Why is soccer such a big deal?

[Anonymous]

The real question is why do parents make it such a big deal.

[Anonymous]

To answer your question about why it starts so young is because soccer is a skill game first. Training your feet to be good on the ball has to happen at a younger age. You can gain speed and strength at older ages, but ball control is extremely difficult to start training once you get to teenage years.

[Anonymous]

As someone with 3 travel soccer players in the family, I do not think soccer is considered a big deal. Most of the people / families we know not directly associated with my kids' teams dont really have much interest in soccer, or if they do its more casual. I've met families pretty serious in baseball, football, basketball, swimming, gymnastics, dance, and cheer.

So there is nothing unique about soccer except for you being in a soccer forum wondering why its taken so serious. LOL.

[Anonymous]

Soccer is a big deal because it is fun. Anyone can do it. It’s as close to a universal language as we have in this world. It costs nothing to do. If you have a few people together in an alley or a patch of dirt or a gym or anywhere and something resembling a ball, soccer will happen. It is the canvas for moments of sporting beauty and drama like nothing else.

I suspect you are asking the tangentially related question of why a few dozen DC area type-A anxiety-riddled parents and club administrators fill up an anonymous message board with insanity. Do you really need an answer to that?! 😃

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Soccer is a big deal because it is fun. Anyone can do it. It’s as close to a universal language as we have in this world. It costs nothing to do. If you have a few people together in an alley or a patch of dirt or a gym or anywhere and something resembling a ball, soccer will happen. It is the canvas for moments of sporting beauty and drama like nothing else.

I suspect you are asking the tangentially related question of why a few dozen DC area type-A anxiety-riddled parents and club administrators fill up an anonymous message board with insanity. Do you really need an answer to that?! 😃

Ha, well said!

[Anonymous]

Soccer is a big deal in the mid-Atlantic because of all of the internationals. It's also a big deal in Hispanic communities. In Texas, football is a bigger deal. At country clubs, tennis and golf are bigger. It just depends on who you are with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above posters are prime example of why America is never going to be good at football.

It just isn’t in the culture. The king sport is king because all you need is a ball to have fun. No fancy or expensive equipment. Just a ball to kick at.

Poors, rich, intelligent, dumbs… anyone can play it.

When it’s embedded in your life like outside of USofA then you inherently develop talented players with minimal to almost virtually no oversight of organized play.

Fun fact: in Brazil, the kids do not start organized club futebol until AFTER U13. Make of that what you will.

Op here -
I mean I think the posters above would generally agree with you? It sounds like some weird FOMO funnel has been created. I think it makes sense that it’s like the first sport kids can really get competitive in.

I also don’t think it should be competitive until HS. That’s the way it was when I was playing.

The posters above sound like their kids just enjoy playing and to keep playing the system requires a certain amount of time.

But even those posters aren’t doing as much as I’m seeing, 6 days a week all year for 8-10 year olds.

I don’t care that soccer will never be the biggest sport. I get why it won’t be in the US. I just don’t get why people have subscribed to the insanity.

8-10 year olds doing 6 days a week all year takes exaggeration to new heights

There is no exaggeration there. If you able plugged into U9-U11 instagram feeds of these soccer kids, you will see 6 days a week is common for the most dedicated families. Throw in high demand training featured on IG, and you will see near daily posts from these parents featuring their kids training about 6 days per week. Travel practices are 3 days, games 1 or 2 days. On top of that, you have at home workouts and sign up ad-hoc training sessions.

There is even another level: the home school level so the kids can prioritize training over school level. This level includes flying across country to guest play in tournaments or get high end training from trainers who usually coach professional level players.

In the NOVA area, I'd say 40-50 kids aged 8-10 practice 6 days per week and 2-4 families homeschool or arrange school in a way that works around soccer.

Okay. He/she/they mentioned Insta which screwed the conversation. My kid has been be playing 6 days a week since 9/10. We are not on IG but it is a real thing.

The key word is playing and not training. A kid playing a lot is simply filling in gap other kids fill with advanced math/coding or some elite academic track, piano or a musical hobby, video games or social media. We don’t chase elite trainers. Most of their work is solo with the ball and a wall.