Soccer - "The Un- American Activity"

>>When a kid is afraid to tackle, as a coach I think you have an obligation to be brutally honest and suggest another sport. <<

PEE-WEE COACH: Son, if you can't tackle, you should play another sport
DEON SANDERS (He didn't have the 'i' then): Nah ...

Oh and I played football in college and I absolutely love the sport.

And now on to Mr. Ragu.
Apologies if I offended.
The greater point, at least to me, is that I tire of this talk that sports builds character and how teaches youngsters the game of life. I simply call "bullshit."
That is a very simplistic notion to teach that everything can be broken down to one side versus another with winner take all.
Life isn't that way. According to the child psychologists, the best thing a kid can have, besides parents who care, are siblings or pets. Those are the things that teach you about life. Not soccer or football or baseball.
Sport breaks it down to the basics, strips out the complexity, the nuance. The things that matter. That, to me, is a huge problem.
I could go on, but insomnia is beginning to wear off and I grow weary. Maybe tomorrow or, actually, later today.

 

Actually, no.
Soccer evangelists have long since cooled down, mostly because they've gotten so much of what they need to be happy: Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV, MLS, whatever it might be.
No, the soccer folks are much more like those of another religion: persecuted so much that they tend to be a little more defensive than fans of other sports.

 

"Hey boys in football you want to try and make a tackle, but if you miss or are afraid you might get hurt then don't worry about it. Just have fun. That's what it is all about."

Why even bother playing sports then ? In your world sounds like the best things for boys are the Play Station loaded up with Madden Football. Simple and clean fun. They can sit on a comfortable chair with their dog at their feet and contest their siblings all day. There is no need to learn teamwork or ability to interact with others. No need to learn about discipline or perserverance.

Jay, I'm sorry but it's people like you who have "pussified" sports in this country.

 

Everything teaches you about life....no one said you have to play sports to learn how to live. They said there are a lot of life lessons to be learned through playing sports, and that is indisputable.

And I know plenty of wildly successful people who didn't have siblings or pets.

 

Learn teamwork or ability to interact with others? Have you seen a lot of youth coaches? They're win at all costs, and they couldn't give two shits about teamwork if they can hitch their wagon to Joe Future Superstar and ride him as hard as they can. Actually, a valuable lesson that sports teaches, inadvertantly, is that authority figures can be dicks.

 

Learn teamwork or ability to interact with others? Have you seen a lot of youth coaches? They're win at all costs, and they couldn't give two shits about teamwork if they can hitch their wagon to Joe Future Superstar and ride him as hard as they can. Actually, a valuable lesson that sports teaches, inadvertantly, is that authority figures can be dicks.
Well said, Damian.

The way this thread has morphed from a nice look on the deevolution of youth sports over the last 30 years to a prick-waving dickfest on which sport requires bigger testicles to play is ridiculous, so I'll try bringing it back.

I'm not the first one to notice that youth sports weren't that political in the 70s and early 80s. Perhaps they were, but in all my years of playing baseball and basketball growing up and water polo and basketball in high school, I didn't notice. It seemed the one's who made All-Stars deserved to make All-Stars and it was accepted as such.

The only screwing I ever took was when I originally wasn't on a major league team as a 12-year-old, because the managers for the four teams in my Little League went on a youth kick and started pulling up 10-year-olds so they'd have them for three seasons. But after going 4-for-6 in two practice games, I got called up and had a decent season.

Nowadays, the politics and the coaching crapshoot boggles the mind. After dabbling in baseball and basketball (even at 7, kids are channelling their inner Kobe and remaining blissfully ignorant of the word "pass"), my 12-year-old son has played soccer for the last three years.

He's had three pretty good head coaches, although one was a bit of a win-win-win headcase. I've seen some of the other coaches who aren't so hot and realize how lucky he's been.

After he was left off the region's tournament team -- despite shining in both tryouts as a goalkeeper -- my wife overheard the tournament coach bragging to another parent that he had his goalies picked already. At that, she said enough was enough and volunteered to become the region's Under-8 girls coordinator. That, despite the fact she works two jobs and 15-hour days three days a week and I've served as an assistant coach the last two years.

"If this is what it takes for them not to get screwed anymore, then that's what I'll do," she said.

This, apparently, is what it takes these days.  :-[

 

Any parent who allows their child to be an offensive lineman before the age of 16 should be reported to the authorities.
Let's see. Given the choice between the two sports, I'd rather see my kid be able to walk when he's 40 and think when he's 60.

 

Every four years during the World Cup, it seems like there are two kinds of people in this country: soccer bashers and soccer evangelists.
There must be something wrong with me, because I'm not in complete agreement with either side.
I like soccer. I attended a World Cup game in 1994 and had a great time. I respect the amount of skill, conditioning and athletic ability the best players have. As I wrote on another thread, the game has made inroads in this country in the last quarter century. More people know the game. More people play the game. More good athletes are choosing to play soccer in this country. It has a place in this country, just not the place some fans hoped it would have.
But I'd like soccer more if there was more scoring and less diving. I don't like what the game has become in this country and what it has become to symbolize (the "pussification" of our sports culture, emphasis on year-round specialization, how club teams have taken priority over school teams, how a poor person's game that kids all over the world play in the streets with balls made of rags has become a rich kids' game in this country, etc.).
I don't think there's anything wrong with people who love the game, but I don't think there's anything wrong with people who hate it. To each his own.

 

I just don't get why soccer is singled out for club teams, travel ball, bad parents, etc. I don't see it any different than tons of other sports.


I think the diving and injury thing is bad though. IMO, it is the single worst feature of the sport on the international level. It's ridiculous.

 

And next year the FIFA U- 20 World Cup will be in Canada.

And we'll have to listen to the soccer bashing nonsense all over again.

BTW, Sportsnet and TSN broadcast every single game up here. There were a few games (on the weekend) where the viewership was right up there with playoff hockey. I bet we'll see Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals numbers for Sunday's final.

(Interestingly enough, as good as hockey draws, the Grey Cup still rules.)

 

I think we're suffering from a misperception about the physicality of soccer here.

Soccer IS a contact sport. You have to bump noggins with your opponent to win the ball. You have to learn how to tackle. All while being extremely fit. I learned that in seventh grade PE playing against this big (for his age) Filipino kid who had all the skills.

I can see a bit of the "minivan" argument having merit here. But I saw what the U.S. did against Italy and I didn't see any touchy-feely there. I saw a physical performance by an inspired team that played soccer the way one must to be a player on the world stage.

I think that a lot of young American boys who play soccer and have athletic skills are steered away from soccer and toward the mainline American sports around middle school age. At that age, what grown-ups tell you carries a lot more weight.

As a result, few of the true athletes stick with soccer, it seems, but the boys who do are the ones who end up with college scholarships and a shot at the pros. That is changing, but it'll take time.

So women's soccer is different. Well, duh! America has Title IX and other countries don't, and it's a different game.

 

That element has done more to delegitimize the sport in this country this summer than anything else. Any soccer acolyte who has watched any part of the World Cup has seen it and has commented on its absurdity.