Understand Why Children Participate In Soccer
A majority of the reasons children participate in the sport are for
intrinsic reasons. The top priorities are:
- To learn and improve skills
- To have fun
- To be with friends
- To experience the excitement of
competition
- To enhance their physical fitness
- To demonstrate their competence
Notice that the extrinsic goal of winning
and beating others is not at the top of the list.
Similarly, when children drop out of
soccer, their withdrawal can be traced to the inability of the sport
experience to meet their primary motivations for participation.
The common reasons are:
- Failing to lean or improve skills
- Not having fun
- Not being with their friends
- Lack of excitement, improvisation and
creative opportunities
- Lack of exercise, meaningful movement
and fitness improvement
- Lack of optimal challenges and/or
consistent failure
Practical Suggestions For
Coaches:
- Encourage players to measure their
performance by improvements in their own, personal levels of
proficiency and ability rather than by comparing themselves to other
players or to other teams based on the game outcome.
- Because children have several reasons
for participation and not just one, design practices to meet as many
different participation motives as possible (i.e. learning, fun,
friendship, fitness, challenge, etc.).
- Utilize the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep
It Short and Simple) when introducing new skills:
- give short effective
demonstrations while briefly explaining the new skill or concept
- use picture cues
liberally
- focus only on one or
two important aspects critical to performance success (avoid
"paralysis by analysis")
- decrease time spent in
transition between activities, drills and games. Keep
practices short, clear and well-planned
- Utilize a positive approach to skill
instruction by focusing on what the athlete did correctly ("catch
them being good").
- Make practices meaningful, fun
challenging and exciting:
- avoid static line
drills
- encourage creative
improvisation by players
- optimally challenge
all athletes throughout the full range of abilities (avoid
coaching only the mid-ability performer)
- eliminate "elimination
games" because players most in need of improvement and
repetitions are usually the first to be eliminated
- be fully focused on
the players and the activity (coach the players as well as the
game)
- Plan time for the children to meet and
make new friends (ice cream stops after practice, pizza parties,
watch a video, free time before and after practice).
- Focus on teaching players the active,
ever-changing game of soccer rather than the static, predictable
soccer drills.
- Utilize dual function fitness
activities that concurrently enhance fitness and also improve soccer
skills (i.e. soccer tag with a ball) and/or psychological
dispositions (players are having so much fun they don't realize that
they are conditioning too).
- Provide competitive challenges for
athletes that can help define success not only by comparison to
others but also by improving one's own standard of accomplishment.
Dr. Colleen Hacker
Sports Psychology
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, Washington
Go To Next Section: Know the Factors That May Be
Stressful For Youth Players
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