Dear coaches, players and parents,

The demands of soccer in today’s society are reaching ridiculous levels. Sport is becoming a child’s life, and is counter productive to a child’s development and prolonged love for the sport.

Soccer is the biggest growing youth sport in the country. It also has the largest drop out rate. By the age of 12, 70% of our future soccer stars no longer have an interest for the sport.

The reasons for this are endless, parent pressure, self-inflicted pressure, a win at all cost mentality to name but a few. However, 1 major factors stands out from the rest:

Over playing in a controlled environment:

When I first started coaching several years ago I used to laugh when I heard the term “Burn-out”. I’d receive the call, “Sorry he’s going to take the season off, he’s burnt out, you understand” Unfortunately I didn’t. This was a term that did not exist in my country or within the environment I grew up in. Soccer or Football as we called it was 24/7 and nothing less. If it was less, then you were not happy!

My attitude towards this never changed until I started to think back to my own childhood. I played 24/7 and couldn’t get enough of the sport, so what was the problem? Why do “American” kids not have the heart and desire we did? It didn’t take me long to realize what was wrong, the problem was self inflicted. It wasn’t that American player’s play more than we did, or lack the heart and desire; it’s the simple fact that American players do not play soccer on their own!

When was the last time you drove past a park and watched a group of kids varying in age and gender playing soccer with school bags as goals, one ball and about 25 players per team on an open area? Never, and there the problem was solved and the phrase “burn-out” became a word I now understood, and wanted to change.

Growing up we played 11v11 from as early as I can remember, trained twice a week and played once at the weekends. A 10-month season with the summers off! I then added a third training session at U14 when I joined a professional club. This was a controlled environment; skills and tactics were given to you through repetition over the many 1hr sessions I used to attend. However, I never mastered one skill in that environment. I did however repeat the skill at first on my own through hours of practice, against a wall or in the back yard. I would eventually take that skill into the 25 a side game with friends and master it, before having the courage and capability of repeating that process at the highest level.

No rules, no field markings, no pinnies, no real goals, no parents and no coaches! What we did have, and had just created was the best learning environment in the world. Nothing will ever beat street soccer and they were some of the best, most fun times as a teenage soccer player.

Now take the environment we create in the US! Structured practice followed by structured practice with paid coaches or parent coaches stood around as if they were controlling the world. Soccer is a sport that should promote individual talent and creativity! Soccer is a sport where risk taking is part of the game. Trying something new or even stupid in training quickly teaches a player what they can and can’t do on the “real” field. Individual technique, creativity, a player’s ability to change the game with a moment of brilliance, all evolve around self teaching. Unfortunately for our young athletes, this is very hard to achieve in such a controlled environment due to the added pressure of failure and embarrassment. Kids need to play and have fun doing it!

This goes hand in hand with my second point and most important factor of any sport, the reason you play the game. Ask any athlete, recreational or professional and the main reason they play is because they love it. Irrespective of your level, the one reason everybody plays a sport is because they enjoy it and have FUN doing it.

Without a FUN factor, training becomes very slow paced. Time drags on and a player’s love for the sport gradually declines, eventually resulting in them not wanting to play anymore. All soccer in the US revolves around a controlled environment, which will always take away a certain degree of FUN for any player.

Combine that with the mentality of, if one team trains twice a week and we train three times we are going to be at least a 1/3 better than they are, therefore if we train four and five times a week we are going to be really good! It all relates to one thing, immediate success, and no thought is ever put into the long-term goals of promoting the sport, keeping the interest of the players and developing individuals.

Unfortunately street soccer will never be a big factor in the US due to several factors. Therefore time away from the game is so important. A select year now runs about 9-10 months and our young male and female athletes need to be much more than just soccer players. Brownie camp, swim club, amusement parks all need to be a big part of a child’s development.

Getting away from the sport allows a child to miss it, and to want it back. Without that break and time away, things become very stagnant and boredom creeps into the sport, which in turn leads to Burnout!

Obviously I cannot demand that your child gets away from soccer in the very short time they have away from the game. I do however hope you can see the reasons as to why the drop out rate is so high.

I hope you can see the reasons behind why more is not always better! Allowing your kids to be kids and not professional athletes at such a young age is critical in keeping their interests alive.

Wouldn’t it be great to see your child still playing soccer at 25, instead of quitting the sport in their early teenage years? Still enjoying lacing up their shoes and being associated with a team!

Wouldn’t it be nice to never hear those three dreaded words from any young athlete?

“I’m burned out!”