Overview

The System is the story of Scotland's mission to re-establish itself as a footballing nation that can produce world-class players again. Such was the quality of the footballer once produced in Scotland that by the time the 22 players from the 1982 World Cup Scotland squad retired, they could boast 31 European club competition winners' medals between them. Although Scotland went on to compete in the 1998 World Cup finals, they have yet to qualify for the competition in the 21st century. This book looks at the science of talent development and how players are brought on under Scotland's current system. It explores everything from the influence of Scots on the game worldwide, to the demise of street football, the potential flaws in the way children are selected for elite academies, how they are coached and much more. After examining every aspect of the process, Graeme McDowall has concluded that we need to turn the system on its head to produce the type of player Scotland was once famous for.

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9781801500890

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Reviews

"""Poor decisions based on inherent bias and misassumption have been well covered by books such as Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, Moneyball by Michael Lewis — both of which are referenced here — and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. But McDowall must be one of the first to have applied such thinking to how ‘talent identification and development’ is practised — or perhaps more correctly mis-practised — in Scottish football... The national side’s success may have papered over the cracks for the time being but The System is an important book that should be reached for the next time a round of soul searching in the national game begins."" * The Daily Mail *"

Author Information

Graeme McDowall holds an MPhil degree in Sports Coaching Education from the University of Birmingham. He is a lecturer at the SRUC in Scotland and an associate lecturer in Sport and Exercise with the Open University. His main area of interest is skill acquisition. As well as sharing his knowledge of this field with many of the world's leading coaches, he has delivered numerous conference presentations on the subject.

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