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Soccer a no-lose proposition?

By Michael Platt, Calgary Sun

Last Updated: February 9, 2011

Trash the trophies, scrap the standings.

There’s no room for winners, champions or stars when no one is bothering to keep score — and scoreless games are the likely future for young soccer players in Calgary.

That’s the prediction of Calgary Minor Soccer Association boss Daryl Leinweber, when asked about a growing trend towards taking competition out of competitive sports, especially for kids 12 and under.

Manitoba is headed towards scoreless soccer, as confirmed by Sun Media earlier this week, and it seems Calgary is also getting ready to do away with league titles and season standings.

“Possibly, yes,” said Leinweber, executive director of the association.

The soccer boss says a decision on going fully scoreless will be made as early as June and he says there is a strong appetite for no longer counting goals as part of the Under-12 soccer game.

Right now, Under-10 teams in Calgary only record wins and losses, regardless of the score.

The new system would eradicate even that cotton-soft competition.

Other changes would include smaller pitches and fewer players per side, with equal playing time for all, no matter if the child is a budding Beckham, or a budding Bozo the Clown.

The official reason for deflating the importance of winning is an edict from Sport Canada, which seeks change in all youth sport, from tennis to track and field.

Called Long Term Athlete Development, the cradle-to-podium plan aims to make Canada an international sports powerhouse.

By reducing competition in the early stages, Sport Canada believes kids can focus on their skills instead.

At least, that’s the theory.

Logic may suggest winning is what motivates children to improve their skills in the first place — images of a young Wayne Gretzky toiling endlessly in his backyard rink spring to mind.

Alas, that’s apparently an archaic way of thinking — these days, the cloud of despair that comes with loss must be avoided, lest junior abandon the game.

Before you curse today’s kids as mollycoddled milksops, consider the real source of this defeatist angst — because it isn’t the players.

According to Leinweber, it’s not the children who want to scrap scoring, trophies and the like, but parents who can’t handle the notion of their offspring not winning.

“A lot of what we say today is not driven by the kids, it’s driven by the parents — it’s driven by the people who need to win,” said Leinweber.

“The kids themselves, when they play, know who wins and loses, even when no score is kept.”

Left up to the kids, in other words, the game would remain what it has always been — a win-lose prospect with risks and rewards, much like real life.

“It’s not necessarily the pressure of the kids on each other, it’s the pressures around them that have an influence,” said Leinweber.

Asked if fragile parental egos are to blame and he gives a straight-shooting answer.

“I would say so, yes,” said Leinweber.

It’s clear the soccer boss has mixed feelings about doing away with goals and standings, and Leinweber admits to being an old-fashioned guy — though he says more kids are staying in the game as a result of the trend.

“It’s an adjustment I have to make — we answer to our membership,” he said.

“We’ve adapted the game and seen it grow and so I think the changes have been very positive for the growth of the game and the growth of the sport.”

Which is all swell and good if the goal is fewer kids on the couch.

But this is supposed to be about making Canada an international competitor in soccer — the way it already is in hockey.

Hockey, incidentally, won’t be doing away with goals, or standings, or trophies.

Christina Rogers, spokeswoman for Hockey Calgary, says the system which moulds young players into the kind of athletes who go on to play in the NHL and Olympics is rooted in that drive to win.

“If there’s no winning, that doesn’t teach the kids to compete,” said Rogers.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."