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When I answered I wasn't necessarily targeting sexual abuse. What I was trying to point out was that when people like the "local bobby" are allowed to judge when to give someone a clip without regulation then it often leads To a society where abuse goes on unchecked.
That's what I thought. I can't imagine being ok with strangers hitting my kids.
This talk of snowflake generation is rubbish anyway. You've always had kids who are alright with a rollicking and those who aren't. Tuerto's posts about his experiences have been interesting. The difference now is that one voice can be heard more easily, so we're more likely to hear the stories.
To be honest, when you look at Barry Bannon and other similar cases that have come out, it's no bad thing if coaches are under greater scrutiny. I'm not saying that's happened here obviously, but if the culture is to be verbally abusive then it makes it easier for those who take things too far to slip through the net.
Thanks for that. As you say, those who haven't experienced what you have cannot really comment on it with much authority, but I must say that what you describe sounds nothing like an environment where teenagers, or possibly younger kids than that these days, would prosper - for every one who developed to their full potential with a football upbringing like that, there has to plenty more that didn't surely?
Judging by what you say in your first paragraph, the sort of thing you talk about in your second paragraph was going on early in your six year association with the club - can you confirm that this was the case?
Isn’t the mark of a good manager in all walks of life in the job title? ‘manager’. Although I say all walks of life perhaps football is a bit different. A manager in a factory could be in his 30s managing blokes in their 50s/60s, blokes who’ve been around the block a few times and can more or less handle most things.
I say football is a bit different because the manager has to manage a unit all around the same age group especially in an academy where they are by & large the same age. If they’d made it that far these lads have been told that they’re the best by their teachers, their mates etc. They’ve been the most talented at school, then the town side etc, any tantrums may have been overlooked because everyone wanted them in the side. Then they’re brought into a world where every one of their contemporaries has been brought up being told the same thing. Must be so competitive that environment and this is where the managers have to manage, know who can take bollockings, know who needs an arm around the shoulder etc. Bullying has to be a big no no, if it gets to that the manager isn’t managing at all, he’s failed the job description. He could potentially be losing his club millions (to be mercenary about it), if a talent jacks it in because he isn’t being managed correctly.
Really hope this can be sorted out, it’s a grim thing to be hanging around our club & if heads have to roll, so be it.
It wasn't so prevalent as a schoolboy, we would train three times a week, although you were monitored and if standards were dropping then you'd be told to leave, so there was still that competitiveness. I saw kids who were more reserved fold, it could be intense and for me it wasn't enjoyable. You were encouraged to be vocal, 'Talk'' Encourage' etc the lads who had the biggest gobs seemed to thrive as the coaches were old school and saw this kind of behaviour as a form of leadership, confidence etc. The quiet lads fell by the wayside.
It changed dramatically when i was at the club full time, in an environment that was all about testosterone, a certain amount of aggression and jostling for power, whether that was in training or just doing your jobs. Everything was about being strong, weakness wasn't an option, you would have been slaughtered. I can remember training at Treforest and me and a few other lads were whipping in crosses for the strikers under the instruction of our coach, my first cross was taken by the keeper, Striker told me to '****ing sort it out' second cross i over-hit, My coach told me to ****off and do laps of the pitch for the remainder of the session, i actually remember feeling like it was my fault, he then slaughtered me when i got back in after training.
The problem is that a lot of these coaches have absolutely no training with kids and their development, they come from a background where winning is everything, they are so competitive, they become institutionalised, involved with football clubs from a very young age, they don't know anything else. To them, we had everything to prove, we had to show them what we had to offer and if it wasn't up to scratch then you'd be ****ed off. I'm not saying that it's like that now, but i'm pretty sure that the culture still exists.
Of course it bloody well does , I have played devils advocate in a few posts here , I am au fait with a number of professional sportsmen and they are a different breed to the average Joe . They are instilled with a will to win and god help the average chuckle brother who can do a step over or run like the wind
Well, if that attitude still persists at Cardiff's Academy, it's not working is it because its reason to exist has to be to produce footballers good enough to make our first team or good enough to net us a substantial transfer fee surely and that hasn't happened in ages.
I hear constantly that with professional footballers it's always someone else's fault and what you say about the time you were asked to knock those crosses in shows how such an attitude can become ingrained. I get that it is an environment where the adage "only the strong survive" can apply, but, surely, a lot of the aggression and backstabbing mentality becomes counter productive when you consider that we are talking about a team game?
You don't surprise me with what you say about the kids with the biggest gobs thriving, but, at the far lower levels I played at, I was always someone who thought quality beat quantity every time when it came to that department. I can see that "Testosterone" as you call it, should be a factor in the whole procedure of whether a promisng kid makes the jump to first team footballer, but, from what you say and what I've heard from a few others in the know, it seems to be greatly overvalued to me.