In an ironic twist, the UK’s national football association has just banned competitive leagues for U8 players, something US Soccer has been pushing for a while. Scores and standings cannot be kept or published. Over at Two Footed Tackle, they cheer the decision:
The benefits of scrapping competitive football for under-8s are plentiful, as are the arguments in favour.
Firstly, it means that 6- and 7-year-old children are not subjected to that most cancerous of footballing evils, the over-competitive abusive parent. It’s been the subject of a growing discourse in the world of youth football, and is clearly problematic. Young players don’t like it, and it will become a big strand of Respect as the campaign develops. This is one that should be tackled at all youth football age groups.
No abuse, no pressure and no result means no stress. That is surely a good thing, at least at such an early age. The kids will hopefully be free to develop technically without having to ‘win’.
While I agree that kids this age should be working on skills and not winning, I don’t think eliminating scores and standings is the way to do it.
I’ve said this many times – overly competitive parents and coaches are a problem everywhere and they will continue to be a problem with or without scores. Efforts like this are a start, but they try to take away a carrot that really isn’t reachable. Parents and coaches like these want to win and will still exhibit there bad habits with or without scores. The only way to address it is through concerted parent and coaching education programs at the grass roots level and weeding out problem coaches over time.
I think it’s great the FA has taken these steps, however I’m not sure the results will be as drastic as some hope. Fixing this problem requires hard work and the ability to deal with awkward situations – telling some parents to sit down and be quiet and teaching/retaining coaches that coach for the right reasons – to develop players. More leagues should be doing parent and coaching education programs, and then we may see some widespread results.
One anecdotal point – in our Rec league, by far, the most trouble we have in terms of ‘incidents’ is in the U8 division. I’m starting to think a parent seminar for all rising U8 parents should be a requirement!
July 11th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I recall that (as a youth athlete) no matter what the sport, everyone on the team knew the score and knew what the team’s record was. The kids are still competing.
I think the stage parents still find a way to press their kids, coaches and officials even in “non-competitive” leagues.
July 12th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Kids do know the score. They like the idea of competing to win. The solution to problem parents is not eliminating the score, it’s dealing directly with the problem parents. A parent seminar is a good idea. I like to meet with all of my parents at the beginning of the season so they’ll know my approach to coaching and what I’m trying to accomplish with games and practices.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Exactly Dennis – the lack of scores or standings aren’t going to fix the problem parents and to many groups think it will. As a league administrator, I don’t care if scores get kept in U8 or not (in our league they do). I’d rather focus on parent training, but it’s not easy. Trouble getting parents to come out, etc. I’m thinking maybe this season it might be worth having parents arrive early for their 1st match and hold a quick intro (10 minutes or so) since they’ll be there anyway. Might have to see if we can try that.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
The new rule means that anyone who has been playing up a year at u8 cannot continue at u9 unless the team goes non-competitive. But can return the following year (how stupid)
August 5th, 2008 at 8:09 am
That is pretty silly that the presence of a U8 player triggers the rule, not the age level of the team (U9) I’m surprised they did that.