Jason de Vos has a good article up today challenging the idea that the only way to measure development is by measuring competitive success – i.e. that if a soccer club is winning games it is developing good players.
Amongst the most dialled in this idea is not new. Slowly, but surely, people are understanding how a system that promotes winning at all costs at younger ages is counterproductive to developing skills that will serve the players at an age when winning becomes more important.
In de Vos’ column he referenced a column that appeared in the Ottawa Sun last week. In it, the columnist Ron Corbett attacked local and national authorities for putting a policy in place that prevented an Ottawa soccer club from giving out awards to its winning teams. It was a typical strawman argument, with Corbett essentially taking a look-at-those-politically-correct-pinkos-trying-to-make-everyone-a-winner-in-my-day-we stance.
Corbett totally missed the point. He made no effort to understand the point, actually.
It is imperative that the Long Term Player Development program be implemented and for that to happen we need the general public to understand its principles. And for that to happen, the mass media needs to understand and, if not support it, than at least not attack it based on a surface understanding of one aspect of it.
With that in mind, I wrote Corbett an e-mail, which I am publishing here for public consumption.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Mr. Corbett,
Having read your Oct 23 column detailing the Eastern Ontario District Soccer Association’s decision to stop awarding medals to teams in the district for teams that finished on top of their divisions, I felt compelled to write you. Bluntly, I’m not sure you have fully grasped the reasoning behind the EODSA’s position.
On the surface I do understand your reaction. Since the very essence of sports is competition, it seems counterintuitive to take steps that seem to move away from that. However, your flippant characterization of the EODSA as being anti-winning makes it clear that you made little effort to understand the thinking behind the Long Term Player Development (LTPD) plan that is being implemented by the Canadian Soccer Association and is the basis of the policy of the EODSA.
It seems to me that your criticism is based on a faulty perception – namely that the LTPD is a pie in the sky, politically correct plan that is part of the overall softening of society. Again, I get how it would seem that way.
However, the irony of the no competition philosophy of the LTPD plan is that it’s designed to make players more competitive when winning is more important – when the players are older and may be in line to take their game to a college or even professional level. The people behind LTPD are far from some kind of sport management hippies. It’s quite the opposite – soccer authorities are desperate to implement these changes because they are sick of Canadian soccer being a laughingstock internationally. Since these concepts are tried and true in parts of the world where the game is most successful, Canadian authorities believe they can lead the sport to a better place here as well.
Outside of North America it is virtually unheard of for children younger than 10 to be involved in organized leagues. There, it’s understood that the development of skills is far more important than the winning of $5 medals. When you put the emphasis on winning in the younger age groups what happens is that kids more physically developed get roster spots – and the coaching and experience that goes along with those spots – ahead of smaller kids that might actually be more skilled.
Additionally coaches tend to devise tactics that are designed to take advantage of physicality over tactical skill. The way we play the game in Canada lacks sophistication and a large reason for that is because of the way we teach the game at the youngest age groups.
To put it in terms that most Canadians can understand, it would be like picking a hockey team based only on how fast the players can skate. Sure skating is important – as is athleticism in soccer – but not at the expense of skill. Those swift skating hockey players aren’t going to do much in the game unless they learn how to stickhandle as well.
Simply put, by moving away from a competitive focus at younger age groups kids will be more skilled at the game when they do start to play for keeps. And isn’t that what it should be all about?
Thank you,
Duane Rollins
Managing editor,
CanadianSoccerNews.com