MEET IN THE MIDDLE:

Hog the ball, kid: The case for selfishness in an egalitarian sport (Sasha Issenberg, December 20, 2009, Boston Globe)

Soccer, however, has offered a refuge: the kibbutz next to the stadium complex, a team-oriented, egalitarian game friendly to both genders and a range of body types. Since emerging as a favorite suburban sport a few decades ago, soccer has thrived under baby-boomer parents looking to teach selfless fitness to their kids.

Such a philosophy isn’t just wishful thinking on the part of parents; it is explicit in the organizing principles of the US game. The tribune of the recreational soccer establishment, the American Youth Soccer Organization, was established in California in the 1960s, under a philosophy more humanist than competitive: “Everyone plays.”

But over the last decade, American soccer elites have begun to question this entire approach. In the realm of soccer itself, they worry that the youth game’s communitarian culture is to blame for the country’s World Cup failures. And as far as the kids are concerned, they argue that the teamwork-first ethic has become a national weakness: a philosophy that stifles native talents and enthusiasm in America’s most popular youth sport.

“We take the creativity and imagination out of players at a young age,” said Thomas Rongen, coach of the United States under-20 men’s national team.

So in the past several years, Rongen and other leading coaches have begun preaching a solution that would probably strike most liberal soccer parents as an embrace of the worst in human nature. In a word, they want to make soccer more selfish.

For these coaches, a period of indulged selfishness as kids learn the sport is a necessary step. By getting kids excited about what they can do with the ball, instead of just training them how they can best serve the team, they will begin to develop their own talents.

This philosophy is starting to take over youth soccer, changing the kibbutz from the inside.

The reality is that most of the guys on the field should just be role players, with about three (hopefully one in defense, one in midfield, and one up front) creating the goal scoring opportunities. But you won't know which is which until they've all tried creating for awhile.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 19, 2009 12:43 PM