Is it true that a stronger national team leads to more players?
We often hear this idea, but is it really accurate?
It’s true that a national team’s success can temporarily boost participation. Young athletes see their idols on the world stage and get inspired to start playing—and that’s a wonderful thing.
However, what happens in the long run?
If a new player’s experience isn’t fun, or if they dislike their coach, they’ll struggle to stay motivated. In the worst-case scenario, they might quit the sport entirely and even grow to dislike it.
While a national team’s victory can be a great starting point, sustainable growth and a higher level of play depend on one thing: a thriving grassroots environment. This means focusing on the quality of coaching and practice, creating strong connections between different age groups, and improving how tournaments are run.
The Problem with “Grassroots, Development, and Strengthening”
The structure of the competitive sports world is often depicted as a pyramid: grassroots, followed by development, and finally, strengthening at the top, with the national team at the pinnacle.
While this pyramid helps us understand the overall structure, it also creates a major problem. By labeling each stage with a different word—”grassroots,” “development,” and “strengthening”—we start to see them as separate, disconnected activities.
Grassroots is grassroots. Development is development. Strengthening is strengthening.
In reality, these are not separate at all. They are an interconnected, continuous flow, like a river. To me, it’s all “development.” Development begins at the grassroots stage and continues all the way through the highest levels of strengthening.
Why Player Development Is Slow and Chaotic
From my own experience coaching at the youth level, I’ve learned that player development is incredibly slow and chaotic. It’s not a video game where players gain experience points and level up at a steady, predictable rate.
A player might seem stuck for months, then suddenly master a skill they couldn’t do before. Just as often, they might lose a skill they once had. A player’s growth is inherently slow and unpredictable. Coaches on the ground know this feeling well.
But this slow, chaotic process is the very essence of true development.
It’s Time to Update Our Approach to Youth Development
Over time, this slow and chaotic process produces world-class players who can compete on the global stage. For a brighter future for our sport, we need everyone involved—not just coaches on the ground—to cooperate and seriously rethink how we approach development.
