Kids' football vs rugby... Why so restricted????
Discussion
All three of my kids have played rugby (and I've coached them all). My youngest, who is 10, still does, but has also expressed a desire to play football, so I've just been having a look at local clubs to see where he might be able to play, and I'm somewhat flummoxed by the whole thing!
At rugby, we - and every other club I come into contact with - work on a basis of "if you put in the effort to turn up and play, you'll get a game". We frequently have 45+ kids at training on Sunday mornings, and also frequently take 3 or 4 teams off to rugby festivals at other clubs.
The local football clubs, by comparison, only seem to have one team per age group, and the only way you get in is if one of their players leave and they have a vacancy!?!?
Rugby doesn't move to a league system until the first year of secondary school. At that point, there may be fewer opportunities for so many kids to play, but to an extent that's tempered anyway by those who start playing for their schools, as it's frowned upon to have kids playing rugby for both club and school.
Football, on the other hand, looks as though it goes to competitive leagues really early, so again the opportunities for play are limited much sooner!
I started looking on the assumption that we'd figure out where the local youth football clubs were, see which ones he had most mates at, and then just take him along to play. No! From what I can see, unless some other 10yr old gets bored, moves away or breaks a leg, chances are he won't be able to get a game anywhere!
Does anyone on here coach youth football? Am I missing something here? I just can't get my head round the notion of not being completely inclusive, at least until around U15 level, and if anything, I would've expected rugby to be more selective, if only because of the risk of injury if you've got really serious mismatches in ability in a game.
At rugby, we - and every other club I come into contact with - work on a basis of "if you put in the effort to turn up and play, you'll get a game". We frequently have 45+ kids at training on Sunday mornings, and also frequently take 3 or 4 teams off to rugby festivals at other clubs.
The local football clubs, by comparison, only seem to have one team per age group, and the only way you get in is if one of their players leave and they have a vacancy!?!?
Rugby doesn't move to a league system until the first year of secondary school. At that point, there may be fewer opportunities for so many kids to play, but to an extent that's tempered anyway by those who start playing for their schools, as it's frowned upon to have kids playing rugby for both club and school.
Football, on the other hand, looks as though it goes to competitive leagues really early, so again the opportunities for play are limited much sooner!
I started looking on the assumption that we'd figure out where the local youth football clubs were, see which ones he had most mates at, and then just take him along to play. No! From what I can see, unless some other 10yr old gets bored, moves away or breaks a leg, chances are he won't be able to get a game anywhere!
Does anyone on here coach youth football? Am I missing something here? I just can't get my head round the notion of not being completely inclusive, at least until around U15 level, and if anything, I would've expected rugby to be more selective, if only because of the risk of injury if you've got really serious mismatches in ability in a game.
From my own experience, there tends to only be one rugby club within spitting distance, but several football clubs. In our small town for example, there's one rugby club, and off the top of my head, five football teams. So the 40 kids who potentially go to rugby are divided between more teams. Bigger clubs will have more than one team at an age group, but this is dependent on mugs like me stepping up to look after a team. We appear to be thin on the ground.
With regards to the competitive structure in football, my lads didn't play/aren't playing in a published league structure until they got to 9 a side at U11s. The FA recommend giving everybody equal game time, to develop as many young players as possible. In reality, some coaches behave like mini Mourinhos, trying to win every game at the expense of developing their fringe players.
By the time you get to 9 a side, the club will want all the players they can get, as some drop out, move to other teams to play with friends and the extra players will be needed.
It surprises me that no one wants to take your lad on, as I'd snap up a kid who'd played rugby. They seem to have a better understanding of team games than some footballers, who just seem to want to create their own highlights reel. I'm biased, as I played more rugby as a youth, but this is borne out by a lad who joined our team this summer.
With regards to the competitive structure in football, my lads didn't play/aren't playing in a published league structure until they got to 9 a side at U11s. The FA recommend giving everybody equal game time, to develop as many young players as possible. In reality, some coaches behave like mini Mourinhos, trying to win every game at the expense of developing their fringe players.
By the time you get to 9 a side, the club will want all the players they can get, as some drop out, move to other teams to play with friends and the extra players will be needed.
It surprises me that no one wants to take your lad on, as I'd snap up a kid who'd played rugby. They seem to have a better understanding of team games than some footballers, who just seem to want to create their own highlights reel. I'm biased, as I played more rugby as a youth, but this is borne out by a lad who joined our team this summer.
vladcjelli said:
From my own experience, there tends to only be one rugby club within spitting distance, but several football clubs. In our small town for example, there's one rugby club, and off the top of my head, five football teams. So the 40 kids who potentially go to rugby are divided between more teams. Bigger clubs will have more than one team at an age group, but this is dependent on mugs like me stepping up to look after a team. We appear to be thin on the ground.
With regards to the competitive structure in football, my lads didn't play/aren't playing in a published league structure until they got to 9 a side at U11s. The FA recommend giving everybody equal game time, to develop as many young players as possible. In reality, some coaches behave like mini Mourinhos, trying to win every game at the expense of developing their fringe players.
By the time you get to 9 a side, the club will want all the players they can get, as some drop out, move to other teams to play with friends and the extra players will be needed.
It surprises me that no one wants to take your lad on, as I'd snap up a kid who'd played rugby. They seem to have a better understanding of team games than some footballers, who just seem to want to create their own highlights reel. I'm biased, as I played more rugby as a youth, but this is borne out by a lad who joined our team this summer.
Thanks! On the final point, we've not got as far as finding that out, to be honest. My wife tried emailing a couple who just said "sorry, we're full at the moment, but we'll get back to you if that changes".With regards to the competitive structure in football, my lads didn't play/aren't playing in a published league structure until they got to 9 a side at U11s. The FA recommend giving everybody equal game time, to develop as many young players as possible. In reality, some coaches behave like mini Mourinhos, trying to win every game at the expense of developing their fringe players.
By the time you get to 9 a side, the club will want all the players they can get, as some drop out, move to other teams to play with friends and the extra players will be needed.
It surprises me that no one wants to take your lad on, as I'd snap up a kid who'd played rugby. They seem to have a better understanding of team games than some footballers, who just seem to want to create their own highlights reel. I'm biased, as I played more rugby as a youth, but this is borne out by a lad who joined our team this summer.
As for helping out, rugby is enough for me, I'm damned if I'm getting dragged in to football as well!
Also surprised that you can't find a team - certainly my experience is that, apart from a few that fancy themselves a bit serious, grass-roots teams are always on the lookout for new players.
May be worth getting in touch the local youth league as they will at least have contacts for all the clubs. A post on a local Facebook group is also likely to flush out any number of teams that want more players.
May be worth getting in touch the local youth league as they will at least have contacts for all the clubs. A post on a local Facebook group is also likely to flush out any number of teams that want more players.
I think you just haven't found the right club yet. I am a little surprised they haven't told you to take him training to see how it goes, but on the other hand they are showing loyalty to the boys/girls they have now and it's hard to criticise that.
Lots of teams round here have three/four or even five teams at some ages. the numbers tend to drop as they get older.
Locally to me junior football broadly works like this.
Up to u9 (I think) all game are 'friendlies' arranged by managers with no real structuring
u10 and u11 has a sort of structure to play teams of similar ability against each other, but no full league and no published results.
No competitive leagues with recorded results until u12
Summer tournaments have no competitive elements until u11, but players don't need to be registered for a club so it's a good way of letting newer players have a try out
Note, the FA are gradually moving the thresholds of team sizes and competitive matches up the age groups so some of this may change, my older son played 11 a side in a league at u11, younger one had to wait until u12 for example.
Lots of teams round here have three/four or even five teams at some ages. the numbers tend to drop as they get older.
Locally to me junior football broadly works like this.
Up to u9 (I think) all game are 'friendlies' arranged by managers with no real structuring
u10 and u11 has a sort of structure to play teams of similar ability against each other, but no full league and no published results.
No competitive leagues with recorded results until u12
Summer tournaments have no competitive elements until u11, but players don't need to be registered for a club so it's a good way of letting newer players have a try out
Note, the FA are gradually moving the thresholds of team sizes and competitive matches up the age groups so some of this may change, my older son played 11 a side in a league at u11, younger one had to wait until u12 for example.
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