While staring into the sun sitting in my $5.99 chair from Academy Sports on Saturday I had an epiphany. I finally figured out what was ticking me off about soccer this whole time.
This was our first year in soccer. I knew absolutely nothing about what to expect or what the process would be. But I did have some assumptions. And on Saturday (5 weeks into this project) it dawned on me what they were.
I assumed that signing up for and participating in Soccer was going to be like all the other lessons I have signed Braden up for in the past. We sign up, we pay, and a profession instructor instructs him on whatever the task at hand is. LESSONS... like gymnastic lessons, or swim lessons etc etc.
But soccer (here) is not like that. You sign up, you pay and then a parent volunteer shows up once a week and slap dash throws a sort of practice together. No explanation on how to play, or what the terms mean. No checking of skill level or showing how to kick the ball. Nothing...
So my question is... how do the kids learn the game? How do all these other boys out there seem to know what the heck is going on? And what the heck am I paying for in the first place? Where is the instruction and the drills? Where is the LESSON!
1 comment:
You can pay for soccer clinics that are more like lessons. A one-day soccer clinic makes a fun birthday party event, btw, unless the birthday happens to fall in frigid January. When we were the team coaches, we used this great book called _Coaching Youth Soccer_ so we could actually teach some things. But when you're dealing with volunteers, you get very intermittent quality. YMCA seems to do a little better job training, fwiw. We're doing AYSO and it's basically soccer-themed playdates. We also use FIFA Soccer video games to help teach the rules.
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