With all the talk of player development in this country centering around MLS, academies, and other structured means of producing top players, the role of basic free play has gone under the radar. We think it shouldn’t, as it is an essential part of any thriving soccer culture. We’ll dive into why pick-up soccer is vital for player development, why we don’t see it as much in the US, and what can be done to fix it.
What is pick-up culture?
Pick up is the purest form of play, as it involves no coaches, referees, or strict rules (other than the basic rules of soccer). In terms of culture, it is the prevalence of unstructured soccer play (including games) by younger players. These can be neighborhood games, kicking the ball around with a few friends/family members, or regular meetups at predetermined fields.
The lack of structure differentiates pick-up from other forms of play and gives players many benefits (which we will dig into later). Players can differ in age and ability level, but too much variation can negatively affect the quality of play for the better players.
It’s important to note the equivalent in traditional American sports – pick-up basketball. We have a strong pick-up culture in this sport, with games in parks, gyms, schools, driveways, and anywhere with a basketball hoop. It’s part of the reason we develop the best basketball players in the world. There are certain skills and improvisation you can learn better in unstructured environments that are difficult (or impossible) to teach later on.
Examples of pick up culture around the world
Countries with a strong pick-up culture tend to produce the world’s best players.
For example, in Brazil the kids play futsal (a game on a basketball-sized court with a low-bounce ball, with 5 players per team) exclusively until they are 12, at which point they can play full-sided in a more formal set up. And much of this play is non-structured.
You also see soccer volleyball nets everywhere, which is a great way to develop first touch. Brazilians are immersed in soccer, and this culture, which begins with these unstructured setups, develops some of the best and most technical players in the world.
You see similar setups in other countries too. It may not look like futsal courts or soccer volleyball nets, but kids are playing in the streets or in the park. Usually for hours on end, trying to emulate the skills of the superstars they see on TV every week.
Leo Messi and Lamine Yamal played pick-up soccer almost constantly growing up. These are two players with creativity and problem-solving instincts that simply cannot be taught in a formal setting at a young age.
On the US side, Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey mention the crucial influence of pick-up soccer on their development as well. The fact that these are two of the most creative players we have produced is not a coincidence. Could they have learned these skills if they played solely in structured environments? Not likely.
Why does any of this matter?
This type of unstructured soccer is more of a missing piece in the development of US players and not the magic bullet solution. We still need to improve the academies and the development pathways from youth soccer to the professional level, which are getting better. But the lack of a strong pick-up culture in our sport means we tend to produce players who are more robotic – great at following instructions and working hard, but not necessarily elite difference makers or technicians.
Trial and error
People have different learning styles, and trial and error can work well for some people when it comes to physical or technical skill development. The freedom to see something on TV, experiment, have the freedom to make mistakes, try something new, and eventually succeed can uncover skills that you would otherwise not try in a real game or more structured training environment.
In structured environments, trial and error type learning is not encouraged. Coaches show you a certain way to do something, and you usually can’t diverge too much from these instructions. In fact, many coaches hate when you try something unconventional and will punish players who do this too often.
But in soccer there are many ways to achieve an objective within a game or a single play. And often an unexpected or creative way to solve a problem or unlock a defense will take the other team by surprise. It’s why we love players like Maradona, Messi, Ronaldo (R9 and CR7), Zidane, Ronaldinho, Neymar, etc…
Creativity is the most prized asset in these game-changing players, and this is in part due to their upbringing in environments where they can try stuff and fail, and no one is yelling at them. Because when it does work out, they have learned a solution on their own, and this process of learning is what creates great players.
Improvisation and problem solving on your own
Learning to improvise and solve problems on your own without being told how to do everything creates autonomous players on the field. Sure, you can develop bad habits, but it’s easier to coach out bad habits than it is to teach the ability to solve problems mid-game.
Since soccer is a fluid game without timeouts or a lot of breaks for coaches to give instructions, the players who are able to improvise and solve problems on their own in the middle of a game will be more effective at higher levels.
Pick-up is the ideal environment to learn this skill, as you have no one telling you to do anything. If you want to win, you have to figure it out. This figuring out is almost impossible to coach.
Comfort within your own body
There is no one size fits all approach for developing certain technical or physical skills. When playing on your own, you can develop some of these skills in ways that are more comfortable for your body, through trial and error.
Sometimes in more structured environments, a coach will force a player to execute a skill (a turn, touch, feint, etc…) a certain way. But bodies are different, and some skills are learned best on your own.
A good coach can help teach certain skills or fix bad habits, but it helps to have a foundation of playing where you develop comfort executing the basic skills (dribbling, passing, shooting, etc…) within your own body. Then a good coach can refine those skills in more advanced training sessions.
True competitiveness and love of the game
Aside from the physical and technical considerations, pick up games foster an environment of natural competitiveness. There’s no real consequences for winning and losing other than pride. In these types of games, it’s more akin to playing your best friend in a video game – you want to win but in the end it’s not a do or die situation.
This helps foster an organic competitiveness in young players that creates a natural will to win. Rather than having a coach or parents tell you how important a game is, you take the field always wanting to win no matter what, because you are used to playing this way.
Pick up teaches this natural competitiveness, which can give players that extra drive and hunger to win. This is something you cannot teach, but it can develop in a “playground” environment.
Plus it’s fun and teaches a true love of the game. So even if you don’t become a professional player, it creates a more involved and educated fan base.
Why we don’t have it in America
Soccer is not our main pastime. You’ll see kids playing pickup basketball or baseball or football much more often than soccer. There just wasn’t the volume of kids playing this sport in the past to have enough kids to put together regular pick-up games. But soccer has become the most popular youth sport, and still we see very little pickup culture.
This is mostly due to the “soccer mom” phenomenon (no disrespect at all to soccer moms, who are putting in a lot of effort to support their kids). Soccer has traditionally been a middle class sport in America, with parents looking to fill their kids’ activity calendar. And it has always been played “somewhere else.” They drive their kids to practice and games. Kids never traditionally played soccer in the neighborhood, missing out on this key experience.
Unlike basketball, for instance, where kids play in neighborhood courts until sundown.
The obsession with the sport hasn’t been there in America for a few reasons. Other sports get much more publicity in the US, so kids see someone like LeBron James or Steph Curry on TV constantly, and they’ll try to emulate these role models.
Young soccer players don’t have as much exposure to American players in the same way, so the motivation to play pickup games all day to make it big isn’t as well-developed here.
The influence of Americans playing successfully abroad and older stars finishing their careers in the MLS (like Messi) still has yet to create this motivation on a large scale in this country.
Is it possible to develop a pick up culture in the US?
Yes, I think it’s possible, but it must be pushed a little bit from the top. The powers that be at US Soccer have to realize the importance of this unstructured play, and they must find ways to encourage it among younger players.
Interestingly enough, some former players recognize this shortcoming and are trying to come up with ways to accelerate this development. Former MLS player Kyle Martino, for instance, has started a business based on this concept. It has been making quite some headway in the past few years, and efforts like these can help push the movement forward.
Ultimately, however, the motivation must come from the players themselves to get together and just play. What will spark this motivation? Seeing players in person who they can copy (like Messi or other big names coming to the MLS) and seeing American players become world class (like possibly Pulisic).
If the demand from the bottom up comes from the excitement created by these types of players, I believe we’ll see more futsal and small-sided games pop up in neighborhoods and parks across the country. This change in our culture will hopefully give us that extra push to become an elite soccer country.
