The struggle for our club and much of youth soccer has been the focus on playing too many large sided matches too soon. Focus on playing the large sided adult game has sacrificed development of technical skills. Liken it to learning a language at a young age vs. doing the same when you are an adult. If immersed in another language while a young child, the child easily learns the language. The same is not true of the adult. When applied to soccer, if we have young children playing an adult game – they are not being immersed in the activities that suit their age and promote development. Another way to look at it is to consider ice skating as it pertains to ice hockey. Skating needs to be second nature to the hockey player so that s/he can focus on strategy and tactics. The same is true of soccer. A player needs to control the ball using all parts of the body with total ease. The player needs to run side to side and back and forth – dribbling, passing, shooting – all as if it were second nature. The only way to do that is through thousands and thousands of touches on the ball. 3v3 is fast‐paced and provides and exponentially larger number of touches on the ball each session. Improvement can often be observed from one session to the next where as in a larger sided game the player might only touch the ball 1/100th of the time when compared to 3v3.

The term “fun” can have different meanings depending upon the audience. Yet it is frequently used as a goal without being defined. Consider the following statements:

• Children participate in the program to be with their friends and to play with little direction
  and pressure;
• Children experience the satisfaction and joy that comes from practicing skills and becoming
  more proficient at the game of soccer;
• Children feel a sense of pride as a member of the club and the camaraderie that comes from
  working toward a common goal with others.

If we accept that a child can define “fun” using one or more of these statements then a program needs to be flexible enough to accept children of different ability and commitment levels to insure the program is indeed “fun” under any definition.

The problem we often have in youth sports is that a program is often designed to satisfy a single definition that may not be clearly communicated. Parents and players join the program with multiple expectations when only one will be met. This is where many misunderstandings originate within a program.

The Sentinels program attempts to satisfy multiple definitions of having “fun” through its different options of play. We feel that “fun” is not a goal in itself but simply a pre‐requisite for children to play.

These teams are designed to be more of a teaching exercise for those selected any given season. They are meant to give the players a taste of what the larger sided game is like and to give them a concentrated, focused blast of attention on how to play that type of game.

This is actually preferred. If a child plays too much soccer for year after year after year, that child will most likely grow to hate the game or suffer injury. Take a season off. Play another sport. Sign up just for the 3v3 which means you can come when the desire and your schedule permit.

That’s OK. You can participate as little or as much as you like. If you want your child to participate with his or her friends but you are not committed to fulfill the additional team experience, then that is fine. The training and 3v3 sessions are not built around teams so we can easily handle fluctuating numbers.

Out of every $1.00 we charge, roughly 20% goes to league registration and insurance fees, 30% goes to field rental and maintenance, 15% goes to administrative expenses, 25% goes to professional coach fees and the remaining 10% goes to equipment.

There a numerous reasons:

1. the size of our membership is not large enough to field separate teams in appropriate levels of competition
2. there is not always appropriate competition available
3. we want our players to participate in multiple sports and not be trapped in soccer because they have to play in order to maintain the integrity of a team each season
4. not all players are equally committed and attendance can be sporadic
5. large sided team competition does not force all the players to experience multiple touches on the ball which is a pre‐requisite for skill development
6. we do not have enough volunteer coaches that are experienced enough or able to invest more time in training to coach set teams

No. We believe that 3v3 is the primary tool for development of core technical skills that players need in later years. All players will be expected to participate in 3v3. The “team” experience up through and including U12 is only a supplemental tool for those players willing to commit more time to improve.

We track points each week and post them on the website. The players with the most points at the end of the season win trophies. The kids begin comparing how they are performing individually and those that really care show up each week and work hard to improve. It is very difficult to hide in a 3v3 format.