My U11 Girls picked up their first point this past weekend (yay!), but by far the funniest moment of the game was when a dog decided to audition as ‘Air Bud’ during the match. He didn’t do too well, ignoring the rolling ball for a nice patch of grass near the corner flag. Two of my players had to go pay him a visit and he immediately rolled on his back for a tummy rub. This picture was taken after he’d gotten lots of attention and a parent was trying to coax him off the pitch. He clearly wasn’t very successful as the dog totally ignored him!

Like many, I cheered the NY Times when they finally euthanized Times Select and let poor/cheap people like me back into the opinion columns. But they also opened up their archives going back over a century. What a fantastic move - even if they were motivated more by online ad $$$$ than the public good.

So what’s a soccer fan to do with this amazing new tool? Why search for soccer of course!

This decision led enterprising people to dig through the mess to find some olde-timey goodness. Per the norm, Kottke did it best.

I did a little searching of my own to discover that the first mention of soccer in the New York Times (at least in the searchable archives) was on June 19, 1885.

Except they didn’t call it soccer - they called it football. ‘Association Football’ to be exact. Right here in America. Makes you wonder what PR genius decided that soccer was the better term!

Read the whole thing. Josh was quick to point out that even then, NY soccer teams were losing!

Player feedback can be a touchy subject with parents and a difficult thing for coaches. As a coach, you want to be as supportive of your kids as you can. However, at some point (and age), you just have to be honest with your kids and that honesty usually isn’t good news. When exactly is the right age and situation to simply tell your kids they just didn’t play well, followed up with how they can get better?

I’m not talking about U6 or for the most part U8. But once kids hit U10 and above, soccer gets a bit more serious. Faster, more physical play. Some hoping to make travel teams in a year or two. Bigger field with more players, etc. I tend to think this is the time that coaches also need to stop being cheerleaders and be directly honest with their players when the time is right.

I’m not saying a U8 or even a U6 coach should never tell a kid if they did something incorrect. Teaching correct ‘core’ skills is essential - you have to have the tools before you can build masterpiece moves. I know a coach who is GREAT with kids. Parents love him. But he never tells the kids when they do something wrong so they often don’t improve in some areas. Self discovery is important, but you do need to point them in the right direction along the way.

But the point of this post is for U10 and above.

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Old Soccer Guy has been writing about why he coaches, sharing some heartfelt experiences as examples. (Here, here, and here) I’ve been toying with a similar post, but never have been able to narrow it down. There are so many things I enjoy. But OSG’s posts highlight what I was struggling with - in the end it’s about the kids. The experiences you have with them as they grow up and learn the game will stay with you for a lifetime. I’m working on a tribute to my U10 Storm team from last year, not to trumpet what they did on the scoreboard, but more how they grew from this mismash group of kids into a true team and did well. I hope to have it finished soon and it’ll be primarily about how much fun we had as a team.

I often get asked why I chose to coach girls. On my Rec teams, which were all coed, I’ve found the girls the most challenging to coach. Yes, this is generalizing, but I find it mostly true. You give a boy a ball and a target and tell him to do whatever it takes to get the ball to the target - whoosh - there they go. With girls, it’s not always that easy at first. They are much more complex in terms of motivating them towards a goal or even the goal. So despite these looks of pity I got from my Soccer Mom’s when I told them I’d be coaching the U11 Girls, I knew it would be a fun and exciting challenge. I just may not have realized how fun and challenging.

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Old Soccer Guy has a post up about his U18 parents being model soccer parents. If you’re curious what a soccer coach looks for from parents, especially at the select/travel soccer level, he tells you. But even for those of you with kids in Recreational soccer, many of these things are important. So to his list of on time ready to play (ball, cleats, shin guards, water), disappear until game time, and cheer don’t coach, I’d add one thing. Soccer is not babysitting. While coaches don’t want you interfering with what they are doing, you should care enough to stick around for most practices, especially if your child is on the hyper side. Talk to any Recreational coach in the U8-U12 levels and they’ll probably tell you the hardest thing is keeping the ADD kids focused and preventing them from disrupting practice. We try our best, but sometimes it takes a parent stepping in to lay down the law. There’s only so much we as coaches can do. So when the coach asks for your help, don’t just roll your eyes - actually help them keep your child focused on the task at hand. Because every minute the coach wastes trying to get your child’s attention is hurting the entire team.

I stumbled across this in an ad on LDSM’s Blog. Gives a whole new meaning to Soccer TV. A 10″ LCD TV in the shape of a soccer ball. The speakers are hidden in two of the black patches. Now if only it was widescreen!

The minivan and soccer will be forever linked in America’s id. Soccer moms (and dads) driving the kids to practice in the practical vehicle became second nature to us. As a kid I swore I’d never drive a ‘moon mobile’ because that’s what they looked like back then. But after our first child was born, we got one and it’s the most practical vehicle we could have gotten.

Minivans have seen improvements over time: Video entertainment systems, folding seats, power doors and tailgates, GPS navigation systems, etc. But none of that has been revolutionary. But this is revolutionary for soccer families all over:

This is the new “Swivel ‘n Go^TM” system in the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan. No high tech wizardry here. Just seats the swivel and a small table. How fantastic would this be when you go to a tournament or are driving to an away match? Now instead of having guilty thoughts of taking an RV to your next soccer tournament, you’ve got your own little living space in the minivan.

And yes, the system is certified for ‘in motion’ so you can have the kids facing each OTHER while your driving and they say ‘are we there yet?’ Very very cool. Now I just need to eat beany weenie for a few years so we can afford one! I just wish they’d have done a better job on the exterior - the front of this thing is NOT attractive. But I’d get over it to have the swivel seats and table!

ADDING: No - I wasn’t paid to post this. I just think it’s a really cool idea.

Having battled the funk for a few years and mostly losing (i.e. I’m much more likely to say ‘Sure!’ when the kids ask for new cleats), I decided to try the kitty littler ’sachet’ suggestion from a commenter at My Tiny Kingdom, and see what happens. So off to Wal-Mart I go in search of the necessary items and what does the geek in me do? Debate over what kind of kitty litter to get. I’m so sad. I know it’s been around for a while, but I hadn’t seen the new silica gel based litter (as opposed to good ol clay litter). I know silica gel is used to keep products dry in their packages all the time (the little white packs that always say ‘DO NOT EAT’), so I figured it might be worth a shot. The packaging swore it was five times better than clay at absorbing and locking in odor, so we’ll see. I walked out with my $14 bag of Fresh Step Crystals and 2 sets of brand X knee highs. Here’s the result:

I’ll update everyone on how it works in a week or so. I had to stick my fingers into the cleats farther than I wanted to, to get the bag all the way to the toe. But they came out unscathed. They’ve got about 36 hours to do their thing before the first matches Saturday morning. And yes the ones on the right are from my 4 year old. They don’t stink, but they were wet - we’ll see if it really can absorb some moisture.

ADDING: I used a plastic cup like you get from sports arena concessions to scoop out the litter. Then I put the knee high over the cup and flipped the cup over while pulling down on the knee high. Made a nice ‘litter log’ (boy THAT phrase could be taken multiple ways) that slipped into the cleats. The kids thought what I was doing was the coolest thing in the world. Why yes, my kids ARE the ones that’ll play in the cardboard box Christmas day, leaving the $100 toy under the tree.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s still interesting how the media seems to relish in highlighting the behavior of soccer parents when other sports have their issues too. A few years ago, Raleigh’s Parks and Rec department put up chain link fences to keep parents away from the (pointy) football fields. This was in response to some fairly serious issues with the parents, though it still seemed a bit harsh.

Well, recently Raleigh’s soccer league, the largest in North Carolina by far, had some parents get into it over shade among other things. The parents were immediately suspended and that’s that. The league handled it quickly and properly. They even have been running public service ads on sports talk radio this season, imploring parents to behave. But their issues are NOT exceptional. All leagues have problem parents and coaches they have to deal with over time. Some do it more than others, but suspending 5 parents in a league of 9000 players is NOT abnormal.

Yet it’s news apparently:

A rash of parent-on-parent confrontations and clashes with referees last weekend — some prompted by the quest for shade — prompted the area’s largest youth soccer league to suspend five adults.

Clashes??? For real? I mean referees suffer a lot of abuse, but clashes? Sensationalize much?

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Old Soccer Guy has all sorts of posts up that I want to comment/expand on so bear with me if my linkage seems a bit one directional the next few days - definitely pay his pad a visit for some excellent reading. A while back he wrote about developing leaders on a team and how best to go about it. He links to a few posts at the coaching forum And Again (what a great name) including one coach’s angle when working with girls:

For girls, I’m looking first and foremost for the dominant personality. Girls have a pecking order, although it’s a little different than how guys do it. Then I start having conversations with her about what it means to lead. Probably the biggest thing with girls is that they’re constantly picking on the negative and never reinforcing the positive. If you can convince this individual (sometimes there are more than one) to be more positive than negative, the girls will begin to respond to her. Then you have to make sure she’s on your side about things like paying attention in practice and working hard on drills and doing your homework, etc, but that usually follows with this particular kind of personality. Then, when you have a good example, when someone else asks to be captain, you ask them whether they’re willing to do what it takes to be captain: Work the hardest, pay attention, keep others in line, take responsibility, encourage others, etc.

So OSG asks:

What are your thoughts on leadership? Do you need captains? What authority do you give them? Are they effective?

I think a lot of it depends on the age of the players.

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Old news, but I’m glad to see there will be a women’s professional league again. I can understand why they want to wait until after the World Cup and Olympics, though I think they probably could have managed to start in 2008 along with the Olympics. Clearly they learned the lessons of the WUSA and are starting small with a long term view. I hope it succeeds and that the league is eventually able to expand into some USL markets and arenas.

On a side note, is anyone else really worried about the USWNT match against England this weekend? We seemed to really struggle in group play, and while the rest of the world’s teams are getting better, I worry what’s going to happen down the stretch if we play like we did in the group.

Rejoice American soccer fans! You now have ‘expert’ proof that soccer is good for your health! We can finally beat obesity in America - just turn on FSC and cheer. Oh wait. I didn’t read far enough… You actually have to PLAY!

Via This Is American Soccer, we find a recent study that compared the health benefits of jogging or playing soccer and soccer comes out way ahead:

Sports scientist Peter Krustrup and his colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, the Copenhagen University Hospital and Bispebjerg Hospital have followed a soccer team consisting of 14 untrained men aged 20 to 40 years.

For a period of 3 months, the players have been subjected to a number of tests such as fitness ratings, total mass of muscles, percentage of fat, blood pressure, insulin sensitivity and balance.

2-3 weekly rounds of soccer practice, of the duration of approximately 1 hour, released massive health and training benefits. Their percentage of fat went down, the total mass of muscle went up, their blood pressure fell and their fitness ratings improved significantly. Everything we tested improved, says Peter Krustrup.

In parallel with the soccer-experiment, the research group did the same tests on a group of joggers as well as on a passive control group. The joggers also trained 2-3 times a week, but their efforts showed smaller effect than that of the soccer players.

It is healthy to run long distances in a moderate speed, but the results show that soccer practise is better in a number of ways. The improvement in fitness rating and the increase in total muscle mass were greater in the soccer players, and during the last 8 weeks of the experiment, only the soccer-players showed any improvement, Peter Krustrup says.

It was interesting that the joggers plateaued in improvement while the soccer players continued to improve after 8 weeks. The article goes on to talk about why soccer might realize such different results.

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Ah children - a never ending source of free labor and entertainment…

Soccer Mom scored some tickets to a UNC Chapel Hill football game recently and took the two eldest. Soccer Dad got to stay home (don’t cry for me - the beer fridge was full, the little ones were angels, and there were better games on the big screen!)

So Eldest is taking it all in - he hadn’t been to a UNC game since he was four or five. Unbeknownst to Soccer Mom, Eldest wasn’t just watching football because on the way home, he asked her, dead serious:

Mom, why can’t we have cheerleaders at our soccer matches?

Soccer Dad fears the time for The Talk is getting closer and closer. I’m so not ready.

I’ve been toying with a few posts in my head while driving the soccer taxi over hill and down dale, but kept thinking there was a common thread I was missing. Then Josh (via du Nord) linked to a recent article by Andrew Dixon at US Soccer Players about the state of the US game in light of our 2-4 loss to Brazil, and it all came together:

It’s this Grown Man’s Opinion that our lack of individual skill and creativity in comparison to the top teams in the world is what’s keeping us from being a legitimate top five team.

In the US we have a love/hate relationship with brilliant individual skills. We recognize it when we see it and admire those who have it. Then the moment they try one spin move too many, try to take on one too many defenders, or just miss on that behind-the-back pass, we start yelling at them.

PASS THE FREAKIN’ BALL!

Andrew isn’t the first person to allude to youth development in the US as a key hindrance to US Soccer success, but the way he put it caused me to finally connect all my thoughts together…

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Any soccer parent of a child 8 or older becomes quickly acquainted with ‘That Smell^TM‘. I’ve had stinking sneakers before, soured wet towels or car carpets, mishaps while emptying RV septic tanks, trips to the local landfill, and even the worst, a gallon of milk that got left in my home office fridge for weeks that eventually exploded (forgot it was there), leaking über sour milk into the carpet (that took weeks to eradicate). Nothing can come even close to the smell that emanates out of well used soccer cleats, especially after a rainy or early morning match (think dew on grass). It can be 15 degrees outside and if the cleats come off in the van, the windows ALL go down.

So what is a soccer family to do, especially one that has more than one kid playing?

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