Photo/ Grande Prairie Soccer Association/ Facebook

By Courtney Almeida

Local Soccer

Grande Prairie Soccer Association hosts public forum to explain new sporting model

May 8, 2019 | 12:00 PM

This evening, an open forum will be held for the public by Grande Prairie Soccer association to discuss recent changes to soccer programming within the region. Changes focus on moving away from games to focus on player development and Grande Prairie Regional College will host the event set for a 7:30 p.m. start.

“Some people are a little bit concerned, thinking that if you don’t play games, children are not going to develop but what were doing is called a preferred training model and its being advocated by Canada Soccer, through to Alberta Soccer,” says John Clubb, Manager of Grassroots Development for Alberta Soccer Association.

Clubb will be presenting a presentation which focuses on the rationale to move forward with a push for more playing time and less of a focus on game play. He will be taking questions from anyone in the public who has concerns about what this implementation means for the future of the sport in the region.

“The real focus of the program is to develop coaches, in order to develop more children and have fun, as a community, rather than separating and segregating children as teams,” explains Clubb.

Clubb has worked to spread this messaging over the course of the last six years.

He says that the new way of coaching involves, “station rotations, so that children come in and they’re not in teams. They’re split into groups and go around and work different stations.”

He encourages “Past, present or future soccer players, who’ve got an interest” to come out the forum to better understand why there is a movement to change the game.

“We’ve always focused on games and outcomes to determine whether a player is good enough and very rarely have we focused on the actual development and enjoyment of the player,” said Clubb.

The move is meant to break away from overall game outcome and encourage the continued participation of players in the sport to promote more physical activity as youth grow.

Clubb notes that with the rise of technology use in children, “we need to keep children engaged in outdoor activity and games.” He points to the, “decrease right across the province for all sports,” as an example for why this new model is so necessary.

“In the old format, you rarely got children sweaty. They’d done a 30-minute game that lasted five minutes. They sat down and made daisy chains and if their team was losing, they gave up. So, this format is really five to ten-minute stations and the kids are always active, the coaches are fully engaged.”

Clubb says that the push for children to become more active in sport begins with parents and coaches. “The feedback that I’ve had from children is they’d like to see their parents play more with them at home.”

As Clubb continues to present the new model across the province, he says that, “the real test will be at the end of the Summer, if we can get more children engaged and coming out to play.”

Check Grande Prairie Soccer Association to learn more about locally offered programs.