Our First Silent Saturday

Silent Saturdays is a thing that's apparently been catching on around the world with youth soccer. For our association, today is the first time its been done. My U6 boys team had their game this morning.

Going in to the game, I felt like this was going to be a really good thing for the kids. I gave the parents a reminder and we let the game begin. I could not have been prouder. Our boys clearly knew what to do 99% of the time with no assistance from either sideline. Now it did feel awkward to me. I usually yell out to the boys when they do a good job, and I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to do even that except on the occasions where it was an exceptional play. I think the parents found it awkward as well, but I hope they realized that the kiddos really don't need their help. Maybe with the next game, we'll all cheer more and still avoid the coaching.

The other team clearly seemed to struggle more and their parents even barked out a few orders during the match. But they generally did a good job. I suspect their team is much more micromanaged on a regular Saturday.

Let me give a couple of examples that really justified this Silent Saturday.

1. The other team was doing a kick-in. Our boys were defending beautifully. One of our boys noticed the other team was about to kick it in with a square pass to his teammate. At the last minute, our boy moved up the field and jumped in front of the kick. He took the ball, dribbled, and scored. If the parents of the other team had been allowed to coach their player on where to kick it, the intelligent play of our player would have gone unrewarded. We need to encourage our players to think and adjust on their own. When parents impose their adult intelligence to direct their player and thus outwit our 6 year old boy, that's just plain not fair. I was loving Silent Saturday giving our boy the opportunity to use his wits to score a goal (and he's not a prolific scorer)
2. We had a player doing a kick-in who didn't know where to kick it. His father did a great job holding his tongue and letting his son play. He kicked it right out in front of our own goal and the other team scored. How is this a "good thing" you ask? Well I told a player on the bench that he needed to help his teammates when he saw them about to do something wrong. Sure enough, later in the game, the same situation popped up and what happened? The boy I'd spoken to on the bench took a leadership role and talked to his teammate about the correct direction to kick the ball. This moment of leadership would not have occurred if the parents or coaches had taken it upon themselves to correct the error before the player had a chance to speak.

These are just two examples of how Silent Saturday worked exactly the way it should. It was awkward as a coach at times, but the opportunities it gave the kids are worth it.