Episode 55: Interview with Ted Kroeten, an evangelist for free play in youth soccer

Ted Kroeten is the founder of Joy of the People, a non-profit in
the Twin Cities focused on free play as a way to develop more
instinctive, resourceful soccer players (and people). A former
player, long-time coach and current soccer parent, Kroeten now
believes that up to at least the age of 14, the best way for kids
to improve is by playing for fun with their friends, with minimal
coaching and supervision. It's an interesting idea, one that a
lot of people don't accept, and I tried to ask Ted as many good
questions about it as I could. Roughly 3,000 children
participated in some kind of free play soccer at Joy of the
People last year. Two players who grew up in the program trialed
at Werder Bremen in the fall.


https://twitter.com/JOYofthePEOPLE


https://www.joyofthepeople.org/


Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free
feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the
Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get
access to some video of clips we discuss on the show, our private
Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of
historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed