NON-BOARDED vs BOARDED FACILITIES

For many years indoor soccer meant playing the ball off walls that surrounded hard astro-turf fields. Historically, this has always been the case because old hockey facilities, in need of new forms of revenue, tried to find a new way to generate business indoors without closing their doors and relocating. More recently we know that indoor soccer facilities are built primarily for the year-round soccer enthusiast. As competition between these facilities grows, we are now seeing more non-boarded facilities being built. But how does this recent trend affect our youth players as they continue to grow and strive to become quality soccer players?

When providing opportunities for our players we have to ask ourselves, “how does this opportunity affect my players?” The first concern of any coach is to address the welfare of the player. Is this space dangerous in any respect? When playing in a boarded facility there is the scenario of getting “hockey checked” into the boards. In September of 2005 a Massachusetts teenager was playing at an indoor facility and fractured his hip. Not a pretty scene indeed. In non-boarded facilities there is the case of the collision with goalposts and light poles, but more often than not these light poles are set back behind nets and more than fifteen feet away from the playing surface.

Another obvious concern of any coach who has an emotional investment in his players is, “will this opportunity help my players’ development?” When selecting any league whether indoors or out, boarded or non-boarded, it is always important to consider the appropriate level of competition. Pushing players to play well above their age group or at a level that is undemanding, will hamper their development in either case. But taking a deeper look into habits that can be formed may be a better guide when choosing a facility.

When playing in a boarded facility, players have no extra incentive to play their best. An errant pass or shot will still stay in bounds, and sometimes even go unnoticed by the coach. On the opposite side of that matter, when receiving a pass a player can have a poor first touch, or even let the ball roll past him, while it stays in play. This setting does not punish the bad habits set in place by the walls around them. As coaches we may not even mention this to the players because as we see it, the ball is still in play.

These players are put in false situations that do not relate to the outdoor game. When playing in a non-boarded facility players are now put into more realistic “soccer situations”. If a pass or first touch is poor and the ball rolls out of bounds, possession is lost and a throw-in is given to the other team.

As coaches, we hold a precious responsibility to our players. The responsibility to give our players the tools that will not only make them succeed on the field, but off the field as well. How responsible as coaches are we if we continuously put our young players in unrealistic situations that do not replicate the game? We need to put our players into situations that will constantly test them technically and tactically. The product of these tests: a more complete player.