Well, Im not to old. But I am 21 and I want to start playing for fun. Would I be worth it? Will other players think I'm stupid to try and learn now? I really want to play keeper, I think. But Im in horrible shape right now, so I need to work on that before anything.
No you are not too old and no one will think you are stupid. One problem you might run into wanting to play keeper, at our age (I'm 21 too), most of what we can play in is pick up, and a lot of times, there are no keepers in pick up games. However, if you live in an area that has a strong soccer community, most of the time you can find an adult league to play in. These can be just as competitive as high school games and the guys are usually in great shape. Because you are just starting, I would recommend you get in some kind of shape (go running regularly) and start doing exercising to help you control the ball. Information on this can be found plenty on these forums. You can also start to look for groups to play pick up with. If you are in college, every college seems to have spot (IM fields, local soccer complex) where players gather on schedule to play. For me for instance, it's every W,F,Sun., around 3 pm. Good Luck!
Holy crap, you just made a LOT of us feel like dinosaurs. There are guys in my league that are pushing 50 and could run circles around D2 players I know. Age means nothing, man. I'm 37 and LOVE playing every week. You can start at any time at any age. It's about finding a league or pick-up games of others at your level and there are levels for every age and ability, it just takes a little online searching. Check with your city parks and rec. Find a league there or hit up craigslist and find some pick-up games. And for God's sake don't keep rambling on that you're "old". It's pissing me off.
I'll second those comments! I played a little bit when I was age 6-10, then just started up again last summer at age 42! (after doing a couple years of coaching my kids and realizing it's me that wants to play more than my kids at times!) I'm having a great time playing co-ed rec and sure wish I started up soccer again earlier in life... because I'm slowly coming to the realization no matter how much I practice and work-out it's a little late for me to make the Pros. The child has grown, the dream has gone, but I'm -not- becoming Comfortably Numb!
I didn't start playing organized soccer until I was 34 simply because for my generation there was none available where I lived. I did play pickup games whenever one was available (which was almost never after my school yard playground days) and did skill work on my own. If you played any other sports competitively (American football, basketball, hockey, lacrosse) you will recognize a lot of the tactics. One advantage to being a novice is that your ball skills will greatly improve (if you work on them) over the first two years. When I started playing organized, I was playing with former college players in a "summer league" against mostly D3 and JC teams in their off season. In two years time, I was starting at outside midfield and winger and could play either side (i.e., crossed well with both feet). As to wanting to play goal most men have some eye-hand coordination from playing basketball. Volleyball experience will also be helpful that way. But what you need are foot skills just like the field players. That has been true ever since they prohibited keepers from using their hands to play balls passed back by their team-mates. So play every chance you can, even those small sided games without keepers. Besides the more you play, the more players and coaches you meet. And trust me, every coach is looking for another goal keeper. Ideally a team has two keepers splitting time in the net with time in the field. Another reason to learn to play the field.
I too started playing at an advanced age....been playing off and on for about 5 years now with a torn ACL repair in between there. My biggest frustration right now is not being beat a defender 1-1, I just don't have enough fancy footwork When I get the ball people recognize I'm not that good with the ball and attack me like a shark going for meat. What can I do to improve my dribbling skills??
Well like it or not, the answer is practice. The problem with adult rec soccer is most adults never practice, they only play games. You really just need to practice ball handling minimally in your house while watching TV and hopefully outside in some more relaxed environment than the high pressure adult rec games... LOL. You can practice on basic touch skills here: http://ballskills.wikispaces.com/Practice And then learn some of the moves and turns here: http://ballskills.wikispaces.com/ You need to be able to do some moves with 0 pressure around an imaginary defender before you can do a lot of things on a live defender. Good luck and have fun!
Never too late to play! I played high school football and basketball and did not start playing until I was 24 when I studied abroad in Spain. (talk about being thrown into the fire). The BEST thing you can do is play in a 5v5 league with no boards. The thing that will help your play, even as a keeper is trapping and passing quickly. Learning to trap the ball, look, and pass into space or to anther player takes time and on a small field like this only force you to think quick. Too often new players panic and boot the ball down the field, but playing 5v5 that is not really an option. You can also juggle the ball in your house in a park for an hour a week and it will help. Also watching more soccer will help, learning how to run and pass into space is really valuable and seeing the field from above helps. Good Luck!
Well for me coerver moves helped me a lot in getting comfortable with the ball. http://www.beavercreeksoccer.com/Assets/bsoccer_assets/pdf/coerver.pdf This is also helpful http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~dgraham/daily_drill.html Also I think its good to master one or two feints. You know, like stepovers, elastico ect. Some people think they are flashy and useless but I like doing them.
If you like goalkeeping, go for it. Don't expect too much in the first 12 months. Goalkeeping requires skill just like any other position. It takes countless repetitions learning the proper way to palm, punch and catch.
I don't think palming and catching is gona be very hard to learn, however positioning and knowing when to run out is very hard to learn, even pros make many mistakes here. I'd talk to someone who's been a goalkeeper for a while for tips on that and saving penalty shots. You'd start out in a low league i presume where penalties are a fortnightly thing.
This is a great site to learn goalkeeping: http://jbgoalkeeping.com/ I'm learning at age 40+ being a 50% of the time keeper and find the tactics/suggestions on that site to be great... as I find myself going back to the site to learn what I could have/should have done better... I'm slowly getting better. Maybe by the time I'm 50 I'll be really good! Good luck!
As for starting late, you have the disadvantage that the technique others got when they were kids, you do not have. And to learn difficult and complex motor skills now is hard and requires alot of training and repitition. SO basically just train hard, focus on what you are lacking. As for 1v1, i used to suck hard, but when I realised its not about the move, its the explosion which follows, I improved alot.
What do you mean by that? I recently got back into playing after a decade off (dark times, friend, dark times) and though some things just came back to me, 1v1 seems harder than ever. I'm not sure if I'm less aggressive than when I was younger, or less confident, but I need a breakthru - frustration level rising, like seriously.
I think he means that you need to explode away from your opposition. One of the easiest/best move is the matthews. You pretend like you're going left/right and explode to the opposite direction. You need to fake but you have to explode towards the opposite direction. I use to do this move at the same pace, but it's very important to fake (left and right) and then explode away. Change of pace is very important. That's what one dribbler told me.
That makes sense. I'm pretty quick, that's the one asset I bring to my team, but it seems to be pretty useless when I can't keep control of the ball in a 1v1 situation. I can explode away (I love that image, LOL) but I can't take the ball with me.
Its all about repitition.. Set up two cones (or bags or whatever) like 20 yards between them, and pretend they are a defender. Do a fake move, and explode away
I started playing again after a long break at 23, and felt too old to start too. Am really glad I came past here, you guys opened my eyes.
Sure you can. You push the ball in the direction you want to go and accelerate after it. This is why coaches say first step speed is so important. If the ball is not keeping up with you, you didn't push the ball far enough ahead of you. Remember when you accelerate your first steps are much shorter than when upright and sprinting. The acceleration is not what gains you the space. The move gains you the space. Acceleration makes it difficult for the marker to recover, effectively taking your marker out of the play longer. This is when you are looking up and deciding what to do next.
Sorry to bump such as old thread but it happened to pop up on google when I was searching adults learning soccer again, coincidentally I'm a member here also. Anyway I'm 30, I played soccer up until high school and had to stop due to it interfering with high school golf (I enjoyed soccer more but I was about a 3 handicap golfer at that time). I always wanted to get back to soccer but life just happens and things you meant to do fall by the wayside. Now my competitive playing days in all sports are over and truthfully I miss being competitive even if it's a rec level of competition. I definitely need to get back into playing shape, my lung capacity more than anything else. Luckily I live near a multipurpose sports arena that has 4 indoor soccer fields in addition to 2 outdoor fields. Any recommendations for exercises I can do to recapture that touch with the ball while I'm in the process of getting my wind back up. I also questioned if it was stupid trying to get back into soccer at 30, thanks to the people who commented for letting me know I wasn't.
Same here. I'm 41. I've never played organized soccer but always loved kicking a ball around. Only played a handful of pickup games in my life. But I love watching soccer and want to be out there playing. My challenge is that most adults who play pickup soccer are fairly good, even if age has slowed them down. Most folks without some passion and personal experience with the sport won't go to the trouble of finding pickup soccer and putting themselves out there. So I'm in the position of not being skilled and only encountering fairly skilled players (at least compared to me). At best, these players are friendly, pass to me occasionally, and accept I'll make a mistake more often than their teammates. But I also sense the annoyance of other players (who still don't outright voice their displeasure) who I gather would prefer playing with players of a higher minimum competency. For now I'm sucking it up and accepting that I have to annoy lots of players simply to enjoy myself and build up my own experience. It does make me a bit self-conscious.
Never too late, I believe soccer is the most natural sport and the ability to play and have fun is within all humans. The first thing you want to do when you see a ball is kick it, and this is the building block of the entire game. Don't over think and find a pick up or league that is on your level.
I'm in a similar boat. I try to make up for my lack of experience by starting out playing at center back and sticking to my position, not going past mid field. If I'm feeling good and the game is at or near my level, or is accessible to me, I'll start making forward runs and eventually shift to a wing back and try to get in the other half in a supporting role.