I like your ideas

by Greg, seemingly ranch, Thursday, July 24, 2014, 14:50 (3586 days ago) @ Puck52

Though I just don't see kids in parks playing any games on an ad hoc basis, so I don't know what to do there. And I will remain of the opinion that kids under 12 can be better focused on learning if there is no score kept (other than in their heads) and no trophies and no end of season tournaments or other stuff. And under that theory, by the time you had your stud kid move into town you would have been keeping score anyway. I think your ideas handle the tough circumstance well -- have the kid play center defense and rack up shutouts; have the kid play center mid and don't let him shoot but instead have him find ways to pass to score; have him shoot on his first touch only instead of dribbling: those are all great ideas to implement on a game-by-game basis instead of a season-long basis. But for younger kids who aren't as rational, I still think it's better to have the whole season be about doing that kind of thing. And the only way to do that is to stop the adults from keeping score and handing out awards.

Because the sad thing is, most youth coaches aren't like you. And sadder is, kids in our area start falling away from the sport once the free trophies stop being handed out, because they were getting that tangible reward for (often) little to no effort, since their coaches were focused on the more aggressive kids putting the ball in the net. No love of the game, no love of competition at all really. Just a couple shitty pieces of plastic and then goodbye.

I often wonder how many of our potentially-most-creative players are skateboarding or surfing or playing video games by age 13 because the structure of the youth game drives them away.

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The 2007 ND-UCLA game was a once in a lifetime experience, I hope