SoccerDad shares a drill that had his soccer players begging to keep doing it while working on a rather difficult skill – volleying. It’s Soccer Dodge Ball!
Entries Tagged ‘fun’
Top Ten Things Soccer Parents Should Do
As the spring season approaches, I figured this would be a timely article. As both a soccer parent and coach, it has always been interesting watching the interactions (or lack thereof) of parents and coaches. Usually the interaction is good, but at times it can be strained, to the detriment of the team. We all [...]
Why Do You Coach?
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.
Yes, I Brought This On Myself!
Long time readers know I can disappear for stretches, usually during the youth soccer seasons, and this time is no different. I’ve been buried, but I brought it on myself. Let’s see… Three kids playing soccer, two on travel teams, plus Soccer Dad is coaching a U10 Rec team and a U11G Challenge team that [...]
Summing Up Youth Soccer
Over at the NC Soccer Forums, there’s a fun discussion going on:
From playnow:
With the recent boom of programs across the country (state youth academy, USSF academy, Red Bull, national premier league, super y league, region III premier league, etc.), I’d be interested to see what people had to say about youth soccer if they had [...]
Why Coaches REALLY Want The Hardware
In the endless debates about competition in youth sports, you’ll often hear that the kids don’t care about trophies, only the parents and coaches do. While there may be some truth to that with people who lose sight of why we all do what we do in youth soccer, most coaches I’ve met care about [...]
Off Field Activities
Youth soccer is inherently a social sport for the parents. Standing on the sidelines for matches and practices seems to be an ideal situation for socializing. So it isn’t uncommon to have soccer teams doing activities off the field together. Now granted, you want to broaden your child’s social horizons, so limiting their socializing to [...]
Try A Walkout Some Time
Here’s a neat idea that we’ve started to use before the championship matches of our league’s end of season tournament. We do a World Cup style ‘walkout’ with both teams. The teams lineup on the bench side of the field at midfield behind the ARs. The center then leads both lines, walking about 2/3rds of [...]
The Footie Bunny
Who knew the Easter Bunny was a soccer fan? Soccer Mom outdid herself – finding stuffed bunnies holding a soccer ball AND chocolate soccer eggs. Happy Easter!
Making The Little Kids Laugh
As anyone with kids in U5 or U6 soccer knows – the kids are out there to learn some basic soccer skills, but also to just have some fun and develop a love of the game. My son started playing U5 this Spring and after his first match, his coach sent out eCards to them. [...]
I’m So Ashamed
Here April Fools Day came and went and I didn’t put up a single post. I’m so ashamed. What fun it would have been to write "US Soccer brings Bruce Arena back into the fold as lifetime head coach of the men’s national team" or "Dave O’Brien banished from soccer announcing by FIFA decree" But [...]
And Then There Were Three…
Our life just got a bit more hectic. #3 (with his sister on the left) had his first practice last week and now it’s official … we’ve got three kids playing soccer. Don’t get me wrong – our two youngest have grown up at the soccer fields (#4 was there two days after coming home [...]
Fundraising That Is So Wrong – It’s Right
Fund-raising is a part of youth soccer. Travel expenses for tournaments, team equipment, end of season parties, etc. So I figured I’d share this interesting fund-raiser that my kids are doing at school. It’s competitive with a twist of, well, revenge. It feels wrong, but it is genius and I had never heard of [...]
Balancing Act
I’ve never understood why kids like trying to stand on the ball so much, but they all try to do it. Here’s a picture of one of my U8’s managing the balancing act quite nicely.
It’s All About The Snacks This Season!
Once you get sucked into the wonderful world of youth soccer as a coach, it’s often hard to escape. Not that I’m complaining a bit. I really enjoy coaching and working with the younger kids as they develop their soccer skills. Just like teachers talk about the excitement when a student ‘gets it’, coaching can [...]
