Futsal and Youth Development

Futsal and Youth Football

I've hesitated in writing this for a few months now but after spending sometime mulling the subject over, I thought I'd bite the bullet and suffer the flak that will inevitably find itself my way.

Twitter is my University of choice. It's where I find ideas and swap opinions with like minded fellow Football Coaches. It's amazing, I am constantly surprised at the level of resources out there and more importantly the generosity of many of the people I come across.

It's also chock full of people determined to see every exchange as a battle that must be won.

This is why I've hesitated. For months now I've been engaged in exchanges about Futsal and in particular why it's a great development tool. Throughout these discussions, I've asked one simple question: Why?

Now some have taken this innocuous enquiry at face value and tried to explain the reasons why they feel it works so well, some have just trotted well used phrases without much understanding  and others have taken it as a personal affront to their world view, calling me and idiot, unqualified, inexperienced and more besides.

It's probably my fault. I'm genuinely interested in what shapes Football Development and like everyone, I have my own views. However, I'm not easily swayed by blasé statements and poorly thought out clichés. I like to see and question the evidence if possible.

So, I did.

For the last month, my Under Nine team have had training indoors. This was a great opportunity to test different approaches and In my way, work out what is going on.

Now, as my Twitter mates have pointed out, I am no expert. I have no expensive tools, just me and my mate keen to see what's happening.

We arranged our sessions as Whole, Part, Whole with 30 minutes traditional 5 aside, 20 minutes SSG with a theme and 30 minutes Futsal. We asked ourselves one question only. "How does Futsal differ to 5 aside in terms of player requirements"

This is the ball we used and what we found.



Time Restrictions

Futsal imposes time restrictions on goal keeper possession that 5 aside doesn't. This in itself requires the goalkeeper and outfield players to react quicker to the goalkeeper. Although both formats saw the keeper being used as a safety, Futsal kept the keeper and outfield players more alert. Fitness and decision making requirements were increased.

The Ball

My Under Nines hate the Futsal ball. When I asked them why, it was because they couldn't boot it the way they could a normal ball. Now this has some obvious impact on requirements. The ball rewards technical players who are comfortable with it at their feet. It punishes the players who boot it away or try wild speculative shots. Tactically, it rewards the team that can manipulate the ball through possession into better scoring areas. However, we also noticed that the players found it easier to control in certain situations.

It could also be argued that as the kids were not shooting from longer distances, this could negatively affect this technique.

Side lines

The pitch markings and side lines had a definite impact on requirements. Lots of the players suddenly found that their misplaced passes (out of play) and poor attempts just to get rid came back to punish them. A poorly placed pass quickly became an attacking opportunity for the opposition whereas in 5 aside, the boards are more forgiving of poor passes.  

There was also a bigger requirement for wide players to keep the ball better and dribble better. A poor dribble in 5's could easily be made into a winning move. A poor one in Futsal meant you just lost the ball.

General

We found no difference in terms of creativity required in either format and sometimes found that 5 aside encouraged creativity via the use of the boards.

So, in our own little way, we did find some differences in Futsal. In summary, you seem to be rewarded better for mastering the ball. The ball encourages mastery, the time and side line restrictions reward the player with better control, decision making and team engagement.

Futsal is definitely not an individual game as some Youtube videos try to make out. It's also not full of flash tricks. The successful Futsal team will have mastered the ball, be disciplined, patient and fit and have a tactical fluidity and flexibility to manipulate the ball into great areas. These things translate into modern football.

These are the attributes a modern footballer needs and the England DNA Project is desperate to instil into our Youth players. Should we abandon other methods for Futsal? Probably not but it should be part of a footballers education. How much so, is up to you.

5 Aside is still great and still encourages lots of those requirements but Futsal enhances them.

So, let the flak begin!