Left Footed Trial Days for Kids
In late January this year Keepitonthedeck.com received an email from a disgruntled parent who’s son Jamie was refused from a well established academy club in England. The validation and credibility of many stories sent Keepitonthedeck.com way are very difficult to post due to many of the claims within them. In the case of the aforementioned email the parent told Keepitonthedeck.com that his son was asked to work more on his passing and shooting, allegedly something which was given as feedback to parents of an eight year old boy from the academy of a professional football club, truly astonishing yet it was the end to the email that really raised an eyebrow. The end of the email is quoted as follows “Ryan a friend of Jamie recently was registered to the same club Jamie was refused from following an open trial day for left footed players only. Ryan had previously played with Jamie for a local club and according to the coach there Jamie was further along in his development”. That concluding part of the email was interest to read. Trials for left footed players as young as eight? surely a fabricated story or was it?
Evidence Sent
In February of this year Keepitonthedeck.com reached out to a number of contacts within professional academies in England in search of information about left footed player trial days. A contact sent the above poster allegedly produced by the academy of Oldham Athletic Football Club. In the poster Oldham allegedly are seeking eight and nine year old left footed players to attend a left footed trial day in the summer of this year. Keepitonthedeck.com sent an email to the contact provided in the poster and directly to Oldham Athletic Football Club asking about the above poster on the 6th of February 2019. To date Oldham Athletic Football Club have refused to offer any comment on the poster and any evidence of it’s existence on their clubs social media sites is now none existent.
Confirmed Trials
Since February Keepitonthedeck.com has been able to confirm three clubs who have confirmed left footed trial days for outfield kids, all the clubs are based in England with the youngest age group for such trials being targeted towards U9 footballers. One of these confirmed trial days recently went viral on the internet. The club in question is Port Vale Football Club. Below is the public message Port Vale used to highlight their left footed player trial day.
Port Vale Left Footed Trial Day
QUOTE “According to statistics, only 20% of the world’s population is left-footed, meaning that the vast majority of people are naturally right-footed. Whatever the reasons, there is something special about left-footed players and Port Vale Academy are looking to recruit more talented left-footed players who could potentially be the next Anthony Gardner, Steve Guppy or Lionel Messi. Our ‘Left-Footer Talent Identification Day’ is free to register, which is aimed at naturally left-footed players between the ages of 7-14 who believe they have the ability or potential to play in Academy football. If you would like to attend this session, please email lee.foyle@port-vale.co.uk with the following details below. On receipt of receiving your email, you will be informed whether your son has been accepted or not and will be given the address of the venue”.
A Good Idea or A Bad Idea?
Keepitonthedeck.com refuses to dismiss peoples ideas or beliefs, everyone has them at the end of the day. Who is anyone to tell a club how to run their business? Would clubs really hold these trial days if there wasn’t some evidence of success from them?. The part that Keepitonthedeck would question however is the age groups some of these unique trial days are being targeted towards. Are we really approaching an era that a little boy or girl as young as eight years of age is invited to trial days based on the foot he or she kicks a ball best with? Those kids have not long since perfected the art of walking let alone perfected their mastery of the ball with whatever foot they choose to practice most with. Eight is an age where there is huge development growth potential in whatever the child focuses their time practising. In two of the three confirmed upcoming trial days clubs have full time coaches employed at academy level from as young as foundation phase. Keepitonthedeck would love to hear the thoughts of coaches on this subject, is this a good idea or is this ridiculous. Please take time to provide feedback via Facebook or Twitter, your views would be greatly appreciated.
