X-Factor Coach 2

"Watzke Announces DFB Bombshell" is the headline of an article in which SPORT1 reports that Hans-Joachim Watzke, the DFB vice-president and Borussia Dortmund managing director, is setting in motion a reform of the reform in children's football (U6 to U11)!

Excuse me, but the 64-year-old DFB vice-president is a successful businessman and one of the most influential — if not the most influential — football official in Germany, and certainly very knowledgeable in commercial matters, but calling for a reform of the reform now, I consider fatal and a damning indictment of an official of his rank!

But how does my headline, X-Factor Coach 2, connect to the DFB's reform of the reform of children's football?

Actually, it's obvious, and it also becomes clear in the restructuring of the A- and B-Junior Bundesliga: the most urgent task in youth football must be to develop players, not to win championships at any cost! And we can only develop players if we have players! And this is exactly where we need to start, in children's football.

As I've already mentioned in some of my posts, football can't be exempted from the changes in society. Kids today have a far broader range of options for pursuing athletic or other leisure activities than was the case 30 years ago. Not least because of an overwhelming media presence, our children's everyday lives have changed significantly.

Here, the planned reform — which Hannes Wolf, the DFB's director for youth, training, and development, now finally wanted to implement — promised to set an impulse that would also have been easy to scale, and that would have given children more enjoyment of the game through more ball contacts. The model was also tested over two years, and had already been introduced back in 2012 through the FUNiño concept developed by Horst Wein.

Many experts worked on it for years — far too long, if you look at it from a talent-development perspective — and now the reform is supposed to be reformed? Mr. Watzke has held office as DFB vice-president since December 2021. How has he contributed to the urgent reforms in youth development since then? Why is he calling for a U-turn now? Why so publicly, and so populist?

I'm digressing! The point is to win children over to football and to give them enjoyment of the round leather ball. And this is also where the bridge to our coaches is built! X-Factor Coach 2 wants to convey nothing other than the fact that one of our noblest tasks as coaches is to give young players enjoyment of playing football.

In children's football, we achieve that with different means than at a more advanced age. In a U13 or U15 team, where puberty becomes a defining element, a coach needs a great deal of sensitivity to keep support and demand in a healthy balance.

At this point, I'd like to point to a bad habit in today's youth football: player transfers forced by officials and coaches, unreflective and imitative of professional football! What does that have to do with enjoyment and a balance of support and demand?

Let's put ourselves in the position of a talented player who played on various junior teams at his home club and developed well. Perhaps he was even called up to a DFB regional base. His physical development proceeds unremarkably, and he shows good performances on his team, but he also makes mistakes! These are loudly criticized by his coach, whereupon the player reacts with insecurity and his performance tends to stagnate.

The following year, the club makes a transfer and brings in a young player for his position who is already physically more developed than his teammates of the same age. No conversations take place with the club's own talent, and suddenly our player is second choice! Maybe the team wins the championship with the new signing, but the club loses the talent from its own ranks — and perhaps football in general loses him too!

I'd like to leave it to you to judge this example. One or another of you will certainly say that the club's own talent should have understood the situation as a challenge and taken up the fight for the position. I, on the other hand, believe that acting with considerably more sensitivity is warranted. Conversations that didn't take place in my example would have led to a different outcome. One starting point would have been a dialogue between coach and player at the moment of the insecurity, but there would still have been an opportunity to salvage the situation later, if the club's own talent had been informed about the new signing and the further course of action. Perhaps an outsider could also have built a bridge.

Support and demand — not nearly as simple as it looks at first glance! And every player needs his own individual dose!

Coaches in amateur football are often a one-man show. With luck, there's an assistant coach. They're not only kept busy by training sessions and their preparation, but in many cases are also responsible for arranging transport to away games, making sure the jerseys are washed and brought to matchday, that changing rooms are left tidy, that electronic match report sheets are maintained, and much more. A task that takes up a great deal of time!

And yet, they must never lose sight of communication! And I'm talking here about additional one-on-one conversations, to address the individual "player" specifically. That time is well invested and serves our primary function as a youth coach: making players better!

Support and demand, taking on challenges, shaping the competition for positions in a sporting way — all of this must be accompanied by communication, otherwise the energy flows into the wrong channels and leads to fatal misunderstandings!

I look forward to addressing another topic in talent development with you next week under my column "So schaut's aus." Until then! Stay healthy, and always a good ball!