2. A Quiet Revolution
“Children and young people who
devote themselves heart and soul
to football deserves responsible
and knowledgeable leaders- We
have high goals. A children’s rights
perspective and the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the
Child are the basis for the wording
in our curriculum” Urban Hammar
(Head of Coach Education at the
Swedish FA)
3. United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child
In a football context
Article 2: Football should be as open and accessible to all, regardless of sex, color,
language, sexual orientation or disability. This is a principle of non-discrimination.
Article 3: Children best means to adults and children together to create an
environment where children have fun, focus and do their best, but not pressed too
hard by coaches and parents. It can also involve varied trainings where learning is
central.
Article 6: All children have the right to develop physically, mentally, socially and
athletically.
Article 12: All children have the right to participation, the influence of the training, to
be heard and to make their own decisions.
5. Many systems interacting over time
Helping students to learn holistically means that there is a need to go beyond
simply developing pupils’ physical skills to provide a deeper education for
them in line with a broader understanding of learning, development and
identity (Bailey, 2005; Kirk & McPhail, 2002 (c/o Chow et al, 2016)
Without our context we are not what we are. We are not a list of attributes.
My aim is not to fracture and break apart what should be together, not to de-
contextualise. And that’s the oldest approach on earth. (Juanma Lillo)
6. Ecological Dynamics
Ecological Dynamics presents a viable theoretical framework that illuminates
the relationship between the individual and the environment. Individuals
cannot be understood without reference to their specific environment. It
conceptualises young learners as complex adaptive systems and addresses the
weaknesses of traditional approaches to expert performance in sport, which
separately focus on the performer and the environment
Informs nonlinear pedagogy
7. Constraints Led Approach
We need a flexible framework where our training and planning is designed
around emerging information, whilst being underpinned by sound
developmental principles (Al Smith & Mark O Sullivan)
9. Nonlinear Pedagogy
There is adequate evidence to support that human learning is nonlinear in
nature and, therefore, teaching and coaching should account for such
nonlinearity (Chow, 2013)
10. Learning Design – Affordance Driven
We want to develop players with a better understanding IN the game (as
opposed to just OF the game).
We aim to achieve this through the deliberate designing IN of key affordances
with which learners can interact during practice (Chow et al, 2016).
Affordances are about action, action possibilities that can invite possibilities
for “footballs action” in the environment. If they are to be perceived there
must be information about them.
By designing sessions that are affordance-driven young players can educate
their attention and intention and learn which sources of information to act
upon and when to act, while also learning which sources of information are
less useful or irrelevant for that particular task.
11. Football Actions
To understand “football action” one must understand the big picture. A picture
that dictates that no action is isolated but is nested in interactions between
team mates and opponents both within the game and from previous games.
