Mini Football Meeting

[MervilleUnited]

Just a line on an important meeting for clubs in Sligo Leitrim and Nort Roscommon!

The Sligo Leitrim Youth & Schoolboys League are in the process of developing a club based participation format for Under 10 Soccer.

The League wish to encourage children to take part and to give them quality experiences which are right for their age and stage of development. This will lead to more long - term and lifelong involvement in the game. The environment in which children play the game must be safe, fun and challenging and all practices must comply with the FAI’s Code of Ethics for Children’s Soccer. The massive growth in interest that has occurred within the game presents both challenges and opportunities. Access to appropriate coaching and training, allied with appropriate competitive activities are crucial to ensure that children can have fun and develop their skills in a planned, quality and structured fashion. With this issue in mind it is essential that a detailed review of all competitive opportunities for children is undertaken. The proposed pathway model for soccer strongly emphasises fundamental motor skills and sport specific skills at the fundamental and learning to train phases. This means that all children should play the game in an environment where fun, general and specific motor skills are the top priority. Actions are proposed in the areas of a player development manual, coach education, structures, competition, participation and game format. A Meeting will be held in Merville Community Centre, Maugheraboy, on Monday 18th July at 8pm, to start the process on a local level, with a view to launch a pilot project in September. All Clubs who have players at this important age group are asked to send a representative.

[MervilleUnited]

Forgot to say, the BIG hammer to crack a nut at this meeting will be to overcome the Irish Idea that soccer at this age group is non competitive. No medals, no tables, just play the game. Hello Dublin?

Its in the FAI Technical Plan and coming your way soon!

Any thoughts?

[MervilleUnited]

Greetings all,
Thank you for all your efforts at the Meeting on the 18th. I see a bright future for the concept, and the competitive hurdle was crossed, at least for now. Ten Clubs attending was an achievement, and I received an apology from overseas from Kilglass Enniscrone, so this project is going to be significant from the first ball is kicked. I have enclosed a couple of ideas in brackets for further discussion at a later date. By the way, I have called my Mini structure at Merville " Soccer 4 Kids" (See our website on http://homepage.eircom.net/~mervilleafc/) at this point I think it might be the ideal name for the Project! Let me know any further suggestions.

Results of the meeting:

A workshop will be held in late August for all Coaches and Mentors of the mini soccer teams, to introduce and develop the concept.
A non competitive ethos is agreed as paramount. Skill level attained and enjoyment to be the driving force. (Merville United to investigate the possibility of developing a “Flag of Achievement” to be awarded to clubs where all players pass a minimum skills standard for their age group.)
All participating clubs are to obtain the 16 x 6 goals as a standard size for the forthcoming project.
Teams are U10 Squad of 12, Under 10 Squad of 10, rolling substitutions
All Squad players will get a game in every game, mandatory.
Size 3 footballs U8, Size 4 U10
Pitch sizes have been adopted as per the FAI Technical plan
The Concept of Both age groups playing at the same time is agreed
The 5 minimum Skills to be attained by all players is adopted (Merville United to investigate the possibility of introducing training style skills based games to run parallel with the Main games)
Best Practice to be standardized with regard to pitch conditions, grass length etc
Festival of Football to conclude each phase of participation, with the aim of three phases by July 2006

Regards,
RD