Rangers youth chief says kids won’t feel pressure of badge

Head of academy coaching wants to give youths freedom to enjoy game without weight of expectation

THE name on the back of the shirt and the badge on the front will be important in time. Right now, it is all about the child inside the jersey. The Ready programme focuses on the person rather than the player, on the rewards of experience rather than the demand for excellence. It may well produce a star that shines at Ibrox but that dream will not be sold to those who take up the game simply and solely as a result of a love for it.

It is an innovative initiative, one which could have benefits for the country as well as the club. Seven centres will be established across Scotland – in Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee, Edinburgh, Forth Valley, Glasgow and Lanarkshire – as Rangers take football into the community and offer a revolutionary route into the sport.

The Ibrox club remain at the heart of the conversations regarding the final steps that players must take on the road to first- team football and the discussions over B teams and the Conference League continue. This is a project that

starts at the beginning, though, one which is pure rather than professional as boys and girls, from age six, play, learn and grow without the psychological pressure of a crest on their chest.

“The children will not wear a Rangers badge,” Zeb Jacobs, the Head of Academy coaching, said as he outlined why Rangers will not seek to professionalise the grassroots game. “There will be no Rangers badge. Nowhere in the presentation is there a Rangers badge because we want to stay away from pressure.”

Jacobs expands on the point with a scientific theory and points to the fact that learning only takes place when dopamine is released in the body. The ambition, therefore, is to create a carefree, stimulating environment that allows kids to be excited and engaged. When children feel under pressure, they will not learn.

The branding of Ready has been inspired by UEFA. Every session at every centre will have an identical look and feel about it, just like each Champions League fixture has the same standard and sense of occasion regardless of the venue or the participants.

As soon as children step out of the car, they should be greeted by their coaches and there will be colour and music to grab their attention.

From that moment, they will be ready to learn.

“All the external pressure that we can take away we want to take away,” Jacobs said. “We don’t want them to drive two hours, we don’t want them to think ‘ I am going to Rangers’, don’t want them to wear a Rangers badge and be a Rangers player. Be you, be a child, fall in love with the game.

“That is the message behind the branding. We want to eliminate all the external pressures. You see other clubs say elite programme under six or under seven. We don’t believe in that at all.”

The Ready programme has been designed around five key pillars – love for the game, establishing connections, pedagogical, building relationships and a new concept – over the last year or so. Jacobs has been at the heart of the process but soundings have been taken from staff around Auchenhowie, including Harry Watling, a first- team coach under Michael Beale, and inspiration found in the work of the DFB and KNVB.

Watling oversaw a similar scheme, one which he does not rate as highly as the Rangers model, at Chelsea and speaks of giving youngsters “a choice”. Chelsea had a host of clubs, including Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal

Palace, to compete with for players but urged kids to go and play elsewhere thanks to a belief that they would return to the Blues if the programme and the potential were right.

Jacobs himself brings a different perspective to the Scottish game. A former Belgian youth internationalist, he moved to Glasgow in December 2021 following stints as a coach at KV Mechelen and as Head of Development at Royal Antwerp.

“We look in the mirror and at what we can do better,” Jacobs said. “But also out of the window and at other parts of the world and best practises at the top clubs.

“What can we learn and take away from that? What does an optimal learning environment look like? How do children learn?

What does it mean in terms of ball, body, game?

“We have a lot of experience in the building and a lot of knowledgeable people. We brought all of those things together. It was not a one day thing. We have created a playing programme that is unique and that is part of a bigger concept of Rangers.”

The ethos of Ready is playing over coaching. The language will not weigh heavy on the mind and Jacobs speaks about experience rather than pathway, explore rather than practice as he details the ethos of the programme.

The idea of releasing a child of seven or eight- years- old is labelled “ridiculous” by Jacobs and he says that is not the “learning environment that will

maximise

potential”. Kids will work in 10week blocks and then everybody goes and new inductees join.

“We love chaos,” Jacobs said. “Learning is ugly. When a baby learns to walk, it falls down and falls down until it walks. Learning is ugly so we are okay with chaos environments.

“It doesn’t need to look clean every session. We see children trying and trying and failing and going again as they go and explore and become the best version of themselves.”

The foundation for each participant is a healthy body and mind. Once that has been mastered, the focus moves on to the ball, the opponent and the situation. Talk of creating players or athletes is dismissed. Coaches will have a clear understanding of the football ideology, while some staff will come from education backgrounds as their insight into how children learn and interact proves fundamental to the process.

“What we want to do is start with the body,” Jacobs said. “We know from research that developing good motor skills and a neural network and a motor foundation is key for football, for school, for cognitive and social development. If your body is developed at a young age and you have a range of movements, that will help you at later stages at school and in life and football.”

The maximum size for game situations will be 3v3. Time spent “exploring” with the ball builds confidence and control and will lead to a “high technical skillset” in creative, challenging situations.

Once again, that theory is backed up by research and science and Jacobs emphasises the difference in the number of touches of the ball and number of decisions made as opposed to full 11v11 sessions. Practise does not need to make perfect, but it will bring improvement.

“The moment you can dominate a 1v1 situation then you can play football,” Jacobs said. “Whatever level they play, for us or at a higher or lower level, if they can beat their opponent in a 1v1 they will have something and will enjoy the game.”

A decade down the line, there is a chance that an appearance will be made by a Rangers player who started their career on the Ready programme. That would be a moment of pride for the Academy staff, yet it is not

You see other clubs say elite programme under six or seven. We don’t believe in that

the sole purpose of a scheme that will be judged, and perhaps even adopted, by other clubs across the country.

Each child who signs up will be given a welcome package that contains a video hosted by broadcaster Emma Dodds. The last line – “that leaves one question: are you ready?” – is the most pertinent one.

“The over- arching principle is that it needs to be safe, needs to be fun,” Jacobs said. “It is child centred not player centred. The pedagogical ones, everything we do needs to have a rationale. It is not because we think it is best, we have looked at best practice and research.

“We speak about ready movement, ready skills, ready games. We take all these things together and that is the concept that we will create.”