There is a saying in youth sport, “If you are good enough, you are old enough.” After all, sport, in particular performance sport, is a meritocracy. Age is less important than ability.
When I was a young coach, I worked at a junior football camp to gain experience working with groups. One child refused to take his backpack off for the entire session. I learned that it was chaotic, and little I said or did seemed to change that.
Rather than put me off coaching, I figured, since it was chaotic, I might as well throw myself in at the deep end. Work with a first-team professional football squad soon followed, despite my only being 28 years old – if you are good enough, you are old enough.
At a grassroots level, we accept that novice coaches work with novice players, however backward that might seem. Those who know little about the game are supported by those who know a little about the game. In utopia, it wouldn’t be this way, but here on planet Earth, it is.
When it comes to age group coaching, perhaps we should return to the adage: Age is less important than ability.
What is “good enough?”