In the United States this is Labor Day weekend.
Traditionally this is the kickoff for youth soccer season. I was reminded of
this yesterday when I overheard two parents talking at Starbucks. They were
talking about the tournament their kids were playing in. It was 2:00 PM and their
kids had played two games already that day and were going to play the third
game at 3:30. Yesterday it was 92 degrees with 73% humidity – heat index well
over 100 degrees! Today they will come back and play again. They will play at
least two more games and a third if they survive to play the championship game
that will be played; you guessed it at 4:00 PM. This is not how you develop
players. In this scenario skills quickly erode due to fatigue. As they fatigue
they are more susceptible to injury. By the time they get to the second day of
the tournament they look like they are playing in slow motion. The same thing
happens in basketball, with heat being less of a factor. When are we going to
wake up? This is borderline child abuse and highly negligent. The fact of the
matter is nothing will be done. These tournaments are big money makers for the
clubs that sponsor them and those who promote them. They epitomize the youth
sport business that has grown up as sport has declined in the schools. I wish I
could offer a viable solution, but realistically I am afraid there is none. The
inertia of this economic engine would be tough to reverse. Ideally at the very
least you should have a training to competition ratio of 5 or 6 to 1 with
periods of no games. Despite all the hoopla of the new US Soccer development plan
this is what still goes on. Players do not learn how to play the game the way
it should be played. They learn how to survive. That is not athlete
development.
Mike Morrison
You cannot compete head on with the established programs that use youth sports as money generators. You can though build a better model that will make the previous model obsolete.
Jim Newell
I am so glad that I found your blog. It has been very inspiring to me and my coaching. I deal with this sort of thing every xc and track season. The best I can do is to try and share the kids. If I didn’t take this action I would loose a lot of the athletes. I have let them out of practice early, not compete in a track or xc meet to do the other sport. I just seems that the other sport is the one the parents have deemed more important to their life.
Jodi Murphy
4 games in one day is a lot, even for an adult player. You need time to rest, cool down, and eat otherwise players will push themselves way to far…especially when it is that hot outside. Even spreading those 4 games over two days would be a start.