Kids' soccer just for kicks

This month and next, parents of preschoolers all over the Lowcountry will flock to their local recreation departments to sign their youngsters up for fall soccer.

Many players haven't even mastered tying their own shoes, but come fall, they'll (at least try to) lace up cleats, shove shin guards in their knee socks and hit the pitch.

But if their parents expect to see anything resembling last week's FIFA Confederations Cup final between the United States and Brazil, they need to think again.

Soccer for the youngest of athletes typically doesn't resemble anything close to the futbol game played by their bigger, older counterparts.

There are no set plays, fouls, though mostly unintentional, are frequent, and players sometimes leave the field to go to the potty or for a hug from Mommy.

There's no doubt soccer is popular. More than 3.1 million youths in the United States were registered with U.S. Youth Soccer in 2007.

Four-year-old Jack Dempsey will be among those playing organized soccer with the city of Charleston for the first time this fall, but his parents, Krista and Kevin Dempsey, are probably a little more realistic about what to expect than many parents. Kevin Dempsey is the coach of the women's team at the College of Charleston.

"Personally, I'm trying not to push him into soccer, but he likes kicking the ball," Kevin Dempsey says. "It's a good sport for active kids because they can run around and don't have to stand and wait for their turn as much as some other sports."

The beauty of soccer is that a child can get started without much fuss. Goals, shin guards and cleats might be recommended for games, but as long as a child has a ball, he can start practicing skills like kicking and dribbling.

Regardless of whether it's called First Kicks, Micro Soccer or Fundamental Soccer, beginner soccer programs have a few things in common.

"At this age, you have kids still picking daisies," says Gail Osborne, director of soccer at Summerville Soccer Club. "There are children who won't go onto the field at all. There are not a lot of expectations from parents or coaches. We hope they participate, have fun and are happy."

The objective of soccer for the pre-K set is to provide players and their parents with a "pressure free" introduction to soccer, according to the American Youth Soccer Organization. The organization suggests that players "should be exposed to soccer by playing simple, fun activities and games that require little to no practice, and a minimal time commitment."

Instead of full-sided play on a regulation field, these programs are played on scaled-down fields with smaller goals. Only three or four players are on the field at a time, usually accompanied by a coach, and there are no referees or goalkeepers.

While every league requires shin guards for safety reasons, cleats are optional in some.

When the whistle blows, players this young typically stand on the field waiting for directions from an adult. There are no plays, just six or eight kids running around a field together.

The score is not kept officially so that everybody wins.

"When someone scores, everybody cheers," says Osborne.

For most of the participants this age, soccer is as much a social activity as a sport, Osborne says.

In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends waiting until age 6 before introducing team sports, since few kids understand the concept of teamwork until this age. Instead, the AAP says preschoolers should spend most of their time engaged in free play: running, jumping, chasing.

Osborne, whose daughter Jessica played for the first time this spring, says Summerville's First Kicks program is "a way for kids to start learning how to work together as a team. At that age group, they don't pass to each other. We try to teach them skills, but they don't listen for more than 5 minutes. They're just there to have fun."

Most kids this age can only handle a 30-minute practice once a week, she says.

"I ran practice for 45 minutes, but after half an hour, they couldn't concentrate," she says.

Weekly games, usually on Saturday mornings, are shorter, too.

"We play four 8-minute quarters, which doesn't sound like much, but it's quite a lot when you've done it," she says.

Dempsey, who ran a soccer camp for 4- and 5-year-olds earlier this summer, says the goal for coaches of such young players is to introduce the game in a fun way. Well-known games such as "Duck, Duck, Goose" are turned into "Player, Player, Referee."

"We take a lot of games that they know and turn them into soccer games," he says.

Another goal is for each child to get a lot of "touches," the number of times a player gets his foot on the ball. Dempsey's goal for kids during their week of camp was 1,000 touches.

"We emphasize following the rules, paying attention to which direction they're going, that kind of thing," he says. "We're just trying to have fun."

And hoping to teach about sharing and taking turns in the process.

As Osborne says, "For many of these kids, the most exciting part is at the end of the game, running to the snack mom to see what she brought and which juice box flavor they get."

Chances are, your child is not going to be the next David Beckham, but thanks to today's leagues that field teams even for the over-50 set, he can continue playing well into adulthood.

But having positive experiences as a preschooler plays a big part in whether a child continues to play, Dempsey says. Pushy parents or demanding coaches can turn a child off.

"Hopefully, they'll go up to the next level the next year and progress up," Osborne says. "Each year, we try to add new skills and bring in new rules."

By the time players are teens, they play full-sided games on full-size fields.

And that's when you'll have to make some big decisions about what kind of commitment to make to the sport.

Brenda Rindge can be reached at 937-5713 or at brindge@postandcourier.com.