SOCCER

GENERAL BENEFITS

• Soccer is the ultimate starter sport, with various formats offered to children, including small-sided fields and smaller sided-teams.

• Soccer improves muscular strength, endurance, joint flexibility, cardiovascular fitness, coordination, agility, and balance.

• It also improves mental focus and strategic thinking.

• Soccer teaches teamwork and the ability to work with others while constantly moving. Because passing the ball is essential to a team’s success, players must communicate well and be consistently aware of their team members’ whereabouts on the field. Even though more accomplished players will likely handle the ball more than others, every child is able to be involved in the action and contribute.

• Many children learn determination from soccer, starting out frustrated when someone steals the ball from them, then learning to hustle to get it back. Eventually kids learn how to get right back up after having been knocked down without looking for a parent’s shoulder to cry on.

• An abundant number of programs exist to provide opportunities for many children, and are able to accommodate players with different athletic abilities and skills.

• Soccer has also become a lifetime sport with people well in to their 60’s playing recreational soccer.

KIDS WHO TEND TO EXCEL

• Virtually all children can learn to play soccer, whatever their physical abilities may be, which accounts for the sport’s wide appeal. Though having some height can be an advantage, smaller players can use skill, agility, and intelligence to outplay a stronger player. Muscle tone and muscle strength both matter, but the most critical attributes are speed and the ability to sprint.

• Soccer does not require strength, height, or size, but rather speed, coordination, balance, eye-foot skills, cardiovascular fitness, and endurance.

• Your child should also be appropriately aggressive for the level at which she is playing. She should be moving to a loose ball, kicking the ball hard, but never knocking down the other players.

• The best players are generally regarded as the team leaders.

• Coaches find radically shifting skill levels in soccer as children go through puberty, as some players slow down or are outplayed by their peers who have grown.

BEST AGE TO START

• Soccer is a great starting sport for younger children as the rules are easy to grasp, and it doesn’t take long to learn the basic skills. Unlike baseball or basketball where hand-eye coordination is so important, kids can start kicking a soccer ball around as soon as they can run. In addition, younger soccer leagues make it easier for your child to play the game, as there are only 3 or 4 players per team on the field for recreational play and 6 players for traveling teams. Eventually, your child will work her way up to play the official 11-sided soccer.

• Most children start playing organized soccer around first or second grade or ages 6 to 7, as that is when they begin to understand both the rules of the game and the techniques and strategies involved. At this age, children play on a smaller field, usually about a third or half the size of a full soccer field.

• Still, preschool soccer programs have now become the hot new league sport. But when deciding to sign your child up for a sport at such a young age, make sure she is ready for group play; you don’t want to turn her off to the sport by signing her up too early.

• Before signing your child up for soccer, ask yourself whether she is physically ready to play. If your child hasn’t developed the coordination to kick a ball, she may get so frustrated that she will want to hang up her cleats forever.

• Most soccer coaches believe that parents should wait until their kids are at least 5 or 6 years old before enrolling them in a league, since preschoolers and many kindergartners have difficulty learning soccer in a team setting and often become upset when a coach corrects them.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN GETTING STARTED

• Soccer, like hockey, is a very technical game with a variety of skills to master. Even though it looks easy to kick a ball down the field and shoot at a goal, the game can be difficult.

• Ask the following questions when evaluating a soccer program:

• How children are grouped: by age, by school, by grade, by neighborhood?

• How is the program structured in terms of practices, games, and travel?

• Are there registration fees, and do these include a uniform? Are there any other costs?

• Are the coaches paid or volunteer? Are experts brought in for special training sessions?

• Are tryouts involved? Of the kids who try out, how many get placed on a team?

• Are the better players concentrated on certain teams, or are team divisions made without taking skill into account?

• Will my child get relatively equal playing time with the other kids? Is this up to the coach’s decision, or is there a playing policy (such as each child must play at least 50% of a game)?

• Will my child be exposed to every position? What happens if she doesn’t want to play a particular position, such as goalie?

• What is expected of me as a volunteer, such as providing snacks or helping administer aspects of the team?

• If travel is involved, how far will this typically be?

• Team standings and playoffs should not happen until at least ages 9 or 10.

• From ages 6 to 8, you should expect your child to:

• Learn the basics of soccer, such as dribbling, passing, and shooting.

• Play games with a team of 3 or 5 players about 40 minutes in length on shortened fields with small goals.

• Have fun, develop camaraderie, and remember more about the post game snacks than the score.

• Play with a size 3 ball

• From ages 8 to 10, you should expect your child to:

• Hone her ball handling, passing, and shooting skills.

• Focus on the more tactical aspects of the game.

• Play games on a larger field with squads of either 6, 8, or 11 players, which include goalkeepers

• Participate in longer games

• Go to practices that focus for longer periods of time on skill-building drills

• Play with a size 4 ball

• From ages 11 on up, you should expect your child to:

• Play matches on full-size field with a regulation ball and goals

• Play on teams of 11 players, including a goalkeeper

• Practice two to three times a week for about 90 minutes, in addition to weekend games

• Play with a full size 5 ball

• Ask if the coach has been certified. Beginning soccer coach licenses start with G and go up to A for the highest level in the U.S. Part of each state’s licensing process involves coaching tips and strategies, as well as learning from experts about how to best communicate soccer skills to children of various ages.

FUTSAL

• Promoted as a game that improves touch and ball handling, Futsal has become a popular indoor winter soccer alternative. Futsal helps players develop quicker reflexes and extremely accurate passing.

• Top Brazilian players for years have attributed their world soccer success to Futsal. Futsal is an indoor soccer game played with 5 players on each team in an area the size of a basketball court. Players use a ball smaller, heavier, and with less bounce than a traditional size 5 soccer ball. Players have to use skill to move the ball, rather than being able to rely on the ball’s bounce. Moreover, unlike traditional indoor soccer, there are no walls for the ball to rebound off of back into play.

SAFETY & INJURY CONCERNS

• The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has estimated that 140,000 to 160,000 soccer-related injuries occur annually, with 22% being head injuries. The AAP recommends that participants in youth soccer should minimize heading the ball until more is known about the risks for brain injury. They further recommend wearing mouth guards, along with sports goggles to prevent injuries to your child’s eyes.

• The most common injuries associated with soccer are bumps and bruises to the knee, thigh, shin, ankle, and foot. Shin guards protect your child from shinbone injuries, and are the only piece of protective equipment mandatory in most soccer leagues.

• Given the speed at which soccer is often played, serious collisions do occur, such as when two players go to kick the ball and one ends up kicking the other. The impact can cause bruises as well as fractures, torn ligaments, and sprains.

COST CONSIDERATIONS

• Soccer involves relatively little equipment, which makes it among the most inexpensive sports to play. In general, a pair of soccer cleats, shin guards, high socks that cover the shin guards, and a ball is all your child needs, and a pair of gloves if playing goalkeeper. Together these can all be purchased for under $100. Most teams ask that children bring their own soccer balls to practice as many drills and activities require each child to have a ball. Younger children start off with a small, softer ball that they can more easily manipulate.

• The average cost for recreational teams is $50 to $70 per season, but this cost increases for traveling teams. The fee generally covers uniforms and pays for referees at the games. Most soccer teams have a team uniform, which usually consists of a reversible shirt and may also include shorts and socks in the team colors. Sometimes, the uniform needs to be purchased separately by your child.

• The big cost comes in league and club teams, with some clubs charging as high as $2,000 per player to cover yearly coaching, field, uniform, and referee costs.

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