It was the Olympic final, Brazil against the USA. The score...tied with only
10 seconds to play. The new ball handling phenom for the US takes a pass at midfield.
He beats the first defender with a simple shoulder fake spins past two more,
and just before the goal beats out Brazil's best defender to win the game. What a
finish!!!! The crowd goes wild! It looks like gold for the USA! .... You don’t remember
that game? Who was that player? ..... It was me of course, but the game
wasn’t soccer it was basketball. I was 11 years old. The Olympic basketball venue
that year was a red clay driveway with a basketball hoop and plywood backboard
attached to a telephone pole. Five minuetes later I was playing the Russians with
the same devestating results. Oh by the way, in case you weren’t there, I beat that
last defender, the Brazilian’s 7 ft. center, with an amazing twisting underhand lay
up on the left side that I had seen some of the older kids doing.
This is how I learned a basketball skill. I learned it because I thought it
looked really cool and it seemed to work for whoever I was picking it up from. I
practiced it over and over again using my imaginary opponets. When my best
friend came over I tried it out on him. When we went to the basketball courts to play
with the other kids I tried it out there. Eventually it became a muscle memory. I
could do it with out thinking about it along with a whole host of other moves connected
together like a dance. In fact I think they call that creativity. In the process
I put my own style into that dance. On the playground it is always better do it with
style. Just making a shot is not near as good as doing it with style. Watch a good
basketball player drive for an unopposed lay up and he or she will usually give
you a little something extra on the way in. In Brazil they call that Ginga. Elegant
beautiful motion for dance or soccer or anything else.
No coach taught my freinds and I these moves and skills and in my case not
even a parent. My father helped erect the goal and net but he had never played the
game. Even so, we practiced and practiced on our own. Wherever we went as kids
we had a ball. Whenever we could join a game we played. Some of the kids I
played with went on to be the high school basketball stars and then played in college
on scholarships. Others, some of whom were even better, never even made it
out of high school. College scholarship wasn’t even on their families radar screen.
When we were young we played for one thing "the love of the game".
Now fast forward 40 years. I no longer play basketball. I am a father of a 5
year old boy who wants to play soccer. I look around on the playgrounds and I
don’t see many kids playing soccer. When he was 6 I signed him up for the rec league
and the coach is teaching postitions, shape, and passing the ball. There are lots of
standing in line drills. Where is the love, where is the joy? He, like most kids his
age, just want to kick the ball and try to score a goal. I decided to take matters in
my own hands. I gather up a few cones and neighborhood kids and we go down to
the local school yard and play pick up games of soccer. I built a few nets out of
pvc pipe for our backyard. My son and I go on YouTube and check out Ronaldinho,
Maradona, C, Ronaldo and other famous players doing their moves and juggling
tricks. From the same source he sees other kids doing amazing things with
the ball and he goes outside in the driveway and tries it out. He pretends to be in a
big soccer game putting a move on some imaginary opponent and scoring the winning
goal. When I have the time I learn along with him. Its fun...I am a kid again
learning a cool move. It is just with the feet instead of the hands. The neighborhood
kids are beginning to play soccer spontaniously without me jumpstarting
every game. Even his sister wants to join in.
Everything is going well but now the local rec league has asked me to coach
my son and daughter's U10 team. I am surprized at how little skill some of the
players have even after playing soccer for 4-5 years, but they sure know their soccer
positions. I searched on the internet and found your 9 step practice routine. We are three practices into the season. We warm up with juggling. I am not much
of an example. I can do about 10 touchs before I lose it. They only go through the
serve pattern because that is what they must do in order to play each other one on
one. Thats the part they love along with the 2v2 scrimmage during the next half. I
will keep at it. I am trying not to worry about the up coming 7v7 leauge game. I
wish it were a smaller sided game. I know that with a few exceptions they will
bunch up around the ball. I have not spent much time on positions. It just does not
seem to be as important to me as developing their skills, their love of the game,
and hopefully an obsession with the ball. I figure if I can get the kids to just love
playing then the teaching part becomes simple. Not only that they will want to
continue playing soccer on their own and with other teams.
Here is my unsolicited prediction on America’s soccer future. When our
parks, schoolyards, and backyards have kids playing unsupervised pick-up games
of soccer, and when our kids are scoring world cup winning goals against imaginary
opponets in our driveways while we fix dinner, and when packs of young
teenagers and pre-adolescence wander around with a soccer ball looking for pickup
games. Then, and only then will this country become a soccer super power. It
will happen from the bottom up not the top down. Meanwhile I will try to start
that process in my own little patch of the world. Thanks for your method and philosophy.
I will keep you informed on how well it works for me.
Wes Hunt
