Preaching Patience But Growing Tired...

I'd like to think that patience has always been one of my strengths as a coach and soccer educator.  After more than 25 years at all levels from U6 to University, camps to North American youth championships I've often championed the cause of "give it time, put in the work and it will happen."

Admittedly not as catchy as "build it and they will come," but taking the long view has been more than fruitful both on and off the field more often and not.

Today though after taking a hard look at the latest update from Alex Chiet, the OSA Chief Technical Officer, on Ontario's implementation of the Long Term Player Development initiative I have to admit my patience is wearing thin.

Don't get me wrong there is way more good news than bad in the update including:

• A focus on developing players, not winning, at early youth levels.
• A new coaching curriculum to be unveiled within weeks.
• A focus on individual skills development with more identification opportunities at local and regional levels.
• A League structure to reflect development for U4 to U12 with less emphasis on winning.
• A move to a league and competition structure that is not about promotion and relegation for older youth players but centred on player development with a club focus based on standards.
• Establishment of L1 Youth League in Ontario.

All good ideas and well overdue.  Chiet himself says it bests when in the update he says:

"Our current pathway is so broken, confusing and fragmented that we can no longer avoid "the elephant in the room".  we have to develop a pathway that not only makes sense for but is also in the true best interests of young players."

Then the head scratcher (or heart breaker) in the deal for me - "Based on our current plan, LTPD will be phased-in, starting in 2013, with the broader "roll-out" expected over the next 6 to 8 years." 


So, I could be wrong but the way I read this is, if you an eight year old currently playing in Ontario you'll be ten by the time LTPD starts and assuming the "phasing in" starts with the youngest age group and adds a level each year after that you will be missed entirely by the LTPD and yet another generation will be lost to development.  In fact even if your six and possibly younger you will not receive the full benefit of LTPD.

Really?  Eight years to basically give 80% of coaches involved in coaching in this province the thing they want more than anything else, a simple tool - a curriculum - that helps them do a decent job and give the bulk of youth players a decent grounding in skills and instils in them a love of the game.  Eight years...

A twitter exchange (not the perfect forum for complex discussions but certainly a timely one) with Jason DeVos a club technical director and someone who is doing more than most to effect change for the better on the game in this country revealed some of the thinking behind this slow phasing in - "It's not about starting with low standards and phasing them higher. It's about starting with high standards and phasing them in, starting with the youngest ages first."

The context being we need to educate and qualify coaches, that the process takes time - "Giving unqualified coaches a curriculum and expecting them to be 'elite' coaches won't work. Education is vitally important."

Very difficult to argue this (on twitter or anywhere) in fact impossible - education is vitally important.  But understanding your "market" is pretty important too and the fact remains the vast majority of our coaches at the developmental level (U12 and younger) - are not certified, have no desire to become certified and frankly will more often walk away than spend a weekend becoming certified.

If the LTPD curriculum becomes yet another "closed document" available only to "certified" coaches who spend (or their club spends) more than $125 for OSA certification than once again the core of the people delivering the foundation of our youngest players will be missed and a huge opportunity lost.

Instead make the curriculum for the first two phases of the LTPD available online - make it simple to use, easy to understand with lesson plans to ease delivery - offer free three hour clinics to show people how to deliver the sessions and answer some basic questions and then move on.  If the quality of the programming is good maybe you'll then hold on to the majority of these coaches after a couple of years instead of losing them and then and only then can you hope to gain the quantity of certified coaches you are looking for.  Consider it a loss leader for the future of the game.

Do it today, not in 2013, do not wait until you have the right number of "certified" U4 and U6 coaches because I'm afraid as patient as I am that day may never come.

The Maturation of Canadian Soccer

Things are moving quickly now for Canadian soccer - on and off the field. The signs of change and shift are everywhere around us from the highest administrative levels right down to the local youth scene and all signs point to a maturation of the game here in Canada.

The importance of expected governance changes, the awarding of world cups, development of professional clubs and building and expansion(!) of facilities across the country cannot be underestimated but subtly and sometimes not so subtly, something even more exciting for the future is beginning to happen at the grassroots levels - the professionalism of the game.

The changes have been ongoing, subtle and sometimes swift depending on location and maturity of the local game and strength of local leadership. Changes taking hold as youth clubs professionalize and sometimes streamline their organizations adding paid general managers, administrators and technical directors to their staffs and have started running things on a much more business based basis. Five year plans, budget projections and thinking beyond the upcoming season are becoming the norm not the exception at clubs as paid employees put their talents and expertise to work.

Along with this approach often, at least recently, comes the linking of professional and semi-professional clubs to youth clubs. These arrangements range from complete integration to "technical partnerships" to loosely arranged agreements that basically are in place to provide the "pros" with access to a potential pipeline of talent for the future.

Does this sound familiar? It should because this is how the rest of the world does it and has so for years. Maybe, just maybe, we ready to realize they've had it right all these years and we were kind of making it up as we went along.

It's been fascinating study to watch Canadian youth soccer from both the inside as an administrator, technical director, coach and parent and the outside as a fan, observer and writer over the last 30 years. Fascinating but maddening as time and time again we've ignored the rest of the world (as far as structure goes at least) and continued to go our own merry way obviously thinking we knew something the rest of the world did not when it came to football - the world's game.

This despite our total inability to produce truly elite level talent in a systematic way (granted there have been individual and local change and successes). We have continued to do things basically the same way for the past three generations of players somehow expecting different results despite the fact that no where else, outside of North America, did the model of development entail the separation of the professional game and development of players. Quite the opposite in fact.

Obviously the rest of the world had it wrong and we were right. Not.

There is a reason the rest of the world does things this way and has for a number of years. It works and finally we seem to be paying attention and the signs are there that player development and professionalism are coming together on many if not all fronts for the game in Canada. This is a good, no great, development for the game and our players in this country.

Players will begin to not just see but understand and participate in a pathway of development that makes sense and inspires as well as provides a reward for effort and their passion for the game.

Finally there will a true pyramid of play not a topless one that, in most cases, led no where but out of the game. A true top to the pyramid with growing and natural links between the youth, senior and the "non-amateur" levels of the game.

Obviously there will be challenges, mistakes and stumbles but is that really that much different than the way things are now and have been for the past thirty years of wandering in the wilderness? At least these developments offer a different map and choice of direction.

Conflicts will arise in organizations as people have expectations placed upon them by employers who may or may not be ready for the additional responsibility (and a responsibility it is) of guiding, nurturing and ultimately rewarding or releasing these people.

The recreational elements of the game will be concerned that they are being left out or unfairly being burdened with the costs (they should not be and most cases are not) of developing the competitive side. (This furthers the argument that perhaps it is time for a separation of these two elements within the game but that is fodder for another article.)

Despite these "costs" the rewards will ultimately more than make up for this change in approach to the development of our best players and the long term development of the game.

Perhaps we truly are finally growing up as a soccer nation.

Those With the Most Column Space Win

The Canadian Soccer Association and their partner provincial associations are losing the battle for the attention of the masses who will have a huge influence on deciding the the success or failure of the implementation of the Long Term Player Development program.

The Winnipeg Sun, among other media, is in a running battle to make sure the status quo - no matter how unsuccessful it has been - remains in place.

Their claim to insight on this matter is most respondents to a Leger Marketing poll — 59% — agreed keeping score and standings should be done at all ages. No details to sample size or what the other questions were of course but their take is the masses are with us no matter how ill-informed they are.

The media is basically taking the stand that keeping standings and winning trophies is the primary factor in the development of quality players and the major objective in youth sport. The idea being that no one else in the world is doing this and that it is some left wing, granola crunching semi-socialist Canadian idea to turn our children into... I'm not sure what because obviously these people not coached children long term at any level successfully and probably still believe that drinking water during training is a sign of weakness.

Never mind that 30% of Canadian believe in ghosts, 20% believe aliens live among us and that 58% are more likely to believe in bigfoot than a politicians campaign promise... oh wait, scratch that last one. The point being polls are notoriously inaccurate let alone the best method to determine and design policy. Just ask the voters in Toronto.

Now for the facts.

No where in the proposed Long Term Player Development documents I have read does it say scores will not be kept. Even if it did say such a thing, this is nigh impossible as everyone involved in any game, parents, players, coaches and officials know what the score is. Even in non-organized sport (the near endangered species that it is) everyone keeps score.

The LTPD does call for no league standings and a jamboree format with an emphasis on fun at U6 - U9 and an organized schedule but no standings for the U9 - U12s. To point out the academy program in traditional soccer nation England, involving some of the world's major clubs, does not keep standings (or tables if you prefer) until, wait for it U18.

Again it is not about eliminating competition as the media mongers would like you to believe - it is about putting competition in perspective and ensuring our kids are learning the right things about their game at the right time. It's about developing the technical skills and the ABC's of movement (agility, balance and coordination) because it is has been left to organized sport to do so since this secondary role has been forfeited by our school system and interfered with by video games and computers.

The challenge for the associations, both national and federal, is they have no developed marketing and media strategy that targets the people with the most influence on the players and club decision makers - the parents. The OSA travelling roadshow is targeting the coaches which is of course vitally important in getting the message out but this misses the largest group that will ultimately accept or reject the plan.

The implementation of the LTPD, along with the further development of the professional game in Canada and the eventual qualification for the World Cup that will come with the improvement in our youth development programs are the most important thing for our associations to focus on and they need to scrimp, scavenge and find a way to ensure this gets done.

They to get the message out properly and clearly to everyone involved in the game. They need to partner with the MLS teams, media and corporate partners to get the message out in a way that everyone can understand and support. We need widespread dissemination of information during MLS broadcasts on radio and tv, print media (through both releases and advertising) and especially during soccer events where the people involved in all aspects of the game are gathered.

Obviously money is a factor but I believe the professional franchises and the people who run them understand the importance of this initiative and would welcome the chance to be associated with it if it was presented in the proper, professional fashion.

No executive of these franchises or soccer's current or future corporate sponsors (Bell, BMO etc.) would term down the chance to be affiliated with a grassroots effort to improve the development of our players and improve the sporting experience of our youth. But it needs to be done right and they would probably want creative control - a small price to pay - to get the message out to the masses.

A "new" soccer nation Australia has faced many of the same challenges we face and has done wonders in a very short time including delivering a national curriculum that has all of the factors of the LTPD and packaged it (PDF - 5.42 Mb) in a way that makes it readable, succinct and visionary - we could do worse than to follow suit.

If we do not the message will be lost to the noise of soccer bashers and sensationalist media that know how to get people's attention even if they care little about the sport itself.

Stand up, speak out or sit down and accept the status quo and another battle lost.

Bill Ault
bill@canadakicks.com

PS - Finally enjoy what creativity in a corporate sponsorship and a national association can do in this ad from the AFF prior to the World Cup in South Africa.

A Good Day All Round...

Great news for Canadian soccer today when Canada booked its ticket to the FIFA U-17 World Cup Mexico 2011 on Wednesday with a 2:0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago in the quarter-final stage of the 2011 CONCACAF Men’s U-17 Championship. Canada will be participating in the World Cup at this level for the first time since 1995.

Chris Nanco opened the scoring in the 15th minute and Keven Aleman scored a wonderful strike four minutes later to provide Canada with the decisive goals in the match.

Just as important as qualification itself might be the list of clubs that the players representing the Maple Leaf today are currently affiliated with. Of the twenty players on the roster fourteen players are currently affiliated with four different professional clubs - most importantly three of those clubs are Canadian. Even better eight of today's eleven starters are currently with pro academies - again the bulk affiliated with either Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver.

It is probably unique in Canadian soccer history that a team at this end of the national development programs has this many players already affiliated with professional clubs, especially professional Canadian clubs and this can only be good for the development of the game in Canada.

Another important part of this shift the professionalism of development is the inclusion of former professional players getting the opportunity to work with this young talent under the watchful eye of experienced professionals with backgrounds that span the globe.

The latest sign that things are finally coming together for development in this country are the announcements today out of Toronto that Danny Dichio and Jim Brennan will be passing on there vast professional experience as players to Toronto's Academy players while previous Academy coach Jason Bent has been moved up to assist the first team staff to provide a link to the youngsters moving up through the ranks.

All in all a good day for Canadian soccer.

Thoughts.

Bill Ault
bill@canadakicks.com