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DB57
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Post by DB57 »

And this is where the rot sets in. A poorly run youth set up leads to disgruntled and disillusioned parents and kids. They drift away to properly organised academies at Plymouth and Exeter - and who can blame them - and any hope there might have been of increasing our fan base through the next generation is lost.

But lets not get too upset about things, Osborne and Harrop think everything in the garden is rosy, and to be honest,given their long term ambitions it probably is.
CP Gull
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Post by CP Gull »

SBP wrote: 20 Jan 2018, 10:08 Totally agree with your post Merse.

I m part of a local Pioneer league team. We have played TUFC twice and beaten them both times. In fact we played them in a tournament and i dont think they won a game. We have boys who play for TUFC in the JPL league on a Saturday and they are being well beaten constantly. They then turn up on a Sunday for their team and they are fatigued and low in morale. When i ask them what kind of training they are doing they tell me that our training is far better. You then ask yourself why they are playing. Its the usual parent thing again hoping that their son is going to make it professionally.
TUFC are light years behind Exeter and Plymouth's academy.
To be fair and to give a bit of balance to this argument, I fully understand that some age groups are not particularly strong and/or well coached even - although I cannot say that is the case as I wouldn’t know personally. But what I can say is that my son plays in the under 14 age group and their coach is a guy called Richard Cherry (an ex semi pro for Grays Athletic and former YTFC Youth Academy Coach) who is excellent both in terms of coaching - he has just taken and passed the next level of his professional coaching badges (at not inconsiderable personal expense to him!) - but also in the way he treats the boys. He is frustrated at the minimal time given (1.5 hours a week) to training but in reality a lot of the boys he trains also have their local club commitments and school matches to play - so very little scope to increase that unless they drop their club football.

As for the standard, again totally different experience to the above, we have comfortably beaten (twice) the best team in the Pioneer Youth League at this age level, Bovey Tracey, as it happens, 7-3 in a pre season friendly and 4-0 in a training game recently. We have also comfortably beaten Saints South West and drawn (but should have beaten) the “Chelsea Academy” aka South Dartmoor - which is what they have entered the Junior Premier League as.

They (the under 14s) have also won their way through to the last sixteen of the JPL Cup (as opposed to the Trophy and the Plate competitions - for those who have been less successful) and are actually away at Cirencester today trying to progress further - a very tough call given the set up they have there - but a fine achievement anyway to have got this far. The group have only lost three games - two of which were very narrow defeats to the same team, both of which were away and on their 3G surface.

When matches are called off Richard has, where possible, arranged training days at Seale Hayne - but as we all know that is often unavailable due to how wet it is.

What I will say is that I have been unimpressed with the way that the JPL has been run - but that is not the fault of TUFC.

So, although I’m sure that for some the experience has not been a positive one - that is not to say that it hasn’t been for others. As in any “proper” football Academy, there are always going to be stronger and better age groups, others not quite so - likewise with the standard of coaching too I’m afraid.
Last edited by CP Gull on 20 Jan 2018, 11:33, edited 1 time in total.
SBP
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Post by SBP »

Morning CP Cull

Of course you are correct age groups will be run differently depending on the coaches. I know Richard Cherry, he's a nice guy and well regarded. He can cut hair too:)
Interestingly the Chelsea Academy at that U14 age has a large number of boys from one local team(Marldon ,8 players i think). You can imagine the coaches at that team on a Sunday when the boys are fatigued etc etc . At that age group Bovey and Marldon are strong however Marldon have dipped down due to the above.
I totally agree with you regarding the JPL league.
merse btpir
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Post by merse btpir »

Awareness has to be made widespread that the number of hours given to training in the Torquay United project is both inadequate and counter-productive to any aspiration to being an 'academy' rather than an after school project and players who are serious about progressing towards professional football need to leave their local community team behind and progress upwards......

I know this will cause 'shock-horror' and there will be justifiable resistance because the outward signs at Torquay are that the professional club is not very well organised whilst the name and reputation it has within the community is damaged and flawed.

Something that the club has never had to face before is the multitude of opportunities now for parents and their children to make a choice where they go and I appreciate that.

One thing remains uppermost in my mind and that is constant practice, every day regularly and religiously is necessary to attain mastery over that pesky little round thing; the football. Without that no-one can hope to achieve excellence and excellence is by it's very name difficult to achieve......it's supposed to be!

The other issue that always concerns me is the pre-occupation of 'we beat them; we're so and so in the league' at too young an age. Involvement with U6/7/8 football and then U16 in the same set-up last season revealed little difference between the parental attitudes of either age. Far too many wanted to judge things on results and league placing rather than player development and producing players fit for purpose to progress on to bigger and better things. Parents within the U8 section would tell me so and so were 'top of the league' when there patently isn't any league table at that age neither are results published!

Finding openings for the more accomplished players so that they departed, lead to parental jealousy and indeed anger that their son's team was being weakened and less enjoyable for them as parents. Explaining to them that a player good enough to progress to a pro' club's development system or even academy had nothing to gain from remaining in the standard of football that he had progressed from usually fell on deaf ears.

Too may fathers live their dreams through their son's feet!
CP Gull
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Post by CP Gull »

SBP wrote: 20 Jan 2018, 11:32 Morning CP Cull

Of course you are correct age groups will be run differently depending on the coaches. I know Richard Cherry, he's a nice guy and well regarded. He can cut hair too:)
Interestingly the Chelsea Academy at that U14 age has a large number of boys from one local team(Marldon ,8 players i think). You can imagine the coaches at that team on a Sunday when the boys are fatigued etc etc . At that age group Bovey and Marldon are strong however Marldon have dipped down due to the above.
I totally agree with you regarding the JPL league.
Hi SBP

Yeah that’s him (Richard).

The same is true to a large extent with the u14 team - a large number of them play for Liverton and were brought across to TUFC by (the now departed) Craig Hellier who (still) runs their PYL side on Sundays. My son plays for another team locally along with a couple of others in the group and its fair to say that their club Manager wasn’t best pleased when we told him they were joining up with TUFC - for the same reasons you outline above. But I am happy with the arrangement because at his age (13) I just don’t believe an hours football training with his local club once a week and a game (weather permitting) every other Sunday on average is enough for him. Anything to get him out kicking a ball around rather than stuck indoors on his XBox!

Let’s face it the amount of hours these boys train and play (club and TUFC combined + school team) is probably still less than lads of their age who are signed up to either ECFC or PAFC Academies anyway! I quite like the fact that he can still play with his mates on a Sunday - and its also still very important to keep that going too. Quite a few sides I know of in the Pioneer Youth League at his age group folded last year and they are struggling to keep the numbers up - the Second Division only consists of FIVE teams this year which quite frankly is ridiculous - and so I think its vitally important to support that as well.
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