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A year ago we wrote about a foundation called Little Feet, Big Goals that was sending soccer balls to our soldiers to give to the kids in Iraq. Having sent thousands of soccer balls to Iraq, they’ve decided to change their focus and send soccer balls to the kids in Darfur. You simply buy a soccer ball for yourself, and a second donated ball is sent to kids in Darfur.
As longtime readers know, Soccer Dad and Soccer Mom have our own little small sided team at home with four rather rambunctious children, aged 2 through 10. Well #3 just clued us in to how much we have in store for us. He’s 4 years old right now.
Today I’m working at my desk when I hear this loud crash/thud and #3 screaming ‘Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow!’ Not good. He limps out of the bedroom and proceeds to show me his foot, which has a couple small cuts on the bottom of it.
"What did you do!?!?!?!" I ask, knowing I didn’t want to hear the answer.
"He jumped off the top bunk bed and landed on this plastic puzzle block" the eldest informs me. And you watched him do this without stopping him why???
The plastic block is crushed into many pieces (and it was HARD plastic). I check him out - all seems OK thankfully. Just a couple small cuts. Soccer Dad’s heart rate returns to sort of normal. We put a bandage on it and he is fine.
When Soccer Mom gets home, she sees the block, hears the story, manages not to faint, and asks why in the world he jumped off the bunk bed.
"So I could fly Mommy!"
Soccer Mom informs him that he can’t fly and that he could really hurt himself doing stuff like that. As if on cue he replies…
"Well than can you get me a parachute?"
Somewhere an insurance adjuster just felt a pain. I’m wondering if encouraging #3 to play soccer with studded shoes on his feet will be such a good idea and how many times I’ll have to drag him off the cross bar of a goal wanting to take a swan dive.
While reading about the questions of sportsmanship in last year’s U15G National Championship, I came across a post that I had to share:
there is a reason why millions more Brazilian boys have passion for the soccer ball than American kids, and it ain’t because our boys intrinsically lack heart. It’s because they are not presented with the vision. In Brazil, the kids are surrounded by the vision — other kids playing, the game everywhere in popular culture, heroes on TV, the stories and legends about Brazilian soccer supremacy. It’s a national heritage. Us? Not even a glimmer of a hint of a taste.
So I firmly believe that U.S. coaches need to recognize this and to build creating a vision into their job descriptions. Help the kids see how fantastic this game can be, how they can become like Brazilians, what it means to be a soccer fanatic. A lot comes from the house, yes — the climate that is set at home. Are games on? Is the family enthusiastic about the sport? Are there siblings and cousins and neighbors to play with? I would never say it’s the coach’s job alone, or even the coach’s main responsibility. But it is something that the coach can work on. He/she can inspire. Can lead.
The response to this was even better. I’ve seen the same type of thing with the summer camp program our league brings in. They assign the kids to world cup teams and they compete throughout the week in mini scrimmages. But they also encourage the kids to read up on their national or professional team name and players. A lot of the kids do. At the end of the week the kids wear their team colors, make flags, and have an all around fun time at the ‘World Cup’ or ‘Champions League’ Finals.
As I embark on my new ‘challenge’, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to get my players fired up for the rigors of travel soccer as all but one will be moving up from Rec. How to get them to want to work with a skills ball while they talk on the phone or watch TV. How to get them to think about the game, not just execute the moves they learned in practice. To get them really excited about the game. This is exactly what JohnR was saying in the passage above. Give these kids a vision of what great soccer can be and get them to strive to do it. That’s not an easy task to do in the US. But it should be possible. We’ll see how I do and if I stumble onto anything profound, I’ll be sure to share it!
I was bouncing around YouTube and I came upon this video from last year’s US Youth Soccer Nation Championship, U15 Girls bracket. I’ll admit it’s a bit late to post about something like this, but it was so bizarre, I couldn’t resist.
The team in black has already clinched a spot in the final match. So, by most accounts (this video and spectator accounts), they primarily played keep away among their defenders while down one goal in order to, allegedly, lose and face a weaker opponent in the final. They also could have just been resting up for the final since it was pushing 100 degrees most days they were playing.
Now the video is clearly trying to make the point that the girls were poor sports, which could be argued. However, there had to be more. So I searched around and finally found a thread at BigSoccer talking about this match and the U15 Eclipse. There were a number of posters, including ex Eclipse players and spectators who were at the match. The parents of the team that was being bounced out of the final match by the Eclipse losing were upset. Even worse, one of these parents actually charged onto the field and had to be arrested. The police had to escort the Eclipse players onto their bus!
Read the entire thread over at BigSoccer if you have the time. A lot of issues are touched on, though I’m not sure you’ll come away with any better feeling about what the Ecplise did or didn’t do. Were they just preserving their starters and energy for the final or were they exhibiting poor sportsmanship? This was the national championship we’re talking about, not some local league tournament. Does that matter? Was it wrong of the coach to tell his girls to rest, take the loss, and look ahead to the final? I’m not sure there is any right answer here.
The second proposal coming up at the next NCYSA Challenge Council meeting is to eliminate offside for U10 match play. This will be the second time this issue is considered, after it was rejected 27-24 last year. This is an issue I have written about before and feel very strongly about. I strongly encourage reading my first post on the subject which contains a lot of information, both pro and con. I’ll touch on a few things, but not all of it, so give it a read.
For those of you involved in travel soccer in North Carolina, there are two very important proposals coming up for a vote at the next NCYSA Challenge Council meeting (June 9th, 2007). One of them proposes the elimination of the NCYSA Challenge Cup for U10, U11, and U12 and replacing it with a festival, similar to what is done for Classic (and now Rec).
I’ve written a number of posts about competition in youth soccer, so I’ll try not to rehash most of that here. But as long time readers likely expect, I think this is a mistake.
Over at Soccer Parents, they have an excellent post up about getting ready for tryouts - a rite of passage in Spring for many soccer players. Only problem is it got posted May 31st, and at least here in North Carolina, most clubs have already finished tryouts. But it’s an excellent post all the same. #4 should have been #1!
4. Have Fun! - Soccer is about fun. Have your child go in with a good attitude and just play their best. Remind your child that the coach isn’t judging them as a person - just on their soccer skills. Don’t take it personally if your child doesn’t make the team.
As someone who serves as an evaluator during our league’s tryouts - I see firsthand the kids who make it and those that don’t. Many who don’t are still very good players - there just wasn’t a slot for them for whatever reason. So don’t take it personally - encourage them to keep working to get better and try again next year!
I’ll never forget the feeling I had before my first practice coaching a U6 soccer team. I was scared to death and these were just 5 year olds. What would I do, how would I handle them as young as they were, what drills, activities, and games should I do? The first match I was pretty freaked out - just because I was afraid I’d forget something or discover that while all the other teams had been practicing and making progress, mine were becoming ace dandelion pickers. Those feelings tend to fade pretty quickly, but they can always make a comeback. Usually when you move to a new age or skill level.
Well, I figured having coached in U6, U8, and U10, I’d pretty much be past all that. Mostly because I thought I’d never coach beyond U10 or move beyond Recreation - I was comfortable there. Yeah, yeah, I can hear you laughing from here.
So why do I have those nervous twinges again? Well, I’m making the jump from Rec to Challenge (travel) soccer. Next Fall, in addition to my U10 Rec team (Go Storm!), I’ll be coaching a U11 Girls Challenge team.
The Oxford Soccer Club recently posted a note from Mary Ellias, the mother of the young boy recently killed by a falling soccer goal. Apparently the goal became unstable after a previous play - but nobody saw it happen (play was at the other end of the field when it happened) so it’s doubtful they’ll ever know. My condolences go out to the Ellias family and they have my utmost respect for working to turn this tragedy into an awareness program for goal safety.
UPDATE: See below for the note as the article on Oxford’s site ‘fell off’ as new ones were posted - I could find a way to link to archived articles.
Remember folks, youth sports don’t create psycho parents - psycho parents ruin youth sports which otherwise provide an excellent experience for our kids! And league officials who sweep bad behavior under the rug only make it worse.
Something I’ve noticed in our local travel league is that the kits tend to be very boring. Not cheap by any means (most are solid color adidas kits), but plain, often just a solid color and the league logo. I know professional teams tend to use plain kits as well, but these are kids. Why not let them have some fun? Opening day for our Rec league is always fun as the teams trot out their new uniforms - most with color graphic designs, etc. Score Sports is a popular vendor because of their colorful designs. My U8 team used these kits (white/green/black) from Teamwork Athletic and they looked great. But the travel teams we’ve seen are much more subdued.
As our league gets ready for the 2007-2008 Challenge season, we’ve been talking about what kit to get our teams. Unlike Rec where teams can get any uniform they want, our Challenge teams all wear the same kit in Royal Blue and Yellow (our league colors) with the Home Jersey mostly Royal Blue and the away jersey mostly Yellow. Yeah, we’re one of those leagues that force the referees to change out of yellow! So a few of us have been talking about maybe ditching the solid jersey and going with something a bit more bold. This Newcastle style kit from Jogo caught our eye (right) and sure would stand out (we’d get the black/yellow version for away matches). So would a uniform like this one (left) from OT Sports using Royal Blue and Yellow.
So why shouldn’t we? Is there some unwritten rule that travel team jerseys have to be plain? I think we may just spice things up a bit. What do you think?
I ran across a new soccer/youth sports blog by a soccer mom who also works for the Albany Times Union (which I read often in college as I went to Rensselaer) Joyce Bassett writes very detailed posts about local youth sporting events as well as more general pieces about issues in youth sports. One category that caught my attention was Yelling.
Interesting stuff - I had heard about Silent Sidelines before, but still think it’s a gimmick. Leagues and coaches should enforce some variant of silent sidelines at every match. Parents - you should not be coaching from the sidelines! Let the coach coach. Kids only get confused when they hear parents telling them to do this and a coach telling them to do that. Even worse is if the coach is happy with how things are going and is saying little (good), parents yelling directions can be a major distraction and problem.
I’ve had matches where my parents got a bit over eager on the sidelines (Soccer Mom included). I happily tell my kids to ignore the sidelines and their parents and to focus on the game. The best moment of this was with my U8 team during a close match. I had told the kids at halftime to ignore the parents and focus on the match since there was a lot of cheering and some coaching from the parent sideline. I’d only yell something out if necessary. Well, during a pause in play, a mom yelled to her daughter ‘Tie Your Cleats!’ to which she immediately responded ‘Coach told me not to listen to you during games’ Laughter ensues. So I yell from the team sideline ‘Tie Your Cleats!’ and she says ‘OK Coach!’ The sidelines erupted in laughter. But the sideline coaching stopped 
On the flip side - many parents need to understand there is a difference between yelling AT players and yelling so they can hear you. Even when parents aren’t coaching from the sidelines, they make a LOT of noise, which is a great thing. If a player drifts way out of position - during lulls in play I will absolutely yell for them to get back - simply so they can hear me. If I start yelling AT them for not doing what they were supposed to, etc., then I’ve crossed a line that should never be crossed. I try not to talk to my players during active play, only during lulls, so they remain focused on the match at hand. I probably still talk to much…
Anyway - wanted to highlight a new blog I’d found. I look forward to more soccer posts from Jane, especially after reading her opening post - Just Let Them Play. Hats off to the Times Union for hosting her blog! Welcome to the blogroll Jane!
Baseball Mom recently talked about the coaches who agree to coach the youngest players and how she can’t imagine why they would subject themselves to it:
You guys, one of the hits that came up on a search for my site was "how to coach tball for preschoolers". Why would someone want to volunteer to do that? I always look at the coaches for Alex’s teams as some sort of gods or something…either that or I just say in my head, "Suckerrrrrrrrrrs!". I can’t imagine, after teaching preschool for 14+ years, trying to teach them something that involves bats and not hitting each other. It’s like herding butterflies, coaching preschoolers/kindergartners.
That’s an apt description - herding butterflies (or cats). At least in soccer they don’t have objects/weapons they swing around - well except for those feet with studded shoes on them
For years, US Soccer has issued position papers related to the Laws of the Game and things referees should be doing or looking for and highlighting ‘tough call’ scenarios. With the advent of online video, they have started to include YouTube videos as part of the papers which show the situations being discussed. Very cool.
A recent position paper titled, Offside - Classic Offside Situation, highlights a recent MLS match where Landon Donovan had a breakaway from an onside position, but the referee stopped play because a teammate was offsides and pursued, but did not touch the ball or get involved in the play.
I’d embed the video, but US Soccer has disabled that (why?!?!?!) You can view the video here.
