A FOOTBALL tournament with a difference was held in Ayrshire last weekend.
West of Scotland Youth Football League (WOSYFL) 2012 teams from across the county descended on Dean Thistle's home ground on Saturday, August 10.
Though, in a first for the area, it was not adults and coaches organising proceedings on the day.
While coaches and league officials organised for the seven teams to attend - Caledonian, Cambusdoon, Cumnock, TASS Thistle, Galston, Glenburn and Dean Thistle - and set up the tournament groups, pitches, referees and matches, their involvement stopped there.
On the day, it was player led, with youngsters from each of the sides deciding their teams starting 11, formation, tactics, substitution and post match debriefs.
Parents and coaches were asked to take a step back from the side line, and let the children play their way.
It was an idea born, in part, thanks to WOSYFL chairman Graeme Mathie, a familiar face to many as managing director at Ayr United.
Discussing his involvement, he commented: “I joined the youth league for two reasons. There was a strong suggestion the league might not be there if folk didn’t step up when the committee announced their desire to step back – so I was happy to do that and keep kids play.
“But I’m also a bit of an agitator in youth development, I love thinking about different ways that you might be able to help more young people go and become better at football.
“I’ve studied it quite a bit and had various experiences with the clubs I have been at and I think we have got some norms that we have in football that probably don’t help kids to progress.”
Graeme added that he always takes an interest in "people who do things differently" - which was what led to this player led approach ideology.
Some five years ago, he heard Debbie Sayers, from Salisbury Rovers in England, talk on a podcast about her own child's poor experiences in youth football.
“It was very instruction based with loads of adults shouting things at kids and he was getting criticised quite a bit," Graeme commented.
At this point, Debbie's child told her that he wasn't enjoying football, and wanted to quit.
But instead, Debbie was able to implement a new approach with Salisbury Rovers to bring some enjoyment back to the game.
Graeme explained: “She’s a human rights lawyer by trade, so she’s based her whole environment at Salisbury Rovers around the rights of a child.
“They do loads of free play stuff where they bring in loads of kids of different ages and just let them play.
“They also do a lot of stuff where they let kids take responsibility for things and make their decisions, pick their teams, their subs, their kits, get their own sponsorship and so on.
“I just found it interesting so I reached out to her, got to know her quite a bit over the past few years, and when I heard she was coming up to Scotland I jumped on it.”
So it was with Debbie's ideas in mind that the league chair opted to try this approach out a little closer to home - in particular, selecting the youngest age group to play 11-a-side football.
Graeme continued: “Stuff kind of changes when they go to 11-a-side because there’s points, a league and a plastic trophy to win at the end of a season.
“I just wanted to throw it out there at this age to show that if kids were in charge of this environment, what would it look like?”
And the results and feedback, though varying, provided plenty food for thought.
He added: “I found the day absolutely fascinating.
“What we said to the coaches was 'just let the kids make all the decisions on the day and see what they come up with'.
“Just on that basic premise, there was a lot of stuff that was dead interesting.
“It was quite noisy with kids' voices, which you maybe don't always hear because it’s adults or coaches shouting a lot.”
And while Graeme was pleased with the overall experience, he admitted it "couple of things may not have gone as well as we hoped", with some teams failing to plan substitutes, for example.
But there were just as many positives, with some sides opting to select a 'captain' to lead decision making.
“We saw a lot of that, with kids taking responsibility and stepping up and happy to become a leader," he commented.
While Graeme was also quick to emphasise that this was aimed to be a learning experience - and that the league were not implying that this is how things should be done.
He said: “The big takeaway from me is that there wasn’t really one thing we were looking for from it.
“This wasn’t us as a league, or Salisbury as a club, telling coaches how they should operate.
“One of the things we asked in the feedback was ‘was there any benefit in this idea, and if there was is there anything you would think about doing with your own club?’.
“One of the coaches said he was quite surprised by the kids' level of knowledge and understanding. and some of their ideas were really good – and he’d like to find a way of incorporating more of their ideas into what they do.
“Other clubs said they just didn’t like it, and they wouldn’t do anything, and that’s absolutely fine.”
But he added that trying to do things a little differently is not something to shy away from.
Graeme added: “One of the big things I’ve always found beneficial in this scope of youth development is just being curious with stuff, asking questions and trying things.
“Don’t be afraid to do something that maybe doesn’t turn out the way you want it to – and we definitely saw a lot of evidence of that.
“I’m really cool with that, because I think what we’ve done is experience something a wee bit different.
I hope everyone took something out of it, whether it’s positive or negative.”
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