one that has won all that there is to win in world football. The problem with this way of operating is that it is reactionary and, whilst it might result in some upside, those who adopt it will never be the exceptional ones. Again, that might be acceptable for some but certainly not for those who want their youth system to be the fuel that keeps the fire of their success burning. Those who want to be in this latter group will actively look for new ideas that challenge the way things are done by most other clubs, searching ways to improve. It is such clubs who have been in touch with Dr Jon Oliver, a lecturer in Sport and Exercise Physiology at Cardiff Metropolitan University in order to develop a practical model of the Youth Physical Development Model which he has developed along with Dr. Rhodri S. Lloyd - Senior Lecturer in Physiology and Health at the Cardiff Metropolitan University – and which is outlined in a paper issued in 2012 called “The Youth Physical Development Model: A New Approach to Long-Term Athletic Development”. Trying to map a way to maximise potential is one of the areas that sports scientists handle and the model on which most plans are based is one known as the Long Term Athlete Development. There are a number of variations to this but the most underlying concept is that there are certain key stages in a young person’s life during which the effect of training can be maximised. Given that different people mature at different rates, these key stages aren’t measured by age but rather on one’s development. Significantly, the identification of these stages has proven to be vital as it allows training to be modelled in a way that fits in with that individual’s state of development.
Yet, despite its widespread acceptance, there was still too much that is theoretical about it which was something that bothered Dr. Oliver. As a result he embarked on a project to identify whether the theory could be backed up with research and statistical results. What he and his colleagues came to realise, however, was that there were gaps in the reasoning behind the LTAD so they set up working on their own model for athlete development. The result was the Youth Physical Development model. “When working on my doctorate, I did a lot of reading regarding athlete development and started to realise that there was no research to support what was being suggested in the LTAD,” he explains, talking about the origin of this model. “It got me interested in taking a more informed approach to athlete development. I was lucky enough to get more research and that helped in putting a solid foundation to the whole process.” The result of that work is bound to get people talking. Indeed, that which most probably is the most significant departure from what is seen as the currently prevalent view in football is the emphasis that the Youth Physical Development Model makes on the importance of strength training even at a young age. “That is one of the things we were most keen to emphasise,” Dr Oliver admits before going on to explain that the reason for this is that “by improving strength we can assist movement skills.” “In a nutshell the movement skills are seen as the basis of all athletic activity. There is what is termed as a proficiency barrier and if they don't develop certain movement they won't be able to execute that sport. If they don't develop an over arm throw they won't be able to throw a ball properly, for instance. It prohibits their development so movement skills are essential.” “In children the neural systems [note: the nervous system that co-ordinates the voluntary and involuntary actions in a body] are developing very rapidly and by the time they are seven it will be almost fully developed.” “(Yet), in the LTAD, the work on strength would appear at a very late stage, around the time the person is 15 years old because this is the age where strength seems to develop more. However we think that this might be based on hypertrophy [note: this is the increase in muscle size] which happens for physiological reasons.”
“Strength training isn't about increasing muscle size and with the younger age groups you can work on the neural aspect of strength.” This, then, isn’t about looking for the strongest kids as used to happen in the past but rather providing them with the basic requirements to prevent them from suffering injuries as they grow up. To quote directly from the paper “in 2011, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association suggested that approximately 50% of overuse injuries within youth sports could be preventable in part with appropriate preparatory conditioning.” “There has actually research carried out by others that backs this up,” Dr. Oliver continues. “One author, Dr. Michael Behringer, undertook two systematic reviews in strength training in children. In their first review it showed that the gains in strength were related to maturation, meaning that more mature children experienced more pronounced training gains.” “In the second review, which was carried out 2011, it showed that less mature children could transfer the benefits of strength training to running, jumping and throwing better than more mature children.” Indeed, in an interview with Reuters Health, Dr Behringer said that “since resistance training in children and adolescents is known to be safe and to be associated with several health benefits, children and adolescents should be generally encouraged to participate in a resistance-training program.” What Dr. Oliver and Dr. Lloyd are suggesting is that training for pre-pubescent children should focus on resistance training in order to build strength with hypertrophy training – to increase muscle size – taking place after adolescence. Such training will also help in the development of a core ability for any top sportsperson: power. Explosive power, the ability to generate high levels of power is essential for sporting success yet had been omitted in the current LTAD models. Power is typically seen as an innate ability, the god given gift that distinguishes athletes like Sir Chris Hoy from other mere mortals. Yet the YPD model is based on research that shows that muscular power can be improved through training. And whilst the most significant improvement happens after the onset of adolescence, some training that focuses on power can be carried out beforehand. “One of the reasons we included that is that power is seen as being one of the distinguishing characteristics,” Oliver explains. “The better footballers would be seen to be better in certain power exercises. In terms of children developing power, we're of the view that it is something that it is something that can be developed. If you specifically focus on power you can get players to jump higher.”
In spite of all the recommendations, the main difficulty for anyone involved in football is that of personalising preparation – something that the paper insists on – when you’re involved with a group of individuals. “That is a difficult one. When we were writing the model we were thinking of team sports as they have the higher participation rates. However, there are always some logistical issues.” “I would personally recommend that there should be some grouping. You may find that there is a sub-set of players who have lower movement skills then another group. I'd probably be breaking these up into groups so that each gets the appropriate training for them.” “In football there is the tendency to train in age groups but it might more be the case that coaches should be less worried about children in a year group and group them according to their development stage. Some aspects of training should be across all levels and strength in movement skills linking to injury prevention. We want to prepare them for a career in physical activity and sports. Injury is a real risk so we have to provide them with the right movement skills and fatigue resistance.” Within that comment there is the over-riding principle that anyone involved in youth sports should live by: that the aim has to be that of preparing them so that they can keep participating in sport rather than for the specific (and relatively short) period when they are in your care. “The difficulty is what the targets of those in youth sports are. The challenge in trying to make a team is that it will create a selection bias. You pick the most mature players into the team and that would provide them an advantage because they are physically stronger.” “If you watch how children develop over time, those who mature later on will catch up and often outperform the others. If you focus on the competitive outcome you end up with a system that favours early mature-rs. Others don't get selected and they don't get the training which makes it difficult to get back. Clubs need to develop distance and targets should be that players should be progressing; targets that are placed on individual development.” This helps brings it all together. It dispels any suspicion that the argument for the early introduction of some form of strength training is aimed at favouring a more physical approach. Pushing for more individualised targets – rather than looking at team results which can be artificially inflated - is what the best academies already do, something that should be augmented by the individualisation of the training schedule. It is a holistic approach, one that covers all bases that any long term plan to develop football players should be looking into. The theory, and the reasons supporting it, are all there and it would be a huge opportunity missed not to build on it. This is not a critical evaluation of the paper and there is no analysis of the findings held within. The aim of this piece is to look at the Youth Development Model and raise awareness to the possibilities held within. The paper and the model can be found here.
