Youth Development - USA stylee!

[Reggaedoc]

I cant help buy agreeing with you Brick. Clearly our system has not worked. We have over 100 years of experience with our system. It is not for a lack of trying.

[Reggaedoc]

Lets accept DaCosta and Manning for what they are. They are tournaments in a high school extra curriculum, and should not be confused with a developmental program for professional footballers.

[Gamma]

let the people say AMEN!!

[Gamma]

track and field works because of other variables ... e.g. you do not need world class facilites to train, it is an individual sport etc .... yuh cannot have a football academy for 3 guys .... it naw guh work!

[Reggaedoc]

Totally true. That is a big mistake many people are making. They are trying to use the track and field approach to develop footballers. They are two different sports and require different approaches. Thye USA have it right. Basketballers come through the College system, and baseball players come through a farm system. Different sports which require different approaches.

[Karl]

I cant help buy agreeing with you Brick. Clearly our system has not worked. We have over 100 years of experience with our system. It is not for a lack of trying.

100 years?
...boss, we still have 99.99+% of the schools with no teacher/coach. It could be infiniti with such there would be no quality teaching/learning!

...as an aside - It is the same problem with Mathematics, Science subjects, etc. Lousy teaching/learning environment.

First we need to provide the 'best' teaching enviroment! ...that is what I am calling for!

[Karl]

This is where you and I differ in thinking Karl. Previously, many forumites here (Jawge in particular) have called for the abollishment of high school football for the sake of the national program. This thought, is what I am against. Even though we find ourselves in the position where our high schools are the feeders to our national programs, I disagree with your idea of developing them FOR the programs. The onus is not and should not be on our high schools to be a feeder system for our national programs. We need to broaden the base and develop these independent academies specifically for our programs. Sports go hand in hand with academics in developing our young people and should not be taken away from our youngsters in school. It is just the reality of our situation in Jamaica where sports is considered a hobby and not as a viable business endeavour. If we want to compete on the world stage, then we need to change this concept, just like how we need to change our concept of tourism (I had to throw that in there).

The only difference with my thinking appears to be that you do not wish 'best' teaching/learning environment to be created. Nowhere have I suggested the schools should be the only development resource (place for development).

If I had suggested that then I would be advocating nonsense approach. - Two questions have to be considered:
i) What happens to the 'best of the best' - the exceptional talent?

ii) What would happen to those kids who attain a certain level of development/competency ...with recognised potential of developing into professional players...requiring further avenue for development and who have already graduated from school?

Clearly in both cases the private academies - equivalent to institutions of 'higher learning' - come into play.

...a few may even at school develop so rapidly that they could immediately move into professional club teams.

[Gamma]

a footballcentric academy ... nuh dat wi a seh? that is the BEST environment

[Assasin]

I said before all we need to do is copy the ODP program. Get about 8-12 of the best youth coaches and have the different regions get the top 30-60 kids in the region and keep on trainiing them at least one weekend every month, follow their progress and that is the pool that you pick the youth team from. They must also compete against each other.

We need to be serious, calling kids two weekend to make the national team is not going to take us very far.

[Assasin]

Not even serious fun ball. A top talent have no reason playing DCup at 18 or 19 year old. Total waste of talent.

[Karl]

I said before all we need to do is copy the ODP program. Get about 8-12 of the best youth coaches and have the different regions get the top 30-60 kids in the region and keep on trainiing them at least one weekend every month, follow their progress and that is the pool that you pick the youth team from. They must also compete against each other.

We need to be serious, calling kids two weekend to make the national team is not going to take us very far.

How do you find those top kids in our Jamaica?

You forget that in the US you have the schools, the lower level clubs, the hodge-podge individual commercial academies - call it what you will e.g. Jawge's girls thing, you were involved in one such, Coach - I think - was involved in one such, etc., etc. --- ...and in the US most of these have some umbrella organisation that provide administrative structure and provide avanues for constant improvement of technical/teaching/coaching? ...our schools have minus 'best teaching/coaching'...the facilities and personnel already in place.

You are not suggesting that in Jamaica we are to continue provide poor management of those school academies? ...we are not to make them 'best possible' teaching/learning settings?

Certainly we should not be working at excluding potential top talents by working at producing less than 'best teaching/learning environment' in our schools? ...right?

We should be trying to provide same for all disciplines...we are failing at doing that!

[Karl]

Not even serious fun ball. A top talent have no reason playing DCup at 18 or 19 year old. Total waste of talent.

How do you find all those with that top talent if there is nowhere to observe them?

How do you know a kid has that potential to be top talent if you do not provide the environment within which that potential can be observed?

How do you ever know if the little Jennys - (the full total of 'little Jennys') - have potential to be the Math wizard if the school's academy - Math teaching/learning setting - is not 'best possible'?
===
How do you ever know if little Jennys - (the full total of 'little Jennys') - has potential to be the Football wizard(s) if the school's academy (schools' academies) - Football teaching/learning setting - is not 'best possible'?

...and what if (and I am sure it is not "if"...but "fact") this limited creation of academies determine that late developers are excluded...and because of limited space most of the

top talent that have no reason playing DCup at 18 or 19 year old.

are also excluded.

...create waste of many top talents who either could not be accommodated in the available academies or being among those who were shunted into lousy teaching/learning situations - or worse had no teaching/learning 'set' of classes or school to attend?

Just asking!

btw - How do you view Mattocks' rise? What system gave him his start? Would he have been even 'better' if his schools' academy=learning/teaching environs was the best it could.

[Jawge]

Little jenny wants to be a pro golf player ...................... fill in the rest

[Bricktop]

How do you find all those with that top talent if there is nowhere to observe them?

The same way France, Spain, Germany et al find the top talent...the youth clubs are where football is played...the academies track the players until they are 13 and then skim off the cream of the crop...schoolboy football does not factor into the equation...

[Assasin]

All it take is coach working as one. Any decent youth league in America there is an all tournament team. Coaches can't vote for their own players but they have to vote for opposing team players. The coaches work as a unit and select the players. Not like how it is done in Jamaica where a top coach is selected and he choose his own players.

The coaches have to be honest. I remember playing in college and was nominated for regional honors. My coach said half the coaches liked me but another half asked "when is he leaving" LOL. Because of my days of making strikers pay their dues. And they were right if you asked me as I really enjoyed disrupting these strikers with egos.

The fact is if you put 8 or 10 decent coach from a league in a room I doubt they would miss a lot of talent.