Here’s a great tweet from Tom Byer:
Good timing. I’ve been working on a similar thought.
For me, it comes down to how much time kids spend discovering the ball, self-directed. The ball culture fosters this in soccer-playing cultures.
Not only does the US lack soccer culture that doesn’t promote discovering the ball in a self-directed fashion, many aspects of our culture hinders it.
Some of the top young players now, like Pulisic and Sargent, are good examples of what spending lots of time working with the ball outside of organized play can do.
Nearly anything that is wrong with soccer in the U.S. can be traced back to whether it helps or hinders kids from discovering the ball, self-directed.
Here are just a few examples I’ve seen…
What wins at young ages
Winning soccer at young ages is mainly the result of being the biggest and fastest. This doesn’t encourage kids to discover the ball.
Parents lack of knowledge
They simply don’t know what activities they can do with their children to help and when. I can attest to that. I didn’t.
This also hinders in how their interpretation of the soccer experience giving ample reasons from the best to the worst players at young ages to keep kids from discovering the ball.
Examples — For the best: They don’t need to. They’re doing just fine without it!
For the worst: They’re just in it to have fun and to be with their friends. I don’t want to force them to work with the ball and ruin their love for the sport.
Those same things are said about kids in other sports in the U.S., but with an “and”, as in…AND they should be improving fundamentals, too.
For example, parents don’t interpret the 26 to 24 tee ball wins of their 5-year-old as a sign their kid doesn’t need to improve catching, throwing and deciding where to make the play.
Rather, they get their kid out in the yard and play catch with them. They watch baseball on TV and point out where the fielders are making the play.
Scheduling
Another factor is the schedule of sports that has emerged in the U.S. Each sport has carved out its own season for survival (football=fall, basketball=winter, baseball=spring).
Because of this, it’s common to think it’s unhealthy to play a sport, year-round. Yet, most soccer playing countries do so without problem.
While those countries play organized soccer 10 months a year, the pace is moderate and games more convenient, making it easier to work other activities into the schedule.
There, they have one game per weekend at the neighborhood club, especially at the lower and intermediate levels of play.
Compare to the U.S., where it’s common to have 3-4 tournament games and hours of driving, even at low and intermediate levels. That makes it harder to do other activities.
And, who wants to touch the ball when they get home from such long weekends? Few.
Misinterpreting the numbers
It’s often said that we have the numbers. Millions of kids play soccer in the U.S., after all!
But, it’s not just a numbers game. Most of those kids have zero desire to discover the ball.
What percentage of those players, for example, can juggle 100 by the time they turn 10? From my experience, less than 5%. Maybe 3%. In soccer-playing cultures this is like learning to catch and throw a baseball, or shoot a basket in our culture, both of which can be done pretty well by 10 year-old Americans, both who play and do not play organized sports.
The other 97% will tell you why juggling is unnecessary.
How many of those kids play soccer with their friends for 2-3 hours after school a few times a week? Not many.
I bet these percentage are much higher in soccer-playing cultures.
More
These are just a few things that I see that do not foster a soccer ball culture in the U.S. There are many more.
Incidentally, in my city, we have pockets where ball culture is alive and well, in areas with high immigrant populations.
There are usually pickup games in these pockets.
When the suburban, non-ball culture teams play teams from these areas, it’s usually no contest, not only on the ball, but game IQ, too.
I’ve coached from the suburban side of these games. The other team would warm up with a juggling circle, while we struggled with basic pass-and-follow line.
Their coaches didn’t need to joystick their team’s play. Those kids knew how to play on their own. Their coaches were mostly quiet, every now and then calling a player to adjust positioning or something.
Without direction, our kids would repeat basic errors like dumping the ball to the other team in front of our goal.
It eventually dawned on me that the other kids had been playing soccer and with the ball all their lives.
Our kids, even with a few rec seasons, only had a few months behind them and zero ball culture.
super article