Hi Pete, the podcast series has been great and really brilliant way to have these discussions and the length of each episode has been good.  As one of your disciples for several years, most of my sessions are free play with minimal group interruptions preferring talking to individuals - alot of my players get other very formal training in the week.  An hour practise is arrive into a SSG which gives overloads due to arrival times, then break into a practise based on a topic that we're working on (try always to be opposed but give opportunity to defend and attack and involve all players with no queues or waiting), then finish with a match which will have conditions related too the earlier practise (eg double goal if we can win the ball back in the opponents half or can only pass forward).

The point i wanted to make you aware, as both a coach and chairman i have witnessed for a long time and more importantly since the return of football since lockdown.  I coach Under 10's but have seen and heard this at every age group.  Our league has introduced half of the fixtures in a league season at U9 &U10 as competitive.  In discussions with you previously, i know if all coaches have their players welfare at heart this isn't a problem but unfortunately that is not what i see in practise and coaches (and probably parents) are much more focused on winning a trophy than developing players.  This means you see players getting very little game time, or not being selected for fixtures at all or even strong players being dual registered and playing Saturday and Sunday instead of weaker players that play and train each week. 

We have returned to competitive football after missing nearly a whole season of football and these practises are rife - all because our league have continued the "competitive fixtures" rather than the development football.  When i challenged our league about the amount of competitive football at these young ages, they just referred to following FA guidance.  So i know the FA shouldn't need to intervene because you would like to think coaches would be sensible but that is not the reality and i believe this needs FA intervention to stop kids falling out of love with a game at early ages because their coach wants to chase a trophy rather than the development of players.

Daniel, another great point well made and one that we have been wrestling with for decades now with little or no success. I am not against winning, in fact we want players going into each game wanting to play well and win when possible and I would hope that this would happen whatever the game (development or competitive). I firmly believe that the atmosphere, intensity and environment that the game is played in is set by the coaches and the other adults present and unfortunately if this is a win at all costs approach then you will continue to see all the things that you mention (some players not playing and spending much of the game on the side), doing everything to just win over the development of more skilful players. Having different periods of the season for development and competition was an attempt to moderate this but as I say, if the adults involved see things differently and value and encourage other things it will never change regardless of what the period of the season is called. We have to hope that through education and clear and consistent messages we can eventually improve things but even if we had development only games until U14 as in some countries, if the adults involved displayed other behaviours then even this would not work and the poor practice would continue.

As adults we have to show how to win, lose or draw with dignity, respect and sportsmanship so that we provide great role models for the players. Behaving in this way does not mean we don't want to win or we are not competitive. It means we recognise that there are bigger and more important lessons to be learned from playing football matches and we must never forget this.

Let's keep providing great role models as it will be more beneficial in the long run Cheers. Pete

Thanks for the reply Pete and i completely agree, like everything we want to change in society education is key but i believe all things we don't like about grassroots football are linked to an unhealthy desire to win at all costs.  Abuse of referee's, abuse of players/coaches, lack of game time and opportunities, lack of focus on creating the correct environment and coaching for results over development, all disappear when all the stakeholders accept that the foundation phase in particular, should be a learning environment where development of individual players occurs rather than being a winning team.  Like you say, if you are winning whilst offering equal game time, switching positions, creating an environment where the players have ownership and are free to experiment, then happy days but i feel we (clubs, leagues, FA, coaches) need to continue to push for this and be able to call out poor examples and action taken.

Thanks for the reply Pete and i completely agree, like everything we want to change in society education is key but i believe all things we don't like about grassroots football are linked to an unhealthy desire to win at all costs.  Abuse of referee's, abuse of players/coaches, lack of game time and opportunities, lack of focus on creating the correct environment and coaching for results over development, all disappear when all the stakeholders accept that the foundation phase in particular, should be a learning environment where development of individual players occurs rather than being a winning team.  Like you say, if you are winning whilst offering equal game time, switching positions, creating an environment where the players have ownership and are free to experiment, then happy days but i feel we (clubs, leagues, FA, coaches) need to continue to push for this and be able to call out poor examples and action taken.