Are we saving money by neglecting development, or are we simply receiving the bill later? Botswana clubs often want technically polished, physically developed and competition ready players. But where do those players come from? If clubs don’t invest sufficiently in development, they eventually have to buy players who have already been developed elsewhere or take young players and spend considerably more time and resources correcting deficiencies that could have been addressed earlier. Senior team coaches call it ‘go konolla’, a phrase that loosely translates to straightening a bent wire or an elastic material. This sounds like an admission that the player’s age is way beyond his stage of development, it’s an admission that although the player is talented, he lacks critical skills to make him competition ready.
The sad reality is that we wait for the elastic limit to be over, then we try hard ‘go konolla’. The result is obviously not getting the best possible shape. We miss the golden windows of development, then we attempt to force it later at a wrong stage incurring huge losses.
The very first golden window missed is during the pre-pubertal years for technical development. At grassroots level, the nervous system is highly adaptable, creating an important opportunity to develop coordination, movement literacy and technical skills. Because of their neuroplasticity, children are particularly receptive to motor learning. Technique isn’t only about muscles, it’s also about the nervous system learning to organize movement. If this opportunity is missed, the player can still develop these qualities later, but the process is often more difficult because the club is trying to build fundamental skills while simultaneously demanding competitive performance.
A 10-year-old learning how to receive a ball, orient their body, manipulate the ball and execute a pass is building movement solutions that can become increasingly automatic, requiring minimal conscious thought. If another child spends those years mainly playing unstructured football and only receives serious technical coaching at 17 or 18, the players aren’t starting from the same developmental position.
At 18 to 20, the player is expected to perform, so instead of having the luxury of progressively developing the player, the club has to develop him while needing results every weekend.
The second golden window normally overlooked is around puberty and adolescence, this is a critical period in which training must be carefully adapted to biological maturation. This is where clubs should have proper youth strength and conditioning structures. Instead, many players are still in youth football environments where physical preparation is rudimentary.
And suddenly the senior coach wants the strength and conditioning staff to fix years of developmental neglect. That is expensive. And it creates another problem:
‘Development and performance become competitors’.
At 18 to 20, the player is expected to perform, so instead of having the luxury of progressively developing the player, the club has to develop him while needing results every weekend.
During this stage, the player is going through rapid changes in height, bone density, muscle mass and hormonal development. Whereas good training matters, training without adequate nutrition cannot fully support that development. The golden window of physical development is not created by training alone. It is supported by training, recovery, sleep and nutrition. If these foundations are neglected during adolescence, the senior club inherits a player whose physical development may require considerably more time and resources to address.
Just as a business can accumulate financial debt, a football club can accumulate development debt. Every year of inadequate development creates a liability that eventually has to be paid. A neglected U12 technical foundation becomes an U17 technical problem. An U15 physical development gap becomes an U20 physical problem. A youth tactical deficiency becomes a senior team’s tactical limitation. The longer you wait, the more expensive the correction becomes because development debt always comes due.
Botswana tends to celebrate the player who makes it, “Look at this talented youngster.” Nobody ever asks Who developed him? At what age? With what resources? And I always wonder: Why are we more willing to pay for a developed player than to invest in developing one?
