Nick Webster from Fox Soccer Channel recently posted a blog entry regarding the lack of strikers in English Football. He touches on several themes including the fact that kids even in England no longer play pick-up games in their neighborhoods like they used to do. Yes, even Europe is now competing with Nintendo, X-Box, and Playstations.
On a trip to Hungary a few years back, my cousin's boys bedroom looked just like my kid's bedrooms. And, the whole time I was there, they too were in front of their computer playing games. Apart from the Hungarian being spoken and the wine being shared, I thought I was still home.
Over here, our answer to free play is to provide organized play. Yes, we organize everything for our kids provided there is another parent present. We have play dates. We rent time for kids to run around at Gymboree in an organized format. We are so worried about our kids because tv, movies, newspapers tell us that the boogey-man is going to snatch our kids. Every male in the United States is now a suspected child molester. (Which is another topic...ever notice how the American male has been reduced to a lard-ass bumbling idiot of a Father in most commercials we see on TV?)
For our children's protection, we are taking away their freedom. We are taking away the freedom to be kids, to be creative, and learn how to socialize with kids. To pacify them, we give them everything they want to ensure their lives are filled with 24/7 entertainment provided by Disney, Warner Brothers, Microsoft, and Nintendo. If it is not being provided, they are bored.
My favorite is driving - in town and seeing DVD Screens on in vehicles around the city. Now I understand road trips can be long and if it is available, let them watch a movie to pass the time. Hell, it was one of my favorite parts of the plane ride home from Europe when I was a kid. But in the city? You have got to be kidding me? Your kid can not be removed from an LCD screen for less than 20 minutes while in a car? Has anyone ever heard of talking to your kids?
As a business owner, we find the same challenges now with kids coming out of school. They are sitting around waiting for me to tell them what to do. They are not being raised to be problem solvers. Their Mothers solve all their problems for them. "Oh, let me do that for you, baby boy." The instant gratification generation is what we are raising. I have got to have it NOW!
Small wonder our saving rates are down and everyone is in debt.
Yes, all this contributes to the fact that we have no strikers. We have no finishers on our Soccer teams because our kids do not have the freedom to go down the street, play a pick up game and try to shoot on goal. They can't even figure out how to pick teams. You see it in the commercials, but it is not happening in everyday life! Today, going outside is a punishment, when I was a kid, getting called into the house was.
As a Coach, it is frustrating because Soccer is a problem solving game that requires each player to have the freedom to choose what they are going to do in a team environment. A Coach can not decide for the player, he can only help develop the skill, teach the tactics, and prepare them for competition. It is up to the player to have the confidence and individual decision making capability to pull it together on the field.
Today as Coaches, we have to do it all for the kids. We have to provide the environment where they can be creative, teach the skill, and squeeze in tactical learning. Otherwise, it is not going to happen on the play ground because life outside of practice is more organized activity, computer games, and over protective parents.
If we are worried about children's safety, create the safe environment but understand the value of creative play. Be there to keep bad guys away, but let the kids learn how to manage themselves. They want it and it is natural for them.
In the end, we will have better adults and great Soccer players that can take ownership on the field.
Nick, I agree with what you said.
