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The point was also to try to beat the other team. We learned teamwork and fitness and we kept score. Even 8-year-olds knew they weren't mutually exclusive. If you want to learn teamwork and fitness without a competitive environment, go learn them in some non-competitive activity.
The first team I played on not only lost every single game that season, but we only scored one goal that entire season. None of us were irreparably dejected and almost all of us were back the next season. And we had a hell of a pizza party after we scored that lone goal. Kids who self-select a competitive sport can handle competition a lot better than mewling adults give them credit for.
Therein lies the single biggest reason why so many have removed the 'score for winning' aspect from preteen soccer: the competitively stupid parents! You're talking about well adjusted kids of whom parents play a major role in achieving that while todays parent.....not so much.
Not recording score and standings is not the same as trying to keep kid's from keeping score.
Would you have had less fun if standings if weren't kept? Would you really have thought that goals were stupid? Probably not. But maybe your coach's would play more creatively, and instead of most of you coming back, all of your team would have.
Rather than play the 'this is how I did it, and I turned out fine' game let's look at some truths. Registration in youth soccer peaks at the youngest ages, and then goes out as it gets older. Youth soccer is like a pyramid - lots of players until about age 11, and then it dies off rapidly. Why not make some changes to avoid that?
Canada has a huge number of youth soccer players, more than hockey.. yet very few native born professionals play the game. Even the MLS teams in Canada are something like 10% Canadian; can you imagine the Leaf's with 10% Canadian players? Why not try to change that? The main point is, what we've been doing isn't working, so change it. I truly don't understand the resistance to changing what so clearly isn't working.
Sources: According to data compiled by the blog Out of Touch, the Impact played Canadians for just 2,239 minutes in 2012. That represents just 6.49 percent of total minutes played. Vancouver was even worse. Much worse, actually. The Caps used Canadians for just 132 minutes last season, a pathetic 0.34 percent of total minutes. Even Toronto, which was by far the team most likely to use Canadians, came in at just 25.5 percent.
Not recording score and standings is not the same as trying to keep kid's from keeping score.
So if the kids are still keeping score and measuring themselves against one another, what's the point of the adults pretending like it's still not a competitive sport?
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlsoNotMe
Would you have had less fun if standings if weren't kept? Would you really have thought that goals were stupid? Probably not. But maybe your coach's would play more creatively, and instead of most of you coming back, all of your team would have.
I doubt all of our team would have come back even if we had won every single game because there will always be attrition in the younger ranks of any activity as kids explore their interests and determine which ones they like and which ones they don't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlsoNotMe
Rather than play the 'this is how I did it, and I turned out fine' game let's look at some truths. Registration in youth soccer peaks at the youngest ages, and then goes out as it gets older. Youth soccer is like a pyramid - lots of players until about age 11, and then it dies off rapidly. Why not make some changes to avoid that?
Registration in a whole bunch of sports and activities peak at younger ages because that's when kids are sorting out what they're truly interested in and what they're not. Those who have tried something and determined their interest is tepid drop out. This isn't unique to soccer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlsoNotMe
Canada has a huge number of youth soccer players, more than hockey.. yet very few native born professionals play the game. Even the MLS teams in Canada are something like 10% Canadian; can you imagine the Leaf's with 10% Canadian players? Why not try to change that? The main point is, what we've been doing isn't working, so change it. I truly don't understand the resistance to changing what so clearly isn't working.
What, did hockey leagues draw more interest by not keeping score? What is the evidence that not keeping score will increase interest in soccer? If anything it would seem to turn off the truly competitive kids who would be most apt to develop into more skilled players.
Basically, because score doesn't really matter when you are 10 years old. Don't need any more little league coaches abusing 9 year old children like they are amatuer pro athletes.
It would be a bit weird not having score.. but at that age.. no one really cared. Sports were to be active. Real "winning" didn't matter until pre-teen years or so.
BS...........it matters more at that age. Who abuses those children you speak of? Just teach em to go and do their best.
Again you didn't care if you won or not? Why play then? Love liberals who try and answer this question. Usually no response or just folks who couldn't play. Hey go sew. Let the kids play.
Being "active" was running out till the street lights came on. Not Xbox. Oh but liberals love Billy boy. Protest him.
To have fun with your friends. To get exercise. To give parents X number of hours a week to do other things while their kids are at practice.
You are so right........but let em play.
Been at so many practices I can't count. My guys want to play so I let em. Fun to watch em jack folks up too. So I go. Don't force em at all............but bring it.
So if the kids are still keeping score and measuring themselves against one another, what's the point of the adults pretending like it's still not a competitive sport?
I doubt all of our team would have come back even if we had won every single game because there will always be attrition in the younger ranks of any activity as kids explore their interests and determine which ones they like and which ones they don't.
Registration in a whole bunch of sports and activities peak at younger ages because that's when kids are sorting out what they're truly interested in and what they're not. Those who have tried something and determined their interest is tepid drop out. This isn't unique to soccer.
What, did hockey leagues draw more interest by not keeping score? What is the evidence that not keeping score will increase interest in soccer? If anything it would seem to turn off the truly competitive kids who would be most apt to develop into more skilled players.
I'm not saying that I have all the answers, but when head coach's of community leagues, sports psychologists, soccer trainers at high levels, technical directors at the CSA, and my own experience (convenor, coach, parent, certified referee who has witnessed parents yelling at a 7 year old to 'boot the ball up!') all say the same thing, and the only people who are really against it are not intimately involved with the needs of kids other than their own (and even then, they may be out of touch with what their kids actually want to do) maybe people should give it a shot rather than react like Don Cherry protesting "wimps" who get little headbumps and cry on their way to the MRI machine. At some point, in an age where childhood obesity is growing (and remember, the odds are very high that an inactive child will grow into an inactive adult) why not try something new? If your last paragraph were true, we'd have an abundance of skilled players of a variety of sports, and simply put, we don't. And yes, Hockey Canada is moving towards long-term player development and away from standings.
Your point about the 'kids drop out because they're not interested' ignores the fact that we should be doing more to interest them. It's not in our genetic makeup to be overweight or uninterested in sports (there were no fat cavemen); this is a result of choices we've made as a society, and we can change.
Look, the simple truth is that some people are against eliminating standings simply because they are against eliminating standings, and no amount of evidence to the contrary will convince them of that. Just as many didn't believe the world was round becasue they saw it as flat, and no amount of articles from people who truly have first-hand expeirence will convince them of it. But hopefully no one on this board.
You asked for some evidence, so here's what 3 minutes of googling has found. I've provided lots of evidence that what we have been doing in youth soccer is not working; why not try something new? Will someone riddle me that please?
I agree with Herm Edwards who said it best you play to win the Game.. You do just play to just to play it.
You Play to Win the Game - YouTube
In Canada we play to win at Hockey and well I could careless about Soccer or winning a World cup put I care about winning at IIHF World Juniors and at the Olympics anything but gold is considered a failure of the and it is not a Game but since Hockey is our national pastime.
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