Is this what the pitches on which the talents of the future are developing look like?
The summer break in football is the ideal time to take a look at talent development in German football. The picture in this first post is meant to make you curious about how we're opening this chapter!
A brief foreword
After many stations in football – as a player, coach, official, father, uncle, and last but not least as a passionate fan of this sport – I'd like to dedicate myself intensively to the topic of talent development and support in German football. Why do I believe I can draw additional aspects from this topic, and that I even need to voice them?
None of us can fully judge the former, but plenty has certainly already been said and written about many things. Perhaps, though, I'll also touch on topics the esteemed reader hasn't yet noticed, or not quite in this way. Perhaps there are also many people who have gone through similar stations in their lives as I have, but my motives for writing about talent development and support in German football are likely quite different from those of many other authors. And that's why I write!
Not as an active player in the football business, but solely to give impulses to the wider environment – the associations, clubs, teams, referees, family members, reporters, and above all the coaches, but of course also the talents themselves. If these impulses provide support to even a single person on their own path, then the following words and lines are worth having been written.
In doing so, I'm aware of how complex and individual each player's career path is. To capture as many perspectives as possible, I therefore also try to bring in statements from interviews and conversations with a wide variety of people involved.
The pitches and the environment
As already announced, the picture gives a clue to my first opinion, which I'd like to voice on this platform: our infrastructure / our pitches and the surrounding conditions:
“Do talents mature better on barren ground than in a climate-controlled greenhouse?” Or put differently: “Do the pitches on which the talents of the future are developing look like the one in my first post's picture?”
When I proudly laced up my first pair of football boots back in 1974 – a black pair with the yellow logo of the brand LICO – times were still different. On my grandfather's former horse paddock, a roller was used to flatten out the bumps, and a small pitch was simply created. On matchdays, lines were sprinkled with sawdust. They weren't exactly drawn with a ruler, but they served their purpose all the same. The goals were bolted together by the adults out of square timber beams and sunk into the ground. Nets were only stretched over the homemade frames when an official match was taking place. The goals weren't taken down again after association matches – the construction simply wasn't designed for that, and on other pitches, too, the frames always stood ready. Our pitch, where we met every day, was right in the middle of the village, directly next to a stream. If one of us kicked the ball too hard, or cleared it too dynamically in a defensive action, the not-always-quite-round leather would land in the water, and the youngest had the “privilege” of fishing the ball back out. Then play could continue. Incidentally, it was a big exception that I was even allowed to take part in the “big kids’” matches, because originally I wasn't considered when the teams were picked. The others were already six or seven years old, or maybe even a bit older. But one afternoon our house fairy, Mrs. M., came out to the pitch with us and explained that the land belonged to my grandfather, and if I wasn't allowed to play, then no one would play. That was the starting signal for many hours spent chasing the round leather. Of course, you were picked last at first, but after a few matches you had already established yourself somewhat, and sure enough, that was reflected in where you ranked when picking teams. Immediate feedback for your performance.
When I then look at my younger son's first steps – today he's 13 years old – the picture looked somewhat different. The club in the town where we lived organised a taster training session for his age group when he was barely five years old. Those who enjoyed kicking a ball then started meeting once a week from then on for an organised 90-minute ball game, and an under-7s (“G-Junioren”) team was gradually formed, whose matches were organised under the umbrella of the Bavarian Football Association. In the first few years, there was no league table and no competition spanning multiple seasons yet. The referee was replaced by a “fair play officer,” who let the children play as freely as possible and only intervened from the sideline when necessary. On the initiative of two committed former footballers, the team now trained twice a week. Meeting up outside training hours: none to speak of.
The everyday life of many – almost all – children today is organised in such a way that unplanned meet-ups on the pitch are no longer possible. As long as parents don't organise their children's leisure time so that the little ones actually meet up on the pitches, it simply doesn't happen. Self-organisation by the children: none to speak of! There's simply no one on the pitches. Managing the younger generation's time now requires its own calendar, kept by an adult. Tennis, judo and music lessons all have to be coordinated and scheduled around each other. If my son and his friend wanted to meet up in the afternoon, that already had to be planned several days in advance and communicated with his friend's parents.
And what do our pitches look like outside official fixtures? The goal frames are fitted with chains and locks so they can't simply be used, and many groundskeepers forbid play on their “sacred” turf. The topic of responsibility, too, is interpreted differently by society today than it was in my childhood. We were told by our parents to be careful. Today, people go looking for someone responsible whenever damage occurs, in order to hold them accountable.
Please don't get me wrong – I don't want to criticise anyone, just point out the circumstances. But ultimately, one may – and should – ask the question: under what circumstances are our children developing, and are these circumstances conducive to their development?
Organised, varied development sessions in a hygienic environment on many afternoons, versus daily self-organisation and gaining one's own experience through free play among each other!