well, evidently we haven’t had much to say here this fall, BUT it isn’t cause we haven’t been thinking about stuff. recently, i have been thinking about issues that really fire me up.
first, what the heck happened to COMPETITION in youth sports??? we signed our sons up for the non-church soccer league this fall cause we wanted to meet some people who weren’t Christians AND because i wanted to put them on teams that were more focused on competition and learning to play the sport the right way. it turns out that the non-church league is just as non-competitive as the church league. i could go on and on about what sucks, but here are a few bullets
- they don’t blow the whistle when the ball goes out of bounds, only when it goes TOO FAR out of bounds.
- 75% of the coaches & 50% of the referees don’t know the proper rules for a “goal kick” vs. a “corner kick”
- the kids don’t have to do running or sprints at practice
- there is no cheering on the sidelines – aka “SILENT SIDELINES”
- they don’t keep score
- they don’t have standings
- AND they don’t teach positions to u10 players — how are they ever going to groom goalies, forwards, defenders and midfielders? — this is why American soccer sucks internationally!
when i was in 1st grade (mind you jackson is in 3rd and some of his teammates are in 5th) we had ribbons for places at the end of the season that meant something. the standings were in the local paper every Sunday WITH a recap of the game — i got my name in a few times. we were stoked when we won, we were bummed when we lost and we really wanted to get better (we had some smack to run at school too!). Doesn’t competition translate to life? i am pretty sure it does; the market place is SUPER competitive. i am not even sure why they bother to separate the genders in this league; it isn’t like they let the kids play hard enough to actually get hurt. to this end i am thinking of forming my own soccer clinics for kids (and the parents) who really want to learn how to play.
*** wait till you get a load of the political thoughts i have been kicking around! ~Ryan
