A Youth Soccer Magazine

MAHER'S MESSAGE
"Soccer Youth Development in Australia"

By Alan Maher

I read the New York Times every day that I am in the country. Some days are good and some not so good. But the Times does not make the news; things happen. Recently there was an article about writing. My kind of thing. I read it carefully. The famous author gave ten rules. (Did you ever notice how things are listed as ten or a dozen? Where are the seven rules? Are there seven rules for anything? Anywhere in the world? Be it metric or English measure?)

One rule was to never use a prologue. So I will begin with a prologue. But a short one.

In education we know that learning takes place in three domains. They are:

Cognitive
Psychomotor
Affective

All deal with all aspects of learning. A child in the classroom learns by all three; a player on the soccer field learns by all three. Let me explain.

The child in the classroom can write a story. Whatever the story is about the child writes about his or her knowledge of the world around. Cognitive domain.

Writing with a pen or pencil is part of the psychomotor domain. So is playing the violin or playing soccer or for that matter riding the bicycle. Or driving a car.

The last domain is the affective. Attitude. How does one teach it? How does one measure it? Of the three it is the most difficult to deal with. After thirty-four years in public education I must tell you that this is the most difficult domain to deal with. The other word for this is-"mentality." Not my favorite word. But is "attitude" any better?

Review: All learners participate in all three domains. Whatever they do. Write a note, play the violin or play soccer.

End of the prologue. Did you read it? If not, skip the rest.

At the NSCAA annual convention I attended a session presented by Kelly Cross of the New South Wales institute of Sport. He was kind enough to send me a copy of his presentation. The delay in reporting was caused by my poor relationship with my computer and the net.

Australia is a country of about 19 million people with 571,000 people participating in soccer. Of that number 324,000 are registered players. Relatively speaking, this is a small population. They have had some high water marks, as I will explain.

They won the silver for the play of the u-17 team in 1999.
In all time FIFA rankings for u-17 they are seventh in the world.

The outline of the training program for selected players reveals the footprints of Wiel Coerver all over the program. They use licensed Coerver coaches and are visited by the international director, Alfred Galustian.

The program is well organized and has clear goals for all to see. Some highlights include:

Physiological testing
Selection of staff
Competition
National Youth League
Progression through the program
The off season programs (no 11v11 games!)
Strength program (off season)
Video analysis

One player who was highlighted in the presentation was Brett Emerton. He plays for Feyenoord in Rotterdam, Holland. I am a friend of the general manager of Feyenoord, and I wrote to him and asked about Brett and the players from Australia. Here is his reply:

Hello Alan,
Brett is an example of an well-educated and developed youth player from the Australia Soccer Academy. There are many, many players from Australia abroad and all are doing well because of their mentality.
All the best,
Rob

I want you to notice the word, "mentality" the affective domain. I find it difficult to teach in the affective domain; I find it easy to try to be a role model for the affective domain. I can show by example. I can demand only by model and leadership. I cannot yell into a development of the affective domain. I cannot stand and not give example of what is expected. I must be the leader of all three domains. I must know; I must demonstrate and I must show enthusiasm for the program. I must give the players a positive attitude about the program. Or there is no program. Three domains. Three or none.

I care not to make further comment…
Alan Maher

FUNdamental reader, do you care to make any comments on this article?
Send them to use for future publication…!

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