The German Football Association wants to change young football with a uniform “training philosophy Germany”. Sports director Hannes Wolf showed how to do it in Stuttgart. SWR Sport watched him.
Young football should change. Children and adolescents should be used earlier and more often in training, have more ball campaigns and are therefore better promoted. In order to anchor the idea nationwide, DFB sports director Hannes Wolf, the former coach of VfB Stuttgart, has been traveling across Germany for months.
Wolf wants to convince critics of the new forms of play with exchange at eye level, for example in public advanced training as in the Robert Schlienz Stadium in Stuttgart. Around 1,000 trainers from the youth and amateur area were there. Supported by the Württemberg Football Association (WFV) and VfB Stuttgart, Wolf presented concrete training guidelines together with U20-Co coach Daniel Stredack.
Preside joy and develop talents
According to Wolf, Germany is lagging behind in the top area, and this has two central causes: Many children break football during puberty. “Then clubs have four e-youth and no A-youth because the joy was lost somewhere on the way”. The reason is often the day -to -day training, for example when only a small part of the children is encouraged at nine against nine. Only a few young German players make it into the professional area. Potentials are not exhausted properly. For Hannes Wolf it is clear: Quality does not only arise in the transition to the professional area, but across the entire development path. “We cannot save everything again in professional football, there is no longer a button that you can press,” he says in an interview with SWR Sport.
Hannes Wolf: “Good training doesn’t have to be complicated.”
Hannes Wolf and his team have a clear goal: to improve child and youth training. The “training philosophy Germany” is aimed not only at full -time trainers, but also to parents or interested parties who are involved in volunteering. “Mums and dads are often on the pitch who train their children. For them, too, we want to create a system that is easy to implement and really gets the children,” says Wolf.
With the message: “Good training doesn’t have to be complicated,” Hannes Wolf and the team rely on game forms such as the three-against-three or two-against-two. The aim of these forms of exercise is to offer children as many ball contacts and moments of decision on several small fields. Because the DFB director sees a central problem in the so-called “bogus participation”: children who are present during training but have hardly any ball action or can hardly play along. “That also does something with self -worth,” says Wolf. The focus is therefore on: everyone plays all the time.
Everyday useful – also for the small club
But can the concept be implemented for all clubs at all? Hannes Wolf is convinced: yes, immediately. “Every youth coach can do this directly from tomorrow,” he emphasizes. Philosophy is deliberately designed in such a way that it is not bound to infrastructure or professional conditions. “Two youth goals, a few hats, four mini goals and a quarter of a soccer field, which is often the reality in the amateur area. This allows you to design a game-form-oriented training.”
Wolf also meets the often mentioned space problem with a pragmatic point of view: “Even a quarter of a standard field are around 1,500 square meters. That is enough for several small fields and thus also for many ball campaigns”.
It is important not to hide behind excuses, but to concentrate on the possibilities. The feedback from the clubs is optimistic: “Many trainers have already dealt with the topic,” says Wolf. The response to the previous events is positive.
A starting point for change
The responsibility is not only among the individual coaches, but also with the associations. Wolf shows that the Württemberg Football Association (WFV) and VfB Stuttgart have jointly invited to further training: The implementation is actively supported. The contents of the new philosophy have long been part of the trainer training, from the children’s trainer certificate to the basic coach to the C license. “If you train yourself, you will get exactly these ideas in the future and you will be able to apply directly in your own club”.
From experienced youth coaches to committed parents, to Bambini coaches, they all came to find out more and ask questions. “I think the biggest compliment is that they came today,” says Hannes Wolf. “This shows that it is important to people and that they have trust to take something with them here.”
Following the training session, there was also the opportunity for questions, discussions and the exchange with the DFB team. “The question and answer session are always impressive and make it clear how great the interest is,” explains the DFB director.
Events such as in the Robert Schlienz Stadium are on a long way for Hannes Wolf and his team. “We can set a starting point here. Because good training doesn’t have to be complicated, it just has to be good.”
