I’ve been meaning to write some about the differences in attitudes and personalities between boys and girls teams. I’ve been a coed coach for most of my coaching life, so it was muted there. But in watching girls only matches in our Challenge program, you often saw cattiness and the ‘dominant personality’ that Old Soccer Guy talked about and I followed up on a bit. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started coaching my U11 team, but I quickly found out it was definitely differenet and not what I expected.
Entries for November, 2007
Dealing With Food Allergies In Youth Soccer
Tweet A recent article over at CNN got me thinking a bit about food allergies and how they might impact a soccer association. The article is a heart wrenching tale about a parent’s discovery that they have a child who is extremely allergic to many types of food, including peanuts, wheat, and dairy. They talk […]
Nominate A Responsible Coach
Tweet I was reminded by Joyce over at Youth Sports, that the US Youth Soccer Association is collecting nominations for Responsible Coach awards: which recognize youth soccer coaches who demonstrate the characteristics of a Responsible Coach and are important youth mentors and community leaders. I had gotten this via email a while back and forgot […]
Let’s Go To The Video Tape!
Tweet Canada is all abuzz over a recent bench clearing brawl at a hockey tournament between eight year old players which was caught on video. This is very unfortunate and is not limited to hockey by any means. Joyce Bassett from the Youth Sports Blog, had this to say after it was announced no charges […]
Why Does Talent Need To Be Home Grown?
Tweet Why does Sepp Blatter think national team talent has to be ‘homegrown’? Jamie Trecker has an excellent commentary on the FIFA president’s latest comments and why restrictions on foreign players will hurt more than they help. He summarizes Blatter’s position like this: Blatter argues that for national teams to succeed, clubs must be forced […]
Now THIS Is A Stadium!
Tweet I’m with Mike H at My Soccer Blog – this is going to be a REALLY nice stadium for the Red Bulls that actually looks like it was meant for soccer. Of course they’ll host concerts and other events – but it’s a soccer stadium first and foremost. But what’s with the black rectangles […]
It’s Not All About Winning – But Maybe A Little…
Tweet Old Soccer Guy posted an interesting article back in July as he was just ramping up his U13 Girls team. I had hoped to write about it before now, but never got a chance with my own team getting started. He was torn between the need to develop all your players, possibly at the […]
When Math Geeks Think About Soccer
Tweet Have you ever thought about why most soccer balls look the same in terms of the number and shape of the panels? The Teamgeist ball introduced for the 2006 World Cup had a revolutionary panel design (aÂnd a revolutionary price!) and adidas continues to come up with neat panel designs including their F50 Xite […]
Sleep Wonderful Sleep
Tweet New York magazine has an excellent article up on the impacts of kids sleeping habits and their cognitive development: Overstimulated, overscheduled kids are getting at least an hour’s less sleep than they need, a deficiency that, new research reveals, has the power to set their cognitive abilities back years. According to surveys by the […]
Youth Soccer – South American Style
Tweet Over at Top Drawer Soccer, Rebecca Thatcher Murcia has published two articles that provide some insight into how youth soccer is played in Colombia. She and her two sons moved there to be near her late husband’s family. What she discovered was a very different youth soccer culture, but not as different as you […]
The Evolution of a Youth Coach
Tweet I’ve been coaching soccer for almost six years. To some I am still a naive rookie, while to others, I’m expected to have ‘seen it all’ and am an expert. It’s not surprising at all – it just depends on a person’s own experience and perspective. I’m definitely closer to the former than the […]
Heads Up!!!
Tweet Ah the offseason – when I get to be a pure spectator/team parent. My two oldest play basketball in the winter to give them a break from soccer and keep active. I enjoy being able to just drop them off at practice! ÂAt a recent practice, I happened to notice a girls team practicing […]
USYS, meet RSS
Tweet While adding a few additional soccer blogs to my RSS reader, I decided to include the ‘new’ US Youth Soccer Blog, which is part of their new website redesign. Only problem is – there is no RSS feed!!! Wow. How can you launch a new blog in 2007 and not realize that RSS is […]
Everything I Know About Soccer I Learned From Dr Seuss…
Tweet Old Soccer Guy’s U18 Girls had a tough ‘end of the road’ coming so close to the State Cup final four. But harder still was the realization that it was ‘over’. The girls, many who had played together for years, were aging out of youth club soccer, facing graduation and college next year. As […]
Christmas Gifts for Soccer Fans 2007
Tweet You’d think one of my most popular posts would be some genius nugget about coaching, some funny story, a story where I might have typed ‘hot soccer moms’, stuff like that. Nope. It’s was ‘Christmas Gifts for Soccer Fans‘. So with Black Friday just around the corner, I figured I’d come up with an […]
