We've seen it all a hundred times before, England go a goal down to unfancied opposition, run out of ideas and the ball is shuffled back to Sol Campbell who booms a hopeful ball forward in the direction of the Hateley, Heskey or Crouch of their generation. The next day the papers are in full crucifixion mode, haranguing the FA, players and manager. Whatever sport it is: football, tennis, athletics, when British or English competitors fail the same excuses are trotted out: no facilities, no funding, poor coaching, bad weather, no government support, and so on. Which is not to say any of it is untrue, but do nations like Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Russia, Argentina, Spain and Belgium really have such vast natural and financial resources at their disposal for youth tennis? No, yet they have produced top class players. And what about football? Once again, no. England has a huge talent pool, great interest in the game and vast amounts of money to plough into football, but somehow some of the poorest nations on the planet can churn out quality player after quality player while the youth coaching systems of the world’s richest footballing nation sometimes struggle to get even a single player into the first team of clubs such as North London giants Arsenal and South London moneybags Chelsea.
For a variety of reasons, as a nation we are moving away from an active physical culture and becoming increasingly sedentary. Whether it is down to the lack of civil amenities such as playing fields at schools and public parks, fear of paedophiles stopping parents allowing their children to play outside, TV, DVDs and video games keeping kids glued to their screens, or the omnipresent signs forbidding ball games, children as well as adults play less sport and do less exercise than they did a generation ago. The government too has played a role, consistently cutting physical education and games lessons to accommodate the ever growing demands of the National Curriculum. Even when children do get a chance to play football at school, there is no coaching and their teachers have no qualifications to coach. The end result? An increasingly fat, unfit nation who still somehow manage to lag behind their European counterparts educationally.
If a child or parent is to get involved in the sport more barriers stand in their way. Many children have their love of the game destroyed in their first involvement with youth football. The constant parental interference in matches, not to mention the aggression as angry fathers brawl on the sidelines puts many off. Playing eleven a side matches on full size pitches teaches a young child little about the game, and benefits only larger children who have the ability to lump the ball long distances. It becomes a game of kick and run and the vast amounts of space do little to improve a child's ball control or passing skills.
Tags: hundred times, plough, financial resources, bad weather, ball games, government support, north london, talent pool, booms, poor weather, games children