What's the deal with soccer?

[Have At You]

Here in the USA, soccer goes through a strange progression. When we're children, soccer is ubiquitous -- it seems like every kid is in a soccer league. We don't have mothers, we have "soccer moms" who cart us from school to practice to games.

By the time we get to junior high (7th & 8th grade), most girls stop playing sports, and boys are playing baseball, football or basketball. There continue to be soccer players, but not many.

In high school, soccer playing is practically left to just the handful of kids on the school team. And though most colleges may have a soccer team, most students at those colleges would be surprised to hear it, having never seen a game or heard about the team.

And of course, at the professional level, we just don't watch pro soccer.


So explain this to me. How come a sport that is wildly popular when we're kids becomes unplayed and unseen by the time we're adults?

[Fencergrl]

Ummm... how about Americians don't know what's good for them?

~ still a soccer fan

[Maeve_Mari]

Soccer is an easy game for children to learn and play. It offers the basis for team work, coordination, running without any requirements for significant investment in equipment, time, training or ability.

As a kid, all you have to do to "play soccer" is to have a large ball and a place to run and kick. It's an easy game to coach, any mom or dad can handle the basic rules of: 1) You can't use your hands, 2) Don't push or kick any other players, and 3) share the ball by passing it to your other team mates. Children's soccer is a great place to introduce a kid to fair play, sportsmanship, outdoor activity, and coeducational ability. Boys and girls, smart and slow, skilled and unskilled can all play on the same team together.

What happens after kid play is that the game does become more specialized. It splits up the boys and the girls. Teams begin to split and form based on ability and talent. The better player move off to play themselves, perhaps starting to travel to distant locations for games, and the other kids form local teams among themselves.

Getting into high school ball is competitive, and only the stronger, more skilled kids get to tryout and play. Less kids have the experience to try out for the high school kids and less still the confidence in their abilities to want to play at that level.

The other thing that happens is that soccer is often a launching pad to other sports. After a few years of kid soccer, you get the team basics and you are ready to break off into other sports - some with more equipment requirements, some with more rules, some that require faster more agile skills... so as the community kids get older, less play soccer as they start to diversify into the other sports that arent available when you're younger.

[Fencergrl]

I am a little surprised that the most popular sport in the world is not very popular in the US. Perhaps being a British Colony for so long has had a different impact on our culture.

While hockey is most likely the most popular sport throughout Canada, in British Columbia soccer is very popular. Everybody in my family plays and most continue to play into adulthood.

Three of my four brothers are coaches. My nieces and nephews are often selected for special training camps put on by our local professional team, the Whitecaps. My second cousin plays professionally in Germany.

You cannot go by a field this time of year and not see somebody playing soccer. I suspect that Mari is right in saying that other sports tend to take over. Football & baseball seem to be more important to Americans.

[Gav]

What's the deal with soccer?

Per game you get:

22 schemies and their parole officer running around chasing an ex-pig.

I wonder if anyone gets the slang?

[Fencergrl]

What's the deal with soccer?

Per game you get:

22 schemies and their parole officer running around chasing an ex-pig.

I wonder if anyone gets the slang?

Schemie: (Noun) A person who inhabits a large housing scheme in the Central Belt. Identifiable by lack of intellect, dress sense and money.

And of course the ex-pig would be the leather ball

[Goofy]

What's the deal with soccer?

Per game you get:

22 schemies and their parole officer running around chasing an ex-pig.

I wonder if anyone gets the slang?

Hmmmmm......must not be a fan of Rangers.....

[YankeeRebel]

So explain this to me. How come a sport that is wildly popular when we're kids becomes unplayed and unseen by the time we're adults?

One word: MONEY.

An American kid growing up eventually realizes that the money, fame, and glory earned in professional baseball, football, or basketball is MUCH more than professional soccer. American kids don't grow up dreaming of playing for Arsenal, Manchester United, FC Bayern Munich, or Real Madrid. They grow up dreaming about playing for the New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Lakers, or the Dallas Cowboys. Kids only have so many hours of free time in a day. When push comes to shove, they choose the sport that has the most potential for gain.

[Mihail]

I have no idea why that happens either. It's a shame. It's really a testiment, though, to how different American culture is from the rest of the world's.

[esskreemr]

Soccer has seen a steady climb in participation since the early 1990s. I think the participation is more visible at the college level where soccer was added to the varsity programs at a number of schools. That was helped considerably by Title IX, of course.

The problem with high-school sponsored sports is that the list of sponsored sports is all but set in stone. Couple that with across the board cuts in education and it's easy to see why any sport has a problem breaking into the big 3 (Basketball, Baseball, and Football). It varies by area, of course, but the established sports definitely have the upper-hand. When teens don't want to play football they turn to 'alternative' sports such as inline skating which has seen huge increases (300% or more in some areas).

Also to be noted is that there are many activities competing for the participation of teens. Video games games to name one.

Here's is an article that gives a good picture of the issues at hand AND includes fencing into the mix.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05126/500094.stm

[Pauli]

Ummm... how about Americians don't know what's good for them?

~ still a soccer fan

soccer? good?
I mean, look at the crowd it attracts, one reason not to support soccer. Look at the ridiculous amounts of money they're being paid.
This sport has gotten totally out of hand.

[Sciurus-Rex]

It's a matter of stupid cultural values and stubborn reluctance to change. But as the years pass, you can expect interest to rise in True Football with new generations embracing the sport as their nationalistic traditionalist parents pass away.

I love soccer.

[Black Jeebus]

Ironically fencing seems to experience the same problem, during people's college years. I can't count the number of people that I have heard say they fenced in college and then stopped for whatever reason!

[latenight]

Not enough scoring and well, the clock runs up instead of down....that's just unacceptable.

[esskreemr]

It's a matter of stupid cultural values and stubborn reluctance to change. But as the years pass, you can expect interest to rise in True Football with new generations embracing the sport as their nationalistic traditionalist parents pass away.

I love soccer.

Actually, that holds a substantial grain of truth. PE teachers (who often double as coaches) don't change overnight. Most of my teachers were in their 40s and 50s. If you grew up playing football, basketball, and baseball you're going to have fbb-like tendencies. If you grew up playing soccer, lacross, and rugby...

[Black Jeebus]

Soccer has seen a steady climb in participation since the early 1990s. I think the participation is more visible at the college level where soccer was added to the varsity programs at a number of schools. That was helped considerably by Title IX, of course.

The problem with high-school sponsored sports is that the list of sponsored sports is all but set in stone. Couple that with across the board cuts in education and it's easy to see why any sport has a problem breaking into the big 3 (Basketball, Baseball, and Football). It varies by area, of course, but the established sports definitely have the upper-hand. When teens don't want to play football they turn to 'alternative' sports such as inline skating which has seen huge increases (300% or more in some areas).

Also to be noted is that there are many activities competing for the participation of teens. Video games games to name one.

Here's is an article that gives a good picture of the issues at hand AND includes fencing into the mix.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05126/500094.stm

JESUS! Did anyone else bother to figure out the percentages of growth? Fencing has had over 400% growth! However, Crew has had like a 62300% growth! Why are so many kids out there in the rowboats?!

[glowstix]

actually, people just get smarter as they grow up and realize that soccer is the most boringest, non scoringest crap you can ever watch!! i cannot, for the existence of the universe, ever understand why soccer is so frickin' popular around the world...

and i also can't figure out why there aren't more people fencing..what's wrong with people!?!??? ok, i'm pissed now..look what you did!!

[achilleus]

I remember reading a ESPN article a few years back about soccer and other fringe sports and why they will always be.

A lot of money and time has been spent trying to increase the popularity of soccer, and as noted above, kids play it, and then interest fades due to cultural reasons.

Dad takes son to the park to play basketball, throw the pigskin around, or play catch. Dad didn't learn to play soccer.

In high school, the athletes are known as 'soccer monkeys' (yeah it's better than being a high school fencer!). The cheerleader doesn't want the soccer monkey, she wants the quarterback.

I don't follow American football, but I know who Matt Leinart is, I know that USC is #1, that Leinart is a celebrity on campus, and has a great job waiting for him when he graduates.

I'm sure that the soccer is an NCAA sport. Don't know who plays, when, or who's any good.

[Fencergrl]

I'm sure that the soccer is an NCAA sport. Don't know who plays, when, or who's any good.

Okay... you may not know who currently plays... but surely everyone should know who Pele is at least????

[Black Jeebus]

Okay... you may not know who currently plays... but surely everyone should know who Pele is at least????

Who?

(j/k)