Have you asked the kids?

Those who have attended the FA Youth Module 1 - Developing the Environment - will know that one of the key messages the course delivers is around player led development. In fact 'ownership' became a bit of a buzzword out of it. As an eighteen year old when I was on the course it certainly opened my eyes when thinking about this angle of approach and it helped broaden my sessions for sure. However, I think I became a bit lazy with it and left it to 'here are the cones, you set the size area'.

I asked subs at u7s game to evaluate team
 performance per quarter!

Not that there is anything necessarily anything wrong with this. It's great for kids to feel responsibility and you get to see an insight into what they feel is realistic and appropriate for THEIR needs. For myself anyway, I think it became a bit of a cop out.

This blog takes inspiration from a recent guest article I saw by Stuart Armstrong on rivers of thinking (definitely advise you to read it!).  What I really liked was how Stuart talked about setting time aside for self-directed learning. This is something I am definitely going to be experimenting with. It would be very interesting to see what the under sevens (my current side) come up with! They are a fairly confident, outgoing bunch so I am sure that they will have plenty of ideas in their heads. Further more, I think it would further create an environment in which the players know they are coming to learn in. 

A scenario I found myself in just this week further emphasised the good ideas that children can come up with. At a PE session I do every Wednesday we start our session with a fun arrival activity. It's usually some form of tag game. This week I hadn't necessarily had anything planned so instead of trying to make it up on the spot I thought I would ask the kids. Nearly every single one of them wanted to share a game they like to play!

The game we eventually did go with was 'Grandma's footsteps'. They had a great time, doing something they had chosen to do, whilst also getting great outcomes for agility, balance, co-ordination and speed. We were able to start the session in a positive atmosphere!

What this reinforced to me was that actually, children think in different and interesting ways. If we ignore what is going on inside their heads we could be missing out on some valuable opportunities for their development. 

I am very keen to develop players who can think on their feet. I refrain from commentating during games as I worry that I will stop them from becoming effective decision makers. Self-directed learning could be a really useful tool to add to that. 

For the FA youth award, I am putting together player profiles of the under sevens I am coaching to give a context behind the ten sessions in my logbook. It's important for me for the players to be a part of this. This way, they can understand their own strengths and limitations and plan their development. Another idea I thought might be for each player to take turns each week in organising the arrival activity geared towards the topic. 

If you have ideas around empowering players to give them more of a say in their development - share them by commenting below!