Soccer is the player’s game. Around the world, children learn how to play the game of soccer through playing it! In this regard, we can say that the best teacher of the game is the game itself. Trainers, coaches (and even parents), are only facilitators and their role is to inspire the players and provide an environment where these players remain challenged, and their technical and tactical aptitude can be develop through the opportunity to solve the problems of the game, not by talking about them, but by experiencing them in the game itself. An environment where playing is the main and only focus!

For decades, since the interest and participation in soccer has grown, international coaches and soccer educators around the world have criticized the development of US soccer. In these discussions, the informal games, which take place in all other soccer developed nations come into the discussion. They cite the games known simply as “street soccer” (much like our pick up basketball games) where the kids take all the initiative to organize and play the game, without parental or structural intervention, where the players make all the decisions, where the teacher is the game and the individual play is constructed from new abilities replicated from what they have seen professional players do.
Unfortunately, due to a vast array of factors, our game in the US has become overly structured and our children do not take the initiative in soccer that we see in other countries. Perhaps this is a matter of choice, but unfortunately for the child with great soccer potential, they are missing out the greatest avenue for which they can learn to exercise their imagination… THE GAME! This reality forces the intervention of specialized trainers (or grown ups) that take over the game and obstruct every opportunity for our youth to experiment with creativity and improvisation.
Furthermore, the demands and commercial opportunities in this more structured environment, requires professional trainers to increase the volume and breadth of information they supply and in the end, restrict the room for children to learn, experiment and develop as those in a less structured environment. A well-known journalist described the sad reality of youth soccer in the US. As one where the problem is not due to a low level of coaching knowledge, as the US National Soccer Federation and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America represent two of the most advanced and complex coaching school systems in the world. The problem lies in the fact that we attempt to make every training session an event, designed to deliver more information than is possible for the children to process, confusing them and sacrificing critical PLAYING TIME for lectures and speeches.
So how can we as coaches and trainers (and parents) feel confident enough in our soccer culture to adapt and accept the idea of children playing in their own environment, where they can exercise creativity and imagination? The answer lies in our methodology. If we’re to be the facilitators of the game, wouldn’t by definition our roll be therefore to facilitate the process of experience being the teacher? The idea here is to take the version of “street soccer” (where Pele and Maradona carved out there very different but equally superior skills) and structure our training in such a way as to provide the child ample room to experiment with and create their own game. After all, coaching isn’t giving all the answers. Rather, it is about guiding the players in a way in which they become adept and confident to solve the problems on their own.