There are many, many challenges when executing a volunteer‐based youth athletic program. Some are within our control and some are not. There are 5 key issues that always seem to resurface each season to challenge our ability to meet our stated goals and achieve our desired results. They are:

• Varying levels of player ability and coaching experience;
• Varying levels of participant commitment;
• Limited number of volunteers to perform administrative duties;
• Lack of developmentally appropriate local competition across all age groups;
• Too small a number of players per grade by gender
• Limited field and facility availability

The causes of these challenges can be discussed for hours. What matters to us is they create multiple symptoms throughout the program. As it currently stands, the program does not resolve the underlying issues adequately. The changes we are proposing will address these challenges head on.

Instead of focusing on creating set teams each season which is difficult due to our limited numbers and varied ability levels, we will be able to form teams on the fly each weekend. This process is more aligned to deal with our challenges above. Further, the children that do participate will become noticeably more skilled by the end of the season due to the frequent ball touches that occur in a 3v3 environment.

Last fall, we ran a test case of this tournament format with our U12 boys group. Every Saturday, we held a 90 minute 3v3 tournament with each player participating in (3) 20 minute 3v3 games. Teams were randomly selected week to week based on who showed up.

We did this for 8 weeks. Players who participated earned 6 points, winning teams earned 3 points and ties earned 1 point. We tallied the points week after week and posted them on our website so the players could see and compare how they were doing relative to the group. At the end of the season, trophies were awarded to the 6 players with the most points in the 5th grade and the 6 players with the most points in the 6th grade. All other players received medals. Attendance was strong week to week. The coaches all agreed that technical skills improved greatly for all players regardless of starting ability. When asked – the players seemed to have more fun playing this type of game because they were all actively involved and the game was high‐paced.

That said, some players did disengage. If a player’s technical skills have not been developed, 3v3 can be challenging at first. There is no place to hide on a 3v3 field (unlike a larger sided game). So if a player really doesn’t want to be there anyway and is not interested in trying to get better – then they will most likely leave the sport. But if they work at it, this environment will give them the greatest opportunity to improve quickly in order to catch up. There are some ways we can tweak the 3v3 program to minimize this effect but what we like about it is its impact on the accountability and attitude goals of our program design. Players really need to decide if they want to be involved. If they do and they continue to try without giving up, they will become successful. If not, they can choose to leave and try another sport or activity. It helps them define what is they want to do.

3v3 provides our program with so many different tools to help us achieve our goals. We can directly attack each of the challenges we face and really work toward fulfilling our goals. Given the success we feel we had in our U12 boys program, it was decided that we would institute this change across the program in a way that focused on 3v3 but did not do away totally with the larger sided game format. So we have shifted the focus away from larger sided games but kept them in the curriculum to help the kids experience that format based upon their developed abilities and commitment level.

We know these changes will be a little difficult to understand at first and we may have some players that are not interested in participating. However, we feel confident that after the first year of this format, parents and players will see the improvement on the field and participation will move toward our stated goal. We also believe that eventually our numbers will rise as the program results in better technical skill development across the club. If so, we can easily adjust to accept the larger numbers as the model we have developed is scalable.

At the end of the day, our belief is that this program design is best suited for how our children learn and play. It fills the gap created by the loss of “pick‐up sports” and it will do more to lay the foundation for players in later years than anything we are doing in our current program. This gets us closer to our stated goals and desired results and that is the purpose for the program.