If you spend a little time clicking through old posts on this website, you will learn a lot about the Barca United team. Until now, only players and their parents have visited this site. This post is here to familiarize others with the team and our philosophy.
Most of the Barca United players are in 5th grade; two are in 6th grade and one in 4th. We play year-round, but we actually encourage kids to enjoy other sports simultaneously, and we accommodate conflicts. United has lost only a handful of games through the indoor, spring, summer, fall and tournament seasons. Far more important than winning, though, is the quality of play. We are teaching Barcelona-style modern soccer: maintaining possession, rapid passing, and advanced-passing combinations. Using pass-counters, we track the number of passes the team makes during a game. In the fall of 2010, for instance, the kids averaged 170 passes per 50 minute game - a rate equivalent to over 300 passes in a 90 minute game. This has increased at the U11 level.
I frequently make quick, short videos for the kids to watch during the week, so that our practice field time - a precious resource - isn't squandered with a lot of speechifying about big concepts. Instead, we use practices to model and correct. The big concepts come across in training videos or letters.
Even then, the best thing about Barca United is the chemistry between the kids and their families. Many of the parents are former or current players, and real fans of the game. We try to expose the team to the true culture of soccer, and pass along our love for the game.
