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wralsportsfan.comCombine the skills of soccer and the speed of basketball and you have a sport growing in popularity around the world – futsal.
"It is an unknown sport within the United States, largely,” said Cary’s SportHQ general manager Chip Thomas. “When we first have people come in, we try to describe it to them as a friendlier, quicker, more efficient way to learn soccer skills."
Futsal is a fast-paced 5-on-5 indoor game -- which generally yields three times the amount of goals as regular soccer and as much as 10 times the ball contact. Simply put, if you play futsal, you are going to get the ball.
"They say in a typical outdoor practice there might be 100, maybe 120 ball touches,” said Thomas. “We can frequently get 800 to 1,000 ball touches."
"We've used it as an opportunity to focus on the individual -- less about the team and more about the individual,” said futsal coach Jordan Dickerson. “(It’s) based on everyone getting touches on the ball. All the training sessions are working on the first touch, the passing, the movement."
Futsal is a key part of soccer development overseas. Soccer powerhouse FC Barcelona is so committed to futsal they've sent players and coaches to North Carolina this summer. They are spending six weeks conducting clinics at Cary's SportsHQ.
"It's great for especially young kids to play, because they get more touches,” said FC Barcelona futsal coach Andreu Plaza. “They progress a lot faster."
American teams are starting to catch on. The game was said to have started in the 1930s and the first international competition of futsal was held in 1965. U.S. Futsal was founded in 1981 and their first international match was played in 1984.
Locally, futsal leagues can be found in 15 different North Carolina cities including Raleigh, Durham and Cary. At the higher levels, NC State, Duke and North Carolina are all incorporating futsal into their own training programs.
"We are talking about elite, collegiate level programs where the head coaches are saying ‘futsal helps us,’" Thomas said.
The 2014 World Fustal Championships get underway this weekend in Orlando, Fl., where teams in seven different gender and age stratified brackets will compete -- just another step in growing this sport in the U.S.
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