Again, you're conflating elite-level soccer with entry level participation, and you're claiming that he's speaking dispositively for me about what sports should be.Furthermore, your butthurt over the issue has blinded you, again, to the extensive troll job he pulls in this piece. Do you think that he
really thinks soccer is the equivalent of the Khmer Rouge, or is he yanking the chain of people like you for effect? In your breathy defense you don't even realize that you've been 'Penzed.
Ultimately, a cursory look at the math of the situation supports his point.
You mention that in late childhood is when competitiveness ramps up. Well it just so happens that Soccer is the #1 youth participation sport overall, yet fewer people play soccer once they are adolescents
So, if other sports have rising participation rates during ages of greatest competitiveness and soccer has a declining participation rate during the same period, who is leaving soccer?
Maybe they're just kids who moved exclusively from soccer to football, but the growth curve of football is too sharp to justify that alone.And again, I feel the need to add this disclaimer because you can't seem to differentiate between the two worlds he's talking about
:
I'm saying nothing about the comparative competitiveness and desire of your 13 year old soccer peers. What I am saying, and Klosterman is as well, is that there is a higher likelihood that your seven year old soccer peers were playing the game because it was the least objectionable alternative, and once they grew to an age where non-participation was more acceptable, they dropped out.