On the day that the U.S. men’s soccer team was eliminated from qualification for next year’s World Cup, inciting an array of condemnations about how the sport is taught at a youth level, a new Kickstarter campaign launched that aims to use technology to encourage more children to play soccer and have fun while learning fundamental skills.
Dribblers FC is a proposed mobile app that will guide parents through coaching children ages 3-to-5 through simple drills with animal-themed cartoon characters guiding the exercises and a rewards system incentivizing participation.
“It’s a topical issue now given the discussions around youth soccer in the States, and I think what’s happening is they’re not taking the right first steps in soccer,” Dribblers FC founder Ian Campbell said, noting that the timing of his launch was coincidental.
“I think it’s a technology conversation as far as how mobile gaming has changed kids’ understanding of engagement and the experiences around learning things has changed. I think there are cultural [changes] around how things like street soccer aren’t happening any more, how free play has changed for kids. And I think, quite honestly, in the States there’s a misunderstanding on how to teach the sport.”
Campbell seems uniquely positioned to offer a remedy. A native of Dublin, he kicked around his soccer ball multiple times per day, sleeping with it at night. As a child, Campbell played street soccer with friends, striving to improve so he could match up with older siblings. When he was 10, he followed a friend to his soccer club’s practice; that’s how he came to join St. Malachy’s of Edenmore, a wildly successful program that has produced some Premier League talent.
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Campbell himself played semi-professionally in Ireland before moving to the States where he works in brand innovation and designs user experiences. From 2007 through 2011, he was the NFL’s creative director. Now, he’s the father to two daughters, ages 4 and 9, and wants to help them share his enjoyment of soccer and also just have fun. He fondly remembers the British comic strip “Roy of the Rovers,” which he said had a “wonderful narrative on the adventures of a team,” so his rewards system builds toward his own such story — the Dribblers FC Comic Adventure.
Campbell lives in Los Angeles now and is finding that a number of the other area parents he meets want to learn more about soccer, too, but didn’t play the sport themselves and need guidance on how to help their own children. He wants to return the focus to building a passion for the sport rather than rote drillwork that feels obligatory and will breed resentment.
“How do you get these kids doing it every day? How do you develop these very simple things, like basic ball control, passing and dribbling? You make it fun. You use their imagination,” Campbell said, adding: “Whether you have limited time or don’t know much about soccer or have limited space, here’s a very simple way to just get you going.”
By helping the parents become part of the process, that frees up a coach’s limited practice time for activities beyond the very basics and, more importantly, helps parents build on their relationships with their children.
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Campbell points to research from the Aspen Institute saying that only 36.9 percent of children aged 6-12 regularly played a team sport in 2016, down from 44.5 percent in 2008. He is trying to incorporate their research and strategies into his own program because physical activity is so critical for youth.
For now, Campbell has inserted drills he has learned or devised but welcomes partners to add their own, whether that’s a school program, club team or professional franchise like in Major League Soccer or an international team. Academy coaches can include their own exercises, which helps build fan interest.
“Use your brand of soccer to engage your community,” he said. “This is a platform. Use your drills. Use my reward system.”