It's amazing to hear people complaining in the community about something different only when it starts to shake up what they believe is the right way to do things. No, I am not talking about politics or some other nonsense, only soccer...yup just soccer. Honestly though it could be anything.
Trying something different, but really entirely so basic in it's simplicity.
Taking our years of lumps and beatings, people too skeptical to stay the course, having other teams and coaches ask why you would even play that way. They then use it to their advantage as we are developing only to win a kids game, but then when it all starts to click and the sides turn, it becomes a threat.
"You can't have players with this kind of ability playing with us, it's not fair."
"Stop having your select players in our rec league."
"Why can't you just teach them to play the way we were taught by our volunteer parent and then their volunteer parent before them who learned to coach soccer by playing highschool football or softball and never asked if there was a better way or took the time to level themselves up?"
Of course my favorite at U8, "Why don't you keep your players in positions?" I won't digress into that one again, but I will on another topic to make a point.
I played on little league baseball team who carried the same roster of players year after year and it was always a dismal day when other teams played us. They would groan and submit to their lump and every soccer club has their fair share of teams like this or they intentionally are focused so much on winning keep their teams at a lower level so as not to be too challenged.
Although, on those teams not everyone was equal. Some players are there to fill the ranks, play right field, as it were, and occasionally come in when it was beyond a competitive game.
What if though rather than throwing people into space where they may not be needed because you have a few good players who normally control the game OR take a child who at a meager 6-8 years old is the tallest and who is normally placed in goal or defense to "Kick the ball Johnny!" and instead "teach" all of them equally and train all of them to be the best they can be to play on any team with anyone, allow them to be the most confident they can be, take away any pressure and tell them you could give a rats behind about the outcome, then put them all on the field together and let them play.
Result happy kids playing.
This basic philospohy I fell in love with is gaining a good deal of traction right now and we are picking kids each time we go out there and play so rather than complaining about what we're doing with any, and I mean ANY, kid who wants to play for us, why not trying a bit of it yourself at your next practice.
So yes, that's somewhat of a rosey picture and a bit of an ad, but honestly every group in the program is not there yet (older or younger). We have a bunch of teams now and continue to take our drubbings so for those who are new to the program, have been used to the old ways, and are feeling some stress:
-I say, patience
-I say, enjoy your player being a child
-I say, ask your child why they play; to have fun or because you want them to
-I say, enjoy watching them learn, having fun, having successes and having failures
-I say, talk about the effort to get there, not the result
-I say, stop looking at pictures of teams with trophies
-I say, what is better, a child with the right tools to succeed or a child who is dependent on a glittery thing to make them happy and give you and them self worth
-I say, if you really want a trophy or a win so bad, you'll forget everything I just said, then get your ass out there and play for one yourself
