Followers

Pages

Tuesday 16 April 2013

MEMORIES FROM OSLO (2)

The first day of the course (Tuesday, 9th), began with Frank Ludolph (Head of Education), explaining what we were going to see these days, from the title of the course (Nurturing The Grassroots Together - The Journey Continues). Afeter him, Ioan Lupescu (Chief Technical Officer), explained the educational priorities for 2013, which are the Futsal, the GKs and the small-sided games (SSG).
He spoke then of the goals achieved in the grassroots, from the questions "Where do we come from?, Where we are? Where we're going?", associated to the values transmitted by Grassroots, to the education, to the social aspect, etc..
Then he spoke about the Star system at the Grassroots Charter, to go to a change in criteria, establishing three categories (Gold, Silver, Bronze); this will be discussed in the Discussion Groups.
Then we proceeded to the Awards Grassroots (Grassroots Day Awards Ceremony), with the presence of the legendary Gianni Rivera, who explained his beginnig as a player on the streets of his town (like many), where there weren't cars and children spent the day playing.
Later, it was said about of all that can be done to promote grassroots football as Activities, Sponsors, Websites, festivals.
The next participant was Per Omdal (Grassroots Ambassador by UEFA), speaking of the football pyramid, with the Grassroots (children, youth, amateurs, veterans, etc.), in the lower part, the Youth Elite (Pro Academies, "U" National Teams) and, at the top of the Pyramid the Elite Football (Clubs and Teams). Omdal spoke of setting priorities, because, currently, the mentality is directed towards the Elite and should be directed towards the players. He spoke that the children begin to play soccer to be with their friends, and they leave because they do not play. He wondered if all these ages should have equal playing time.
In Europe, Omdal said, there are 80 million football players, based on the system of clubs. Now, it's time to increase the number of girls/women who play football and also increase their presence on Boards of FA's, like increasing the number of women managers and referees, etc..
The last interventions in the morning were for members of the Norwegian Federation. Alf Hansen (Director of Development) and Sitg Bjornebye (ex-Liverpool player and now head of development for children and youth), explained that there are about 2000 Clubs in Norway, based essentially on the work of volunteers. Because this, it has been a great effort in the courses "on line" (From end to end the country's more than 2000km away!). He spoke no football "competitive" until 13 years old and the importance of communication. The idea is to reach the maximum (Barca was shown as an example), but, based on the peculiarities of the country (in this case, the Volunteers). The idea is to "involve the maximum number of POSSIBLE people, as long as POSSIBLE, to be the best POSSIBLE." Finally he spoke of the introduction of interactive tools to make all this possible, with a program that started in January 2012, establishing a Web with Intraent applications, where you can download sessions and exercises, while you can keep track players, etc. The idea is based on sessions with 50% of SSG and the other 50% in specific activities, such as the shooting or finishing. This program (S2S), we explained by the Manager of the Company, Tor Ahlgren.
After lunch we attended the practice session 1, in the same Ullevaal Stadium (where Valerenga and the National Team play). I must say that the Hotel where the course is held is at the same stadium. In this session we saw what I talked about in the first entry: possession games of all types: 6V3, 8v2, etc.
Once the session was finished, the following speakers talked about to use the "Momentum" to promote grassroots football. Orit Raz (Israel), spoke about the activities that will be made with the occasion of the Under-21 Finals in her country (Festivals, Tournaments, flyers, TV, etc.). Peter Lànstrøm (Sweden), followed with the Women's Euro in July (as well as Israel, with coaching courses for women, Symposiums, etc..). Alf Hansen spoke of everything that is done in connection with the Norwegian Cup Final (male and female), that are the matches that close the season in the country. Here, there are seminars for parents and specialists, with over 250 participants.
Finally, Willi Hink, Liam MCGroary (Rep. Ireland) and Jim Fleeting (Scotland), spoke to use the "Grassroots Awards" as a way of rewarding effort, as a quality brand, as a way of saying "thank you" to the football people, etc.
The day concluded with a dinner hosted by the Norwegian FA, while watching the Champions League match Borussia vs Malaga.

No comments:

Post a Comment