One of these great ideas that I have come across was one put forward by the great Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, currently coaching Iran. Sean Fleming, Canada's current U17 men's coach, is fond of telling this story and if you have ever been in a room with Sean the chances are you will have heard this story, if you haven't here goes. Back in the 90's US Soccer commissioned Queiroz to put together a blueprint for the US to win the World Cup in 2010. Queiroz produced his report and a $50 million plan was embarked upon which spawned what we now call 'Generation Adidas' and the US Residency program in Bradenton, Florida. The first part of this plan deals with one idea, which doesn't cost $50 million and doesn't need a series of full time residency programs dotted around North America. This idea is free to implement and can be rolled out into club programs all across Canada at no extra cost. The idea, which as I understand was the first word in the report is HARMONY.
In short, Queiroz found a disjointed, poorly functioning program with different groups pulling in different directions. Does that sound familiar to you? It should because I think its a good description of the Canadian soccer landscape in 2011. How are we as a country supposed to compete at the international level when we spend the majority of our time arguing about who has the best system to develop players, who can be on the board, who should coach the gold team, when can I get the players.....
Now I am not suggesting that a love fest breaks out on fields across BC and Canada, coaches are, by nature, competitive and should remain that way, however I do think its time we all started to look at the bigger picture. One of the biggest problems I see is the one of player ownership. The players don't 'belong' to anyone. They aren't mine and they aren't yours, they belong to CANADA! I don't believe that there are coaches who deliberately hold players back from progressing to the next level, its an urban myth in our game. However there are some coaches who don't positively encourage their players to move up to the next level, I am sure we can all give examples of these types of coaches. Are these coaches doing any harm, they aren't putting children in danger by holding them back, but they are not giving their players all the opportunities that are available to them.
The key to changing this mindset is, in my opinion, communication and education. The vast majority of youth soccer coaches are volunteers who are also involved in other sporting activities. Its a fair bet that in Canada a large chunk of these coaches don't see Soccer as a primary sport. Its up to all of us, and I include myself in this group, who see Soccer not as a primary sport, but the only sport, to do a better job of selling our game.
Dick Bate, who served as the CSA technical director for a very short stint asked a question that needs to be asked of all of us on a regular basis. "Who cares for Canada"? Far too often we are all caught up in our own world to see the wood for the trees. As a group, soccer coaches have to do a better job than we have done before. Its easy to point the finger at the national and provincial associations and lay the blame at their door, however the change has to come from the bottom up. At the Lower Island Soccer Association we formed a coaches association so that we can meet on a regular basis and get to know each other away from the field, instead of glaring at each other from across the field. We all share the same problems with our teams and the hope is that through communication and shared experience we can better work together to improve the game for everyone.
Our next Coaches meeting is at Braefoot Park in Victoria on May 5th starting at 6.45pm. We will be talking about basic ball striking and introducing the Loughborough Soccer Passing Test with special guests Dr. Kathy Gaul and Marc Jacobson from the University of Victoria's School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education.
I hope to see you there, and many thanks to Lakehill Soccer Association for the use of their field.
