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WYSA Recreation
League
Amoeba Soccer
Builds Youth Skills
 It
was another full day at Gambo Field in Windham.
The Windham Youth Soccer Recreation League
kicked off the day at 9:00 AM with games
starting every hour until the last one kicked
off at 1:00PM
One of the great
things about the Gambo Field Complex is that
there are games featuring Pre Kindergarten
children all the way through 9th graders. This
gives the soccer lover the opportunity to take a
few steps in any direction and view a different
level of the world's most popular sport.
Wander over to the
Pee Wee Field and watch the phenomena often
referred to as "Amoeba Soccer" where four year
olds run in a pack bumping into each other
"fighting" for a chance to kick the ball.
 Some
of them take right to it and dribble the ball up
and down the field. Some of them are only on the
field for short intervals before returning to
the safety of their parents laps. Watch closely
and you will see that it doesn't matter what
their level of involvement is, they are all
having fun at some point during the game.
The best thing
about the younger age groups is there are lots
of goals being scored. The Pre-K and K/1st grade
divisions don't use goal keepers so the kids get
a chance to experience a lot of success scoring
goals, and scoring goals is fun at any age.
One could walk
around to each groups designated field and see
the slow transition from Amoeba soccer to what
most of us think of when we think of soccer.
With the players playing in their assigned
positions and making clean passes to their
teammates who making tactically correct runs to
open space.
 While
it is important for the players to grasp the
tactical side of the game at some point in their
youth soccer careers, it shouldn't be the focal
point at the younger ages. Teaching positions
and sound tactical aspects of the game gets much
easier as the children get older.
The truth is the
players in the Amoeba Soccer games are learning
far more soccer skills than a younger
player who always stays in "perfect position".
The players in the amoeba leagues are learning
to dribble through traffic and shield the ball
from other players. Often times having to guard
the ball from their own teammates who have no
clue what color shirt the person next to them is
wearing because they are looking down at the
ball.
Younger players
should be encouraged to dribble the ball past
defenders instead of quickly "booting" the ball
on the first or second touch or by dribbling to
the midfield line and kicking the ball downfield
because they are a defender and defenders aren't
supposed to cross midfield.
 Every
time a player attempts to dribble around a
defender they get better. It doesn't matter if
they succeed or fail because the experience goes
into the soccer data base in their sharp minds.
The next time they try to dribble around a
defender the previous success or failure
dictates the action.
Amoeba soccer and
its descendants at each level above isn't a neat
pretty display but it isn't supposed to be. It
is supposed to be a learning experience that
will help develop them as an individual player.
So the next time
your son or daughter dribbles the ball up field
without regard for their position and attempts
to dribble the ball past a defender, don't
correct them. Encourage them with praise for
taking a chance and trying something new. Let
them experiment and learn the individual skills
that makes soccer so much fun because from a
former player's perspective, "booting" the ball
up field on the first or second touch each time
isn't that much fun, it is down right boring and
doesn't teach the player a whole lot either. |
