How to Cultivate the Talent of Young Indian Football Players between 7 & 13 Years
by Horst Wein

1. Consider the exclusive use of a ball No.4 for all players aged between 8 and 13 years in their training sessions and their competitions. The.O.M.S. (Organización Mundial de la Salud) also demands it for health reasons and the world of football for facilitating the young kids to acquire technical skills and achieve a superior tactical learning (please consult the chapter in my book" DEVELOPING YOUTH SOCCER PLAYERS", 2000, Human Kinetics -USA: "Why children between 8 and 13 years of age should play with a size 4 ball?")

2. Foment the many variants of Mini Football with 4 goals (instead of attacking one centralized goal the ball has to be kicked in one of two goals, separated by not less than 12 meters) with the purpose of stimulating systematically the perception skills, a capacity which has to be considered as a base for a correct decision making and execution of technical gestures. Doing it this way, the teaching of football of young players stimulates sufficiently the importance of the perception skills as well as the cognitive capacities, both aspects still underestimated in many countries (consult the chapter "Developing game intelligence with the variations of Mini Football").

3. Organize regularly different competitions, tailor-made to the mental and physical capacities of the young kids like for instance a Football Triathlon 3-on-3 or 4-on-4, a Mini Football Pentathlon, a Goalkeeper Decathlon, a Decathlon for Football Players or a Heptathlon .To be able to stimulate the game intelligence of our young talents it is necessary to offer them in one season more than a single official competition. Competing in the same season in several competitions be that are different from the traditional ones will improve their capacity of adaptation and their flexibility of the brain. In all these competitions the participation, the enjoyment, the recreation and fun are more important aspects than winning (please consult the proposal for structuring in your club an internal league for players of 8 and 9 years: THE MINI FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS LEAGUE).

4. For the children of 10 and 11 years the season should be divided in two parts. In first half of the season a competition is played without giving points away or establishing a classification table. In second part of the season a championship is played with 3 periods of 15 minutes and an interval of only 5 minutes in which the coaches may exchange their commentaries with the players. Coaching from the sideline is forbidden.

5. Allow in all youth competitions substitutions as happens in basketball, volleyball or hockey, i.e. the same player may be taken off and return as often as the coach prefers. The "rolling substitution" generates within the group of players a much better coexistence, avoids overloads and furthermore allows better communication as the coach just take a player off the field to give him any technical-tactical comment.

6. In order to cultivate in early ages important but often forgotten aspects like the "fair-play", sport ethics and perfect behaviour toward the opponents, the teammates and the referee each team receives the opportunity to present to the referee after the end of the game one golden card with the name of the player written on it. This player always has to be named from the opposite side. In case nobody has demonstrated a fine sportsmanship, no card is handed to the referee. At the end of each season the player who received most cards from the opponents is considered sportsman of the season.

7. To diminish the percentage of the anaerobic effort in a game played on the full field convince the authorities to prohibit 11-a-side competitions for children between 7 and 13 years. Competitions with 3, than 7 and later 8 players on the field which increases its dimensions the same way as the fewer players in a team increased technically, tactically, in their perception and their understanding of the game.
(please consult the chapters "Why Mini Football on 4 goals instead of 7-a-side Football?" "Why 7-a-side Football and no 11-a-side Football?" and "Why 8-a-side Football and no 11-a-side Football?" in the book: "DEVELOPING YOUTH SOCCER PLAYERS", 2000, Human Kinetics -USA).

8. Publish and diffuse sufficient didactical information to make sure that in each preparatory session the 7-13 years old players are exposed during half an hour to multipurpose motor activities that improve their level of coordination.

9. Allow in all youth competitions between 8 and 13 years old players a rule that states that a team which is losing with a difference of 4 goals (0:4, 1:5, 2:6, etc.) can introduce one additional player into the game to force the winning team to continue to try hard and put their best efforts in.

10. Supervise regularly the development work carried by the Football Schools of Initiation with the purpose of protecting the young talents through the systematic application of the proposals listed here.
Convince the teachers of the importance of using football activities as educational instrument to foment in the children apart from technical, tactical, visual, cognitive and physical capacities,
- healthful habits toward the practice of sport, thus maintaining and improving their health,
- teaching them to occupy efficiently their leisure time with sport activities,
- offering enjoyment and pleasure and
- contributing to the development of the personality of each one of the young players.

11. To consider through a regular control of the Regional Football Federation only those Football Schools of Initiation, which apply the philosophy and the recommendations, exposed in this book as recommended schools. If they fulfil the norms imposed by a certification committee they will have the right to use the badge of the Federation near to the name of the school. Through this procedure the selected schools are going to attract the interest of the parents and the public and will benefit for example from
- free of charge insurance,
- discounts in the acquisition of sport material,
- free access of their teachers to special coaching seminars or days organized by the federation,
- help in connecting with other institutions (interchanges),
- help in the organization of sport or cultural events, etc.
- help with a medical stuff to detect any potential risk for the player's health.

12. Create a manual which orients the teachers how to communicate periodically with the parents and how to let them collaborate in the important task to support their ethical, moral, physical and intellectual growth and leave to a side the material interests that the consumer society want to impose also to the world of youth football.

13. A teacher of young talents who always win with his or her team will lose at the end. So that? He or she has done everything to assure his or her own professional future and not the one of his or her talented disciples. In youth football we say:

" To win one cup less means frequently
to win more than a promising talent"

NOTE: Exercises and Simplified Games for unlocking and developing the Soccer Game Intelligence on the field of play have been published in the books, videos and DVD by Horst Wein.