The "Message" may be getting through - but to how many and how soon?

Source from Youtube and SBS World Game websites.


There is no doubt that the FFA National Football Curriculum is having a positive effect on the development of young players. In many ways, the best thing that has happened to Football in decades. The driving force is to produce more of the best at the elite level. Now to do that, there must  be a serious cultural shift in the way we coach, train and play the game. This is big change. A change that will take a generation or two. Not something you can start and fail to pursue diligently over time.

The development process, in its widest context (not just COE players) in the ACT region is very patchy. That's to be expected this early in the change process. Expected, not accepted!

The primary focus of Capital Football has been directed toward those young players selected in what was the High Performance program and is now the Centre of Excellence. The reason for that is simple - there is a serious playing / competitive obligation to the FFA, in so far as Capital Football must prepare and campaign boys and girls age teams at the FFA National Youth Championships (NYC) each year. All part of the "big plan" you might say.

Now this is what the Northern NSW Football Technical Director (David Smith) had to say about the recent NYC (very good use of social media by this organisation):



The harsh reality of the FFA's National Curriculum is that the greatest burden is shouldered by Clubs, our Junior Clubs. The Junior Clubs in particular, must pick up all of the rest of the FFA player development ambitions. Capital Football supplement the process with Centre of Development training, but in order to improve the overall technical capabilities of young players, to make a real difference, then Junior Clubs must be at the forefront of this change. The Junior Clubs are very aware of the magnitude of the task in front of them. That's where the FFA and Capital Football's efforts must be directed. Not just to the small number of players who make it through to the elite programs. But that's not the way it is.

Take our own region as an example. It's probably no good blaming the Capital Football Technical Director - his job is to get the elite player development process working from his level in order to meet obligations to the FFA through the NYC playing obligations. There is a lot of work involved in this process, from one year to the next. It seems to me that this doesn't leave a lone hand Technical Director (and a part time Skills Acquisition Coach) much time to do anything else of an equally substantial level with our Junior Clubs. So, much as before, we have a process that is very much still in two parts - Capital Football and Clubs. In this respect, I am not sure we have made much progress since the former High Performance program and the Ron Smith review of this subject. Seems to me we are moving back to the Capital Football Academy playing squad days. Opinions are certainly divided on that matter, particularly at the Clubs.

So who helps the Junior Clubs? The answer is they help themselves, just as they always have done, through their army of parents, volunteers and coaches. No one gets paid. They get nothing back form the FFA and they financially underpin Capital Football through their registration fees and other payments. Capital Football provides the administrative / operational structure that enables the Clubs to operate at all  community levels. That is substantial for a sport in Canberra which boosts more than most of the rest of the sports rolled up together, and much more than any single sports, summer or winter, a total of approx 18,000 football players and 6,000 futsal players.

The vast majority of our young Football players train. play, gain their technical and tactical competencies and have fun, develop their passion for the game, through their Junior Club. The talented players emerge at different times. We get more of them if the general football playing environment is improved, this is not news to anyone. These Junior Football Clubs are the real Football engine, the real Football powerhouse in the ACT region (and anywhere else in Australia).

And why the Junior Clubs? Well. its obvious isn't it. That's the place we all take our children to start to play the game. They do everything. This is the strategic point for the FFA and in particular, Capital Football, to intervene in a positive and productive fashion. The Junior CLubs are a part of the process, not apart from it.

With that in mind, the first critical shortfalls in implementation of the FFA's new direction appeared very quickly and still stand:

1. Insufficient coaches qualified and learned in the technical and tactical requirements of the curriculum (and subsequently 1-4-3-3), and
2. A paucity of coaching resources (teaching and learning materials)to underpin the "curriculum". that coaches and Clubs could call upon to make effective progress with those they coach (at every level). 

The first shortfall, coach education, has been attacked with some vigour by the FFA and Capital Football have made a productive impact, with many people moving through coaching courses (by comparison to past years). Junior Clubs usually appoint something akin to a Technical Director, but they receive precious little assistance to undertake their important work. Again that divide!

The second shortfall remains a serious, glaring deficiency. To be frank, to call it a "curriculum" is just a bit thin. This would simply not satisfy any teacher in our schools. There is nothing to work with at the community Club coach level! The entire FFA development strategy was released without the underpinning resources to support the document titled "Curriculum" and so very necessary to  enable effective coaching at community level. Its still that way. This is the one area where the FFA should give resources and effort. And get educational specialists (curriculum development) to do the work, with the football subject matter experts providing the technical / tactical information. Some member federations identified this shortfall early and got about creating these resources to support their programs and coaches. But why are we all doing it from scratch. Madness!

If I were to ask Capital Football to publish the current COE periodised program and supporting coaching resources, what response wold I get? A good one I hope. We need to share this knowledge. What has been done to obtain and publish good coaching resources from other sources?

Where the FFA has created good coaching resources it should publish the lot, no charge to anyone, so that every coach and every Club can get hold of it and use it. I'm talking about a substantial online coaching resource available to our football community. You may recall that the FFA trumpeted the solution S2S as the means by which this would be achieved. Of course we had to pay. I wonder how many Clubs anywhere, but in particular in the ACT are using this product or some other like it? What is the COE and COD programs using?

I don't expect Capital Football to shoulder this vital resource issue alone (although I think we should be able to view every session practice used in the COE and COD age programs), but wouldn't it be good if we took the initiative, collaborated with other member federations and created something of enduring value to our football community? One thing is certain at this time - the FFA isn't doing it! (please don't tell me the resources are with the coaching courses - if they were not it would negligent. But why not simply make all available right now to anyone, on a coaching course or not ?)

The video below is good to watch. So much to talk about on this matter. This journey had just begun.





Craig Foster recently commented on the sort of play you see in the video above. He makes some good points.  Have a read of his article, its well worth it:

About the All Stars U14 Boys team at the NYC 2011 (attributed to National Assistant Technical Director, Alistair Edwards):

"Through learning football in a system, which has an easily definable style of play, positional roles and the application of space and movements, the best youngsters were able to come together as a team and very quickly play together to a high level, because they each knew their specific role and that of those around them."

About the uptake of the changes implicit in the National Football Curriculum, Foster observes:

"From my recent experience around the country, we are now well beyond the initial cultural change process and every educator and coach is hungry for information to improve.

The real challenge, however, is that while many have recognised and accepted the need for change and are now seeking to play the 1-4-3-3, the actual deeper detail about the movements and timings within are yet to disseminate satisfactorily and remains an issue of coach education and information availability."

Craig Foster's article is below, please read.

Futsal - Its Written on Pele's Chest!

Sourced from the SBS World Game http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/video/2169365961/Pele-exclusive

Futsal - Mind Over Matter

Good enough for Pele, good enough for me!

Futsal needs to be an integrated component of football player development, at all levels of the junior and youth game, at the Capital Football Centres of Excellence and Development, and in all our Junior Clubs.

Go to the SBS World Game website and watch Craig Foster's interview with Pele. Its terrific.

Racism and FIFA President / Euro's Group of Debt / Junior Player Development

This program was broadcast on 2xxfm (98.3mhz) across the Australian Community Radio Network on Tuesday, 22 November 2011 at 7:00PM.

Tonights program is an unusual mix of subjects:

1.     Racism in Football and Foot In Mouth Blatter
      The disastrous and objectionable comments made by no less than the President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, on the subject of racism. During an Interview with Al Jerzeera, Blatter declared that there was no racism in football and indeed, if anything were said of the type on the field, then a quik handshake between the racially vilified and the racist will clear things up. It was just unbelievable, particularly given the work FIFA has and is doing to stamp out racism – a zero tolerance policy no less and most definitely on the field of play. Remember those big banners at the world cup and other premier competitions – “say no to racism”. Then there is the very serious allegations of racist comments by players on the field of play in the English Premier League this season. Just what sort of message was Blatter sending to the world wide football community, or was it an aged moment, or indeed, is this the way he really feels about it all? We’ll never really know, but what we do know is that the President of FIFA has, not for the first time in recent months, got it all wrong. The FIFA that he presides over is a mess, wracked with allegations of corruption, a patently corrupt world cup bidding process, operating in a world wide financial crisis that threatens most big Clubs in football as their debt levels reach astronomical proportions. In spite of this, FIFA has done some good work and some of it was about eliminating racism in sport – until Blatter opened his mouth. And yet, Mr Blatter, in the face of no credible option, got voted in for his fourth term as FIFA President and he got Australia’s vote too. Personally, I found Mr Blatter’s comments disgraceful and his subsequent attempts to justify his remarks to further underscore his unsuitability for the office he presently holds. Anyone heard anything from the FFA on this subject? Why not? Still hoping we will get a World Cup in 2022 are we? This whole thing is a mess, as is FIFA at the moment.

2.    Group of Debt in Euro 2011
           Then we have a very amusing piece from BBC4 radio, titled “Own goal from football’s “Group of Debt”). The fusion of a world financial crisis in Europe and Euro 2012.

The Times reported these figures at the end of 2010:

      THE BIG DEBTORS 

£727m Manchester United 

£609m Real Madrid* (Real claim only £296m) 

£436m Barcelona*

 
£386m Internazionale*

 
£348m AC Milan* 

£297.7m Arsenal 

£240m approx Liverpool 

£147m Juventus* 

£136m Roma*

 
£96m Bayern Munich* 

£0 Chelsea, after £340m write-off, announced Dec 2009 

£0 Man City, after £305m debt-to-equity write-off, announced Jan

     2010

The Soccerlens website reported these figures in July 2010:

Ranking	Club	Debt
1.	Manchester United	£716m
2.	Chelsea (Limited)	£701m
3.	Valencia C.F	£501m
4.	Liverpool	£351m
5.	Real Madrid	£296m
6.	FC Barcelona	£273m
7.	AS Roma	£271m
8.	Schalke 04	£234m
9.	Arsenal	£203m
10.	Fulham	£198m

3.    Junior Player Development - George Huitker
      For the final item in tonight’s program, I have returned to an interview I did about three years ago on Junior Football. I speak to George Huitker, the Director of Co-curricular at Radford College.

      George is the sort of person we need at the top  in Football and certainly on our Capital Football Board. He seems to have done it all. Huitker has written two very good books on junior football  and futsal. These two books sum up the issues for all parents and young players, as only a highly capable and thoughtful educator (in football / futsal / academia) could do. Its his massive experience of the age groups we are concerned with and wide view of the game and its role in the development of our young citizens, some of whom are very talented, that gives his writings and observations their power. George Huitker has produced and acted in a play, scripted from his first book on junior football. Books and play received considerable crucial acclaim. Try as I have over the years to get as good an interview on junior player development, I haven’t come close to Huitker yet. The inclusion of Huitker’s interview, timeless as it is, gives us a very useful counter point to the CF Tech Director’s call for complete commitment by players / parents to the CF COE programs. Now this is not a criticism of the TD, who is a fine fellow, with a job to do. An elite program (however we may define or expect an elite program to be) will obviously demand commitment. In one sense the CF Tech Director’s position is almost unarguable, but is it the full story when we think of all of the things that must accompany a young person development as a citizen, including a liberal and balanced education, but who love football with a passion, talented or not so talented.  And is it the full story in a small place like the ACT region? The word “elite” is not the same as “develop” in a football sense, nor in an education context, but they circle in football at high speed around anyone young player daubed with the title “talented, and to coin a phrase “its all so often full of crap”! The notion of elite” is always worth challenging. This one is for thinking.

Download Podcast Here:

A Terrific Piece of Analysis of FFA National Youth Championship Selection Processes

Sourced from a very smart parent of a very good young representative Football and Futsal player.

There is no substitute for timely and trustworthy information on performance and perceptive analysis of that information. Too often we go from minute to minute and game to game, with little more than a random or fragmentary collection of observations and recollections to guide us. For the very experienced coaches, that often works. But sooner or later, something important is lost for lack of good analysis.


Where we can gather data and analyse it in support of football or futsal performance we should do so. But you need three things - the ability / means to identify and collect the appropriate football data; the ability to analyse it and draw sound conclusions; and finally, the good sense and determination to implement change if the conclusions point that way and it is possible to do so. 


Now ask yourself this - how many womens or mens Premier League clubs in the ACT devote time / resources / effort to game analysis? Not many and not often is my observation. When something happens that makes a difference, its usually because the Club coaching / support staff have been doing their homework. The irony is that if we watch football (of any code) on television, we are now provided with a useful short list of game statistics at half and full time. Commentary often revolves around the data. The Canberra United coach will do the video game analysis on Monday following the game and debrief the players that afternoon. The data collected can then be subject to further scrutiny, from game to game to search out patterns, for the home team and the opposition teams. 


This is a subject that deserves and will get a lot more attention at the NPL. 


But for now, I offer an original piece of research and analysis by someone with clearly a well above average mathematical ability, practiced in the statistical methods that underpin the paper provide in this Post. 


OK, we are not all as comfortable with the heavy duty quantitative method that underpins this piece of work, but no problem, the author has presented the findings in a way that we can read and understand. Now this is what a Coach or Technical Director wants - something they can read and understand and make use of if they agree.


The start point for this work was the one I witnessed - the 2010 Under 13 Boys and Girls National Youth Championships. Several of us discussed the method used at the time (and still so today) to select the "All Stars" team to play in the final game of the NYC. The discusson was not about the relative merits of one player above another, it was about the "method" the FFA had settled on to come to an All Stars team and what followed from it. Did this method stand scrutiny? Was it fit for its purpose?


There was plenty of good football and at that time, FFA had introduced what was referred to at the time as a "Technical Assessment Score", which was added to the normal win / draw game results points. But that's another story in itself. Terrific innovation.


Importantly, at the conclusion of the NYC, an exhibition match was held between the winning team and a team composed of the best of the rest of the players. Or was it? It was to be called the All Stars match. The general concept was first trialed in the previous National Training Centre Challenge. 


The purpose of the All Stars game at this NYC was to provide the "Technical Assessment Group" a further and final opportunity to decide which players would be called forward to join an Australian age train on squad, in this case, for subsequent selection to an inaugural Australian age representative team (boys and girls). Clearly, if you were not in either the Wining Team or the All Stars team, you were out of consideration at that time for selection to the Australian train on squad. As it happens, the ACT girls were well represented in the All Stars team and one  made it all the way to the Australian team. The ACT coach at the time was the coach of the NYC. And there is a really good story around this cohort that again demonstates how it can / should be done for young players. But, alas, again I digress. It was fascinating stuff. Still is.  A lot at stake.


There were other outcomes from the Technical Assessment Group" in relation to team and Coach performance, but that is not the subject of this specific research and analysis.


Since the 2010 NYC, the selection of an age Australian team for the Under 13 boys and  girls has been scrapped, but the All Star game process is still in place and an important outcome from the Technical Assessment Group. What does it mean for the ACT players going forward? Good reason to reflect on the process.


The All Star game would appear to provide the Technical Assessment Group, the National Women's Coaching staff  and attending State NTC Coaches with vital information on those young players who need to be streamed into NTC programs (scholarship or training agreements), as part of the talented player  identification process. This impacts differently (in terms of time of entry / duration) on boys and girls programs. But the talent spotting is fully focused at this Under 13 NYC. So it should be!


So, does this All Stars game selection process work for the ACT talented players?  Now that is a very important question. Its dumb to assume that it works well or equally for all teams and players until you can prove it so. This bit of research has a couple of surprises for you. What does the analysis of the data reveal? Read the paper, its fascinating. 


I will say this (separate from the paper); At the conclusion of  the 2011 NYC, our U13 girls remain in Group A, while our U13 boys remain in Group B. Will things change in 2012? Observations of the present programs, seems to indicate that the cautious prediction would be: The girls may be sufficiently competitive to retain their position in Group A, but not constitute the winning team. The boys will remain in Group B (and not be the winning team - which comes from Group A of course). So the means of selection for the All Stars team is really important to prospective opportunities for our young players. Simple as that! 


And how closely does the Technical Assessment Group really look at Group B games and how hard is it for a player to shine and be noticed and selected from a modestly performing Group B team?  Not much I would think. However, someone is sure to point out that the really, really , really good players do get noticed, which is probably true. But how good do you have to be to get noticed above a player of a little less ability in the winning team? The winning team enjoys the halo effect of simply "winning". More than that, those not on the All Stars game winning team match card, get a preferential place on the All Stars match card. Now that did surprise some of us and I think you will find the research outcomes interesting on this subject. Did the FFA think this through and if so, what did they based their decision upon? Probably no more than "gee, we had better give all the winning team a run in the final match". Makes you think.


There is one way of dramatically advancing the prospects of our young players (boys and girls) - get into to Group A and win.  Anyone who says that winning the NYC is not the objective, is not seeing this clearly and anyway, why are we there if not to win? You can bet the players are their to win. Now what sort of Centre of Excellence program will it take to achieve these outcomes and how long will it take? And what sort of coaches do we need to take us forward?


So, on with this terrific piece of work by one of our thinking parents, who seems to have put the time on the sides of Football and Futsal games to good effect. Should be more of it - in fact, I know there is! 


It's well worth a read. I wonder if anyone in Capital Football or the FFA can produce this sort of work. They should be doing this sort of work and publishing it.

..........................................................................................................................................................

Choosing a national sports team: the 2010 FFA National Junior Championships

Choosing a national sporting team is complex and challenging. It has two key dimensions — the pool of players that are considered in the selection, and the selection process. In the 2010 FFA National Junior Championships, in both the girls’ and boys’ competitions (A and B Groups), the championships ended with an AllStars match between the top performing team in that group and an AllStars team chosen from the remaining five teams. The AllStars matches provided recognition to the best performing team in the group, but also provided a pool of players for selection of national girls’ and boys’ training squads from which a national under-13 girls’ team and boys’ team would be chosen to play in the Asian Football Confederation’s Festival of Football in mid 2010.

For the purpose of selecting a national squad, an AllStars match would ideally be between two teams that broadly include the most talented players in that group and that are evenly matched.

The current selection process raises a number of related questions. Does a match between the top scoring team and an AllStars team bring together the best talent amongst the players in the championship? If this is generally the case, does it remain so when the final scores in the group are close? Additionally, where some of the better performing players from the top scoring team are placed in the AllStars team, as occurred in the boys’ competition, is this likely to significantly affect the balance between the teams in the final match?

Current arrangements potentially have a negative impact on selection in at least three ways. Firstly, where there is a wide gap between the standard of play of the AllStars team and the opposing team, this is likely to lower the overall standard of players in the AllStars match and therefore the quality of the pool for national squad selection. Secondly, if there is a significant imbalance in the standard of each team in the AllStars match, this will reduce the scope for talented players to show their best performance under pressure. Arguably the process adopted for the boys of placing the best performing players of each team (including the top scoring team) onto the AllStars team has the potential to create this imbalance. The arrangements for the boys also has a third consequence — that the top scoring team playing the AllStars match is smaller than the usual 16 players, which reduces the pool of players actually playing the AllStars match and at the same time gives relatively greater game time to the players in the potentially weaker team.

Considering these, what were the outcomes in the 2010 National Junior Championships?

Racism in Football - "I would deny it. There is no racism." Sepp Blatter: President of FIFA

Sourced from http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/223349,uk-pm-leads-criticism-of-blatter-comments.aspx and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/international/8895296/Fifa-president-Sepp-Blatter-should-quit-over-racism-denial.html

It all started this way (quote from the Telegraph By Josie Ensor, and Conrad Quilty-Harper):

"In an interview with Al Jazeera English, Blatter was asked if he thought racism was a big problem in the sport.

The president of the sport's world governing body replied: "During a match you may make a movement to somebody or hurt somebody or you may say something to somebody who is not exactly looking like you, but at the end of the match it is forgotten."

As well as ill-advised, Blatter's comments are ill-timed. Two of the Premier League's most high-profile players - Luis Suarez and John Terry - are currently being investigated over allegations they racially abused fellow professionals, and this year has seen an increase reported racial incidents - both on the pitch and online." 

As if there isn't enough problems with the FIFA organisation in recent years and more than enough criticism of the recently re-elected President, Sepp Blatter.

Then someone asks him a pretty simple question on racism in Football. This is what the Blatt said:



Oops, then the apology and that "sorry" word! Too late mate!



Should have been dead simple - point to the work that has been done in Football around the world through Football. FIFA have taken the lead in so many ways, strong stand against racism, no mucking around on this one - "Say No To Racism". End of story - and the right one.

But the Blatt stuffed it completely. Poor bugger! In one nonsensical reply to the simple question put to him, he trivialized the entire issue in Football around the world. What a goose!

It seems racist comments on the field of play are to be resolved by a handshake, according to the Blatt. What planet was the Blatt orbiting when he thought up this response? What a goose! And he runs FIFA, was re-elected by a whopping big majority of member countries (including Australia in spite of the appallingly corrupt conduct of the World Cup bid(s) process by FIFA), for another four years.

The resultant furore, particularly in the UK where they have a couple of pretty serious accusations of racist comments made to players by other players on the field during games, absolutely skewered the Blatt.







What a mess!

The comments made by people of some substance in Football in the UK are withering and on the mark. The article below sums it up  (sourced from Martyn Ziegler articlehttp://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/223349,uk-pm-leads-criticism-of-blatter-comments.aspx ):

Canberra United FC - Who We Play

This is the competition program for the season. The finals games are not listed.

This is a sensational start.

Canberra United play Newcastle this Saturday at McKellar Park. Be there or be square!

In fact, make a day of it - go to the Boomerangs FS Futsal games at the AIS then swing over to McKellar (not far away). Perfect day!

Sat 22, 1:45 PM	Adelaide United W-League	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide	W-League	W  4-1
Sat 29, 3:00 PM	Perth Glory W-League	McKellar Park, Canberra	W-League	W  3-2
Sat 5, 3:00 PM	Sydney FC W-League	Leichhardt Oval	W-League	W  1-0
Sat 12, 3:00 PM	Melbourne Victory W-League	McKellar Park, Canberra	W-League	W  2-1
Sat 19, 3:00 PM	Newcastle Jets	McKellar Park, Canberra	W-League
Sat 26, 12:00 AM	Bye	McKellar Park, Canberra	W-League
Sat 3, 12:00 AM	Brisbane Roar W-League	Cleveland Showgrounds, Cleveland	W-League
Sat 10, 12:00 AM	Sydney FC W-League	Deakin Football Stadium, Canberra	W-League
Sun 18, 12:00 AM	Newcastle Jets W-League	Adamstown Oval, Newcastle	W-League
Sat 7, 12:00 AM	Adelaide United W-League	McKellar Park, Canberra	W-League
Sun 15, 12:00 AM	Bye	McKellar Park, Canberra	W-League

ACL Rehabilitation – Clinically Cleared But Ready to Play?

Sourced from http://www.scienceofsocceronline.com/2011/01/acl-rehabilitation-clinically-cleared.html

ACL Rehabilitation – Clinically Cleared But Ready to Play?

Anterior cruciate ligament injuries are all too common in competitive athletes. 

ACL ruptures are usually followed by reconstruction surgery that is then followed by progressive rehabilitation that may last up to 12 months. Depending on the extent of injury, most players can expect 6-12 months before being cleared by a physician to return to their previous level of play. However, some athletes seem to take much longer to complete a full recovery and a few never return to the competitive level that they once experienced. An Australian study addresses this apparent disparity between the clinical evaluation and competitiveness. Researchers show that despite being clinically cleared to play, many ACL injured athletes do not return to full competition one year after surgery.

The study examined 503 male and female patients who participated in a variety of sports (Australian football, basketball, netball and soccer). All had suffered a rupture of the ACL and underwent arthroscopic reconstruction surgery using a hamstring tendon autograft. After surgery, each athlete followed a progressive rehabilitation program. At 12 months post-surgery, subjects underwent a clinical exam and completed a questionnaire about their level of sports participation (that is, their return to play).

Most of the athletes were clinically cleared for full participation by 9 months and all were cleared by 12 months. Despite this, only 33% had attempted full competition, 34% had attempted training with modified play while 33% had not attempted to train or play.

Of the two-thirds who had not returned to full competition, almost half indicated that they indented to return to full play, 13% had given up competition because of knee issues, 12% had given up competition for other reasons and the remainder did not indicate whether they intended to return or not.

The results indicate that despite all players being clinically cleared for full participation after a 12-month rehabilitation, only 1/3 had actually done so. Another 1/3 hoped to return to their pre-injury level of play but the remaining third had ended their competitive playing careers.

Why do so many players fail to return to full competition despite being clinically cleared after surgery? 

One reason is psychological. The researchers point out an earlier study that shows many ACL injured athletes lack confidence and fear the risk of re-injury, perceptions that persist well after rehabilitation and after being clinically cleared to play. Also, those who express these emotions are less likely to return to full completion than those who don’t.

A second reason may be muscular. A 1988 study of ACL injured patients revealed that despite being clinically cleared to play (after 12 months), quadriceps muscle atrophy and weakness remained. Knee extensor strength was depressed by 10-12% in the injured limb compared to the non-injured limb. The atrophy of the quadriceps was not readily apparent to the physicians performing the clinical exams. The lost of muscle mass was replaced by a gain in fat mass. Thus, the visible size of the thigh was not changed but its composition was. The lost muscle strength experienced by these athletes probably limits their performance on the field or court and prohibits them from fully competing.

These psychological and muscular issues facing an injured athlete may also be interwoven. Athletes who feel somewhat apprehensive or fear re-injury may limit their effort during rehabilitation. The result is that muscle atrophy and weakness persists. On the other hand, weakened quadriceps muscles after surgery may instill a lack of confidence and heighten re-injury worries.

It is important to point out that neither study fully described the rehabilitation program details. The subjects did not appear to be professional athletes. Thus the athletes probably underwent a traditional program involving both clinical rehabilitation and unsupervised exercises performed outside of the clinic. There is no way to gauge the intensity or level of participation in the programs. Professional athletes, in the other hand, have a number of clinicians and rehabilitation specialists working with them on a daily basis. One would expect that given this level of support, professional athletes would undergo a more focused and intense rehabilitation program. As a result, they would be more likely to return to play that the non-professional and return to play much sooner.

The overall message from these investigations is that some ACL injured players might be clinically cleared to return to full competition within a year after surgery. However, many may not be ready to compete at the previous competitive level. Despite going through a rehabilitation program, some may have deficits that limit their participation level. These deficits may be psychological and a fear of re-injury. They may be muscular - muscle atrophy and decreased quadriceps strength.

In either case, coaches should understand that clinical exams determine the functional outcomes of ACL reconstruction surgery. They are designed to determine if the knee is healed, functional and stable. Such clinical exams cannot decide the readiness of an athlete to compete at their pre-injured level. It is up to the coach to help the player correct these psychological and muscular defects – to regain the confidence and rebuild the lost muscle mass needed to compete at a high level.


References:

Ardern CL, Webster KE, Taylor NF, Feller JA (2010) Return to the preinjury level of competitive sport after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery. American Journal of Sports Medicine, DOI: 10.1177/0363546510384798.

LoPresti C, Kirkendall DT, Street GM, Dudley AW (1988) Quadriceps insufficiency following repair of the anterior cruciate ligament. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy, 9: 245-249.

Webster KE, Feller JA, Lambros C (2008) Development and preliminary validation of a scale to measure the psychological impact of returning to sport following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery. Physical Therapy in Sport, 9: 9-15.

Testing and Monitoring Performance Development of Our Best Young Players is Essential

Its all very well to say we run an "Academy" or a "High Performance Program" or a "Centre of Excellence", but just exactly what constitutes an elite Football program within the FFA's National Curriculum and Development plans, at Federation member level? 

It would useful if the FFA produced a "best practice" solution for implementation as the "minimum" requirement for each Federation member. The National Curriculum and Development Plans do not fulfill this task, which is why we have had variety of solutions (here in the ACT and elsewhere) - and change they do - too frequently. Which is not necessarily the same as "evolving".

I can find no list anywhere in the FFA material that speaks to the construction of the "solution" at federation member level and / or is generally available to the football community - and that is very odd. So how do you decide if what is offered is worth the expenditure of your child's (and parents) valuable time, opportunity and funds.

Two noteworthy and important changes have been made by the new Technical Director of Capital Football:

• A clear statement of priority to be given by players / parents for participation in the Football COE programs
• A very robust focus on raising the technical standards of the very young players through the FFA Skills Acquisition Program (SAP) and the engagement of Coerver Coaching in the youngest of the age groups

Now these two steps alone, as important as they are and must continue to be so, quickly reveal the frailty of the overall solution. Its difficult to fix everything on the run and standing still is not an option. And we do a lot of things on the run in Football!

What expectations should you (the parent) have for young young talented player at the highest level of development available to your child in Football?

It all depends is the answer. Depends of what? What should you be looking for? What can you let pass for now?

Here are some ideas:
A well qualified coach, a first rate training facility, comprehensive and timely back of house individual management of players, timely / trustworthy system of communication between the organisation / coaches and Players / Parents, a detailed whole of program periodized program that enable you (parent0 to co-ordinate every other aspect of the young players life (importantly education), a detailed session by session curriculum and teaching resources (not just broad strokes stuff, the sort of resources any teacher would expect to have to have for any lesson) for each coach, a means of conveying the session activities and amends to training to players / Parents in a timely manner in advance of training, a robust sports science capability (specialist nutrition advice and monitoring, specialist sports medicine support and injury management, recovery facilities / services, sport psychology engagement at a group and individual basis), detailed testing / recording / reporting on player performance, ability to correct individual player technical performance on a continuing basis,  and an ability to integrate the balance between academic performance and Football performance within the program, well written and published policy and procedures, insightful and effective program administrative co-ordination, and so and so....

There are a lot of smart people in and around Football and this list is just  representative of the matters suggested to me over the last few years and all of the above by people engaged in this important Football work.

Do we deal with all of the young players' issues that may affect performance, or just a few things we can service from within what we have now or afford? How much can we afford and what is the opportunity cost if some things that matter going forward are not part of the solution.

How "excellent" can your solution be? What does it take to do it? Are these matters discussed at the Capital Football Board? They should be! How much can you afford to deliver? These are big issues for those that run development programs for our young players in accordance with FFA instructions. A Technical Director alone, in any member Federation cannot solve these matters. But that seems to be the way we tend to see it.

The words "Elite", "Professional", Excellence" and "High Performance" get thrown around like confetti, used to freely and often without specification. That creates problems.

But back to the title of this post (its all a coherent subject anyway).

Here are some videos on two tests that are used today across various sports, including Football. Just two, there are many other proprietary tests and some sports are much more engaged than others. What do we use? etc

Loughborough Soccer Passing Test (LSPT)

Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test (LIST)