PICK UP GAMES FOR YOUTH PLAYERS 

In my youth I lived in a kid friendly neighborhood.    I don’t want sound like that guy “When I was your age I walked to school in bare feet and through snow”.    My neighborhood did not require adults to organize sports for us to play.   We would find open space and play for hours, baseball, football, tag, and soccer.  We had no coaches, referees, umpires, or passionate parents telling us what to do.   The goal was not playing to win a trophy or to please anyone.    If you enjoyed your time playing you be back next week.    The motivation was to push yourself and at times to show your best friend older brother that you could beat him on a post pattern!

My son is a sportsman and enjoys playing multiple sports.   His passion however is soccer.   One of the challenges he has growing up in todays society is that he does not have the same opportunity in our neighborhood for pick up games.  If he is going to play soccer it has mainly been through his club or an organized and sometimes expensive camp.    He has gained lot of technical and tactical skill through organized functions, which has been great for his development.   Over the years this has been great but I always felt that there was something missing and that was creativity.   

Four years ago a friend of mine introduced me to futsal and asked me if my son would like to play.    I took him up on the offer and I found myself signing my son up for yet another organized activity.   If you are not familiar with futsal check out this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unFlcSwdDFc you can find local information to Marin at http://futsalmarin.com which is the league my son plays.

I will never forget my son’s first futsal.   I really can now appreciate how brave my friend was taking on a U8 team with mainly 5 and 6 year old boys.  The kicker was that team was going to be called Barcelona with matching kits as the professional team had.   The main difference is we had four or five players with the number #10 with kids ready to show they are as good as Messi.    The ironic thing at the time which I have a greater gratitude for now is my son wanted to be number #17.  When I asked him why his reply was  “Someone has to pass to #10 so we can score goals.  Right?”    I notice right off in this game it required kids to think and play faster. The pace of the game was much faster than outdoor.    I notice my son through out the season was trying thing he would never do in the outdoor game.   He was using his left foot to dribble, pass and shoot.   The importance of angles and making choices in small spaces became magnified in this game.   The game challenged my son in a different way than outdoor.  Futsal helped grow my son’s decision-making skills, which in turn help his, be more confident.  The end result was my son being creative on the pitch with his teammates.

The general format in Marin Futsal league that my son plays at there is not lot of coaching going on.    The kids are allowed to play and make mistakes.   Now don’t get me wrong you have to spend some time to find the right fit for your child. Talk with whoever is going to coach your child to make sure your in sync. Some teams may not share the same ideology that I do.   Not all children respond to the same type of environment.   

As you may have figured out  I am a fan of futsal for the development of young players but this really is not the same as the pick up games I used to play as a child.   There must be something out there and I did eventually found something.

A friend of my started a program that is very much about free play with a 4V4 format.  He uses a  model that many  youth Academy at some of the worlds leading clubs  like Manchester United, Ajax, Chelsea,  and Arsenal use. 

The program is very simple :          

4 Fields, each with a different layout and different technical/tactical focus.

·      Field 1 : 4v4 Goalkeeper Game - 4 players on the field with a fifth player playing in a modified small-sided game goal (5v5)

·      Field 2 : 4 goal game - each team defends 2 wide goals and attacks two wide goals

·      Field 3 :  End Line Game - dribble over the end line to score

·      Field 4 : "The Classic" - Pugg goals on each end line

The “teams” consist of 5 players - 4 on the field with one sub (except when teams are on the 4v4 goalkeeper game).   The gaames last 8-10 minutes and subs are called every 2 minutes, giving an excellent work to rest ratio for optimal activity time.

After each game, teams rotate to a new field and will play at least two other opponents in the duration of the session.

The coaching is restricted to a 10 minute technical warm up and only encouragement is given during the actual game time, giving a sense that the games do in fact belong to the players!

My son has found this format to be very enjoyable and has promoted his creativity!   This still not pick up but is very close to it and is a safe environment.   You can find more about this program at:

 http://www.premiermini-soccer.com/Default.aspx?portalid=5267

I have found two good outlets for my son in Marin Futsal and Premier Mini Soccer but the programs still feel “organized”.

Last weekend, I decided to try and experiment.     I went to a public park with my son and couple of his friends.     We setup two pug goals and let them play “free style” with no interference.   I made sure to be within a safe distance in case anything happened.      I watched my son and his friends play for half and hour and then something amazing started to happen.     Random kids started to join in.    They all followed a set of rules and played.  They never spoke out loud of what the rules would be.  They just had two goals and agreed on what the out bounds would be and played.    There was no debate on which rules would be followed or who would be on which team.   The all sorted it out.      A  “team” would score and they would move on and play.    I am not sure if this experiment would work again.  I do know that my son after we left the parked asked me  “Can we do this again next weekend?”.