In yet another nod to the protection of fledgling self-esteem, an Ottawa children’s soccer league has introduced a rule that says any team that wins a game by more than five points will lose by default.
I think the adults underestimate the ability of the kids to adapt.
Now, the team winning by five points, plays ball control to avoid scoring again--and therefore losing.
How long before teams down by 5 learn that all they need to do to win is to score a goal on their own net to give the other team a goal--and therefore win by losing by 6?
At that point, the teams try to hold their margin of victory to 4 points to avoid the "own goal" strategy. But even that becomes a strain if the other team can pull to within one by scoring just one goal despite ball control efforts.
Pretty soon, the games will become inverted with each team trying--from the whistle--to score on their own goal and thus reach 6 goals for the other team first. Goalies will have the job of letting in goals, while others try to intercept the ball and send it back toward their own goal. That will be youth soccer. Those are the new rules, how else would you expect the kids to react? Social engineering or not, the kids still want to win.
But what the heck. It's just soccer. So who cares? I bet the Canadians don't do that with youth hockey.
