Reply to youth soccer participation down 23.5% in key 6-12 year age group...

Forum Index » Soccer

Reply to "youth soccer participation down 23.5% in key 6-12 year age group..."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My son (9 yo/3rd grade) decided to quit soccer after this fall. He didn't want the competitive pressure of a travel program (which I agree on, I think these programs are incredibly developmentally inappropriate at this age), but since the program has pulled off so much of the talent on his rec team, he's not having fun being the only kid out there working. I'm sad that he's giving up something he used to love, but I really can't blame him given what I've seen out on the field.

I tend to agree that lack of skilled coaching may be a part of it as well. My son's team has had a series of parent coaches who never coach more than a single season and who don't have much (if any) of a soccer background, so they basically just herd cats rather than actually teaching soccer skills (that's not a knock on them, I appreciate them stepping up so we could have a team at all). For those kids on the team who got outside coaching (either from a private coach or from a parent who knows the game), they were able to play at a higher level despite the lack of coach instruction at their practices, but for kids more in the middle who have potential but need to be taught the skills, they just haven't progressed much since the beginning.[/quote]

Not to pile on a 9 year old but something seems odd regarding the logic that you are using. He doesn't want the competitive pressure of travel but bemoans being the "only kid working" at the rec level. What is killing youth soccer is people constantly looking for these "Goldilocks" [/quote]

My son wants to go to one practice and one game each week where everyone is putting in their best effort on the field and then gets to go home and enjoy other hobbies and activities as well. He wants a team where everyone shows up 95% of the time and you can rely upon them, but where it's okay to miss a game or practice if there is a compelling reason. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be an option in our league.

He can go the developmental/travel route where people take it seriously and work hard, but it's multiple practices/games per week that would leave him with no time to commit to another activity he enjoys as well, and where there is no flexibility to miss a practice/game no matter how good the reason. He tried the league academy program for kids interested in travel, but we pulled him (with his agreement) after the program coach punished him by making him sit on the sidelines for an entire practice for having missed the previous practice with a stomach virus. The kid was actively vomiting, but apparently should have come to practice anyway and thrown up all over the field. This was in [i]first grade[/i], and I was deeply disturbed that the league either didn't appreciate or didn't can how inappropriate this was.

The alternative is to keep playing rec, where half the team doesn't even bother trying during practice and spend the games chatting on the field rather than actually playing, and half the parents can't be bothered showing up to practices and games on a regular basis. It's fine If you want to travel four weekends in the fall, but don't sign your kid up for soccer where it means they'll miss half the games. I would keep taking him if he wanted to do it, but he hated it and would rather switch to a different sport where the experience may be better.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics