Eamon Scott, Evening Herald, Monday 12th October 2011
Horst Wein and Dermot Dalton are passionate about the game of football, but more particularly about the development of the young player.
For the past quarter of a century Wein has travelled the globe and has coached over 11,000 (coaches) in his time. His first love was hockey and his coaching manual is used by 19 national associations.
Convinved to make the switch to soccer, Wein has coached at Barcelona FC, where he now lives, but has also written the coaching manual for the Spanish FA, the current world champions.
He is in demand around the world and has coached in over 51 countries. He is a true heavyweight on the coaching game and is held in high esteem within FIFA. When he talks, it is really worth your while listening.
It’s a simple straightforward philosophy, there is no universal panacea for the ills of the game, rather an understanding that puts children first – ahead of the desire to win, by allowing them to develop in a natural way by proper guidance and direction and not ‘instruction.’
Wein has long been convinced that one way of promoting the game of foobtall and persuading more youngsters to take up the sport is, to make the practise of football more enjoyable, attractive and from the learning point of view, more effective!
The link up with Dermot Dalton and the Beautiful Game here in Ireland is a ‘Coaching marriage’ made in heaven, but the struggle to get the message out and convince the powers that be – from the national association down throught the leagues and parents of the children involved – of the merits of the ‘Beautiful Game.’
Wein was recently in Argentina and his coaching seminar had to be switched to an alternative date and venue because over 800 coaches signed up. His recent visit to Dublin attracted just over 20 coaches, yet some of those had travelled from the English FA to listen to the coaching svengali.
The apathy is of concern but they are convinced that their ways will ultimately win the day.
Wein has a saying: “When you do what you always have done, you will never reach any further.” His approach is to nurture ‘game intelligence’ by providing building blocks and allowing kids to solve the problem rather than undertake repetitive drills.
His coaching philosophy brings a structured development to coaching and doesn’t simply list the skills to master at each age group, but the situations most commonly encountered in football.
These are incorporated in a progressive sequence of several simplified games. For each of them the educational aims and the skills that are necessary to successfully resolve particular game situations are clearly defined.
It involves an age-oriented guided-discovery coaching style using small-sided (simplified) games for both training and competitions and emphasizes development over winning at all costs. Says Wein: “We believe that young players have certain rights and specific needs that must be met while learning the game.”
What you have is parents seeing kids who are not capable of playing 11-a-side or nine-a-side. This is because they make more mistakes, so to compensate, parents have this desire to win, but this is the cancer of the game here and that is the desire to win ahead of development.
“It imposes a premature practice on children who should be allowed to be children to explore and develop.”
Wein’s football philosophy is unique and it is a player-centred model that brings enjoyment of the game to all who participate, while also allowing each one to reach their maximum potential and resulting ultimately in the emergence of the very best players who will ensure the future of the beautiful game.
For Wein and Dalton the crusade goes on in the hope that the approach to youth development will ‘see the light’ and embrace a new responsibility that will allow a generation of ‘higher level’ players to develop.
You can download your free copy of “100 benefits of using Horst Wein’s youth football development model” and receive regular updates from The Beautiful Game by logging onto www.thebeautifulgame.ie.
It could be the best thing you will ever do footballwise!