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How do we produce better international quality players?

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Posted September 04, 2015 07:22 · last edited September 04, 2015 07:24

Royz wrote:

ConanTroutman wrote:

Ryan wrote:

djtim3000 wrote:

I'd say its because every country only has a very limited supply of top level sports people - and all of ours play other sports. People with the natural ability, reflexes, vision and freakish athleticism of say Carter, the Smiths, McCullum or Shaun Johnson could have been our international football stars. Instead they (and most other high-level NZ sports people) chose other sports. Mainly because all their top level sporting friends did the same, but it is also that they are better pathways to professionalism. 

You can coach the shark out of the next tier of sports people all you like, but they aren't ever going to be as good as the best of the best.

How do you change that?

Maybe the backs, but our attackers (excluding Wood) are too small to play rugby.

Depending on the position, and you're talking top-level rugby. Using the McCullum example, he kept Dan Carter out of rep teams when he was playing rugby as a kid, and he's a few cm taller than Rojas and a few cm shorter than Thomas.  Ideally you want those natural athlete kids playing football from as soon as they can walk basically, as they would in most countries but here they're not. They might switch to football as teenagers if they realise they're too small to make it as a rugby player, but by that point they're a decade or so behind where they could be in terms of football experience and skills.

Oh what bullshi7. There are thousands of "footballers" here in New Zealand that have never played any other sport but the world game and they still have amounted to nothing. Kids growing up to play rugby because of they want to not because football is a "soft game".

Um, when did anyone say kids weren't playing football because it was a soft game?

Yeah heaps of kids grow up playing football and amount to nothing. Heaps of kids also grow up playing rugby and amount to nothing. That's irrelevant. The point is that in countries where football is the dominant sport most of the kids who are naturally freakishly athletic with great balance, hand-eye coordination, reflexes etc are going to play football. Here most of those kids aren't playing football because football isn't the dominant sport. For instance, at my school there was a guy who was a national sprint champ, and he played on the wing in a rugby team, not on the wing in a football team. His equivalent in say, Iceland, would be on a football team. Flat out sprint speed can't really be coached in the same way technical ball skills can be,

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ConanTroutman edited September 04, 2015 07:24
Royz wrote:
ConanTroutman wrote:
Ryan wrote:
djtim3000 wrote:

I'd say its because every country only has a very limited supply of top level sports people - and all of ours play other sports. People with the natural ability, reflexes, vision and freakish athleticism of say Carter, the Smiths, McCullum or Shaun Johnson could have been our international football stars. Instead they (and most other high-level NZ sports people) chose other sports. Mainly because all their top level sporting friends did the same, but it is also that they are better pathways to professionalism. 

You can coach the shark out of the next tier of sports people all you like, but they aren't ever going to be as good as the best of the best.

How do you change that?

Maybe the backs, but our attackers (excluding Wood) are too small to play rugby.

Depending on the position, and you're talking top-level rugby. Using the McCullum example, he kept Dan Carter out of rep teams when he was playing rugby as a kid, and he's a few cm taller than Rojas and a few cm shorter than Thomas.  Ideally you want those natural athlete kids playing football from as soon as they can walk basically, as they would in most countries but here they're not. They might switch to football as teenagers if they realise they're too small to make it as a rugby player, but by that point they're a decade or so behind where they could be in terms of football experience and skills.
Oh what bullshi7. There are thousands of "footballers" here in New Zealand that have never played any other sport but the world game and they still have amounted to nothing. Kids growing up to play rugby because of they want to not because football is a "soft game".
Um, when did anyone say kids weren't playing football because it was a soft game?

Yeah heaps of kids grow up playing football and amount to nothing. Heaps of kids also grow up playing rugby and amount to nothing. That's irrelevant. The point is that in countries where football is the dominant sport most of the kids who are naturally freakishly athletic with great balance, hand-eye coordination, reflexes etc are going to play football. Here most of those kids aren't playing football because football isn't the dominant sport. For instance, at my school there was a guy who was a national sprint champ, and he played on the wing in a rugby team, not on the wing in a football team. His equivalent in say, Iceland, would be on a football team.

ConanTroutman edited September 04, 2015 07:23
Royz wrote:
ConanTroutman wrote:
Ryan wrote:
djtim3000 wrote:

I'd say its because every country only has a very limited supply of top level sports people - and all of ours play other sports. People with the natural ability, reflexes, vision and freakish athleticism of say Carter, the Smiths, McCullum or Shaun Johnson could have been our international football stars. Instead they (and most other high-level NZ sports people) chose other sports. Mainly because all their top level sporting friends did the same, but it is also that they are better pathways to professionalism. 

You can coach the shark out of the next tier of sports people all you like, but they aren't ever going to be as good as the best of the best.

How do you change that?

Maybe the backs, but our attackers (excluding Wood) are too small to play rugby.

Depending on the position, and you're talking top-level rugby. Using the McCullum example, he kept Dan Carter out of rep teams when he was playing rugby as a kid, and he's a few cm taller than Rojas and a few cm shorter than Thomas.  Ideally you want those natural athlete kids playing football from as soon as they can walk basically, as they would in most countries but here they're not. They might switch to football as teenagers if they realise they're too small to make it as a rugby player, but by that point they're a decade or so behind where they could be in terms of football experience and skills.
Oh what bullshi7. There are thousands of "footballers" here in New Zealand that have never played any other sport but the world game and they still have amounted to nothing. Kids growing up to play rugby because of they want to not because football is a "soft game".
Um, when did anyone say kids weren't playing football because it was a soft game?

Yeah heaps of kids grow up playing football and amount to nothing. Heaps of kids also grow up playing rugby and amount to nothing. THat's irrelevant. The point is that in countries where football is the dominant sport most of the kids who are naturally freakishly athletic with great balance, hand-eye coordination, reflexes etc are going to play football. Here most of those kids aren't playing football because football isn't the dominant sport.