[Your Views] Is Discipline a Problem in Grass Roots Football?

On December 12, 2011

If you’d like to read the original article you can find it here.

If you have any thoughts on discipline in grass roots sport or any views you would like to share, please feel free to leave a comment below.

From Linkedin

Paul Burke; “As secretary and coach involved in youth football for a number of years now I would say the discipline on and off the pitch is deteriorating.”

“The pressure to win seems to be increasing especially in the younger age groups, this despite all the messages that the development of players should be the priority not winning an u8′s game on a Sunday morning.”

“I have to say I am seriously worried about the game in this country and whether I personally want to stay involved.”

Kevin Carpenter; “As a senior county referee in London and sports lawyer I am in a unique position to comment on this issue and could write an entire thesis on it.”

“I grew up in Sheffield and so football was the primary sport, I then moved schools at 13 and played rugby union for 5 years up to 1st XV level, until moving to university and deciding to put the whistle where my mouth was.

“When I began I set out with the intention to transfer some of the respect and refereeing techniques I had leant from playing rugby to the football field. For the first three seasons I always used to set down the ground rules to all 22 players plus substitutes plus coaches before the game, so nobody was under any illusion as to my levels of tolerance and it worked.

“However, recently as I have progressed, it has become apparent that players often don’t want this and so I only talk to the captains and managers now and put the onus on them to spread the message. The Respect camapaign is very well meaning and a good idea I believe, and it has made a diffference (the handshake aside which is largely a nonsense), yet the FA does not have the political will to really push the cultural change through that is required (don’t get me wrong I am proud in general of the work the FA tries to do).

“In my personal experience I think discsipline has got better. I am hopeful things will continue to improve steadily but cultural change takes generations, so don’t expect things to happen too quickly at all. They are my personal views and experiences and I look forward to hearing what other people think.

Adam Renshaw; “I played in a local league in Scarborough for many years, and there was a constant problems with under 18 players showing indiscipline in the senior leagues. This was because the laws of the league said that no player under the age of 18 could be fined for receiving cards, whereas 18 and overs were. Because many under 18s felt the need to ‘impose themselves’ on the older players, there were some dreadful tackles and dissent on a regular basis.

“It seems to me that fining players may put players off showing indiscipline, but if we go too far it could end up putting players off playing full stop.

“Unfortunately I believe the only long term solution, and I hate to take any blame off the individuals, is for professional players to be better role models. It is difficult for kids who grow up idolising players who regularly swear and commit vicious fouls on camera to then act in a different manner.

“From experience I would suggest that there is no short term solution to this very real problem, but it is something that needs addressing if grass roots football is to progress in the way it should.

From Twitter

Search API will now always return “real” Twitter user IDs. The with_twitter_user_id parameter is no longer necessary. An era has ended. ^TS

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November7, 2011

Search API will now always return “real” Twitter user IDs. The with_twitter_user_id parameter is no longer necessary. An era has ended. ^TS

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November7, 2011

Search API will now always return “real” Twitter user IDs. The with_twitter_user_id parameter is no longer necessary. An era has ended. ^TS

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November7, 2011

Is Discipline a Problem in Grass Roots Football?

Let us know what you think; Feel free to share your thoughts, views and experiences in the comments below.