I NEVER played local football.

In fact until the age of 16, I only ever played 8-10 games of school football each year.

It was my Dad’s theory that by not playing too much footy at a young age, I would prolong my career, whilst my burnt out mates would give the game away in their early twenties.

Now I’m a father of a seven, five and two-year-old, when should my kids start competitive sport?

Now, to conduct my research I went to the one room where all the problems of the world are solved, the MFC Communal Coaches Room.

My extensive research involved asking the three coaches in the room at the time, a simple question, when did you start playing competitive football?

The answers came in seven, nine and eight.

I scoffed at these answers and immediately blamed my Dad for all of those best and fairests and All Australians that I would have won - if I had started earlier!

There it was, my research was complete, well not quite.

Also in the room was our resident scholar and sports psychologist, who when overhearing this question, produced an article on the Long-Term Athlete Development Model (LTADM).

In summary, this model uses a six stage approach and is based on the idea ‘that it takes eight to twelve years of training for talented athletes to reach elite levels’.

Stage 1: Fundamentals - basic skills, wide range of sports (6- 9 years)