Why We Believe Kids Should Play Multiple Sports!
This past weekend, The U10 Boys played in a club tournament with teams from all over the Midwest.
Cardinal's coach spoke to one opposing coach before a game and was asked all sorts of questions about our set up. He was stunned that our team -- a travel team, not a club team -- was doing so well, and he kept asking questions like "but how many club players are on this team?" (It was incomprehensible to him that a travel team could be competing with the club teams at this tournament.)
When we told him that we didn't have any club players, and that we *only* had two practices a week, and that every single one of our players were playing multiple sports, he looked at Cardinal's coach with such disdain.
He couldn’t wait to brag that all of his kids were practicing soccer 4-5 times a week and also that their Club fees were more than quadruple ours.
That disdainful pregame look was only topped by the look he gave after the game when Cardinal's players celebrated their convincing victory.
So, why do Cardinal's Soccer coaches want our kids to play multiple sports when they are young? There are so many reasons, but here are a few game situations that played out over the past few weekends that support why we think it's necessary for kids to play all the sports:
1) In one of our games, we played against a team with a lot of speed. This coach usually splits up his two best athletes, playing one up top and one in the back. He realized pretty quickly during this game that he needed more speed in the back…the speed difference was going to be too much of a mismatch. So at halftime, he pulled our two best athletes aside and told them that he needed them to play defense together. The kid that normally plays striker told his coach, “I don’t know how to do this because I’ve never played it.”
And so the coach started to explain it to him in soccer terms; “You two are going to play side by side when we have the ball, and then when the other team has the ball, you will be a stopper and a sweeper, with one guy pressuring and the other guy covering.”
They looked at him like he was an alien. But then, the other kid said, “Oh, is it kind of like strong safety and free safety?”
Both of these kids happen to be OUTSTANDING football players. The coach said, “Yes, do that. Jake, you are strong safety and Lincoln, you are the free safety."
These two competitors went out, having never played with each other, and having never played defense together, and basically played textbook pressure/cover defense for the entire half. Our "strong safety" applied intense ball pressure to their attacking midfielder and striker. Our "free safety" stayed 5-7 yards behind, cutting off angles and through balls to perfection. Their football experience quite literally prepared them for this tough soccer match, and we came away with a clean sheet!
2) In this weekend's semi final, our biggest player (who also plays basketball) perfectly “boxed out” a defender on a corner kick, chested the ball down to his feet, and buried it into the back of the net for a huge goal. His basketball experience quite literally prepared him with the necessary skills to score that goal!
3) Our team's best passer and awesome center midfielder also doubles as the point guard on his basketball team. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that connection.
4) One of our goalies can throw the ball past midfield to start counterattacks. You should watch this kid play baseball too...dude has an absolute rifle.
5) This specific tournament had two special rules that were quite different from our regular season setup. One rule dramatically changed how offsides would be called, and the other rule dramatically changed how offenses could pressure goal kicks. Both of these rules affected our team a lot, considering we play a high defensive line that employs an offside trap every game, while also asking our offensive players to press deep into the attacking third. We strongly believe that our players were able to adjust to these different rules BECAUSE they are constantly playing different sports with different teams for different coaches with different teammates. We wound up outscoring our opponents 22-1 during the tournament, with half of our goals coming from our high press because our opponents weren't able to adjust to the new rules.
Let your young children play all the sports, people! One day when they get to high school, they may have to choose one to specialize in. But playing all of them while they are young will teach them valuable skills that translate to other sports, will keep them from getting burnt out on one sport, and will also make them more flexible and malleable!