I did something new this weekend. For the first time in my life, I was a part of a youth soccer festival.
Now, this a game of semantics I'm playing. I've been a part of many tournaments in the past 20+ years, either as a player, referee, coach or organizer. But this was my first full-on festival -- largely similar to most tournaments I've ever been to, except there was no "knockout" format.
Instead, all the teams involved (which ranged in age from U6 to U9) played a set number of games in which -- just like during their regular-season recreational campaign -- scores were not officially recorded or distributed. This is all part of a grandfathered-in transition by the Ontario Soccer Association -- as part of the Canadian Soccer Association's long-term player development (LTPD) plan -- to prioritize skill development over competition at the youngest ages.
So what did I see at this festival? Contrary to the hysterical ramblings of the pseudonymous keyboard warriors commenting on mainstream-media columns about LTPD, I didn't see evidence of a socialist plot to bubble-wrap and sanitize children's lives, or shield them from the terrors of the "real world".
No, what I saw was hundreds of children, between the ages of six and nine, having fun in a soccer context. And almost as important as what I saw is what I didn't see.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
I didn't see any youngsters crying uncontrollably because they were terrified of taking part in a penalty shootout, the sort of thing that's mandated to break ties in a tournament format.
I didn't see any adults foaming at the mouth and nearly needing to be physically restrained as they hurled verbal abuse at a teenage referee.
I didn't hear entire sidelines' worth of adults screaming and gesticulating desperately as six-year-olds scrambled to do something -- anything -- with the ball at their feet.
I didn't encounter any referees saying they wanted nothing more to do with the game because of the pressure, intensity and abuse that went hand-in-hand with the elevated blood pressure that tournaments created.
None of those are hypothetical, composite examples. Those are all actual, real-life situations I personally have encountered. And I've got more. Lots more.
But instead, I'd like to focus on another observation I've made. Over the past four years, the no-scores/no-standings/festival format has been gradually introduced in the club with which I'm affiliated. In 2010, it started at U6, while everyone U7 and above still kept score, did playoffs and so on. In 2011, it bumped up to U6 and U7. Last year, U6-U8 did the festival format, while this year the U9s were added too.
From 2010 to 2012, the club would have a hybrid "finals weekend" for these age divisions, in which some kids were taking part in a festival while others had full-on playoffs, all at the same park. If you dropped someone who'd never seen the game before into the middle of that environment, they could have very easily guessed which games were which, based on the reactions from the adults.
This year was the first time the U6-U9 divisions all used the festival format, in which no playoffs were taking place, no shootouts would happen and everyone was getting the same prize at the end of it. And I can say with complete honesty that aside from some dodgy weather, it was the calmest and most enjoyable weekend of youth soccer in which I've ever taken part. It's not even close.
That's not to say there wasn't excitement. Parents and coaches don't become completely docile just because there isn't a trophy on the line (nor should they). But there's a difference between the normal, healthy noise generated by parents watching their kids play a game, and the sort of vicious groupthink antagonism that can take hold of a crowd that's lost sight of what's really important.
At this festival, no children were left crying about shootouts, because there were none. No parents chased referees because of decisions they'd made, because there was no point. No one on the organizing side came close to feeling as though this was the straw that broke the camel's back for them (though we could have done without the thunderstorms, thank you very much).
Instead, hundreds of six-to-nine-year-old children got the chance to play a few games of soccer, eat some hot dogs and a slice of pizza, get their faces painted, maybe snag a balloon animal or some thundersticks, and generally just be part of a positive, sport-oriented community environment for at least a few hours.
If that really, honestly sounds like an irredeemably bad thing to you, you probably need to seriously re-evaluate your connection to youth soccer and/or reality.
Now, sure, I heard kids asking each other "what was the score?" and "did you win that game?" And yeah, the players had those answers ready to go. But that's something that some critics don't seem to understand -- the idea that "kids will keep score anyway" isn't an effective argument against LTPD, because nobody denies this fact... and because there's nothing wrong with it!
Of course kids are going to keep score. But it's not the kids we're worried about.
Whether or not the kids keep score in their own heads, and whether or not their team wins, and whether or not they finish the weekend with a prize that's different than everyone else (based on how their team did) or exactly the same as everyone else's, the ultimate goal should be to create an atmosphere where those young players feel that the game of soccer is an enjoyable experience, and something that they want to continue learning about and being a part of.
When a seven-year-old associates soccer with "standing on the field and getting frantically yelled at from all sides when the ball comes near me", that's not something they want to keep doing (or, they want to boot that ball away from them as fast as humanly possible). When they see adults yelling and even swearing at one another on the sidelines during or after a game, that's not a particularly healthy connection for them to make with what is supposed to be a recreational endeavour.
The idea of LTPD isn't -- nor was it ever -- to eliminate competition at all ages. Playoff formats and competitive tournaments still exist for older age divisions, although the festival format is being phased in to even higher divisions starting next year.
The idea is that by the time things get "serious" for these players, they are old enough and have developed a strong enough relationship to the game of soccer that they are better equipped to handle the idea of eliminations, uneven prize distribution and yes... even shootouts.
Some of the keyboard warriors will insist that "kids need to learn how to lose", before scattering off to expel their rage in the comments section of a different story, probably about a politician about whose election they are still bitter. Yeah, "learn how to lose" indeed.
Even in a soccer context, the "learn how to lose" argument is bogus, based on my personal experience. Now, despite what you may believe, based on the impeccable analysis of the sport that I provide via this website, I'm actually rather mediocre at playing the game of soccer. And by mediocre I mean bad.
I was part of a lot of bad teams growing up. In 15 years of recreational play, I accumulated exactly zero trophies. If there was anyone who should have "learned how to lose" via youth recreational soccer, it would have been me.
And yet here I am, as an adult... still kicking, swearing and pulling out what little hair I have left after every disappointing result from Toronto FC or a Canadian national team. No, I've never learned how to lose (even though the teams I stubbornly support seem to be quite adept at it).
Sure, there's something for kids to learn from playing youth recreational soccer. But it's not "learning how to lose"... it's "learning to love the game".
And from everything that I've seen and experienced, a festival does a much better job of teaching a seven-year-old to love the game than a "high-stakes" tournament ever could.
Other attempts to make the case for LTPD:
How the advocates can win the messaging war
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