Does playing soccer change your child's attitude or personality?

[Anonymous]

Do you believe your children playing soccer changes how they behave and their personality as they grow up?

[Anonymous]

Such an odd question

[Anonymous]

A. Yes
B. No
C. Maybe
D. All of the above
E. N/A

[Anonymous]

For me, no… I played. It just made me like soccer.

[Anonymous]

No, if anything, it magnifies them.

[Anonymous]

A - it does, as it does playing any other sport and if you mean competitively than recreationally playing.

[Anonymous]

Ok, I'll play along. Keep in mind I'm a parent and a coach.

Short answer: Yes

Long answer: If we're talking about competitive travel soccer, I would say the amount of time spent doing the activity alone is going to have some sort of impact, let alone year after year.

It can affect the friends you have (or don't have), the vacations you take (or don't), holidays (did someone say tournament?), and the amount of free time you have for other things.

Now is your child going to go from nice to mean, shy to social, polite to rude (or vice versa etc.)? Ehhh probably not, but the environment they spend time in and the people they hang out with certainly affects them. How much? depends on the individual and how much time they spend. Keep in mind the environment changes as well, coaches change, players change, teams change, sometimes clubs change. As a parent you're (hopefully!) one of the major constants, take that as you will.

[Anonymous]

Actually my child’s personality affected his success in soccer. Coach after coach complained that our kid had the technical skills but that he was “too nice” and that it hurt him on the field. He wouldn’t push and shove and the opposing team’s took advantage. I had all but given up on my sweet, polite kid ever being aggressive enough, but then puberty hit and his personality changed a lot. He became much more intense and competitive. Maybe the hormones?

[Anonymous]

I don't know if it changes my daughter's attitude or personality? I'm hoping it does teach her adult life skills while she's a child. Things like time management to juggle school work with soccer schedule, learning to wake up early for 8am games 2 hours from home, knowing that not working hard at soccer means someone will take your place, etc.

[Anonymous]

I'm a former coach and current parent of a college soccer player and I will politely disagree with the other coach since these are all just opinions.
I think soccer actually reveals a players attitude or personality, rather than changes it. The pressure, time commitment, adversity, forced comraderie, interactions with coaches, etc. shows all the different angles and facets of a kids persona. Playing on a team for many years may cause some very modest personality changes on the margins, but having coached the same core group of kids for 10 years I don't think their personalities actually changed by playing soccer (when taking into account general personality changes from maturation from kids into young adults).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a former coach and current parent of a college soccer player and I will politely disagree with the other coach since these are all just opinions.
I think soccer actually reveals a players attitude or personality, rather than changes it. The pressure, time commitment, adversity, forced comraderie, interactions with coaches, etc. shows all the different angles and facets of a kids persona. Playing on a team for many years may cause some very modest personality changes on the margins, but having coached the same core group of kids for 10 years I don't think their personalities actually changed by playing soccer (when taking into account general personality changes from maturation from kids into young adults).

+1. Although club soccer is a big time commitment it still only comprises about 10% of a kids waking hours while school activities comprise 50%. Schooling is much more likely to affect personality and attitude than soccer.

[Anonymous]

Nope