The organized soccer is safer but takes away the fun from the soccer game
Back in the late 80s, when I first touched a soccer ball, I didn’t have my parents watching me or a coach guiding my moves.
Bobby Dobrescu
Richmond Soccer Network
Back in the late 80s, when I first touched a soccer ball, I didn’t have my parents watching me or a coach guiding my moves. It was on the eastern side lawn of the National Theater Building in Bucharest, Romania, near the apartment where my parents and I used to leave. We were very lucky to have a mostly weedy lawn at our feet, because the alternative was our school’s concrete back yard with red goals draw on two opposite walls.
I remember like it was yesterday, how interesting and intense the games were. There were no team colors, no age restrictions and foremost, no time limits. Anybody could join either team and leave at any time, usually when they couldn’t run anymore. The most important players weren’t the oldest or the best but those who owned a ball. We usually played with a “35 ball”, which wasn’t the size, but the price that parents paid for this cheap plastic ball. We would start playing right after we finished the homework and keep on playing until we couldn’t see the ball because it was so dark outside.
With no adults on site, we followed most of the FIFA rules that we learned from watching the soccer games on TV. Handballs, fouls, out of bounds, corners were called upon by the majority of players, in a mutual agreement between the two teams and indirect kicks or penalty shots were taken by designated players. Isolated burst of violence erupted sometimes when the call was an obvious mistake, but we managed to calm down everyone and resume the game peacefully. That was a true kids’ game controlled by the kids.
So what was so great about that kind of game? The answer relies in a common statement issued few years ago by the Directors of most prestigious European Youth Clubs including Manchester United, Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, which said that the loss of street soccer was hurting youth development.
The organized soccer is by far safer and grander and unites the kids and parents into one activity that they can enjoy together. But the organized soccer takes away the fun, game ownership, spontaneity and creativity that develop in the streets or parks where games are played freely, with no adult interaction.
I am not saying that we should let the kids run around unsupervised. Today more than ever, youth players need places that are safe to play and to learn from experienced youth coaches but we also need to understand their needs and the importance of creating the right environment for them to learn about this game.
As parents and coaches, we must create environments for our youngsters that are less predictable, where adult influence and involvement is kept to a minimum and the significance of mistakes in the learning process is understood. Environments that are less judgmental and less threatening, free of adult expectation and authority, where children can be children and play with a high degree of emotional freedom while learning the game and how it works from their own mistakes.
This article was inspired by a material published on InsideSoccer.com and written by John Allpress
