Where does it all go wrong?

[Beaujolais 1,371]

Sadly I think it is our culture in Scotland that badly lets us down.

Investment in a facility like Auchenhowie is not enough, attitudes need to change, with the example coming from the top. I am not really interested in the Scottish overall situation, but I am really keen to Rangers set up a world class Youth development facility.

I do think that if we are going to develop a World Class home grown Rangers Team then we need to focus on every aspect of preparation:

Starting with diet and lifestyle.... Maximising personal fitness and efficiency should be a no brainer. We should be able to produce teams that even if not the most technically gifted should be the fittest. Nando's has no place in such a culture.

Currently I sometimes wonder if for some an Ibuprofen pill represents a warm up and an bottle of lucozade sports is an acceptable substitute for a training session..

If we can not get the simple athletic preparation aspect of player development correct, what hope is there for achieving technical excellence.

[WATP-FOREVER 5,231]

Training, coaching and facilities have a huge impact.

When I first moved down to Leeds one of the first things I noticed were the grass pitches everywhere, no red ash shite. We have no facilities unless you sign for a big team as a school boy.

Our coaching in Scotland has always been shite. Big lads at the back wee guys on the wing or up front.

Culture and lifestyle play a part in every country not just ours.

Maybe, but sometimes the guys that have made it receive far less respect than those local celebrities that almost made it, but ruined their potential on booze &/or wumin.

[Bradfield 35]

Just looking at the 2006 European U-19 Championship squads, only around 25% of the players have gone on to play at full international level. Seems to be a recurring theme across all squads at all youth tournaments. Perhaps Scotland suffers more because we have a smaller population?

[Redwhiteandblue 3,330]

Was this game against city not the final?

[Redwhiteandblue 3,330]

Was this game against city not the final?

[MDYT 47]

Weather then religion followed by fry ups drugs and booze all in reverse order

[Turnberry18 3,204]

It could possibly be fitness/diet/lifestyle, and the emphasis that other nations seem to put on actually playing the ball. The emphasis on strength makes sense in the way we play football here, but if more emphasis was paid to what a player can actually do with the ball, in a team set-up, then that may well diminish.

[dummiesoot 16,006]

Lack of afternoon practise on technique. That is what largs fucking academy should focus on. Full days work and practise.

[CalvinC 1,414]

They spend 90 per cent of their wages on cars and women, the rest on Nandos.

[CalvinC 1,414]

In fact naw other way about.

[Non_Sucumbi 876]

Too many youngsters with ability sadly lack the commitment that it takes to be a professional athlete. Unfortunately they are coached on how to improve at their particular sport but not on either 'lifestyle' nor 'attitude'.

Anyone who thinks being a professional footballer requires less that 100% commitment should read Ian Wright's autobiography. Written years before he went near the bheasts, before I get pelters.

[Alnic3856 358]

Booze/nandos is a culture issue, I've got parents who drop kids off go to pub and come back for their kids, or they keep them away so they can get bevvied, how is that a coaching issue? This is what the kids see every week, every day in some cases, so how can grass roots coach that out?

If it suited our type of player and we've been coaching these methods since 94ish, why is it that our players still can't do it? Surely we should be on to our 7th or 8th generation of talent who can play football?

How do you teach a kid to pass a ball when they don't want to pass?

How do you teach a kid how to pass when they don't know how to pass? (despite having been coached for over a year)

You put the emphasis on grassroots, grassroots isn't paid, it's voluntary, you get the kids 1 maybe 2 hours a week, you need the parents to input to the development of the kids at that level. I give my kids homework practices, very few do them, the parents don't want to get the kids to do it or ensure the kids do it, for want of a better way to put it.

I don't know if you are a parent or not, but if you are and your kid is at football training, do you put 30 mins to an hour in with your kid every night?

Excuse me for assuming that the answer is no, then how do you expect coaches to coach it out of them? (only trying to make a point here about parents needing to help, not just in practice drills but culturally etc etc, sorry if it seems like I was being personal with you, only used as an example to prove a point)

When I lived in germany, my mates boy used to play for a local side, sometimes if he was working away etc I would take the wee man to his games, the setup amazed me, and the parental involvement was second to none, every kid, every match got game time, regardless of how shite they were, the emphasis very much on doing the right things rather than doing them perfectly all the teams from 6 years right through to 16 years were coached the same so progression was natural, as they got older the emphasis shifted onto results/winning/performance etc, but the coaches were paid this is the difference, it was a profession the club was a hub of the community, dont get me wrong there was beer involved there was a bar in the training complex such is the german way, but the whole thing was community based, massive tournaments were held, regionally, bbq's beer and football, people wanted to be involved it really was a different culture, the training was not used as somehwere to drop the kids off for a couple hours, folk actually wanted to be there and be involved, absolutely nothing like i remember when training with my local side 25-30 years ago getting subbed for having a bad game when you were 7 years old, this kind of shite does not happen over there, performances/winning are secondary at younger ages and as I said everyone gets gametime.

[Carsons Dog 9,878]

Sadly I think it is our culture in Scotland that badly lets us down.

Investment in a facility like Auchenhowie is not enough, attitudes need to change, with the example coming from the top. I am not really interested in the Scottish overall situation, but I am really keen to Rangers set up a world class Youth development facility.

I do think that if we are going to develop a World Class home grown Rangers Team then we need to focus on every aspect of preparation:

Starting with diet and lifestyle.... Maximising personal fitness and efficiency should be a no brainer. We should be able to produce teams that even if not the most technically gifted should be the fittest. Nando's has no place in such a culture.

Currently I sometimes wonder if for some an Ibuprofen pill represents a warm up and an bottle of lucozade sports is an acceptable substitute for a training session..

If we can not get the simple athletic preparation aspect of player development correct, what hope is there for achieving technical excellence.

Maybe we should get Paul Le Guen in as manager

[SectionRedHMS 190]

Prefer to read than take part in the forum, however this comment I partially agree with.

You're right no one does know how to coach kids, but it's got sod all to do with beer, diets, grass roots.

The problem, as I and many grass root coaches see it, we're trying to coach kids the european way, that does not suit our style of player.

I've been coaching kids for over 25 years, we started this euro coaching around 94/95, we should have produced better quality players by now

if we are to believe the coaching mantra of those who knew better. Prior to the introduction of this style of coaching the national teams were doing not too badly

for qualification of tournaments. So despite what the SFA try to tell us, or the media for that matter, we have been using the euro methods in this country for years, without success, we need to ask why?

League reconstruction, sticking plasters . . .none of it works.

What does?

For the euro methods to be a success they need to be taught from 4/5 years of age

secondly, skills/drills need to be done over and over, the very basics pass and control (this is the biggest challenge, kids don't want to put the work in, they just want to be like their hero off the TV)

Pro-Youth . . . wastes the kids, a vast majority turn in to billy big baws, I've got 6 year old kids training with a senior team, those kids now do not want to put the effort in, scrap pro-youth (in my opinion) or don't let kids train at senior clubs till 12 years old

These are just my observations of a few areas where we have went wrong in the past 20 odd years

Excellent post and agree almost with everything.

Except the effort put in by the kids.

My own sons team,which is a 2004 age group,has a number of boys training with clubs,and my own boy is up at Murray Park academy with the 2005's.I can tell you the commitment and effort shown by these wee lads is astonishing.Albeit there are some "superstars",but the grafters who practise everyday really do stand out.

I genuinely believe in ten years we will see a real special bunch of kids coming through all over Scotland.

The pro youth thing I agree with you 100%.

Our culture must also change as well.

[God save charles green 73]

When I lived in germany, my mates boy used to play for a local side, sometimes if he was working away etc I would take the wee man to his games, the setup amazed me, and the parental involvement was second to none, every kid, every match got game time, regardless of how shite they were, the emphasis very much on doing the right things rather than doing them perfectly all the teams from 6 years right through to 16 years were coached the same so progression was natural, as they got older the emphasis shifted onto results/winning/performance etc, but the coaches were paid this is the difference, it was a profession the club was a hub of the community, dont get me wrong there was beer involved there was a bar in the training complex such is the german way, but the whole thing was community based, massive tournaments were held, regionally, bbq's beer and football, people wanted to be involved it really was a different culture, the training was not used as somehwere to drop the kids off for a couple hours, folk actually wanted to be there and be involved, absolutely nothing like i remember when training with my local side 25-30 years ago getting subbed for having a bad game when you were 7 years old, this kind of shite does not happen over there, performances/winning are secondary at younger ages and as I said everyone gets gametime.

The training was not used as somewhere to drop the kids off for a couple of hours.

Spot on as this is exactly what happens.I also coach a young team and we train 4 hours a week and play on a Sunday.Everyone gets a game from a squad of 16 regardless of the result and the full training sessions are done with the ball.Passing moving and control being the main focus.This season was our first and we finished mid table and reached a cup final.By the end of the season we were beating teams above us.I remember when games as kids were sometimes 20 aside and you had to be able to control the ball if you wanted to be involved in the game.There were no fancy facilities then but we produced very good players.It is extremely difficult now as the kids are often only playing the game at training or in match situations and the lack of practice is the main problem that i see.

[AlCapone 7,678]

the booze culture along with our diet catches up on us, we also have a lack of blacks