Trevor Brooking: Concentrate on grassroots

Thanks for posting this article - I like his vision and totally agree that is the way forward. However, I do believe we are all missing one more significant factor. Let me explain with an example.

 

I have watched our current under 11 A team develop now for more than 3 years. The coaching has always emphasised 'quality' football and positive attitude ('quality being passing and ball control). Mark Demkiv with Ian Forrester and Gary SIbley started the coaching of this age group but Mark and Ian moved down one year a couple of seasons ago with their younger boys. Gary Sibley, Dave Clayton, Ryan Harris and myself are continuing the coaching in the same manner as best we can. We are not ignoring the fitness aspect of the game in fact we work hard at this too, but we have never forgotten the 'quality' aspect. Our A team is one of the stronger teams in Mid Wilts at this age and indeed in Wiltshire. When they are playing well it is a joy to watch. They usually do play well. Recently I went to watch them in a cup match away to Biddestone. Biddestone were in the same division as our B team. Under normal circumstances I really believe we would have played Biddestone off the pitch. However, on this day the weather was appalling. In the first half we played into the driving wind and freezing rain, it was little better in the second half. The pitch, one of the better ones in Wilts was a quagmire. We won 2.0 that day. But it was not about skill, it was about shear force of will and determination. It was about hoofing the ball out the penalty areas, no other form of football would have worked that day. Gary didn't instruct them to play that way, nature did. My point is that in England kids and coaches alike adapt according to the conditions they are forced to play in. For half the season that consists of wind, rain, snow and frost. Pitches that are either bogs or ice rinks. It's much easier to learn to play 'quality' football in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Brazil than it is in this Atlantic Island Britain. I wonder how the these countries would fair if we played the world cup finals in January in Sweden or Scotland. The fact is Spanish kids and the like have significantly more quality time outside than our kids do. If all other factors were equal...and ignoring x boxes etc, equal facilities, training, finance etc then at the same age a Spanish kid will have always had twice as much quality time on a football pitch (based on favourable weather conditions) than an English kid. I wonder if Sir Trevor gets pitchside in mid winter that often. Maybe they have a different climate in London?