For more information, call (609)-475-5087 or email info@lstsfc.org

Soccer is the player's game. Around the world, children learn how to play the game of soccer through playing it! In this regard, we can say that the best teacher of the game is the game itself. Trainers, coaches (and even parents), are only facilitators and their role is to inspire the players and provide an environment where these players remain challenged, and their technical and tactical aptitude can be develop through the opportunity to solve the problems of the game, not by talking about them, but by experiencing them in the game itself. An environment where playing is the main and only focus!

For decades, since the interest and participation in soccer has grown, international coaches and soccer educators around the world have criticized the development of US soccer. In these discussions, the informal games, which take place in all other soccer developed nations come into the discussion. They cite the games known simply as "street soccer" (much like our pick up basketball games) where the kids take all the initiative to organize and play the game, without parental or structural intervention, where the players make all the decisions, where the teacher is the game and the individual play is constructed from new abilities replicated from what they have seen professional players do.

Unfortunately, due to a vast array of factors, our game in the US has become overly structured and our children do not take the initiative in soccer that we see in other countries. Perhaps this is a matter of choice, but unfortunately for the child with great soccer potential, they are missing out the greatest avenue for which they can learn to exercise their imagination… THE GAME! This reality forces the intervention of specialized trainers (or grown ups) that take over the game and obstruct every opportunity for our youth to experiment with creativity and improvisation.

Furthermore, the demands and commercial opportunities in this more structured environment, requires professional trainers to increase the volume and breadth of information they supply and in the end, restrict the room for children to learn, experiment and develop as those in a less structured environment. A well-known journalist described the sad reality of youth soccer in the US. As one where the problem is not due to a low level of coaching knowledge, as the US National Soccer Federation and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America represent two of the most advanced and complex coaching school systems in the world. The problem lies in the fact that we attempt to make every training session an event, designed to deliver more information than is possible for the children to process, confusing them and sacrificing critical PLAYING TIME for lectures and speeches.

So how can we as coaches and trainers (and parents) feel confident enough in our soccer culture to adapt and accept the idea of children playing in their own environment, where they can exercise creativity and imagination? The answer lies in our methodology. If we're to be the facilitators of the game, wouldn't by definition our roll be therefore to facilitate the process of experience being the teacher? The idea here is to take the version of "street soccer" (where Pele and Maradona carved out there very different but equally superior skills) and structure our training in such a way as to provide the child ample room to experiment with and create their own game. After all, coaching isn't giving all the answers. Rather, it is about guiding the players in a way in which they become adept and confident to solve the problems on their own AS THEY PLAY THE GAME… FOR THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EXPERIENCE.

The Pickup Game Program represents the LSTS effort to bring back the children's participation into soccer, the simple unstructured way of playing soccer in the streets. As mentioned before, lack of space or unsafe environments make it not possible, at least not in every community in the US, to have our children playing in the street.

Participants in the LSTS Pickup Game Program attend sessions during the summer, to play for about two hours. An accessible open area at a public park facility is designated for the participant's convenience. The games are organized in a way that age and gender are not considered a limitation and there is no restricted plan in what the participants can do.

The idea is to have children and adults of multiple ages interact in a way that replicate a game in the street. The only intervention by a coach or trainer may come in the form of a program's supervisor, whose participation should be limited to players' safety purposes and time keeper.

The Pickup Game Program runs on selected dates in June qnd July. There is no fee attached to the players' participation, but medical release forms are required to be completed by the participants or their parents or legal guardians in the case of minors.
A standard Pickup Game session will start with a program's supervisor giving the participants some guidance and time for a warm-up and stretch. After a hydration break, the program's supervisor will divide the number of participants into as many teams and fields necessary to secure players' participation in games and time to rest and remind the participants of the importance of "fair play." The rest is up to the players. No coaching, no instruction, no yelling, just players playing the game.

At the end of every day, the program's supervisor may mention the highlights of the session and may remind the participants of the upcoming events.

The equipment, insurance, facilities and the supervision necessary for the Pickup Games Program is provided by the Life Skills Through Soccer Organization in conjunction with local public park administrators. The park rules applied by local park authorities to all public facilities will be encouraged and reinforce by all LSTS Training Programs.

Life Skills Through Soccer reserves the right to deny participation in the Pickup games Program to those individuals who by law are not authorized by the Federal or New Jersey State authorities or Public Park Administrators to participate in public place activities in the presence of children or recognized by those authorities for having a violent behavior.