Under- Carrig v Carrig in Ballyadam Park on Sunday 12th October 2014

Another glorious Sunday at Ballyadam, and another action packed match for Carrig’s U11. Wearing both home and away colours, the U11s gave a great display of the kind of enthusiasm that has helped them succeed in both league and Cup. Another point of interest on the day was the inclusion in the team of Ciara Walsh and Cathy Walsh, playing for the first time under CUFC colours. Despite only joining the Club in the 14/15 season, both of them showed that they have the requisite skills and were unfazed by the occasion, getting on the ball a number of times and driving forward.

carrig-U11s-V-carrig-U11s

The fun was certainly there, with a lot of fast play and a few goal line clearances, but the players still need to work some more to learn how to play in the different positions. At U11 level, it is absolutely essential to rotate players to ensure that they become familiar with all the facets of the game of soccer. That is the only way to ensure their complete development as players in the medium term.

For coaches, the temptation is great to try to play the best possible team and to specialise each player in the position where they are most comfortable, but at U11 level, this is totally counterproductive, as player have a lot of changing, learning and growing to do yet. Specialising them in any position – even in goals – is unlikely to allow them to ever reach their true potential.

The other side of that coin of course is that it is harder to win matches in the league playing in this way. This is why the Carrig V Carrig matches that are being played this year are so important. They allow all players to learn faster and in a safe environment, relatively free from any kind of fear to perform. Given the speed at which this panel is learning, they can only go from strength to strength as the season progresses. Still Rome was not built in a day and hopefully some of these players will be performing for CUFC all the way to the Club’s first team in the AUL!