What it takes to qualify: Iceland edition

[ted]

So everyone is impressed with Iceland. Here is a quick article that starts the conversation "why them and not us?"

My favourite quote, "From the age of four, every child has a Uefa-accredited coach."

Five facts about Icelandic football

[TRM]

"30 full-size all-weather pitches, seven of which are indoors, and almost 150 smaller artificial arenas."

7 full sized indoor facilities for 300,000 people. That would be about 70 for Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal. Wow.

[shermanator]

Iceland has invested heavily in coaching education and facilities, and it's paid off.

I think there have been some positives in building facilities in Canada, but it's still all baby steps. As an example, the entire province of Alberta does not have a FIFA regulation sized indoor pitch, and won't until Calgary Foothills' facility gets completed. For a country that has snow on the ground 6 months of the year, that's crazy.

From the coaching aspect, I looked into coaching in Calgary briefly this past winter. To become qualified to teach 4 year olds, it was a 2 hour course during one Saturday. That seems like far too little coaching education at first glance.

[Boominbooty]

34 minutes ago, shermanator said:

Iceland has invested heavily in coaching education and facilities, and it's paid off.

I think there have been some positives in building facilities in Canada, but it's still all baby steps. As an example, the entire province of Alberta does not have a FIFA regulation sized indoor pitch, and won't until Calgary Foothills' facility gets completed. For a country that has snow on the ground 6 months of the year, that's crazy.

From the coaching aspect, I looked into coaching in Calgary briefly this past winter. To become qualified to teach 4 year olds, it was a 2 hour course during one Saturday. That seems like far too little coaching education at first glance.

This problem is nation wide. I coached u8 last year in Victoria at a solid club. Even with decent organization and effort on the club's part some of the coaches had never PLAYED let alone coached or had training. My head coach and I were having to explain differences between goal kicks and corner kicks to the other coaches. I can't fault the other coaches either as we were short on volunteers. If they hadn't stepped up the season was going to be delayed. I can promise you this would never happen in hockey in this country. 

[ted]

4 hours ago, shermanator said:

From the coaching aspect, I looked into coaching in Calgary briefly this past winter. To become qualified to teach 4 year olds, it was a 2 hour course during one Saturday. That seems like far too little coaching education at first glance.

That's better than when I volunteered for my daughter's U7 team 8 years ago. There was no requirement for ANYTHING at that time. There was not even an optional course offered which I would have taken. 

[Coramoor]

4 hours ago, TRM said:

"30 full-size all-weather pitches, seven of which are indoors, and almost 150 smaller artificial arenas."

7 full sized indoor facilities for 300,000 people. That would be about 70 for Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal. Wow.

which is why we are the best in the world when it comes to hockey.

[Trillium]

5 hours ago, shermanator said:

Iceland has invested heavily in coaching education and facilities, and it's paid off.

I think there have been some positives in building facilities in Canada, but it's still all baby steps. As an example, the entire province of Alberta does not have a FIFA regulation sized indoor pitch, and won't until Calgary Foothills' facility gets completed. For a country that has snow on the ground 6 months of the year, that's crazy.

From the coaching aspect, I looked into coaching in Calgary briefly this past winter. To become qualified to teach 4 year olds, it was a 2 hour course during one Saturday. That seems like far too little coaching education at first glance.

Not sure, where I read or heard the statement.... but I believe the coaches in Iceland from the lowest level up are paid coaches, so no parent volunteers, but someone who takes the UEFA courses ( not a local provincial course as in Canada ) given by UEFA instructors, who would have no local political grind to make with any of the course takers. Another clear factor in the program success is the nature of Iceland with a homogenic population, certainly any of the top ten population cities in Canada could replicate the systemic parts of the Icelandic program, all that is needed in a new type of leadership of our soccer bodies.

 

[kmouseyc]

We have to also make it so one can be compensated for their time and efforts. Lots of people would take the courses and coach if their struggle with survival was made easier. In today's world where people are working long hours, two and three jobs to make ends meet it is hard to expect them to develop elite programs without some form of compensation.

Please don't get me wrong volunteers are great are needed, without them there is no programs. thank you to all who dedicate their time and give amazing effort. Keep it up.

We need a pathway for coaching to be a viable career or extra cash work, to keep and attract top level players and coaches. We all do it for the love but to compete we may have to pay.

[TRM]

37 minutes ago, kmouseyc said:

We need a pathway for coaching to be a viable career or extra cash work, to keep and attract top level players and coaches. We all do it for the love but to compete we may have to pay.

Retired people? Spare time and some would be knowledgeable and willing to take the courses. That and 700+ full sized indoor fields (Iceland has 7 and we have 100 times their population).

[1996]

So we keep boasting that soccer in Canada has more kids playing soccer than even hockey, so how is it that I keep hearing stories that  we have potential coaches that want to coach not even knowing the basic rules of the game, where are all those kids that use to play why are they not getting into coaching once they are done playing ?

[rob.notenboom]

11 hours ago, shermanator said:

Iceland has invested heavily in coaching education and facilities, and it's paid off.

I think there have been some positives in building facilities in Canada, but it's still all baby steps. As an example, the entire province of Alberta does not have a FIFA regulation sized indoor pitch, and won't until Calgary Foothills' facility gets completed. For a country that has snow on the ground 6 months of the year, that's crazy.

From the coaching aspect, I looked into coaching in Calgary briefly this past winter. To become qualified to teach 4 year olds, it was a 2 hour course during one Saturday. That seems like far too little coaching education at first glance.

C'mon Sean. you shouldn't even need a course with all that Voyageurs angst you have to pass on.

[rob.notenboom]

6 hours ago, ted said:

That's better than when I volunteered for my daughter's U7 team 8 years ago. There was no requirement for ANYTHING at that time. There was not even an optional course offered which I would have taken. 

All I'm reading here is that you have a 15yr old girl. I have girls that are soon to be 12 and 9 and the prospect of them being 15 terrifies me.

[kmouseyc]

2 hours ago, 1996 said:

So we keep boasting that soccer in Canada has more kids playing soccer than even hockey, so how is it that I keep hearing stories that  we have potential coaches that want to coach not even knowing the basic rules of the game, where are all those kids that use to play why are they not getting into coaching once they are done playing ?

working to pay off student loans!

[bwilly11]

Its easy to get motivated by Iceland, however there are pretty big differences. I mean, geez even the Faroe Islands are ranked 89, above our 91 FIFA ranking. They have a total population of 50,000!

In a country the size of ours, our population is so spread out. In Iceland, they can probably hop in the car and be at a indoor facility within 10-15 minutes. We have 50 cities with 100K or more. I cant even begin to imagine the infrastructure we need to get to the level comparable to European countries. The hockey analogy is good, every town has a few sheets of ice. Sadly, unless we were to host a WC and get some major interest nation wide, we will never have local municipalities putting up money for  indoor pitches. Every small town in Canada has a hockey coaches who played major junior or pro. With soccer we have moms and dads, which is great...but, you know

[ted]

13 hours ago, rob.notenboom said:

All I'm reading here is that you have a 15yr old girl. I have girls that are soon to be 12 and 9 and the prospect of them being 15 terrifies me.

It is a bit terrifying.

Mostly she is more mature than me and very judgemental. My other two are boys so I cannot imagine what you are going to face.

[smiddy]

I tried coaching a couple years back. Thought I would cut my teeth at U5/6. It was a blast. Dealing with the fucking leadership in our associations is brutal. I couldn't get a course through my association. Went searching. Every other association wouldn't allow me unless I coached in their program. So I quit. I have tons of free time and all I want is knowledge to help make our players better. I don't need to be paid.

I now spend my time coaching Special Olympics Powerlifting. Had a nationally certified course within 3 months. I can work towards certification for coaching nationally within a couple of years. I am quite happy with the Special Olympics setup. Its not perfect but they push to make their athletes competitive.

[kmouseyc]

9 hours ago, smiddy said:

I tried coaching a couple years back. Thought I would cut my teeth at U5/6. It was a blast. Dealing with the fucking leadership in our associations is brutal. I couldn't get a course through my association. Went searching. Every other association wouldn't allow me unless I coached in their program. So I quit. I have tons of free time and all I want is knowledge to help make our players better. I don't need to be paid.

I now spend my time coaching Special Olympics Powerlifting. Had a nationally certified course within 3 months. I can work towards certification for coaching nationally within a couple of years. I am quite happy with the Special Olympics setup. Its not perfect but they push to make their athletes competitive.

yep every club has their own rules and their own who they will help and promote. If you are not on the chosen list then no support and you must find your own way. I have experienced very similar in places that I have spent a lot of time volunteering for.

[Trillium]

On 6/29/2016 at 1:20 PM, smiddy said:

I tried coaching a couple years back. Thought I would cut my teeth at U5/6. It was a blast. Dealing with the fucking leadership in our associations is brutal. I couldn't get a course through my association. Went searching. Every other association wouldn't allow me unless I coached in their program. So I quit. I have tons of free time and all I want is knowledge to help make our players better. I don't need to be paid.

I now spend my time coaching Special Olympics Powerlifting. Had a nationally certified course within 3 months. I can work towards certification for coaching nationally within a couple of years. I am quite happy with the Special Olympics setup. Its not perfect but they push to make their athletes competitive.

Your profile shows your from BC, was it in BC that you tried to get coaching courses through your club ? The same BC that has one of its "soccer gurus" as head of CONCACAF, head of CSA, former head of BC Soccer ?

Just asking cause I really think the issues in soccer in Canada are in the boardrooms, not on the fields, so many decisions never made, and decisions made that protect the status quo.

[SuperCanuck]

I looked up the island where the dentist/manager lives.  It's remote, even by Icelandic standards.  When I clicked on the map, this is the first thing I saw:  https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Heimaey/@63.4393865,-20.2877883,3a,75y,270h,81.51t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-vhNYLXG8ltA%2FVJG15QhHARI%2FAAAAAAAAAKI%2FYz-_x8YNjoA1xZXXJQMGEtlfgT4Yx6F6g!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-vhNYLXG8ltA%2FVJG15QhHARI%2FAAAAAAAAAKI%2FYz-_x8YNjoA1xZXXJQMGEtlfgT4Yx6F6g%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i2508!8i1254!4m5!3m4!1s0x48d708de81aa5695:0x1563b2ffe2c91359!8m2!3d63.427717!4d-20.2673821!6m1!1e1

Sorry it's so long, I hope it works.