How to play pickup soccer

How to play pickup soccer.

According to the Internet, and hence conventional wisdom, soccer is a triumph of 1800 English Imperialism, with its earliest forms originating 2000 years ago in China. Today, it is the world’s most popular sport with a straightforward rule: don’t touch the ball with your hands unless it’s a throw-in, you are the goalie, or you are an idiot.

When I was a lad, children were enrolled in organized soccer. I can’t imagine why, but if I were to guess, parents were unwitting victims of a horrible marketing campaign extolling the virtues of organized sport. A pamphlet may have been handed out with three categories containing some buzz words:

1. Group life skills (Socialization of children): teamwork, competition, respect for peers and diversity, empathy, participation, cooperation, conflict resolution, following rules, communication, and making friends!

2. Individual life skills: discipline, perseverance, problem-solving, creativity, resilience, confidence.

3. Health: cardiovascular exercise, hand-eye coordination.

Who wouldn’t want their kids to understand all these things? They would be right on their way to being a perfect human!

The severe reality is a herd of miscast kids with crazy parents. If you have ever been to a child’s organized soccer game, there are usually two kids better than everyone else who have the ball 75% of the time. Individual life skills resulting from training sessions by motivated parents and aggression are generally rewarded on the soccer field. However, everyone usually gets a participation trophy at the end of the season!

However, pickup soccer is all the more fascinatingly intricate. There is no coach, no parents, no referee. It is a case study of self-governance.

The rules are simple:

1. Show up

2. Fit in

3. Be yourself

That was easy! You can play for free and reap all the same benefits.