If your soccer team is looking for a fun alternative to traditional grass field tournaments, a beach soccer tournament may well be the answer. The game is fun and fast-paced with lots of scoring in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
How to Play Soccer on the Beach
Soccer on sand differs most from soccer on grass in the element of dribbling. Since dribbling on uneven sand is almost impossible, there is a premium on moving the ball through the air. Most shots are either headers, or quick lift and kick-type shots which require some technical skill to pull off. There is an emphasis on attacking play with no offside and no tackling allowed.
Beach Soccer History
Long popular in Brazil, where many of the country's countless great players first learned to play on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, beach soccer has been growing in popularity in the United States ever since the early 1990s, when the rules were first formalized. Soon after that, a professional beach soccer tour was established that featured a number of international stars including Eric Cantona, Michel, Romario, Junior and Zico.
FIFA embraced the sport in 2004 and, in 2005, sanctioned the first ever Beach Soccer World Cup. The tournament was played in Brazil, and won by a French team that was coached by Eric Cantona.
Now, even mountainous, land-locked Switzerland has a successful Pro Beach Soccer team, which perhaps shows just how far the sport has come in less than 20 years.
Beach Soccer Rules
Teams usually consist of five players (four plus the goalkeeper) and, because playing in the sand is so strenuous, players substitute on the fly for short shifts. There is no limit to the number of substitutions.
Shoes are not allowed but socks are, as are ankle guards.
Fields are 25 yards by 30 yards (30 x 40 for some of the adult divisions). Goals also vary in size depending on age-group, from 6 feet x 8 fee to 7 feet x 18 feet. When the ball goes out over the side lines, it can be put back into play with either the hands, like a regular throw-in, or with the foot.
Any fouls committed lead to a free kick on goal, which has to be taken by the player who was fouled (unless the kick is awarded for handball, in which case any player can take it).
There are no goal kicks in beach soccer. Keepers have to put the ball back into play with a throw. Games are divided into three 12-minute periods.
Beach Soccer Tournaments
One of the largest beach soccer tournaments in the United States is the North American Sand Soccer Championships, which takes place in Virginia Beach, VA each June. Since its inception in 1994, the tournament has grown from just 28 teams to over 950 teams, which come from all over the US and overseas.
Other big events include the Cape Express Beach Blast in Atlantic City, NJ and the Soccer in the Sand series, which hosts several tournaments all over the US and Canada. While many of the best-known tournaments cater to the traditional soccer demographic of families with soccer-playing children, others cater deliberately to a young adult audience.
Cash prizes in some of the open divisions and sales pitches extolling the wonderful night life a resort has to offer might suggest a twenty-something audience over one where families with young children might feel at home. Whatever your age, though, if you like playing soccer, there is a good chance you will love playing soccer on the beach.
Michael Jones is the publisher of http://www.soccer-tournament-guide.com/ and plays and coaches soccer on Cape Cod. A full list of beach soccer tournaments can be found at http://www.soccer-tournament-guide.com/Beach-Soccer.html
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