A total of 10,800 young athletes competed in Tauranga recently at the AIMS Games to showcase their talents at New Zealand’s biggest sporting tournament. The AIMS Games, which was held from September 9 to 14, saw 326 schools come together to compete in 22 sports. With 100 football teams and 61 futsal teams competing, New Zealand Football’s Player Welfare Team were in the thick of the action. We caught up with Megan Crockett, National Player Welfare Manager, after a busy week as her team looked to create good habits to enjoy football for life.

What was the week like for the NZ Football Player Welfare Team at the AIMS Games in Tauranga?

It was massive. We had over 10,000 athletes from intermediate schools around New Zealand. It is bigger than the Olympics now, in terms of a New Zealand event, which is amazing. From a NZ Football perspective, we created a village or hub at the football fields or base and provided activations in terms of warm-ups, cool-downs, player recovery, roller stretching and activations around nutrition and teaching kids about good fuelling for sport. This year we added a massive futsal zone. We took on board the futsal scenario that was happening at AIMS Games. We took down our portable NZF futsal court and set up a futsal village at ASB Arena. In that arena we had activations such as a dedicated futsal warm-up, which is a shorter, sharper variation of our 11+ warm up to meet the demand of futsal. We also had a chill out space with some giant Jengas and twisters so we could take the kids through some downtime to chill out between games.

What were some of the key lessons you and the players took from the AIMS Games?

It was awesome. For football this year, we painted some massive warm-up grids on one of the spare fields, so it was a ready set, warm-up station that was ready to go. The coaches could come in and run a warm-up, or their captains could lead this or we had our Player Welfare team there ready to run the warm-up. There were a lot of learnings around technique to come from the warm-ups so there is a lot on the order that it is done, the performance of it, looking at technique. We are looking a lot at technique correction to make sure they are moving well because they have become very good at performing the FIFA 11+ Warm-up but we want to ensure the technique is correct.

One of the learnings for the kids and for the coaches was one around keeping the sport specific to their age group. We need to manage these children and let kids be kids. We want them to play and have fun but we don’t want them to overload. We want to make sure that our draw is replicating that. We want to make sure that we are scheduling in some down time. We want to make sure they are eating and drinking right.

Another scenario which we have been able to set up with the help of ACC SportSmart is that we make sure there is a medical tent and there are physios at each site who are able to treat any injuries and there is also a sports doctor on site. We are able to treat any concussions or any debilitating injuries straight away. It is a massive process and there is a lot provided for these kids. We want them to all take away that sport is played to be fun and it is for life.

Is it a good stage of life for these players to be learning good habits around player welfare?

Absolutely. We want to make sure these children are learning these habits and learning them well. It is a time of their lives where kids will go through various growth spurts and stages. That is where technique can start to wane a little bit as they learn to control their longer limbs and body parts. They can also start to overload their bodies a bit during this period so we look to educate and give them some knowledge around good habits. We also know that a lot is influenced by their friends when it comes to nutritional advice, so we ran some cool activations around warming up and cooling down but also around nutritional challenges and creating the best nutritional smoothie. It gets the kids thinking about what they are putting into their bodies for sport.

ACC SportSmart are a great partner in delivering the NZF Player Welfare programme, how important is their support?

ACC SportSmart are an exceptional partner. They have provided an overarching sponsor of the AIMS Games and that has been across all codes delivering medical support everywhere, which is fabulous. We sit alongside ACC SportSmart in delivering the Player Welfare programme so we work very closely with them in delivering our nine core principles and making sure these kids are creating habits to play sport for life.

It is a long week but it must rewarding to deliver at this event and make a difference?

It is hugely rewarding. Sometimes we wonder if we can keep up with these kids but we seem to still manage it. The first few days, the kids are testing the perimeters which is fine. We stay in line with them and make sure we have a solid structure to what we are doing. It is really great to be working with kids because our brand, or work, may resonate with them and we want to carry on what they have learned and continue working through Fit4Football in the different ages and stages of life.

To learn more about the NZ Football Player Welfare Programme please click here

Article added: Friday 28 September 2018