Soccer is a wonderful sport.  In the U.S., for many families of young children, it has become a simple rite of passage.  Your son or daughter gets to a certain age (usually between 4 and 7), and you sign them up to play in the local league.  For the ones who show some inclination towards the game, opportunities to play at more competitive levels become available.  Kids begin to play on teams that are measured on some scale featuring terms like “travel,” “premier,” “elite,” etc.  For the rest, recreational – or intramural – soccer is often the main avenue for youth athletic participation.

Regardless, all too often a genuine “feel” for the game isn’t learned by either type of player. Players become far too dependent on coaches to become comfortable enough to solve their own problems.  At the grassroots – or recreational – level, players develop habits that are ingrained from their coaches.  When it comes time for them to think for themselves, they have difficulty coming up with a potential alternative to a situation they’ve seen countless times.  A simple example occurs when the goalkeeper gets the ball.  What does he do – 9 times out of 10?  He punts it – even if he has the option to roll the ball to his defenders who are standing in plenty of space.  What he’s not thinking about is that instead of his team keeping the ball, he is merely giving away what becomes – at best – a 50/50 ball.  If a player shouldn’t freely give the ball away at other places in a game, why do it then?

Unfortunately, at the competitive level it isn’t much better.  Go to any youth soccer game and you’ll hear the coach (and the parents) telling players on the ball what to do All. The. Time.  These joystick coaches essentially prevent any individual thought process whatsoever.  ”Coach says play it down the line, so that’s what I’ll do.”  Some coaches are so detailed with their machine-gun instructions that the player near the ball doesn’t even look up!

Because of the structured play environment that we have created for our children, how can we help our players develop any creativity in such conditions?  At practice – and (especially) during games – we have to let our kids see the game on their own terms.  If we tell them what to do incessantly, how can they appreciate the problems and potential solutions?  Further, we need to encourage our young players to participate in more free play opportunities – where there is no adult coaching and the freedom to play is their own.

I know this can be more challenging than we realize.  In the past I’ve scheduled times and fields for pickup games for several teams.  The only “adult” supervision entailed setting up the field.  The kids picked the teams, made the rules, called their own water breaks, etc.  While the kids all loved it, the trouble came when parents noticed that these games were not organized training sessions.  As logistics required parents driving the kids, participation levels dropped precipitously, and we ultimately were forced to give up on the idea.

Setting aside time where the kids know they can experiment without a coach’s influence is critical.  Today’s kids are governed by too much structured time, and they crave – and need – opportunities to be creative.