I held off the Question of the Week for a day so I could get my previous post up first – The Soccer Rule Primer for Parents.
So the Question of the Week:
What confuses your new parents the most about soccer?
Most people probably would say ‘offsides’, but not always, especially at the younger age levels when they don’t have offsides. The main idea behind asking this is to see what other leagues encounter in terms of new parents confusion and how to best address it (my tome above may not be the best way by any stretch).
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September 7th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
I think you “hit the nail on the head” with some of your suggestions such as when the ball is really “out”, player to player contact and hand balls (vs. incidental contact). New parents can be a “funny” group but there are usually a few “old soccer hands” (parents) around the sidelines who have gone through “this” before with their now older boys/girls to help these new folks “adjust”.
Bill
May 9th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Offside is the source of the most confusion to parents at all levels of play. I think it’s partly because they don’t understand it, and partly because the only person who can accurately SEE it is the referee.
If you are playing games that don’t use the offside rule, then the next most confusing aspect is player to player contact. They either want everything called or nothing called.
BTW, if you want to be a stickler… it’s “offside”, not “offsides” and “handling”, not “handball”.
😉
May 9th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Yeah, I know – I don’t know why I always say offsides. Seems awkward otherwise 🙂
My favorite though is, no it’s not a penalty kick shootout, it’s ‘kicks from the mark’. That’s what they tell the refs in certification class anyway. Course the scoresheets always show ‘PSO’, so go figure 😉