please explain how sports for kids work in Finland!

[Upphew]

Are you suggesting that ice hockey and winter sports are the only possible national sports? I think kids are nuts about football, far more than hockey, but yet by the time they reach adolescence... nothing? At least in the Turku area right now I'd have to guess that there are 5-10 kids elementary school kids playing football for every 1 playing (organized) hockey. Is it a correct assumption that 80 percent of the kids playing football drop out when they move on to ylä-aste, when it starts to cost big money, and that the kids starting with hockey now stick with it since it's expensive from the get-go?

I don't think it is necessarily the money, but time, that takes the boys from the clubs. School, homework, tv, games, friends, girls, mopeds and all the time you should put more time and effort to your soccer career...

by the way, I think I'm going to sign off from this thread since it's starting to take off into unintended directions. I by no means intended to make any serious criticism of the way things are done here, since I won't probably ever fully understand why it's done the way it's done nor how it got started and/or ended up this way. It may or may not be possible to make comments about how things could be improved, but most likely I'd end up looking the fool for having done so. Thanks for all the help, I feel like I have a decent handle on how to progress for the next few years with my son's sports, which I didn't a week ago. After that his love for the games and a whole lot of other factors will determine where he ends up, and I'll be happy to follow him around marvelling at how much better he is that I ever was!

Huh? You'll for sure will never understand why things are done the way they are done, if you don't criticize, seriously or not. You are in semi anonymous forum, try your ideas and criticism here, before you make fool of yourself offline.

[zlingen]

another year, more questions...

My sone is now 10, and still playing well, or at least he was until he got sidelined with mononucleosis for a few weeks. And to contribute to the "why Finland will never be great at soccer" thread, how the heck can a country expect to compete at a high level in a summer sport if they have a short summer and shut down the leagues for a month in the middle of it? I mean, the summer's three months long and they don't play in July? Crazy!

Anyways, looking some years ahead, I'm wondering about the how the teams for the different leagues are chosen. More specifically, if I look at Suomen Palloliitto, Turun Piiri (http://www.resultcode.fi/sarjat/piiri_s ... &laji_id=1 ), there are tons of leagues for each age group. How does a given team get chosen to play in a given league? Is it based on the previous year's performance somehow? My son is playing in the P01 Liiga 7v7 for Lieto Punaiset. I think they've beaten almost every other team in the group. It looks like next year in the E-11 age group, there are still only two leagues, so I suppose we'll play in the P01 Liiga 7v7 again next year, but after that things get more interesting / confusing depending on one's understanding of things. What is the difference between (i.e. from the C-14 pojat) "Liiga", "Alueliiga", "Aluesarja", "Etelä-Länsi karsintasarja" and "Etelä-Länsi"?

Also, why do the teams from the areas around Turku NOT play against Turku teams? We play teams from Raisio, Naantali, Halikko, Salo, Kaarina, etc., but none from Turku. What's the reasoning behind that? Turku exceptionalism? At this age, the Turku teams ARE clearly better, as evidenced by the -02 team from Turku beating all the -01 teams in the Pepsi Cup tournament handily last weekend. Is it hopeless to play for a small-town team if you want to end up being really good? Finally, if he's still really good by the time he's 15 despite playing for the local team, is he allowed to play for a another club's "SM-karsinta" team?

Regards,
Peter

[Mölkky-Fan]

another year, more questions...

My sone is now 10, and still playing well, or at least he was until he got sidelined with mononucleosis for a few weeks. And to contribute to the "why Finland will never be great at soccer" thread, how the heck can a country expect to compete at a high level in a summer sport if they have a short summer and shut down the leagues for a month in the middle of it? I mean, the summer's three months long and they don't play in July? Crazy!

Because there has to be a holiday period... otherwise the practices become half full as kids take holidays at random times during the summer, same thing as why do factories shut down during the summer... of course it all boils down to the short outdoor season in the long term.

From last year's post, do you think you need to take back your criticism now Finland are world champions in ice hockey?

It's not wonder they have trouble competing internationally.

[zlingen]

Hockey's a bit of a different game, and I don't think there's anywhere in the world that poor people play hockey. Maybe Canada, but I've never been there and so can't comment. Somehow hockey never really entered into my mind in this discussion since it's such an elite sport, and in any case not all that popular in most of the world.

But I'm not trying to take away from Finland's accomplishment! I'm psyched for Finland that they/we won, end of story! It's just not part of my personal life to any great extent. I should have entitled my post, "please explain how football for kids works in Finland!". Too late to fix it unfortunately.