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Wins, losses not always the key to Development
In soccer-mad England, ask who the
longest-serving one club coach is in the top two professional league
divisions, and chances are the name of Dario Gradi will not be among the
answers.
Sir Alex Ferguson, head man of all conquering
Manchester United will be there, as will other well known names such as Gordon
Strachan (Coventry City), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal), and Bryan Robson (Middelesbrough).
But Gradi, in charge at Crewe Alexandra since June 1983, has been doing his
thing -- and doing it very well -- over three years longer than Sir Alex, the
next longest servant, has been at Old Trafford.
Ferguson has taken Manchester United to the top of
the world club soccer tree during his thirteen plus years with the Red Devils,
but Gradi's success must be measured in different terms. His almost seventeen
years as head coach at Crewe, at best a lower Division One club, have been
based not so much on winning trophies as on developing young talent.
Over the years, a whole host of top players have emerged
from the Crewe Alexandra Academy including former England captain David Platt
and many current superstars such as Neil Lennon (Leicester City), Danny Murphy
(Liverpool), and Seth Johnson (Derby County).
You see, as well as being head coach of Crewe's pro.
team, Dario Gradi also oversees the entire coaching set-up at the club,
including ALL the youth teams. In working with the U12 and U14 teams on
weekday evenings, Gradi has identified what he believes to be the key to
coaching young players: "It's proper football (soccer) at that level; you
are not worried about winning games, just in developing skills. You can coach
them to play as opposed to coaching them to win and that's refreshing."
(The Sunday Independent, March 12 "The Midas touch keeps Crewe on gravy
train").
I mention Gradi and his different approaches to the
game at different levels, as a follow up to my last column ("Tryout
restrictions might not be the best idea," March 6), from which several
people have concluded that I'm an advocate of tryouts at all ages of club
soccer. I'm not.
But I do not think that imposing tryout restrictions
i.e. stipulating that a selection process cannot be used to form teams is an
answer, in and of itself, to the problems youth soccer coaches face in working
with young players.
There comes a time, like it or not, when winning
becomes important. Unfortunately, because of the environment coaches and
parents, have created for young players (league games and tournaments etc.),
winning becomes too important too early - whether these teams have been formed
by tryouts or not. And, it comes too often at the expense of the development
of the individual player's game.
The simplest, most convenient and most tangible gauge
of a team (and by implication its players), is its won-lost record. But are
game results a sound measure of player development? There are aspects of
individual achievement and development -- acquiring skills and an
understanding of the game -- that are not necessarily reflected in a team's
won-lost tally. And nurturing those things should be the focus for coaches and
parents, if we truly want to give young players a proper, well-rounded soccer
education.
Fewer must-win games and more play-to-learn
opportunities, and I believe players would not only develop along sounder
lines, but that their support groups might find themselves smiling a whole lot
more as well.
From the Iowa City Press Citizen, March 20, 2000
Submitted By: Ian Parratt
- Coaching Director, Iowa City Alliance Soccer Club
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