If Futsal a fad or real option moving forward with Soccer Development?

NickName said:

I see the same with "indoor" soccer. While my kid loves the game with all the touches and quick passing, getting hockey checked into a wall at full speed without pads can be scary.
Some refs "let it play" (dangerous) while others blow the whistle at a light brushing of elbows (frustrating).

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I see your point but we did this for years in a brick gymnasium. You learn to ‘ride’ the hits and yes, sometimes can’t get out of the way. It’s a vital learning process (where you will likely suffer some knocks and bruises) that we should not avoid by putting our kids in a safety bubble.

“Don’t head the ball because of concussion”
“Don’t play futsal as it’s too aggressive”
“Don’t play indoors as you might get knocked into a wall”

All potentially valid parental concerns but also a reflection of how we’ve perhaps become ‘softer’ in our approach to raising young people now, to their detriment.

zebrafish said:

This issue of physicality has been my concern with futsal-- and I think it is fantastic for skill development. My kid played a futsal tournament last winter, and clearly the refs and kids didn't know that physical play needed to be ratcheted down. A player got a concussion after having her head slammed onto the floor. Kids were just playing as if they were outside. Before this, my daughter had played futsal in a league (and it really showed me the benefits of the sport), but as she has aged I really think the injury risk goes way up unless players and refs know what they are doing.

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In our case, the club has 50-60 girls at each age group, so the Futsal games are all intra-squad games between pools of say, the 2008 & 2007 kids from our club. The teams rotate weekly which mixes up who the kids are playing with and against.

The coaches do not allow physical play, which is the polar opposite of our outdoor games. That’s not to say a kid won’t occasionally hit the floor, but when that happens the kids usually stop playing for a few seconds to make sure everyone is ok and then tone it down.

We haven’t done many Futsal games against other clubs, but if we did I’m sure the games would be much more physical and you’d need a referee who kept things in check.

I think we will know that futsal is no longer a fad when we stop talking about it as essentially additional training for soccer. When we see kids choose to play futsal as their primary sport. I think we are getting close to that. Maybe another 2-3 years. There are now futsal leagues in at least two seasons of the year. There are kids who are doing futsal training once or twice a week. There are organizations that are launching 10-month futsal programs that include training, games, and tournaments.

Futsal also becomes very attractive to the highly technical players who are reaching puberty later. Especially in the ages U12 to U15 you see these players marginalized as coaches look to field physically larger players. As there become more futsal option I can see players drifting into futsal and then never drifting back to soccer.

Pretty soon we’ll see a new league of “Elite, Academy, blah, blah” futsal leagues being formed.
As soon as someone figure out that parents will pay extra money to be part of a special league.
For now so much futsal around here is a big pickup game. Some guy rents a gym, charges $20 per kid, per session. Turns on a radio and rolls out a ball.

Kids are generally over coached- so this isn’t a bad thing. But a true league with coaches that teach the nuances of futsal would go a long way.

Kids pick up some of the stuff after a few games. But using the sole to trap a ball and quick footskill are so critical in futsal. Couple that with a few lessons on positioning and attacking patterns and we’d see a major jump in the quality of futsal play.