Welcome to our SYSA educational series! This series is where we provide advice, guidance and useful tools for parents, coaches and volunteers within the Seattle Youth Soccer Association.
Recreational youth soccer differs from competitive youth soccer in that it has different goals and different benefits. One of the biggest differences with recreational soccer is that, regardless of the result, the simple experience of JUST PLAYING is the actual win.
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It’s important to point out that there is nothing wrong with being competitive and wanting to win - it's what we strive to do when we get out on the field. It motivates us to work hard and put in effort. Winning is fun and it gives teams a clear goal to work towards. However, when winning becomes the only valued objective, it is easy to lose sight of the other important aspects of recreational soccer.
Sportsmanship is at the heart of recreational soccer
At the youngest ages, recreational soccer exists to introduce players to the game and is primarily an instructional experience. As players grow, the recreational game starts to cultivate a community that becomes very valuable and allows players to fully experience the sport for what it is: a fun game played with friends that gets you outdoors and keeps you active.
Recreational soccer is a game that is available to everyone, regardless of skill level. The mental, physical and emotional benefits of participating in sport are extremely high, so getting kids engaged and wanting to play is the biggest reason why recreational soccer leagues are so important. Good sportsmanship and camaraderie play a huge role in creating an environment that helps make a player's experience in recreational soccer good - and THESE are the things that ultimately drive them to keep playing and stay in the game. Not the wins.
Good sportsmanship isn't just shaking hands at the end of the game, its about how you show up, as a team and as an individual, at each and every moment (the easy ones and the hard ones) throughout the entire game, the entire season.
One of the most important moments that we can show great sportsmanship and stay aligned with the values of recreational soccer, is when our team starts to go up by a number of goals. Rather than allowing the scoreline to get really lopsided, we can use this moment as a fantastic opportunity to not only show good sportsmanship, but also to expand and grow, both as players and as people.
Tools for coaches to use when the score becomes lopsided
In recreational league play, its not uncommon for a team to find themselves up a large number of goals on the other team. While every effort is made by league administrators to accurately place teams in divisions before scheduling games each fall, it is an imperfect science and mismatches can occur.
If you find yourself in this position as a coach, here is what we recommend: when your team starts to get ahead, choose to see it as an opportunity to help players learn how to define success in regards to other things besides just winning and scoring. For example, what things can we focus on here that will help us move toward being the team that we want to be? Shooting from distance? Only shots allowed from outside the box! Ball movement? Require a certain number of passes, stringed together, before taking a shot! Having well-rounded players? Switch things up, move people around! Etc.
Want to be a team with really fast speed of play? OK - define your success right now by THAT! What sort of things can we do to play faster and make quicker decisions here? Keep our head on a swivel, gather information, give our teammates information about what we see, make our decision about what's next before we receive the ball, etc. Let's focus on THAT right now, and let's define our success by THAT today. Other options include removing a player from the stronger team, or adding a player to the weaker team.
To help ensure that your team is prepared to make this shift inside of a moment where they take a big lead, come up with a plan beforehand so that you can easily put it into action when the score starts to get lopsided. If you have a plan and are prepared to present it to your players as a fun opportunity, they WILL get excited about this and see the new objective as a challenge, and another way to 'win-the-day'.
Protecting the integrity and values of recreational soccer
Many times when lopsided scores happen in games, its simply because coaches and players alike got excited and caught up in the moment and didn't have the awareness to regulate what was happening. But even though it's not done intentionally, it still has potential to undermine the values of recreational soccer.
The recreational game is one of the only places in youth soccer where kids can play free of the pressure, expectations and win-at-all-costs-mentality that have become associated with the game in competitive environments. Soccer is an amazing sport and everyone deserves to be able to enjoy it. What makes the recreational game so unique and special is that it provides this opportunity to kids of all skill levels and all walks of life - an opportunity which is extremely beneficial for both their mental and physical health. Which is exactly why protecting the integrity and values of the recreational game is so important, because it KEEPS KIDS PLAYING and benefiting from the beautiful game.
