Let the Children PLAY
by Gary Williamson, NTSSA State Coach
Up in the loft of my parent’s house, there is a "small" box full of medals and trophies I won playing sports as a kiddie, gathering dust.
I picked up the first one playing table tennis when I was nine years old; it meant the world to me. For the next eight years adding to it became just about all that was important to me in sports.
Trouble is, it wasn't until I finished playing the game that I realized everything else I should have valued more than picking up a replica trophy with a wee gold man stuck on top.
Playing soccer means friends, fun and enjoyment, along with discipline and respect for opponents. So when the United States Youth Soccer Association (USYSA) announced the new development of small sided games for U6 (3V3), U8 (4V4) and U10 (8V8) that will take away all the pressure of competition from children under 12, whisper it, but you have to give them all the credit in the world.
There are plenty of laudable objectives in the scheme, but the most important one is trying to rid the children's game of the "win at all cost" ethic.
And the best thing about it is, it's not just aimed at the children. It also targets the root of the problem - the parents and the coaches on the sidelines.
Now before anyone starts taking the hump and telling me they're the program of a groovy new era in tolerance and encouragement. Yes, I am generalizing.
But, there are still enough people out there making the sport a misery for the children as if they should be allowed to do that, right?
I have seen children walking away from tournaments in tears after losing games because they thought they had let their parents down.
Some children do not want their fathers to watch tem play. A few mothers can't even face watching their child because they get too uptight. It's giving them heart failure.
How many times have you seen children howling their eyes out after a barracking from their coach or folks? No wonder some children dread the ride home in the car where they receive the rear view mirror lecture/post mortem on their performance. I have heard of some cases where children are scared, and avoid going home, choosing instead to stay at a friends house. You accept these things at that age because you're taught that winning is the "be-all-and end-all".
But, in hindsight, getting that stressed out over a sport at 11 or 12 years old or even younger is a scandal.
No one hates losing more than myself.
But, you can spend your whole life being competitive - AFTER you've taken some time to learn what you're doing first.
Soccer at that age should be about acquiring skills, learning the fundamentals of the game and teamwork.
Changing from 11's to small-sided games HAS helped, but a lot of the attitudes that caused the problems in the first place have been carried over.
Well, it's time we lose them - and the USYSA's new initiative is the way to go. Children will play soccer until they fall over if there's two of them or two hundred. They'll play until dark and love every minute.
It's adults that put unbearable pressure on them to win at all cost. They're the one's who need to be educated.
Competition is great, but we want children in soccer first before we start driving them out of it.
So a word to the wise to all the supposed "grown-ups" standing at the side of the soccer fields shouting themselves hoarse. Get with the program. Let the children play