We're well beyond that, the problems with our game (in my mind) are far more fundamental.� The AllWhites will always be poor because we have poor players, we have to work harder to produce better playrs right throughout the system.
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First thing I'd do, national coaching curriculum.� Then, start byt making a rule that to coach any side at any level (even 5 year olds), you have to attend a half day coaching workshop.� Maybe each club runs it, or the regional coaching director I don't know, even just to show people the basics.� If you want to coach 12 years olds, you got to do the next course.� It's a hugely basic thing, but lets start with something.� Start coaching coaches, even just some basic drills and some idea of how kids should be taught at that age.� In europe 8 year olds are coached byt guys with the same qualifications as Ricki.� That's never going to happen in NZ but th difference between a dad who is enthusiastic, and a dad who knows just a little bit about the game is huge.� And I'm sure that the majority of people will want that information.
[/QUOTE]I read recently that Aus have adopted a playing formation that all coaches have to adhere to for the junior leagues. Do we have anything like that here??[/QUOTE]
This is the information that Aus is doing:
AUSTRALIA'S FOOTBALL REVOLUTION
* Skills program (1500 drills) to be used as foundation training at age six.
* Elite development pathway to start with eight-year-olds.
* Stricter implementation of youth coaching licences at junior levels; compulsory qualifications for all senior levels.
* 4-3-3 mandated as preferred formation for all teams, once 11-a-side football starts at age 13.
[quote=smh.com.au]For the 450,000 players of all ages about to step onto pitches across the country this weekend, the evolution of the way football in Australia is played is about to become a revolution.
Dutchman Han Berger, the national team's new technical director, dreams of a new generation of players reared with skill, rather than strength, and the Socceroos being a top-20 team and challenging to win the World Cup in 2018.
The first seeds were sown last year with the introduction of small-sided games for players up to the age of 12. Now, the winds of change are about to blow much harder as small-sided games will be refined even further. Coaching licences will become mandatory at many junior levels. Training sessions for younger age groups will become exclusively based on ball work, not conditioning.
The elite development pathway will start at the age of eight, and identified players will be have access to qualified skills coaches up to the age of 13.
All teams, even those at community level, will be encouraged to adopt a 4-3-3 system, which will, in turn, be the tactical platform for all national teams, including the Socceroos.
There is more than a whiff of the KNVB (the Dutch football association) in the new blueprint. Was it simply a reprint, Berger - a former KNVB technical director - was asked?
"No, not at all," he replied. "I don't think I have to explain myself, or defend myself, on this."
If it's not a Dutch curriculum - and the selection of a Norwegian community-level training program and incorporation of a futsal component into the small-sided programs does suggest a broader perspective - then it must follow that the coaches charged with implementing it won't necessarily have to be Dutch?
"No they won't," he said. "My aim is that these positions, as much as possible, will go to Australian coaches."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/football/berger-with-the-lot-dutchman-releases-our-football-master-plan/2009/05/01/1240982406760.html
I have posted in bigsoccer.com a reply to some of the Australian posters reluctance in adopting this as follows:
[quote=AllWhiteBeliever]I understand the hestiation of using 4-3-3. But this is about Youth development not senior elite. However the benefits of this apporach is that it forces the best of the players to specialise their skills more and be more attacking and eventually stronger player for it.
It's about development because having 4-3-3 can be easily turn to 4-4-2 or 3-4-3 or even the fancy 4-3-1-2 or defensive 4-3-2-1 simply by shift only one player in the formation. Sure it seems to out of touch to have one team with 4-3-3 formations but if you have several teams with 4-3-3 you should be able to find players to suit any of the above formations according to the coaches and players compability. It will stimulate players competitiveness. Sure the pressure is on the CM and the CF to perform with the Wide midfielders and wingers being more specialised and there is a bit of space on the midfield width rather than the compact midfield depth, but it is for the specialised development. They really do get more utilisation of space.
When they get to A-league, they will find it easiler to adapt in the different formations. You will find that having 4-3-3 changing to 3-4-3 or 4-4-2 later on in development will bring out the best of the better players so they will freely move between the three blocks of defence, midfield and attack.
If youth development is 4-4-2 you have players to set in their ways and not really getting to move between the blocks as well as they should. They will lazy in learning positional movements. Thereas 4-3-3 is easy to learn where the positions are but also flexible to be learning the movements because of the lateral movements and passing angles will open up. Having 4-4-2 in youth developmemt will strife the lateral movements and you will get the same long pass, small angles and plenty of interceptions and so a messly unskillful development.
Specialising the wingers and the centre forward provides good developmental challenges in attack and teach them good attacking combinations. You will find that a soild CF combining with either one of the two wingers will establish the combination foundations for the two forward up front in the 4-4-2 as well as developing the third forward as a supporting option. This will establish understanding of using the three man movement will break down most defences. You need your Riggs and Rolando types players and encourage them combinations and awareness. The 4-3-3 is the best foundation to work off. Again it helps having a third forward that knows how to combine with the other two forwards up front. It is generally easy to combine two forwards up front but the introduction of a third forward is very tricky to learn. The combinations of three forwards are usually difficult to pull because there is not enough forwards that understands how to play with three forwards upfront and so the third forward is rendered useless and inflexible. By having three forwards in a youth development, this will not be a problem later on and at the end of the day, the combinations of three forwards will potentially overwhelm four in defence by having the intitative of the ball attack. It will test and lift up the defence combination as well. We don't see enough of three forward attacks because there is a lack of development.
If you play three forwards upfront, those forwards can switch to a two forward up front. However, if you play with only two forwards upfront, don't expect them to know what to do if you switch to a three forward attack in the dying stage of the game if you are desparate for the win or the draw being on the backfoot.
4-3-3 will also developing the central forward as well because there will be times that there no support in the centre form the other wingers or midfielders so they are forced to adapt in the game situation. Eventually you will have a forward that is able to do many things and not the one thing. By having a second forward in a 4-4-2, there is too much dependence with a second forward and actually too much lateral movement making those forwards doing too much winger roles where they should learn to shoot/finish and have a better box forward and go forward finishing with lesser lateral space to worry about. They need to learn to met the crosses first and not make the crosses at that stage. Leave most of the crossing to the wingers.
It's about the long term development and if more people follow this, your football will improve greatly.
I actually have more positivity in what they are doing, we should install the same. In fact, if we did adopt the same, we will be able to get this started before them because that is the advantage of being a smaller country.
Also, I am a bit bias because it was the 4-3-3 formation that I mainly worked with in my youth days, and it destroyed most 4-4-2 formation teams at the time until the 3-5-2 arrived, in which there was a change on tactics to a 4-3-1-2 or the 3-1-3-3 which did well.
"Phoenix till they lose"