My close encounter with a mini soccer festival at Club Roma

I asked my friend Joe Talarico to assign me four mini-games at the "Ti Amo Festival Cup" in St Catharines, hosted by St Catharines Roma Soccer Club.  Reffing is a mild sideline of mine and I don't want to let that interest slip away.

As a coach and coach educator, I wanted to spend some time in a festival environment and experience some of the sights and sounds for myself.  I've watched festival games as an uncle or friend, but never officially participated in one involving "travel" teams in an environment that was previously "competitive".

Under LTPD, younger tournaments are now held as festivals, with no standings or playoffs.  The USA was
way ahead of us in this respect ... they've been holding "jamborees" for years.

The Ti Amo Festival Cup is a well run tournament with good people at the helm. 

I officiated 4 boys games this morning:

• Niagara Falls vs Pickering  U10 
• Brampton vs Welland U10
• Roma vs Saltfleet U9
• Roma vs Brampton U9

My personal observations are below.  Just so we're clear, these observations are not being used by any committee nor were they solicited by any group.  I was just curious, for my own development.

• First and foremost, all fear of no scores and standings killing competition can be laid to rest.  Every ball during every game was contested with all the vigour you would expect at any level.
• With no posted score looming, a team losing 2-1 in the second game was pressing hard for the equalizer.  The kids knew the score and played to win.  The winning team was aware that they were protecting a lead and placed that way.  the lack of standings did not change this game.
• While the players played to win, the coaches did not coach to win (in an obvious manner, that is).  No standings or playoff round keeps everybody's attitude in check. 
• Parents were very positive.  Over 4 games I did not hear "REF!" once.  Seriously.  Coaches? Maybe 3x but always in a normal voice, not yelling, and respectfully.
• Playing time seemed equal for the most part.
• All the benefits of the small-sided-game were evident to anybody watching.
• Even though it's not a competitive situation, every team still looked like a million bucks.  Kits, bags, balls, folding benches, etc made every team look professional.
• Conduct between coaches was EXEMPLARY!
• They still had the pre-game warm-up, goal celebrations, half time breaks,  post-game hand shakes and high-fiving the parents.  None of that died with eliminating the standings.

What impressed me most was the intensity on the field.  It has not subsided and players are showing better individual skills than the last group of U9s that I coached and competed against.

If there is room for advice ... I would encourage coaches to keep their coaching player-centred and not worry about the team as a whole as much.  Applaud decisions, good ideas, creativity, risk taking, etc.  We just spent the last 40 years in a team based approach, so I say this as an observation, not a criticism.  The tone of voice, body language and attitude of the coaches was awesome and that is a MAJOR step forward.  I was eavesdropping during half-time and everybody was good.  Nobody was pretending to be Bobby Knight or Vince Lombardi and the information was decent and at the players' comprehension level.  The shift from team to player may take a while as it's more difficult and not as easy to sell to parents.  But anybody who has been through the system would certainly find the coaching environment refreshing. One coach was so good with his information, I wish I had it recorded to show our coaches.

Why put the player ahead of the team?  Well, the coach of a team that "won" told me the the team they beat will beat them easily when the kids get older.  And he's right.  Every kid on that team could handle the ball and confidently attack 1v1, they just didn't have a strong boy to plow forward.  Their coach sounded like a technical trainer and the players looked like they've been trained.

Added July 28.  Putting the player ahead of the team shouldn't mean we eliminate team information altogether, as pointed out by @OSC_TD .  We agreed that giving some team info helps open up options for the player with the ball that we're trying to help. 

Another point that caught my attention was how teams from different districts had different rules for mini-soccer.  That will normalize over time.  Before every game we made sure we were all on the same page.

I wanted to tell some of the coaches and parents "why are you telling your players to let the ball go out?" and subsequently "Why are you taking so long to get it back into play?".  But that wasn't my place :)  Minor point, but has always been a pet peeve of mine.  The soccer was still fun and the environment awesome.

LTPD is not going to succeed because of a tournament convener or somebody from a governing body delivering a presentation.  This morning succeeded because of the coaches and parents' collective attitudes allowing the kids to play, peacefully.