There have been some interesting conversations recently around the perceived weakness of the current player development pathway in England & Wales, whether looking at the excessive cost (to parents) of inclusion on a County pathway or the impact of the relative age effect on access to and inclusion in the pathway.
The highly selective structure of the pathway works against players born later in the (age-group selection) year. Several suggestions to offset this unintended bias against the younger players have been proposed.
- County Age Group & District squads could be larger, and de-selection later.
- Parallel development squads be maintained for those born later in the year.
- Delaying selection to rep squads, with greater reliance on clubs to develop younger players (coincidentally removing the additional costs associated with County or District squads).
Any of these approaches would require more coaches, and probably coaches with different skills.
Possibly “better” coaches.
But what is better coaching? I have had several attempts at defining what training might support (better) coach development, without really looking at the skills that these “better” coaches would want.
Continue reading “Q: What is “better coaching? A: It has to be more than new drills & games, more than techniques & affordances.”