Full Transcript for Scott Talks With Adam Webb of AYSO PLAY About Soccer and Social-Emotional Intelligence in Kids

podcasters the value of play, the space that it creates, the opportunities for connection, but also those key life skills. When we're losing, how do we approach that situation? There's been a challenge, there's been a confrontation. That's okay. We want that to happen in a space where a coach can work through that issue. Yeah. And then when we step out of that environment, Scott, we know we're going into the big wide world. How can that resonate? How can those skills that we're implying in those areas operate outside of that field of play? Yeah, most important thing. So you talk a lot about how your coaches are not necessarily have to be the greatest soccer players in the world. They just basically have to like soccer and maybe no some things about it, but what's more important to you? What is it that you guys really look for in a coach? That's such a great question. And what makes AYSO unique is that we allow anybody to play. We have six key philosophies, Scott, and one of them is good coaching and also one or as we refer to it, positive coaching. And one of them is open registration. Everyone plays. We want you to come and be part of this beautiful game. So many of our coaches come from volunteer backgrounds, but at AYSO Play, we don't necessarily look for a US soccer licensed coach, someone that's worked or played at a D1 college level. We love that. We absorb that experience. We're looking for folks that know how to connect, to resonate, have conversations, have fun. You know, drop the act and get out there enjoying motivating and creating a really enthusiastic environment. And when you get that, it's a match made in heaven. You see kiddos, their faces are lit up and the best piece about the end of any session is see you next week, can't wait to see you. That is when you know you've hit that nail on the head. And if that journey continues and they want to go off and find a club that is a bit more structured for them, or they want to stay within our AYSO realm, please we welcome you every week. That's amazing. That's great. So this coach sounds like a dream. How do you find them? Right. Because there's it's probably easier to put out an advertisement and say I'm looking for soccer coaches and people who play soccer would come in and maybe have no experience with kids or a little bit, right? But you're actually looking for a very specific type of person who might have some experience in the social emotional education field. So who are these people? Where do you get ⁓ Yeah, it's that it's the million dollar question, right? But It's trying to work with my colleagues to say, hey, let's just put the soccer piece to one side for the moment and let's look at the skill sets that we know are out there. We work with childhood education centres. We approach and work with public schools. That's our main part of our focus. And we also, when we're advertising, we're making it very clear. We want you as someone that's bringing experience from working in a social and emotional learning background. So that helps us when we're looking at colleges and those younger developmental coaches coaches that are looking to become teachers, educators who have been full of energy and full of excitement and learning. But just because you are qualified as a soccer coach, like myself and a couple of my other colleagues, we've enjoyed coaching at a higher level, but perhaps we found ourselves getting a bit burned out with the mentality and the intensity in that space. There is a place for it. I'll say that as a bottom line. But sometimes it's nice to step into an environment and just share that love. So we spend time working with close contacts and building relationships with the public school districts that we're in. Love it. Okay. That's great. All right. So now we have this coach and y you guys have found him. And do you have a training program? Let me start with this first. I have two questions. Do you have a training program for somebody who would love to learn how you operate and what is most important to you? Which is the holistic kid. Is there a way that you train someone to come in and and and be that person? Yeah. I mean that number one, that's critical. You know, we have to make sure that we're bringing and onboarding coaches that feel comfortable and they're ready and open minded to learn. Now, none of us are the finished product, Scott. We know that. We sit here as professionals always eager to learn something new or find some information out that's gonna, you know, impact the quality of our provisions. So we start off with that mindset approach. ⁓ we have a bespoke training programme for AYSO and AYSO play. There's national things that need to be completed, your compliance and your safeguarding. That's an absolute hardball. Yes, has to be done. But when you enter our family, we take you under our wing. And I know we were discussing, Scott, that you know, after a while adults stop playing sometimes. So our first piece is we're gonna get you back out there. We're gonna get you working alongside an experienced coach, 'cause it's great to witness and observe someone else in action and just get out there and play. There's a wonderful game that we enjoy playing called Big Bad Bear. You know, in a nutshell, the Big Bad Bear comes and chases down the honey pots, which are the soccer balls, and the little kiddos of all ages, I'll tell you, I played this in middle school, and once they let once they let their guard down, they're loving it. But that big bad bear is, you know, big impressions and noises and grunting. If you can let yourself go and enjoy being in that space, you start to feel The energy that we're trying to create. And then from that space, Scott, we have our onboarding training where you'll spend direct time with me and your team. But you're also in the space in which you're working, we'll go out and work alongside other coaches, some wonderful guidebooks and coaches' guidebooks that provide you

with the structures that you need. Because the only way you know is if they're actually out there on the field and doing it. And you can tell that about the energy, right, of the coach or the potential coach out there if they're gonna make a good one or if they're just faking it and going, ⁓ yeah, I love kids and that's really important to me. I I ran a party company in San Diego for 25 years and was always hiring staff who needed to be the leaders or assistants for the parties that we threw because they were very interactive experiences. And I can tell you I ha I got faked out more than once with people in my office just like I was so gun ho then they got out there and they were like deer in the headlight. Right. Right. But it can be intimidating, right? We've all got our strength, sometimes those younger ones, sometimes the olders, sometimes those middles. And we we do our best during our time of recruitment and through connections and people that we know. But until you're out there, until you're on that field of play, whether that's indoors, outdoors, on a car park on a beautiful field in San Diego and we've got some wonderful programmes in San Diego too, then really you're gonna see that time. But like I say with the kiddos, same with the coaches, give it a go three times. The first time is your first time. You never know what you're gonna feel like. Second time you're kind of getting dusting yourself off a bit. Third time you should be feeling confident and up and running and ready to start to understand if is this for you? Okay. That makes perfect sense. And it sounds like that comes from experience. You've you've seen that system work. Okay. Now I want to switch over to the kids. All right. We talked about this off camera and I told you I wanted to ask you about this. So you guys have games, not necessarily the skills. And this is so important because I think a lot of kids go in and they're like, ⁓ drills and da da da da da. When do we get the scrimmage? I want to play. Right. But play is the game is really like key to you guys. You guys understand the game. Is not only what the kids want to do, but that's where a lot of the learning comes in. And you say communication, resilience, empathy, confidence, decision making, and teamwork. And let's start with when it doesn't work. So they're out there in the game and the idea is they build this great communication, which means that they have to practice great communication, but they're not. They're like not talking, they're yelling at each other, or, you know, it's just not working. And then because of that, some people who aren't resilient because now they're they're kind of shrinking in in this, right? To the ones that are maybe the the bigger, stronger, bet you know, whoever's loudest, right? And then the empathy falls out, right? Decision making too. So you guys make this work and they get these things. And like you said, they get to walk out of the soccer field off the pitch. I learned that

word in the World Cup, thank you. Off the pitch and they get to take this into their lives. But we want them to take the right things. So what do you say? What do you do? How do we make sure that it's working for the kids? Yeah, I mean it's such a an open question, Scott, and I love that you've asked me that because there is no one size fits all answer. Every space that we work in in different locations can bring different challenges, different needs, whether that's socioeconomic, whether that's just physical and practical challenges. that are there in the moment. The number one core is as a coach, we're starting with self and our focus is on those lovely kiddos in front of us. And it's ensuring that through those six key ⁓ emotional areas that you touched upon that we have built into our curriculum, but we had, you know, two to three questions just built into our head, open ended. Sometimes it's it know, as a coach or as a teacher, you see something going on that doesn't fit your directive. That that wasn't in my plan this morning. Time out, stop, what's going on over there? You stop doing A and you stop doing B. But he said, but she said, and then it all gets cool. And perhaps you lose a moment of learning or communication there. Finding that right time just to hit that pause button or that time out. And I'm a communicator, Scott. I like to bring the kiddos in close. Let's get down, let's take a seat, let's take a knee, get in close. What's going on over there? Talk me through it. And honestly, eight times out of ten It's something that you really is kind of low level that can be kind of ironed out through a quick conversation. And they just need a mentor. They just need someone to kind of act in that counsellor space to say, let's just hear this out for a moment. Let's hear this out. Anyone got any suggestions? I know how to solve the problem, probably. I hope so. But also can we ask our children in front of us to offer some suggestions? How can we move on from this space? We can't do that every single time. Maybe it's just bringing two kiddos over, having that conversation while the rest play. But starting with a conversation with those kids. They're smarter than we know, smarter than we realise, and we want to guide them and teach them and scaffold the most effective ways. And a great coach at the very end of that session may come back to that. Hey Scott, I noticed when you got angry and you you know you stomped off and you sat out, we had a conversation, but you joined back in again. I'm so proud of you for doing that. Thanks for giving a has anyone else had that experience at school today? Yeah, I found my reading book really tricky and I could have sold, but I carried on and I asked for help. It's making those little links. I think we can all hear the ⁓ this social emotional learning that's going on behind the scenes because inevitably kids are gonna react to some emotional stress thing. Kids on the soccer field or anywhere sometimes feel

like if they miss Or you know, that means something about them and everybody's thinking something and you know, it it's a lot. It like can be very heavy. We used to have a party called the sports experience inside of my party company and we had the soccer shootout and we would play variations of soccer. But before we started any sports game, my coaches were always taught bring the kids together, this is before the game starts, and remind them that for us that this is a birthday party and we're kids. So there are no agents here, there are no sponsors here, and no one's getting, you know, some pro contracts. So we can just have fun. And so what would happen is inevitably the kids may have some kind of like something on the on the field that was negative, right? A feeling or a fight or a battle. In that moment, we could bring them back because we had set a place or a context and go, ⁓ hey, everybody, remember what we said? Like no agents, da-da-da. We're at a birthday party, so we can just have fun. Let's go back to that thing. And I told my staff that if you don't set that in the beginning, you don't have a place to go to. You're starting inside of the turmoil, right? Trying to solve it. So that always seemed to work pretty well. Not always. And I think and I think, Scott, that's why we connected so well, 'cause we're both thinking of that same priority enjoyment, fun, and pleasure first. That doesn't have to be at the expense of learning. In fact, it will make the learning far more valuable. and impactful. Sometimes, Scott, that outside pressure doesn't come from the coaches or the kiddos themselves, but those spectators around the edge. Let them play. Let the kiddos enjoy. Let them have their ⁓ they've been looking forward to this all week. They're probably the only time their bag was packed at the front door ready to go. So l let them have their space and parents, there's plenty of opportunities for adult games and pickups too. So those spectators are those The parents, do they sometimes get a little overzealous? No. We love emotion and we love passion, right? But right place, right time. Right place, right time. Yeah, definitely. And we have to model for the kids the right behavior as well. All right. Let's talk a little bit about your business model. So you guys go into schools, you're expanding, right? I know that you have ⁓ it looked like on your website about 10 or 12 locations. That might be incorrect, and you have some coming soon. Tell us a little about your business model, what you're trying to do in the next six months to a year. Absolutely. Thanks for giving us this space, Scott. Well, first and foremost, we cover at least fifteen plus states across the US. In terms of programs, we've just finished our summer programs across the US, and we've had over three and a half to five thousand children participating just in play programs. As an organization, we're now at this point post-World Cup to offer the opportunity. To a number of members of society. Number one, the kiddos. Come and play. You've seen it on TV. Come and learn. Come and enjoy. Come and reconnect. And let that place, as it always has been in the US at grassroots level, let that be AYSO. Let us be your entry point to guide you through our six philosophies and to let you learn and understand yourself and the game. But my outreach also goes to parents. Former PE teachers, teachers, anyone who's working full time that's got an inkling to get back out there. They remember the World Cup from Atlanta back in nineteen ninety four and now they're thinking, actually, I really enjoyed playing. How can I get involved? AYSO.org. Come and check it out. Come and see if this is a space for you and go to your nearest park and see if there's a program running and check it out. We would love to have you on board. So our main ambition is to increase our player numbers of calls. Come and play the most beautiful game in the world. And then secondly, when you're in that space for us at play, we want to come to your school. We want to provide you with that first soccer experience. What a privilege. What an honor it is to be that guy or that gal, that coach who gets to come in and share with you something that we're so passionate about and build that relationship across a period of six to eight weeks with you. Our ambition, of course, is We want to cover every single state in the US. My name's down for Hawaii, hands down the pools. That goes without saying. But we want to come to you wherever you are and let's play the game. That sounds so good. So there's three different place ways to get involved. One as a kid. And that if you're having that voice or your child's having that voice in their head, like, I'm not good at soccer, I don't know how to play soccer, you've heard this is the entry point. That's the whole point. This is where you come in. And none of that matters and that gets changed very quickly, right? That, hey, soccer's fun. Soccer's not what I thought it was. Maybe you had a bad experience before. So AYSO play is where you can join. And then they're looking for coaches, obviously. And y we've gone deep into like what type of coaches. So if you have a passion for helping kids build up their confidence, resiliency, then you're and and you know, want to get out and play. We talked earlier and we mentioned it here. We're not playing enough adults. We gotta go do it, right? We just step out of our comfort zones and you never know what's available. And then schools pr have, you know, an AYSO brought to you because they have it all set up for you, it sounds like and you don't have to do much. Just let ⁓ come on and and let ⁓ help your kids play with your kids, right? Did I get all that pretty good? You've not ⁓ you hit the nail on the head for each one of those, Scott, for schools and school districts in particular. Reach out to us. We'd love to come and show you what makes us so special and why we're one of the fastest

growing soccer programs in the United States right now. And we're so proud of that. We draw on so much support from any of our peers and colleagues, including that of the US Soccer Federation. But we're ready, we're excited, and we want you involved in the game. Yeah. So it's AYSOP. Play.org is where you can see information. And then is there a contact page there for them to reach out to you from there? Yeah, there is. There's a contact sheet. You can go to our AYSOPlay.org or AYSO.org. Either one works for us. And dare I say, Scott, you don't have to even worry about getting onto the soccer field. If you've got some expertise in perhaps managing finance, maybe you're a stickler for the rules and you want to be involved in refereeing. Or you just want to be there on the day and feel the energy and be connected with your community and you just wanna run the concession stand. Or you just wanna be that person who brings the sliced orange parts for the half time. We love that. That's what makes AYSO so special is that it brings the community together in one place in your neighborhood and it just feels alive when you step into those places. So cool. But also sponsorships, right? And partners are also welcome. You guys Work with Sparks. Without a doubt, of course. As long as you share our mission and our ambitions, of course. We're happy to work and take on anyone that wants that conversation. We've had some wonderful sponsorship opportunities, some really great and far reaching ones too, that have allowed a lot of soccer to happen in places in unserved communities. I think of spaces in the Bay Area north of California, in our Oakland spaces and beyond. We're setting up programs there that began five to ten schools. They loved what we do. We're now operating in every single one of their schools in the twenty six, twenty seven academic year, from TK or pre K, depending on your state, up to middle school. And we love that elementary age group. Get that passion while they're young. Yeah. Yeah. And empower ⁓ while they're young. That's what you and I both do, right? Before the bigger, biggest challenges in life tend to show up, middle school, high school. Perfect. So Wow. That was such I knew it was gonna be good. That was such a great episode. Thank you so much, Adam, for all that you have shared. Connect with Adam over at ayso play.org or ayso.org. Is there a social media? Is there an Instagram or anything? Yeah, just type in both of those into whatever your preferred social media platform is. Sniff around on LinkedIn as well. We'd love to connect with you. All right, good. I just followed you on Facebook before we got on. And I'm going to go connect on the other ones too. So there we go. Adam Webb, AYSO Play.org. You can feel the passion. You know they have the experience. So get out there and connect with them and join them in some way. Thank you for being on the show. I really appreciate you. And thank you, everybody, for listening, watching the Power Up Universe podcast. We'll see you on the next episode. Well, that certainly was powerful as always. Thanks for joining. And remember, we All together can make a difference for our kids. They're counting on us to help power up their lives. See you next time right here in the Power Up Universe.