The Football NSW High Performance Program - "Project 22"

This program is broadcast on Tuesday, 6 Juy 2010 on 2xxfm(98.3mhz) trough the Australian Community Radio Network.

In this program we take a look at the Football NSW High Performance Program solution – called "Project 22".

We speak to Paul Bentvelzen, Manager of the Football NSW HP unit (Project 22). Paul and his staff know exactly what they about when it comes to junior Football development. The results of the Project 22 solution are impressive at an early stage of implemetation. If you needed any proof, cast your mind back to the recent Under 13 Boys and Gilrs National Junior Championships. If you were lucky enough to see the NSW Metro teams play, you will need little convincing - and this has little to do with the fact that NSW obviously has more players - its all about how they do it!

There is a very real difference between the "Talented" and "Community" development streams. Both are as important as the other, but its very difficult to get a clear focus on "talented" player development, unless you get very specific and design the program to fit this and only this specification. I doing so, it makes it possible to give real emphasis to community development. Without robust community development, many fewer players will emerge to join the talented development stream. Community development is all too often left behind, but that’s another story and one the NPL has not forgotten.
Start with this simple, self evident fact – the talented players in each age group are a very small population of players. As they grow and get older they may not remain in the talented group of players, being replaced by others that have emerged. That is a very serious challenge for coaches and administrators in football.There is risk in getting on the talented treadmill from the moment the child begins a program. Its not a permanent selection – for player or parent or coach!

So lets begin by getting the talented player stream water tight.

If you are a parent and have a child that is showing some talent or has been identified as being suitable for talented stream development in football, you will in all likelihood, in the ACT, spend a lot of your precious disposable and scarce family resources on keeping the child engaged in the development process. Its not cheap here in the ACT! It’s a burden families find hard to bare.

Ask yourself this simple question – is the Capital Football HPP a genuinely high performance program? Use the Project 22 solution to make comparisions. What can we take away from how NSW's does business on this matter? What should be the primary elements of the football HPP in the ACT region? Don’t get me wrong, Capital Football have made a good start, but it is a long way yet from being a comprehensive talented football development package, within the meaning of the national curriculum. How to go forward?

There is no one way of doing this – the solution must match the environment. By the same reasoning, different environments are no excuse for sub optimal outcomes. Clearly, Football NSW comprehend this concept and Project 22 is a very robust response to junior football talented player development.

The interview will be broadcast in three parts, the first two cover various aspects of their solution and the final interview deals with the systems of communication they have developed at Football NSW for players and coaches in Project 22, together with the player and coach resource systems (web based) used to underpin training.

These interviews speak for themselves. We have a fair it of catching up to do. You’ll be very interested to hear how they tackle the talented stream in Football NSW.

Download Podcast here: