Soccer Isn't Just For Kids

Have you played soccer as an adult? I have. I didn't start playing soccer until I was thirty-five years old. I played until I was fifty.

There are adult leagues out there just waiting for you to join them. There are leagues for beginners. There are leagues for intermediate skills. There are leagues for highly skilled players. There are leagues for women only. There are coed leagues with men and women on the same team. There are outdoor leagues. There are indoor leagues. You fit in there somewhere.

My experience started when my son started playing at around 6 or 7 years of age. I wanted to help coach but I didn't know anything about soccer. How many players on a team? What did the players do? (run around and kick the ball) How big is the field? I read up a bit on the game and then went looking for a team that would accept me. Surprisingly, I found one. It seems that somewhere out there, there is always a team needing warm bodies to fill a roster. That was me, a warm body.

My soccer skills were absolutely zero. I couldn't trap. I was a lousy kicker. The idea of striking a fast moving soccer ball with my head was not appealing. Fortunately for me, I could catch with my hands fairly well, could throw the ball fairly far (farther than I could kick), and wasn't very smart. So they made me the goal keeper. As goal keeper, you get to see what all the other players are doing without having to actually do these things. I figured it was a good place to learn. There were those exciting moments when the other team was driving in and taking shots on the goal that kept the game interesting, sometimes way too interesting. Later, when the team got a real goal keeper, I was moved out to fullback. Fortunately, I had learned a few skills by that time and could run fairly fast.

What I'm getting at, is if I can do it, so can you. As the Nike ad used to say, "Just do it". When I was a youth, soccer was a game played by foreigners. Even when I started playing back in the 1970s, your team was looking to recruit foreigners because they had actually played soccer and had reasonable skills. Not so now, you may have grown up playing soccer as my son and succeeding boys and girls have done. You may already have the skills that I belatedly and only partially acquired. Why don't you get out there and use and enjoy those skills? Its still fun and you won't have your mom and dad screaming at you from the sidelines like when you were twelve years old.

A word to the wise, soccer is not a good way to "get in shape". Get in some reasonable condition before joining a team. Do some running several weeks before starting to play. Do some stretching and get some flexibility. You will enjoy the game more and you will reduce the chances of injuring yourself.