How much real football coaching did you get as a kid?

[New York Red]

Being brought up in the 60's and 70's, I look back on the kind of training we got as kids. It wasn't much different to Kes. Boot the ball around with the teacher. No skills training, not much fitness training. You really learned the most from just kicking the ball around in the streets.

 

How has that changed in the UK? Is training with school teams etc much better than that?

[_00_deathscar]

Almost none.

[Swipe]

None.

 

I was genuinely a talented player as a kid - but the training we got was s***. Five-a-side it basically was. No tactics and no fitness.

 

I feel i could've went a bit further had I had it. I coulda been a contender!

[New York Red]

It kind of amazes me now. The things kids are formally taught in clubs now (just speaking for here now) is light years ahead of what we were taught as kids.

[MFletcher]

I was the goalkeeper for my primary school team. I was pretty solid actually - I used to make the right decisions regarding when to come forward, when to stay on my line etc. and my reflexes were good. But there was absolutely no coaching whatsoever. Football "training" consisted of matches where people picked teams and the outfield players chased the ball the entire time. Before matches, I was told not to let any goals in and even if there was a puddle on the goal line, it was better that I got soaked than the team conceding.

 

I reckon most coaches sacrifice "proper training" and simply pick the big kids to massage their egos. "Look, my young team are winning every game. I should do this professionally." We had some solid players as well. One of them is at Ipswich now, but our kick off consisted of passing it back to him and letting him thump it straight into their box. No concept of ball retention, passing etc.

[Zoob]

We got absolutely no training. In my primary school, we actually had a football team but it was picked on the basis of the biggest 11 players we could muster. I had more skill than many who were selected, but as a kid I was very slight for my age, so never got a game.

 

There was absolutely no basic skills training, or tactical training; both in primary and secondary school it was all just long ball football. My secondary shool had an 'official' team who played about 1 match a year (against one of the other local schools). We had a couple of pretty talented players, but they were never going to get anywhere, because the whole sport thing was done completely hap-hazardly; for the purpose of occupying us for x hours a week rather than to develop sportsmen, or even see if there is any real talent there.

[billybunter]

where i went football was for girls...wasnt till i was 14 till i got into the game

[John am Rhein]

It kind of amazes me now. The things kids are formally taught in clubs now (just speaking for here now) is light years ahead of what we were taught as kids.

 

Yeah. Media training for a start! I gont none of that!

[John am Rhein]

There was absolutely no basic skills training, or tactical training; both in primary and secondary school it was all just long ball football.

 

You know it makes sense!

[Zoob]

You know it makes sense!

 

 

Cricket was even better. Instead of using the municipal cricket pitches in the park directly next to the school, we played in a corner of our concrete playground, used a tennis ball, and the wicket was painted on the wall. Oh happy days.

[Guest JV]

I don't believe my primary schools even had a team.

[Sion]

I had one of them right t***s of a coach when I was 14-16, made us do just run and stamina stuff every training session then like a 5 minute game. And he wondered why we got raped every game. Tried to convince us to only breathe through our noses during games as it improves stamina, f***ing loony.

[_00_deathscar]

I had one of them right t***s of a coach when I was 14-16, made us do just run and stamina stuff every training session then like a 5 minute game. And he wondered why we got raped every game. Tried to convince us to only breathe through our noses during games as it improves stamina, f***ing loony.

 

It's better than nowt though.

 

We were 'potentially' one of the best teams in Hong Kong (not much of course, but still). In Year 12/13, training was scheduled for every Thursday.

 

First Thursday, everyone brought their stuff in to school, but the morning daily notices carried a message saying football training was cancelled.

 

Next Thursday, same story.

 

Third Thursday, same story again.

 

Following that, we just stopped bringing our kits in and just relied on our 5-a-side lunch time and after school games on the astro to keep us fit and going - we finished 3rd.