It depends on the quantity of screen time. A couple hours a day? ok fine. 7 or 8 or 9 hours? No. no way. That was me when I became a slobby 7th grader and wasted my entire summer. I still remember it clearly which is weird. I don't remember my summers from later years. Yet for some reason I remember middle school couch potato summers, and not in a good way. I resent it to this day. Maybe also has something to do with being bullied constantly by my brother and there was no adult around to stop it. The way I look at soccer, I compare our society to other societies. If kids in france and brazil are playing 3 hours a day (by choice. it's highly accessible and they love it, it's the culture)... why shouldn't our kids have that opportunity? Soccer is like a language. To gain high proficiency it really needs done all the time.
7-9 hours for a single day? Let him go. Granted, I wouldn't want that on a daily basis, but a single day here and there isn't going to hurt anything. I'm guessing those kids in other countries are playing by themselves unsupervised. You just said you're not comfortable letting your kid out unsupervised unless in your yard. There's nothing wrong with that. But, I remember running around unsupervised in my neighborhood at that age. Again, it sounds like you're trying to force what YOU want for your child on him. The other way to read the bolded is "if you don't play soccer all the time, you won't get good." Now, if you want him to play 3 hours a day, and there's no kids in his neighborhood for "spontaneous" play, organize it! Put up signs around the neighborhood, multiple neighborhoods, grocery stores, schools, parks, whatever. "Open play soccer! 9a-12p every Saturday at nearby park. Stay for some or stay for all!" Then be there to just keep things going.
I wonder why there are not indoor soccer clubs who specialize in indoor tactics. There is outdoor. There is futsal. Those two have their differences. And if you look at pro indoor soccer teams they obviously train specifically for indoor, which has it's peculiarities. But most people just play indoor as an indoor version of outdoor. But it's really not. I'm thinking of next year making a team that plays real indoor, to the highest level. Which to me is more like futsal than outdoor because you can use the sole of your foot a lot more. The ball rolls more predictably than outdoor. And the pitch is closer in size to futsal than outdoor (at least at the place we play at). I feel indoor could be far more utilized to develop technical skills, which is often what soccer people will seek out futsal for. But futsal is kinda far away for us, but indoor is closer.
I love indoor and think it's a ton of fun--I'd still be playing it if I hadn't screwed up my ankles and left knee so badly. And yes, in many places (most, maybe?) it's a much more convenient option than futsal. I suspect the walls are a big part of why indoor isn't seen as a great development sport for technique. They make it too easy to "cheat" your way out of a tight spot. I don't understand what your end game is here--are you wanting kids to play indoor instead of outdoor?
Same boat -- indoor was the the thing I played most consistently in my 40s and early 50s, and a ton of fun. I tend to agree that the walls are a downside -- I feel that way and respected one of my son's coaches more because he told his kids they couldn't use the walls when they played indoors in the winter. I also suspect the things that made it possible for an unfit old man to hang on as long as I did favor some of the smaller, less physical (and sometimes slower) kids who struggle to play at the scale of an outdoor 9v9 or 11v11 game but still have some technical ability. It might not be "real" soccer, but there's nothing wrong with it (high-level indoor is fun to watch, too).
Absolutely. I firmly believe the goal of youth soccer should be first and foremost to make the game as fun as possible for as many kids as possible. Instill a lifelong love of the game. That's the baseline--I wanted my kid to grow up enjoying the sport and having the confidence to join a rec team wherever life took him. If he ended up being good & driven enough to pursue the game more seriously when he got older, that would be great, but also largely out of my control. We chase too many kids away from the game way too early, in a mistaken zeal to "develop the game." We need to cast a wider net, and allow for more recreational and intermural options much later in life than usually happens. Developing indoor leagues might be one way to do that.
It was just an evolution of thoughts. I noticed a lot of talk of futsal. There are venues and clubs and tournaments. But for indoor it seems it's just a place to play soccer when you don't feel like playing outside. But, since indoor does have a pro league (MASL), then why would indoor not be viewed as a sport that one can train specificially for. For example, if you view indoor as only ancillary to outdoor then you will view the wall as a bad thing, but if you view indoor as a pro sport then you will just view the wall as a natural part of the sport. So it got me thinking, in the indoor leagues here, no one really trains for indoor per se. So if you actually did train that way, the way futsal players train for futsal, then you could probably have more success as an indoor team. I guess what spurred this is that I was looking into futsal but it's kinda far. Indoor is closer. So I was really looking at indoor as a replacement for futsal, in terms of training for a specific sport, and also in terms of using it as a way to increase technical skill, since the surface is consistent in both futsal and indoor, but in outdoor it's bumpy and patchy (for youth).
IMHO the bottom line is that more touches and time on the ball is always good. I'd still lean towards treating indoor as a bit less structured and less-coached activity in-between outdoor seasons rather than pushing for whatever the highest level in that sport might be. I'd be very surprised if even MASL players did much 'serious' indoor training/coaching prior to playing professionally. If you already have the skills to play soccer, you'll figure out the quirks of indoor pretty quickly.
I'd agree with all of this. Indoor is viewed as ancillary (but welcome -- long winters) where I live, at least as far as I can tell, but not in a bad way. It's, as you say, more touches, more time on the ball, playing in a less-structured/lower-stakes environment. The wall is really the only major difference (granted, smaller teams and field, but those aren't so different than the small-sided games they play in practice or the games themselves at younger ages). And if left to their own devices kids pretty quickly figure out ways to use the wall without any practice geared toward it. Objections, at least from some of the coaches my son has played for, are based on seeing the wall as a crutch, one that isn't available to you in outdoor soccer. But I guess where the sideline is the defending players' friend in outdoor, almost like an extra teammate, the wall tends to favor the attacker indoors (though I've seen a few nasty fouls where defending players most definitely use the wall to their advantage indoors as kids get older).
They're correct, IMHO, but when looking for ways to get kids more touches and more time on the ball & and playing there's no sense letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. From a developmental standpoint, it would be better if futsal rather than indoor was more common here, but it is what it is. And, hey--indoor is fun to play. And hopefully a lot of the kids who play now will still be playing for fun decades from now as adults.
Ugh, my son. Five days after HS graduation, he's playing a game of pickup volleyball and breaks his finger. That requires surgery, two screws, and limited movement. He's even advised not to run in case he might trip and fall and do more damage. Obviously he can only lift weights with his other hand. So much for summer workouts. He finally gets totally cleared last week. Just in time to move in to college for a "bridge" program for incoming freshmen. Soccer move in two weeks later. Last night while playing "Water Kickball" (whatever the heck that is), while sliding into a base, he somehow cuts the skin between his toes. Enough so the organizers took him to the ER and he ended up with four stitches. The stitches need to stay in for 10 days. So they should come out the day he moves in for soccer. Guessing he's not supposed to do any running with those either. Just ugh!
Ugh--my condolences! Fingers crossed for rapid recovery. Hopefully he'll be out and training sooner rather than later.
Sorry - I hope it heals up quickly and doesn't affect his training. One of our HS players broke his foot playing volleyball at a picnic a week or so before the start of our season last year and took him out for weeks into the season. It sucks when they get themselves hurt doing non-soccer stuff right before soccer season.
That's the truth. I do think his senior year in HS (followed by the club spring) was the first year he hadn't missed at least ONE game because of some injury.
My condolences! I'm trying not to let my fear of injury keep me from taking my son trail riding (mountain bikes). This walking the line between being committed and supporting his interest in soccer versus making sure he gets to be a kid and not over do it and burn out is a hard ridge to walk!
My son took himself out of one game last season, knowing that they had that game won and also knowing that the next game (their last regular season game) was easily winnable. He missed that next game, played about 20 minutes of their first playoff game (a blowout win) and was back to near 100% for their next playoff game. Turns out, apparently he had been dealing with some sort of quad injury all season - even the school trainer didn't know until he pulled himself out of that game and told him. First scrimmage on Tuesday, he said his achilles was bothering him, but he didn't seem too concerned with it. It'll take a lot for him to miss a game this year, being his senior year.
I remember DS' freshman year. 1st regular season game (he had started & played in pre-season scrimmages, but this first "true" game). One of his club teammates is on the opposing team. He starts! We get less than 10 minutes into the game (maybe even 5) and he's asking for a sub. What the f---? He got turf toe. He jumped up for a defensive header and came down on his toe. He ended up missing 2-3 games that year. At least he's being competitive. Last night, while waiting in the ER, he texted my wife and said "I was safe and my team won!" Glad he has his priorities in order. lol
That water kickball win is definitely the most important thing ... I'm sorry for him and hope that recovery is swift.
On the topic of injuries... Last night, I saw my son pull himself out of the game with like 12 minutes left (they were down 0-4, so it was basically over). Nothing like seeing your kid hobbling around on the sideline with a bag of ice on his foot. Talked to the trainer after the game just to check whether there was anything serious. Fortunately, it's just a bruised foot - turns out, he got cleated at practice by a teammate last week some time and it's been pretty black and blue ever since. Trainer tells me he knows my son well enough to even ask him if he's going to sit out any game time. Unfortunately, he's in a stretch of 7 games in 15 days, so he's going to have a sore foot for a long time, it appears.
Hope he heels up quickly -- 7 in 15 is pretty brutal. I just looked at my son's HS schedule and they have a run of 6 in 11 days at the end of this month. Who thought that was a good plan?
The schedule wasn't originally laid out that way, but a weather postponement and a cancelled game back in August shifted the schedule around to load it up these next couple weeks. They do have a couple games upcoming that, at least on paper, should be easy wins, so hopefully the coach will be able to manage the starters workload a little the next week or so before the tough part of their schedule.
Question: In your experience, do kids often get the same coach every year (eg your kid's U10 coach because their U11 coach) or did they get a new one every year? Also, did it every happen where you got a new coach halfway through the year (assuming they played year round, so say 6 months of one coach, then 6 months with another)?
Different answer for our recreational and travel programs. For rec, having the same coach every year is typical unless you request a new team or the coach stops coaching. For our travel programs, assuming players don't move up/down a team, they will typically have the same coach for a 2 year cycle