Plan B Forum

In Olympia, Washington, they're playing a new kind of youth soccer. To address the negative effects of competition, soccer is now being played without a ball. They're calling it 'ball-less soccer.' (An idea that was first launched in Ontario.)

"Here in Olympia we've been looking at how competition impacts youth and it's usually kind of negative, especially if you're on the losing team," said Helen Coyle, head of the Olympia Youth Sports League.

"Coaching ball-less soccer is hard because I have to do a lot of imagining."

"So last year," she said, "we took away the notion of scoring, which meant there were no winners and there were no losers. But in many ways we felt that it just didn't go far enough. So we've actually taken away the ball."

Keith Shultz is a ball-less soccer coach. It is his job to keep track of where the imaginary ball is.

"Coaching ball-less soccer is very difficult from my perspective because I have to do a lot of imagining," he said.

"Any coach can coach a kid on soccer skills and having fun out there but the real challenge of my job as a coach in ball-less soccer is trying to keep track of where the ball is and coach the kids on how do you keep track of the ball and where is the ball."

If this program is successful, Olympia is considering removing the ball from some basketball leagues as well.

'ball-less soccer.'

Origins: In September 2013, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) “This Is That” radio program aired a segment on an Ontario youth soccer league that was eschewing the use of a soccer ball in all games and practices to eliminate any sense of winning and losing sides, and any sense that one child was a more skilled soccer player than another. Instead, children would substitute their imaginations for the actual use of a ball and claim whatever outcomes they desired. “If you imagine you’re good at soccer, then, you are,” a league spokesman was quoted as saying.

By the following day links and excerpts referencing that radio segement were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered the item mistaking it for a genuine news item and responding with expressions of outrage

What such commentators missed was that the CBC’s “This Is That” program is hosted by two comedians, Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring, who fabricate stories satirizing current affairs as a spoof of public radio

Award-winning satire with Pat Kelly & Peter Oldring

Lord Jim wrote:Yeah, uh Meade...

If you followed the link, this:

Award-winning satire with Pat Kelly & Peter Oldring

right up at the top of the page, was pretty much a dead give-away...