Goalkeeping-bok

7.4.2
Training coordination skills with
children and adolescents
As our ways of life have changed, specialist coaches have
noted a decline in the physical conditions of youngsters, in
particular their motor coordination abilities. The increasing
amounts of time that children spend playing video games
and in front of the television (perhaps the consequence of
relative insecurity) are to the detriment of time spent playing
football with friends and other outdoor activities such as
climbing trees, running and jumping, as previous generations
used to do. Recognising this phenomenon in society, we, as
coaches and educators, must make sure that exercises that
develop motor skills are introduced from an increasingly
early age in training programmes for young players.
It is diffi cult to set out precise age categories for the
development of coordination skills because the differences
between individual children and adolescents can be vast.
Boys and girls do not go through puberty at the same age
and there are also major differences in maturity within each
gender. It seems a reasonable approach then to classify
young players in accordance with their individual maturity.
In terms of motor skills, bad habits acquired during this
period will require a lot of corrective work later on.
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Developing coordination skills should start very early in
childhood, as many motor skills and manoeuvres are
acquired before the age of 10. At this stage, the child should
be stimulated by a large number of diverse motor exercises
to improve general motor skills as much as possible.
Manoeuvres and accuracy are refi ned from age 10 to
puberty. The stimulation should be achieved through
learning based on solid skills (i.e. established skills of which
the movements can be repeated in a variety of situations).
This is a period of sports orientation, although in a multidisciplinary
perspective.
Growth and weight changes during puberty can affect
coordination. For this reason, the focus should be to
maintain previously acquired skills and have the youngster
specialise in some specifi c techniques. During this period, the
youth or goalkeeping coach must have plenty of patience
and know how to encourage players.
After this period, when the young player is more stable in
terms of growth and physical qualities such as strength are
being developed, training can become more specifi c and
focus on improvement.
Coordination skills can only be developed in terms of their
complexity, variability and continuity. Care must be taken to
ensure that the training is suitable for the children’s ages, in
particular by using short games in the group sessions.