Comment by poulsbohemian | Hacker News Reader

Comment by poulsbohemian | Hacker News Reader

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One of the challenges here in the US is competition with other sports. My son played soccer but as soon as he was old enough, he wanted to switch to American Football. I've seen the same thing with other kids, to baseball, to basketball, etc. Girls have relatively fewer sports options and can start soccer at a young age, so there's a good feeder program to advanced levels there.

Perhaps it's the microcosm I live in, but I have hope for the future of US soccer. When I was a kid 30+ years ago, soccer was viewed with skepticism as a "foreign" game. Today soccer is thriving everywhere. In my community of > 30% Spanish speaking people, soccer is religion, and they are raising the profile and quality of the game from an early age. I see the US as simply in its infancy still in terms of players, coaching, and general interest in the game relative to the rest of the world, but, with things like MLS and the influx of predominantly Mexican immigrants throughout the West increasing the profile of the game on a localized level, we'll get there.

Some of it has to do with realistic expectations, money-wise and as means to other ends such as scholarships.

A project that might help US Soccer is to poach good athletes from other sports who would have trouble getting a scholarship in their current sport.

For example - a HS American football player with great speed who weighs less than 200 lbs, doesn't bench or squat very well, and is not a kicker.

Or a baseball player who can't come around on a 90 mph fastball. What inspires me here is how similar a good (feet-first) base slide is to a soccer tackle.

Or a 5'11" basketball player not named Allen Iverson.

To me, the question is at what age can soccer skills be taught for world-class results?

To play devil's advocate, I've been hearing sentiments along those general lines for a very long time. And, in fact, soccer/football has increased a whole lot in popularity among kids in particular. Hardly anyone played soccer, at least in my circles, when I was growing up.

The wildcard is what happens with American football if parents and secondary schools start deciding it's not a sport kids should be playing. Rugby is the more natural alternative worldwide but it's got its own concussion issues (albeit not to the same degree) so it's hard to see American football phasing out in favor of rugby.

I don't see them as mutually exclusive - it doesn't have to be American football loses / futbol wins. I guess part of what I'm saying here is - look at where American football was in the 1960s. Some player still worked other jobs in the offseason. Formations were very simple. Max McGee famously partied the night before the first Super Bowl. Today, the NFL is big effing business to the point that it plays a role in our politics. The game itself is being played with sophistication way beyond just even a few decades ago. So, it is not hard to imagine a future for [soccer | futbol | football] where over time that same sophistication will grow for the game here in the US.

Attention is somewhat zero sum though. Arguably the rise of the NFL has come at least somewhat at the expense of baseball. (And, for that matter, I wouldn't be surprised if soccer has cut into the number of kids playing baseball.)

You know what I think would be really interesting? Some kind of urban vs. rural study on this. I live in the middle of nowhere, USA. The number of kids that turn out for sports is truly amazing. You drive past a soccer pitch on the weekend and there are hundreds of kids out there playing. Same is true for the baseball field. But, I talk to my urban friends and it isn't the same; their kids are either playing even more exotic sports like lacrosse, or they simply aren't playing. Baseball is a funny one, because even though the Mariners are top of their division at the moment, you can walk right up and get any ticket you want any day of the week - serious lack of fan support. So yes, baseball has declined overall, but I'm also left to wonder what role urban vs. rural interests play in this, as here in the heartland, baseball is still very much a big deal.

I assume there are people who know these things but I only am familiar with some things anecdotally.

There are a lot of demographic dimensions. Basketball tends to be associated with inner cities although, historically, there were some other groups like Catholic schools where hoops was popular. Ice hockey was a northern sport; at one time a large percentage of NHL players were Canadian. Today, I expect that the availability of frozen ponds and lakes is much less important although I also expect its popularity is still fairly skewed to the north. "Friday Night Lights" high school football obsession tends to be associated with the South.

It's an interesting question especially as some college-educated parents choose to increasingly live in certain dense cities where the soccer-mom lifestyle doesn't necessarily fit very well.

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