SoccerFan4Life
PREMIER
Now that club season has ended for the younger teams, I was ready to call it quits with my young daughter (9). She wasn't happy as a bench player and she lost her love for soccer sometime over the past year. It was tough for me to say goodbye to soccer but I was ready to embrace her other hobbies/sports.
Suddenly over the past few weeks, I see her juggling at home, kicking the ball, watching videos on Messi. This is something that I haven't seen in a while from my daughter. I ask her if she wants to play again and she replies. " Dad, I love soccer but... I like to play, I don't like practices, they are boring".
As club saturation has taken over the younger age groups, I think that my daughter's statement is a testimony that a lot of coaches are using the same strategy with younger kids (5-9) as they do with older kids. If we want to grow the sport, we need to do the following (parents & coaches):
- Make it fun during practices and include some 4v4 games for at least 30 minutes of each practice.
- Add scrimmage games where your bench players get a chance to play 40% to 50% of the time.
- Coaches to set realistic expectations with parents about development process.
- Parents to relax with these young ones. Focus on development and fun rather than trophies and spotlight time.
I told my daughter that we will focus on having fun this coming year with a new team. I also showed her the old "Practice, you talking about practice!" video from Allen Iverson. Even the pro's hate practice. LOL
Suddenly over the past few weeks, I see her juggling at home, kicking the ball, watching videos on Messi. This is something that I haven't seen in a while from my daughter. I ask her if she wants to play again and she replies. " Dad, I love soccer but... I like to play, I don't like practices, they are boring".
As club saturation has taken over the younger age groups, I think that my daughter's statement is a testimony that a lot of coaches are using the same strategy with younger kids (5-9) as they do with older kids. If we want to grow the sport, we need to do the following (parents & coaches):
- Make it fun during practices and include some 4v4 games for at least 30 minutes of each practice.
- Add scrimmage games where your bench players get a chance to play 40% to 50% of the time.
- Coaches to set realistic expectations with parents about development process.
- Parents to relax with these young ones. Focus on development and fun rather than trophies and spotlight time.
I told my daughter that we will focus on having fun this coming year with a new team. I also showed her the old "Practice, you talking about practice!" video from Allen Iverson. Even the pro's hate practice. LOL