A Brave New World...of youth sports.

We have entered the world of organized sports.  Groups of kids signing up for games that are coached and refereed.  My son is on a U-6 soccer team (six and under), they play three on three games and sub every five minutes.  There is no goalie, no score keeper, and the games are loosely refereed.  They practice once a week. 

For a six year old, the game is an extension of school yard play.  A collection of boys playing together at a common goal.  Generating a little competition as boys are want to do but friends irregardless and smiles all round.  I played soccer for a great deal of my school years and I loved it a great deal.  The game has always been a source of enjoyment and fulfillment for me and win or lose playing soccer always makes me smile.  In truth I was blessed with some pretty good coaches, not perfect, but they generally cultivated a love for the sport within teaching technique, tactics, positioning, etc.  After watching three practices and one game as a father I can see within my son's small team some fathers doing their best to create a future of non-athletes.

There will be a lot of time, too much time, for serious competition.  A time for scores to matter a bit more than they do now and the game is taken to a higher level.  It won't be too long before my son comes home from practice pissed off at his coach or the other players or slams the door to his room after a tough loss in front of the home crowd.  It won't belong before we are expected to take the game a little more serious.   But for now, for a team of kindergartners, soccer is just a game.  It is fun to be on the field, kicking the ball around, learning to dribble and pass and score goals.  It is too fun to ruin with criticism and coaching from the sidelines by the parents.

I am doing my best to let my son figure out the game on his own.  I show him things, we play soccer in the back yard (and the living room), and kick the ball around as the situation offers.  At this age, he is quick to pick up tricks and flicks and the general ideas behind carrying the ball at your feet and for now I am content to let him figure it out on his own through play.  Just playing.  The kids on the field don't need any advice from their parents, just encouragement.  It is easy to get exasperated, especially for parents who have a history with the sport but, parents, IT ISN'T ABOUT YOU RIGHT NOW!  It is about your kids having fun and developing a lifestyle of exercise.  Whether or not my son is the next Zinadine Zindane or Theirry Henry is not important to me, what is important is that he engages with the sport for as long as it makes him smile, in my case, despite the frustrations that arose, that has been always.