Youth To Be Proud Off

Absolutely correct there Dave in fact the vast majority of teenagers today are responsible caring and well behaved.

Growing up in our modern society is tough with much expected of young adults to perform academically and those who really want to succeed are generally held back by a minority who will never conform. Lack of old fashioned discipline, particularly in our schools is detrimental to the majority who want to do well and succeed in life and be good human beings.
You only need a small minority to create an anti social atmosphere, whether in the schools streets or at a football match and many of the older generation will unfortunately tar them all with the same brush. Thank goodness we can diferentiate, though the older we all get the more threatened and anti social some tend to become and the cycle turns full circle.

Yes i am a VERY PROUD father and anyone who is lucky enough to be able to go to watch Torquay play, home & away, with their own flesh and blood will relate to how enjoyable the experience is. And we also get to spend some QUALITY time together, although any time spent with them is QUALITY time.

Chips 1 has stopped contributing for a couple of reasons, far to much of a social life up there that any free time is spent recovering, or playing catch upon her studies, but mainly due to one reply from a match report she did. She felt it was a bit to much of a personal attack on her and also she felt that the comments were very hypocritical, seeing as the respondent had done exactly the same in one of their previous posts.
Obviously with the career path she has chosen she will have to learn to react and respond to this in the future and i did feel that this would be an ideal 'playing field' to hone her skills. By god if you can hold your own on here and write some good posts without over reacting to any responses, you can do it anywhere.

As for Chips 2, she was 'forced' into coming. After her Mum was recovering from an operation i said it would be a good idea to get out of the house and give her an afternoon of peace and quiet. I think that by the time Sills sank that injury time penalty she was already hooked.

This is one reason why i think that the club do not do enough to encourage young ones along to the game. Get them in once and even the most football hating young people soon realise what an Adrenalin rush they get from watching a 'stupid boring old game where 22 overpaid grown men kick a bag of wind around some grass field'. Its now, "I can't wait for the next game".

Another thing that intrigues me is the way they view the game and the players. Obviously they haven't been fed football from an early age, yes they use to come and 'watch' me play, but most of that time was spent running around oblivious to where i actually was. The fact that they are female also means that up until recently they were denied the option to play football at school. The point i am trying to make is that they do not see things the way we do. People on here make a lot about the technical side of the game, movement off the ball, running the channels etc etc. My girls haven't really got their heads around this sort of thing yet. Strangely enough both of them have the same views on what they like about the players/team. Commitment & Passion. They dislike the players that appear, to them, not to be trying. Dsane springs to mind, yet they love players who appear to be fully committed to the club and play with passion. Hence, Chips 1 thought Lee Phillips was the best thing since sliced bread. Chips 2 likes Mansell & Hargreaves, but also does not rate Dsane.

Chips 2 is only 14 and whilst i disapprove of the swearing at the game, i am also realistic enough to realise that unfortunately swearing has become part of our social fabric and not taking her to a game because of it would be churlish. Besides Dave and I both know that him & her both uttered a profanity during last weeks half time chat.

In answer to your question, there are a lot of good young people out there. I work at a youth club and once they are own there own and are given a bit of respect and talked to like an adult (empowerment is the buzz word) then just about all of them have it within them selves to be very nice young people, unfortunately, as in life, there will always be the odd few that spoil it or behave such that other people will generalise that all young people are like that.

Begs the age old question 'Nature or Nurture'.

OK aussie mate, but someone is going to have to lift me up so I can get one in

I've come home really proud of my Anthony today....................after his coaching class he got pitched into an under 9s game (he's not 8 until April 6th) and early on got left in a heap when a defender took exception to being made to look a mug (mind you they're all good in that class) and left him on the deck clutching his left ankle. A bit of TLC from the physio and a rest and he was back out there again only to get totally wiped out by the same player once more as he swept past him. The player apologized to the ref and the ref replied "don't apologise to me, apologise to him and when you've done that go and put the ball on the penalty spot for him!"

To me, that's the way to handle youngsters - treat them as adults, give them the chance to right their own wrongs; and you shouldn't need to wield the big stick.

Oh, why was I so proud of Anthony? Well he's taken on board the advice to count to ten, dust himself down, get up and let the ball be his avenger.................he stuck that penalty away like the World Cup depended on it!

I am very proud of him, and I was even prouder when a number of parents and other people came up to me afterwards all asking about him.

I touched yesterday about the immense skill level and awareness of the modern day youngest age level players I have been privileged to watch and observe being coached lately and I really feel that with the enlightened approach to coaching and development so many kids are getting the opportunity to display their skills and develop their awareness in the same manner as those in Holland, Germany and France.

I really believe that in the next 6-9 years we will see that manifest itself so that the immense skill and technical level gaps between England and the modern world will be closed.

Anthony's head coach on Saturday is a 60 + year old Italian - Luigi Leo, who has always refused to coach at anything older then under 15 level as he believes passionately that 9-15 are the most vital years and therefore deserve the very best and most experienced of coaches. He is very sceptical of so many former professional players being coaches based on their playing experience when (he says) they don't possess the very basic communicative and expressive skills that are so necessary at this age group. He points to those such as Dario Gradi and Arsene Wenger as the example of his theory and says that their longevity at their particular clubs and the fact that each has instilled a specific and unique way of playing throughout ALL the club sides as the proof of that school of thought.