Where does mental health and wellbeing fall within the NPL system in Australia?

The question I will try and pose and hopefully give some perspective within this piece is just what the right balance between boys and girls having fun is, young boys and girls becoming the best versions of themselves in a footballing perspective and what does success actually look like? How is this measured? I will try and come at it from my, albeit limited, football coaching experiences but mainly from a mental health/wellbeing perspective. The main area I will be taking about is involving players between 9-16 years of age, for reference.

Within the NPL system, due to being at the top of the pyramid for many throughout Australia, has a large focus on technical and tactical performance, physical attributes, mental toughness, optimising development systems and structures, among other key focuses. How much does a participant’s mental health and wellbeing play a part? There is often a dismissal of this key factor, where participants are viewed as fee paying players/athletes, rather than them being viewed as children first and foremost. It’s easy to fall into this ‘trap’ where coaches and clubs see a child 3-4 times a week, so they are viewed as a commodity to try to improve to keep them in the system. This isn’t saying that all clubs, coaches and parents fall into this category but it’s certainly systemic within Australian football.

With the bright lights shining about players becoming professional, parents often drive children’s commitments to become overloaded and want to go ‘all in’ to ensure their child, boy or girl, has as much chance of making it as possible. There are countless stories of young children, as young as 6-8 years of age, doing 12-14 football activities a week, whether that is team training, individual sessions and matches. How much pressure does a child need to be placed under? Surely, looking at it objectively, this is far too much but it’s an all too common story that you hear.

A study which was done with participants within the UK elite academy football pathway system was conducted which had some pretty telling results. The link is contained at the bottom of the piece.

As mentioned earlier in the piece, the training cycles and involvement of children doing different footballing activities is a huge factor in negative sentiment, which plays a part. This is often driven from the parents and the children wanting to show they are committed above all else, which has a huge negative impact on their mental health and wellbeing. This can lead to overexertion which leads to physical and mental fatigue and increased levels of stress being felt. The hours being spent doing football activities can also lead to the children suffering from social withdrawal with friendship groups, along with isolation from friends and family. It is also proven that this leads to higher risk of anxiety, depression and loneliness from not having the strong friendship groups. Posing a question, do you need to do 12-14 football activities without making the time to see friends and family to make it as a professional player? Where does their happiness come from?

The study also showed that there is a high degree of participants concealing pain and injury masking, as they didn’t want to be perceived as not showing total commitment. This is lead by two main factors. Firstly, the players not wanting to be ‘cut’ from the club/system due to not being able to play matches and the fear of having to spend time getting physio/medical attention which keeps them out of training and match involvement. The second one being parental pressure from not wanting to ‘disappoint’ their parents who are paying huge fees to have their kids involved within the elite football system, whether that is in England or in Australia. This, quite obviously, comes with huge warning signs in that this can cause short and long term issues for the children, both from a physical and mental stand point.

One of the main issues which was sighted was the criticism of performance from significant others, whether that is family and coaches, in particular. This leads to a fear of failure and not wanting to make mistakes because the young participants know they will get criticised, whether they make a mistake, concede a goal, miss a pass, don’t score a goal, whatever the circumstance is. One example of a 9 year old player, highlighted from the study mentioned, ‘He (father) said well if you’re going to do that you’re going to have to miss it (football) because my attitude towards it wasn’t good so he said I will ban you for a week of football and I was crying in the van.’ This type of example is shown around a lot of the NPL grounds throughout Australia on a weekly basis. This leads back to one of the initial questions I posed, where does the balance between children having fun and enjoying their experience and parents wanting to see their children develop as footballers as much as possible lay? Whilst on the face of it most parents would say the above behaviour isn’t acceptable, it goes on readily so a lot of parents obviously feel it is.

With parents and coaches being the role models for these kids, the issue of seeking external validation is one that comes up quite a lot. The first question many kids ask their parents or coach is how did I play or what can I improve on? Whilst, it is fantastic to want to be the best version of yourself, these kids are never able to settle or be content with how they have done because they are relying on someone else as validation. This brings into question huge issues regarding self-esteem and happiness for their children, or more broadly, leads to mental health problems which have a direct correlation from their footballing activities. This is as many children view their existence through the prism of being involved in an NPL and their identity is linked to that. How do they cope if they are told they aren’t wanted within an NPL club? Where do they turn then, as they don’t have the social connections/networks around them to assist.

All these issues ranging from exorbitant training cycles being implemented for young children, playing through pain and masking injuries to not have to face consequences, being criticised for performances, along with seeking external validation are all issues which play a very negative part in many football clubs for these children involved. This isn’t unique to just football but it’s clear that the football ecosystem hasn’t considered the negative part they are playing in the reduced mental health state of many of the young children in their care each and every week, which the statistics show clearly are very prevalent.

One of the most famous documentaries, which is a fantastic watch is, No Hunger in Paradise which highlights the fact that only 180 of the 1.5 million participants in organised footballers will make it as Premier League professionals. The question I would ask is, does that mean you are then successful? What does success look like? Is becoming a better person and a valued member of society mean you are more successful? It’s very binary to only view success as making it to the elite end of the footballing ecosystem. Football clubs play a huge role in viewing these individuals as people first and players second. However, perhaps for footballing clubs, this is skewed as to where the pendulum lays.

The mental health and wellbeing space is one that isn’t viewed as highly important in this area in Australia. All the above issues are rampant within many of the top clubs within the country, in the NPL system but the question comes down to how much do these clubs want the best for the participants within their care, or will they just dispose of them? How will this attitude change over time? The stigma around mental health has improved significantly throughout the last decade, but as mentioned in the previous piece I did, 39.6% of Australian’s aged between 16 and 24 years of age (46.6% for females and 31.2% for males) suffer from a mental health illness/disorder, with anxiety related concerns being the most prevalent. How can football as the highest participation sport play their part? They can’t keep pushing it onto others to do the work, as this is being worsened due to the actions within football clubs around the country.

I will also say that I have previously been involved in NPL systems and there are so many positives that come from being involved for the players. Whilst this piece highlights some of the negatives, there are also countless positives but this piece is just wanting the best for the footballing ecosystem within the country as these are some of the areas which can be improved from a participants happiness, mental health and wellbeing perspective. Ultimately, it is about making sure these participants are the best people for our society as possible, whilst reducing the mental health issues we currently have around us in Australia, along with the world more broadly.

The study sighted is Exploring the mental health and wellbeing of professional academy footballers in England.