Crosfields JFC Club Ethos

Crosfields Junior Football Club Under 5s - Under 18s - Girls & Boys - Disability - Open Age www.crosfieldsjfc.com

Crosfields JFC Club Ethos The Crosfields club ethos is founded upon the answers to three fundamental questions:

1. Who is the club for? 2. Why do kids play football? 3. How do we measure success?

We, as a club, believe that we exist for the 400+ players, who play football for fun and enjoyment. We measure success by our size, the few children who leave our club, and by the development of all players. This guides everything that we do. This is the reason why everyone in the club must abide by the following rules.

Match Days

 Let the players play

 Playing Time – All players will have equal playing time during matches - A rota should be used by Managers, this will include opportunities for all players to start and finish a match. There may be occasions, when because of poor attendance or attitude, this is occasionally altered, but this would always be done after discussion with the child and parent. In a 40 minute game all players will play more than 25 minutes.

 Rotation of Playing Positions - Players will be asked to play in a variety of positions - again using a rota would represent best practice. There may be exceptions for this for goalkeepers. Players should know at the start of the match when and where they will be playing (The club has examples of good practice).

 Attitude of Coaches and Touchline Behaviour - Coaches will be required to strictly follow the coaches’ code of conduct and must let the players play during matches, with positive encouragement from parents and coaches. Information from the line is in a series of occasional questions from the coaching staff. Patrolling the touchline giving continuous shouted instructions must not happen. Players always try their best. They will learn from their mistakes without being told they have done wrong.

 Warming the players up. For mini soccer the best warm up they could have is to play 5v5 for 20 minutes before the main game. This will double the exposure of the players to decision making opportunities. Training Sessions

 For training sessions the age group trains together on a regular basis - 50% of training sessions will be held with squad players mixed together  Larger age groups will have to plan carefully how to train perhaps 40 odd players together – but this is easily done with a little advanced planning, cooperation and communication between coaches. There is a Crosfields Mini-Soccer coaching booklet with lots of ideas for games and drills, as well as those you learn on FA Courses.  When training together as a group coaches will work with different players each week. Coaches and Team Managers will get to know and work with all of the players in the age group – not just their own League squad players.  There is no need for tactical training sessions as such at mini soccer – the emphasis is on the players’ discovery of the game and working matters out for themselves in a fun environment. Team Managers and coaches are there to supervise and to organise fun sessions for the players and not to try and impart match tactics.  At the end of each training session there is a ‘team-talk’ for all players and parents, where praise is given to players, and information given to parents.

Organisation, squads and monitoring

 Mini Soccer age groups are treated as one unit (i.e all U8 players will train together) and not as individual squads. It is vital that Mini Soccer age groups don’t become fragmented – the only ‘splits’ as such should happen at League matches, when League squads are formed to play in matches. A Head of Age-group is appointed to ensure the above rules are applied, from a coaching point of view.  During the summer (May and June) the whole age group trains together and during June.  ALL the coaches ,under the leadership of the Head of Age-group, decide together who will play in which squad for the forthcoming season; parents can expect change and some movement every year. All players and parents are informed of who is in which new squad at the same time, in writing at the end of the first training session in July.  Each team chooses a parent representative to ensure the above rules are being applied, the parent rep communicates regularly with all parents and provides feedback of any concerns to team Managers/Head of Age in the first instance and to the committee (via the parent representative on the committee) if serious matters arise.  All parents attend a workshop which will have content based around the FA's RESPECT campaign and watch the RESPECT campaign videos on the FA web site.  All parents are made aware of the Club Ethos and rules and asked to help enforce via the parent rep, the team Manager - or when necessary by contacting the committee.  In addition members of the Crosfields committee will monitor both training sessions and matches. Crosfields JFC is an FA Charter Standard Community Club – Awarded 2011 Regional & County Charter Standard Community Club of the Year 2011 National, Regional & County Charter Standard Development Club of the Year 2004 Regional & County Charter Standard Development Club of the Year 2005 & 2006 Honorary Life President - Ainsley Procter