Have you ever thought about why you do something?  As youth teams across the country begin their fall seasons, I thought it might be a good idea to consider the various perspectives of people involved in the game.  Why are they involved?  What are they thinking?  This post will look at what the average youth player might be thinking, while future posts will examine the roles and thought processes of coaches, parents, referees, etc.

THE PLAYER

Why do kids play sports?  Anyone who reads this blog at all understands that the primary reason kids play sports – at every level – is to have fun.  They want to learn new things, enjoy time with friends, and compete.  In short, they want to play.  It becomes hard to do that, though, when they are constantly being told what to do by parents and coaches.

Before the Game

I can’t wait to get to the game.  We’ve been practicing for weeks and now we finally get to play a game.  I hope I get a chance to score.  Coach says I might be able to play goalkeeper too!  It will be great to play against a different team!  It’s going to be a lot of fun!

During the Game

A colleague made this analogy.  In baseball, would you yell “SWING!” at a batter when the pitch is on its way?  Obviously, the answer is no.  Then why would you yell “KICK IT!” (or any other comment) when the player is about to receive the ball?  Think about the player’s thought process…my head is down…I need to keep the ball…I don’t want to lose it…there is a defender around me…where are my teammates…I was going to dribble but parents are yelling “CLEAR IT!”  I guess I should just kick it.

“Football is simple, but the hardest thing is to play football in a simple way.”

-Johan Cruyff 

Look – the reality is that soccer is hard (notice Cruyff said the game is “simple” – he didn’t say “easy.”).  It’s not easy; there is a lot of information for players to process; if they hear grown-ups yelling at them, it only confuses them and makes it impossible to play the game on their own terms.

After the Game (the mini-van pressure cooker)

Hey, that was fun.  I’m tired!  I hope mom saw me that time I dribbled around that guy and shot!  I missed, but it was close!  I’m really hungry.

Now it’s possible that this child’s team lost 5-1.  You can be certain – and this is perfectly natural – that a young player will focus on his own performance.  Further, most will choose to remember the good things they did, rather than their mistakes (I know a lot of adults who do this as well!).  Again – remember they are playing to have fun.  For most kids, they don’t need to hear a post-mortem on everything they did wrong, as if they’re getting a homework assignment back from their teacher and it’s covered in red marks.

Kids want to have fun and compete.  Even for kids who play at more competitive levels, they don’t want to hear all they’ve done wrong (newsflash – they probably already know).  Kids aren’t perfect; since pros make mistakes – why can’t we let kids make a few?  That’s how they learn.