Sorry if I rocked the boat or offended anyone not my intent.

As for the players of the past? Absolutley damage was done - in particular
brain damage! Sounds like bull##it but true. Heading a wet heavy leather ball caused brain damage and this is sad fact for many of the oldies.
(explains so many of my 'issues')

If I sound so frustrated its because my 12 yr old son has just had his season ended by a 14 year old that tackled so high up the shin with such force that it ripped his knee ligaments to bits.
I still think if near equally physically matched the foul would have resulted in much less damage.
:curse:

Correct anyone can have an opinion, but it takes knowledge to have an informed opinion, and yes without knowing the facts your opinion was hysterical.

why was your 12 year old playing against a 14yo? The Oakville club has year-group leagues at both house league and rep team level. If your boy is playing above his age group you can hardly complain that the ball is too heavy for him and the other kids bigger or more aggressive. While I'm sorry he has been injured, what you've just said makes it seem he was at least in part the architect of his own misfortune?

You have hit the nail squarely on the head, the point is in yester-year there were not as many adult supervised teams, leaving kids to play in the parks/school yards etc.

see below from the give us back our game website.

The problem areas in football for kids are:
• No longer the children’s game – football is controlled by adults
• We see the same children on the bench or omitted every game
• Coaches and parents screaming from the touchlines
• Too much winning focus – before fun and development
• Not enough free play where children can solve their own problems
• Children are not encouraged to express themselves
• Children no longer learn about the spirit of the game for themselves

What LTPD is doing is trying to get back to grass roots, how many trophies did kids pick up playing in the back field, how many league titles, yet a lot of players developed playing just this way.

With all respect to everyone commenting on this, Forget the PC argument, it has nothing to do with it.

This is about producing more/better skilled players for our teams from rec through to national level.

So, you want recognition for your achievements, so if you achieved based upon your previous posts, must have meant you won something.

What about the kids that worked their arses off and didn't win the league, there are far more of them than league winners ? They don't get recognised.

What you are mixing up is adult sport with kids sport. Kids play because its fun, winning is a bonus, but guess what if they lose they will be back again next time, recognition or not.

nah, he was not playing above his age group he is 12 and the other kid looked just under 14 - not an expert on kids ages but the other kid was among the biggest on the pitch so I'm just guessing he was nearly 14.
My lad is a big old lump for his age and in the UK never had an injury so was shocked by it a bit.

So, you're now saying that the other kid just looked 14. That puts a rather different complexion on it, doesn't it? If a child (perhaps with parental encouragement, or sometimes even insistence) is playing above his or her age group, they must expect to be playing against bigger opponents. In this case, it seems, there was just a big kid on the other team who unfortunately injured your boy. I'm happy to withdraw my comment about about architects of misfortune now that you've straightened the facts out a bit.

However, there's really no need to resort to personal insults on this forum.

Says it all really. Never a need for violence on a sports field; rarely elsewhere. As dbd suggests, maybe the thuggery of ice hockey is more suited.

Quite.

Everyone is entitled to a civily expressed opinion. But play nice or I will start going in knee high, metaphorically speaking.

FWIW when I coached the kids soccer I used to stess having fun, trying your best, having respect for your team mates and the opposition, and using the best technique you can. The fact that we used to beat the other teams hollow was just a happy bonus.

Same rules go here, have fun, but have some respect, and try not to keep score...

We won one season of friendlys against half a dozen other local schools back in the early 70's. Felt great getting little plastic medals, still have it somewhere. I think we came last or close to last all the other seasons and deservedly so as we weren't much of a team. Got nothing, nor should we have as we were crap. Not getting recognised is all the more reason to get your arse into gear and work harder. Not having scoring means that no-one gets recognised, where's the incentive in that?

I don't recall just playing because it was fun, most of the time it was miserable in the freezing rain. I played to win or because it was games time and I was told to. It seems to be some adult fantasy that kids only play because it's fun (pc?), kids can't possibly be competitive and want to be better than the next kid right, they all have to be on the same level?

Not scoring the games takes away much away from the game, the whole point of the game is about winning. Sure have practice matches where you don't score, that is where you can develop the skills, but also have the proper games and tornaments where scoring is kept. That, after all is what the game is all about not just making all the players 'feel good' because they took part?

You have read none of the previous posts I take it.

Kids play beacause its fun, I know this because I have/am currently working with players of all ages, 2 on the verge of the canadian national u,15 team.

They play because they love it, the same reason I played rain/snow/shine. Made no difference. The ones that don't have fun quit. The two biggest reasons reasons for quitting are over zealous coaches and parents with the "win at all costs" mentality.

Taking the standings out at u,9-u,12 helps negate this and keep more players in what is a late development sport. At u,13 they play 11 v 11 in a league system.

The numbers on the field are also shortened, 6v6 at u,9 7v7 at u,10 8v8 at u,11 9v9 at u,12

This helps them get more touches on the ball and allows them to experiment in an enviroment that is safe and does not mean a mistake will cost them a league title.

This is an excerpt from an interview with the man utd academy director

"Yet there is a serious issue that United want brought into the open, much as it may antagonise other clubs. United want to revolutionise
coaching of the Under-9 to Under-11 age-group, focusing more on developing skills in four-v four games than contesting blood-and-thunder eight-v-eight club skirmishes.


Man utd reccomending to the prem lg that 4v4 should be adopted for u,9 to u,11 teams.

Maybe sir alex has gone all PC too.

So in these posts we have identified.

Brazil,France, Barcelona and man utd all adopting a simialar approach with regards to development but you still don't get it.

Some people will never get it. But its not our job to make then get it, all you can do is express a view, maybe some facts, and move on.

Not everything posted here (least of all on Friday afternoon) is necessarily there to be taken deadly seriously.

Finally

fwiw, i guess i technically do count as a bit of an expert on LTPD as i've actually written the canadian LTAD booklets for a couple of sports (and i'm also a high performance coach). just to set the record straight on a couple of misconceptions...

1) as has been mentioned, this is nothing about being PC. LTAD has basically come to be in canada to address two specific issues. the first is that too many canadians drop out of playing sport at a young age, meaning that we lose a lot of valuable experience that could help to keep driving sports forward through coaching / refereeing whatever. another byproduct of this is that too many adults get no exercise. the second is that except for in a few specific sports, canada has a pretty poor track record in high performance sport... whilst we get a bunch of athletes qualifying for elite competitions, few of them are able to consistently produce podium results when they get there. LTAD was put forward as a mechanism to address both of these problems, and is doing so at many different levels of the sport system.

2) it's not about 'not encouraging competition'. rather, it's about teaching kids how to win and lose, and in particular how to learn from their losses, rather than simply wallowing in them. it's also about teaching both the kids and their parents that whilst winning can be fun, there are times when other things (such as learning proper technique / working on specific skills) are more important. it's for this reason that scores are not really recorded. yes, for each match, there can be a winner and a "loser", but especially at the younger ages, more important than the individual win or loss is the overall skill development. you see the best progress in terms of longer term development when players are challenged to use new skills, and to adapt techniques to new situations, rather than just relying on their 'standard go to' actions. if everybody is focused simply on the win, this kind of development is greatly impaired, and that has a price down the road... this is why you see so many national team athletes who have a few techniques mastered, but are severly lacking in other aspects of the game.

hahahaha you've never seen me hysterical mate, I suggest you don't attempt to either