Erling Haaland – As Many as Possible, as Long as Possible, as Good as Possible

Since I published this article, a really  insightful paper by Martin Erikstad and colleagues was published, giving a deeper insight in to the development environment of Erling Haaland. I urge you to read it.

As many as possible, as long as possible – “Sport organizations and clubs should, therefore, be careful to not build systems that reduce individuals’ opportunities for long-term engagement and/or personal development.”

Link here: https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/tsp/aop/article-10.1123-tsp.2020-0107/article-10.1123-tsp.2020-0107.xml

As reported in the national Norwegian newspaper VG, Marius Johnsen, a former professional footballer,  carried out research into Erling  Haaland’s journey towards professional football. The results are quite revealing and challenge many culturally pervasive structural and pedagogical assumptions, providing an argument for a re-conceptualisation of player development in youth football.

For me, this once again highlights the need for an open conversation on evolving a purposeful and supporting culture for young players, parents, coaches, leaders and community in child youth sports. Why are we creating generic linear  models in the hope of finding unique people?

Maruis Johnsen’s thesis can be read here (only in Norwegian) https://uia.brage.unit.no/uia-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2620251/Johnsen%2C%20Marius.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Here are the main points from the thesis as reported in VG

• Played until he was 16 for his mother club Bryne
• He was born 2000 but played with the team born 1999
• His training group consisted of 40 players (39 boys and 1 girl)
• At 9 they had one training session a week
• Facilities (indoor and outdoor) were kept open for spontaneous football and many of the kids took the opportunity to play as much football as possible.
• Not one player dropped out before 16 years
• Football was understood as a social environment for learning in development and keeping the social group together was a priority
• At 15 the players were given the choice to decide if they wanted to train 4 times a week (specialized team) or 2 times a week (recreation team). The kids themselves made the choice.
• 5 national team players and in total 6 professional players emerged from this group
• Many including high profile youth coaches who assumed that the best must play with the best otherwise they will not develop, questioned Alf- Ingve Bersten’s approach to coaching . Bernsten says “it would be fun to go back and speak to them now”.
• Bernsten believes that what was most important was to include all players and avoid giving in to these culturally pervasive beliefs that have remained unchallenged and unchanged. He admitted that he could not see who will be the best
• “If you have 40 players and select the best 14 as the 1^stteam, 13 as the 2^ndteam and 13 as the 3^rdteam, then the 1^stteam gets the good coaches. Before summer the 3^rdteam collapses and then the same thing happens with the second team. Then you are left with 14 of 40 players and of those maybe 5 or 6 will lose interest. Suddenly you have too few players when you are going up to junior football (11 a side). This happens so often”.
• Bernsten has nothing against top academies, but I doubt the effect of them. Martin Odegaard does not come from an academy. Then you have Erling Halland who played with a girl and 38 boys.

Something to reflect on

There is a fundamental flaw in any system that excludes individuals based on rates of development and does not take into account the complexity and non-linearity of human development & excludes individuals based on rates of development.

Despite the fact that we have been educating coaches, parents, clubs and federations for decades it is hard to imagine any changes (structurally & pedagogically) taking place as long as the structural conditions remain unchanged & unchallenged.  This includes coach education.

Many clubs and even NGB’s are still anchored in a traditional view of sport and competition limiting their ability to think critically and differently, break routines and try new ways  (Håkan Larsson , 2013 )

Skills have history (Baily & Pickford, 2010). Movement solutions in young players cannot be separated from each individuals’ unique bibliography of movement experiences and opportunities their environment offered to them up to that point

RIP Andrew Weatherall