Where do I start?
Cristian has asked a great question about adopting an ecological dynamics approach to the development of a group of 5-7 year olds and wanted some advice.
Firstly, lets try to demystify the language. An ecological approach means that the child is interacting with their immediate environment (for us activities and games for football development) and is using information from this environment to inform their decisions. They will also be interacting with the various tasks, challenges and constraints that may be applied to the environment. This is a very simplistic explanation but it's a good starting point.
So what does this mean for me as I am preparing activities and games?
For children of this age we must look slightly wider than just football development as a positive introduction to sport and being physically active can bring long term benefits so we must ensure that our activities are engaging, appropriate for the very young child and most of all enjoyable. This is the kind of environment we want to create so giving some ownership and choice helps develop a connection with the children and can help build trust so ask them questions, use their ideas be prepared to make the session more about their wants and needs rather than impose all of your own thoughts and ideas upon the group (although there is space for this too)
There are 3 areas to focus on:
1 Children need to be challenged to move in lots of different ways to ensure a broad and robust physical base for any activities they might choose to do in the future. This movement capability is also great for football as it allows the children to be creative with their bodies and this can lead to creative actions with a ball.
2 Mastery of the ball goes hand in hand with mastery of the body so the childen must spend lots of time on the ball and moving with a ball at their feet. This aspect cannot be rushed and will pay dividends later on as skill levels improve.
3 The children need the game of football scaled down to the most appropriate format. At this age 2v1, 2v2 and lots of individual work 1v1 should be the focus. I like 2v1 because for the two players it always includes the opportunity to share the ball with a teammate and this is where decision making can begin in earnest. During these games the players must be encouraged to come up with solutions through trial and error and experimentation and, once again, this is a long term process of discovery and trial and error. There is no short cut. The coach can offer help and support but also encourage the players to look for their own solutions as well. Lots of small number activities and the exploration of the environment, the rules and constraints is the beginning of an ecological approach. Playing lots of games with clear rules/constraints and then stepping back and observing helps the coach see who needs help and who might need the next cjhallenge. It also allows the players to make their own decisions - from this we can explore what information the players are using to make their decisions.
This is a long explanation but I hope it helps and from this there might be other questions you need me or others in the forum to answer and bring their own experiences to share.
Pete