In Part One of "Bringing Back Street Soccer", Roni Mansur, Director of Coaching at Cambridge (Mass.) Youth Soccer, discussed how the quick exit of the United States in the 2006 World Cup exposed a big weakness in American soccer - the lack of player imagination. One of the main reasons for this lack in imagination was in the way that American players are introduced and then kept in the game. Soccer has always been a very adult structured game in the United States. Players are brought to practices and games by adults and supervised by adults. They are consistently being told how to play. This stifles them creativity because the adults are there to question them.
Coach Mansur stated in Part One, that American players need to do what their counterparts do around the world - play street soccer. Like a pick up baseball game in the back yard or a pick up game of basketball at the local park, the players need to take ownership of their game. No adults, no supervision, allow their natural imagination flow. If not, American soccer will continue to produce unimaginative players. Part Two with Coach Mansur now begins.
What are the implications of the absence of street soccer?
The absence of street soccer leads to a key difference between American youth soccer and other nations' programs. Around the world, young soccer players come from all socio-economic backgrounds. Young players face no significant financial barriers to entering the sport because they always can play street soccer with some friends as long as they have a ball and some space.
However, because of the absence of street soccer in America, youth soccer is a primarily middle- to upper-class sport. Low-income families confront significant barriers to entry because it costs $300 to $500 per year for a young player to play for two 10-week seasons with the local town team. The cost of playing for a youth soccer club ranges from $800 to $1500 per player annually.
Young soccer players from low-income families are excluded at a very early age, which is unfortunate; many of these players come from immigrant families whose home countries have a rich soccer culture. A further consequence of this situation is that it reduces the pool of potential players from which top talent can be identified and developed.
As a result, the existing American youth soccer structure is supported largely by middle-class adults, who volunteer countless hours as coaches and spend a considerable amount of time and effort supporting their children's interests. However, most of these adults did not grow up playing or understanding of the game. More important, most of them do not fully grasp the fundamental differences between coaching adult and youth sports.
As a consequence, the mantra of playing for the team and achieving results is imposed much earlier in American youth soccer than it is in tope soccer-playing nations around the world. And it typically is done at the expense of creativity, skills and independent decision-making, all of which are essential components of individual player development. Teamwork and results are important aspects of team sports and of American culture in general, but these elements should be secondary to individual player development at the youth level of any sport, including soccer.
It is this difference that enables youth players around the world to have more time to develop their creative tendencies and become more clever with the ball before they learn to play in a structured team environment. It is much easier to encourage a nine- or 14-year-old soccer player to be creative than a 22-year-old.
American kids are in no way less creative or less capable than young players in Brazil or Italy. It's just that most of them don't play soccer enough, and their only opportunities to the play the game are in a controlled environment where most coaches, intentionally of unintentionally, suppress their players' creative instincts in order to achieve the best outcome for the team.
Why should street soccer be considered and what are its benefits?
We have created a strong foundation and basic structure for youth soccer in this country, but in doing so, and in the absence of street soccer, we as adults have wrested control of the game away from the kids. Structure makes us feel more comfortable that real learning is taking place. However, the highly structured environment that exists today is not optimal for having young players learn the game of soccer and fall in love with it. It is time for us to give some of the game back to the kids. It is time for us to foster and encourage creativity, as coaches, parents, and fans, by creating an environment where creativity and imagination flourish on the soccer field.
Creativity is the heart and soul of soccer. It is what makes fans gasp in wonder and amazement. Creativity is Ronaldinho making his trademark lightning-quick outside-inside move and leaving yet another hapless defender in his wake. It is Maradona dribbling past two defenders and slipping a no-look through pass to his fellow striker when everyone else on the field and in the stands thinks he is about to shoot for goal. It is the 10-year-old girl in Cambridge, Mass., making up her own spin move during a game.
At the youth level, creativity draws young players to the game and makes them fall in love with it. If nurtured appropriately, it elevates the technical and tactical aspects of the professional game to a higher plane, to that point where it becomes "The Beautiful Game."
Creativity is difficult, if not impossible, to teach. It can only be encouraged by providing an environment that helps foster it, one that rewards risk-taking, imagination and inventiveness - an environment where creativity becomes almost instinctive. That means establishing a street soccer environment.
Around the world young soccer players can be found kicking anything that resembles a ball every chance they get - alone or with siblings or friends. They come up with crazy moves to dribble past their older brothers and sisters. They go to the park or meet their friends on a quiet street to play after school and on the weekends. They are exposed to players of different ages and skill levels on a daily basis and learn how to play with and against them. They learn how to deal with other young players and resolve conflicts without adult supervision. They do this in an environment that is forgiving and relatively stress-free. Nobody remembers that you goofed up a crazy move if you make a great pass the next time you have the ball. Most important, there is no coach or adult yelling from the sidelines if you make a mistake.
This street soccer environment is crucial for developing youth soccer players. It enables them to try new things and be clever on the ball while having fun. It gives them the opportunity to stabilize their skills, develop at their own pace and build confidence. It exposes players continually to solving soccer-related problems on their own which helps them develop their independent decision-making skills through trial and error. But most important, it allows young players to enjoy the game for what it really is - a game.
With a solid structure in place and burgeoning interest in soccer among young boys and girls , now is the time to incorporate the concept of street soccer into our youth development program. It is the missing element in the American youth soccer setup.
Coach Mansur stated in Part One, that American players need to do what their counterparts do around the world - play street soccer. Like a pick up baseball game in the back yard or a pick up game of basketball at the local park, the players need to take ownership of their game. No adults, no supervision, allow their natural imagination flow. If not, American soccer will continue to produce unimaginative players. Part Two with Coach Mansur now begins.
What are the implications of the absence of street soccer?
The absence of street soccer leads to a key difference between American youth soccer and other nations' programs. Around the world, young soccer players come from all socio-economic backgrounds. Young players face no significant financial barriers to entering the sport because they always can play street soccer with some friends as long as they have a ball and some space.
However, because of the absence of street soccer in America, youth soccer is a primarily middle- to upper-class sport. Low-income families confront significant barriers to entry because it costs $300 to $500 per year for a young player to play for two 10-week seasons with the local town team. The cost of playing for a youth soccer club ranges from $800 to $1500 per player annually.
Young soccer players from low-income families are excluded at a very early age, which is unfortunate; many of these players come from immigrant families whose home countries have a rich soccer culture. A further consequence of this situation is that it reduces the pool of potential players from which top talent can be identified and developed.
As a result, the existing American youth soccer structure is supported largely by middle-class adults, who volunteer countless hours as coaches and spend a considerable amount of time and effort supporting their children's interests. However, most of these adults did not grow up playing or understanding of the game. More important, most of them do not fully grasp the fundamental differences between coaching adult and youth sports.
As a consequence, the mantra of playing for the team and achieving results is imposed much earlier in American youth soccer than it is in tope soccer-playing nations around the world. And it typically is done at the expense of creativity, skills and independent decision-making, all of which are essential components of individual player development. Teamwork and results are important aspects of team sports and of American culture in general, but these elements should be secondary to individual player development at the youth level of any sport, including soccer.
It is this difference that enables youth players around the world to have more time to develop their creative tendencies and become more clever with the ball before they learn to play in a structured team environment. It is much easier to encourage a nine- or 14-year-old soccer player to be creative than a 22-year-old.
American kids are in no way less creative or less capable than young players in Brazil or Italy. It's just that most of them don't play soccer enough, and their only opportunities to the play the game are in a controlled environment where most coaches, intentionally of unintentionally, suppress their players' creative instincts in order to achieve the best outcome for the team.
Why should street soccer be considered and what are its benefits?
We have created a strong foundation and basic structure for youth soccer in this country, but in doing so, and in the absence of street soccer, we as adults have wrested control of the game away from the kids. Structure makes us feel more comfortable that real learning is taking place. However, the highly structured environment that exists today is not optimal for having young players learn the game of soccer and fall in love with it. It is time for us to give some of the game back to the kids. It is time for us to foster and encourage creativity, as coaches, parents, and fans, by creating an environment where creativity and imagination flourish on the soccer field.
Creativity is the heart and soul of soccer. It is what makes fans gasp in wonder and amazement. Creativity is Ronaldinho making his trademark lightning-quick outside-inside move and leaving yet another hapless defender in his wake. It is Maradona dribbling past two defenders and slipping a no-look through pass to his fellow striker when everyone else on the field and in the stands thinks he is about to shoot for goal. It is the 10-year-old girl in Cambridge, Mass., making up her own spin move during a game.
At the youth level, creativity draws young players to the game and makes them fall in love with it. If nurtured appropriately, it elevates the technical and tactical aspects of the professional game to a higher plane, to that point where it becomes "The Beautiful Game."
Creativity is difficult, if not impossible, to teach. It can only be encouraged by providing an environment that helps foster it, one that rewards risk-taking, imagination and inventiveness - an environment where creativity becomes almost instinctive. That means establishing a street soccer environment.
Around the world young soccer players can be found kicking anything that resembles a ball every chance they get - alone or with siblings or friends. They come up with crazy moves to dribble past their older brothers and sisters. They go to the park or meet their friends on a quiet street to play after school and on the weekends. They are exposed to players of different ages and skill levels on a daily basis and learn how to play with and against them. They learn how to deal with other young players and resolve conflicts without adult supervision. They do this in an environment that is forgiving and relatively stress-free. Nobody remembers that you goofed up a crazy move if you make a great pass the next time you have the ball. Most important, there is no coach or adult yelling from the sidelines if you make a mistake.
This street soccer environment is crucial for developing youth soccer players. It enables them to try new things and be clever on the ball while having fun. It gives them the opportunity to stabilize their skills, develop at their own pace and build confidence. It exposes players continually to solving soccer-related problems on their own which helps them develop their independent decision-making skills through trial and error. But most important, it allows young players to enjoy the game for what it really is - a game.
With a solid structure in place and burgeoning interest in soccer among young boys and girls , now is the time to incorporate the concept of street soccer into our youth development program. It is the missing element in the American youth soccer setup.