As I noted earlier, Twitter has completely changed things here at On The Pitch. Every day I see cool articles, posts, and other tidbits that I want to check out and share, but then real life gets in the way and suddenly my Favorite list is much too long. And that’s just on Twitter – I need to rescue my Google Reader account at some point. So I’m going to start a weekly feature here at On The Pitch where I’ll select 10 or so posts/articles and include them with a short blurb. I may write a more in depth post about some later, but this will help get them out there in a timely manner.
Feel free to send me ideas for stuff to include in the future via comments below or via Twitter (@soccerdad). Obviously I can’t include everything I get, but send them on anyway! If it’s your own post/article, don’t feel bad if it doesn’t show up right away. If I want to include it, it may take a while as I still have a lot of stuff from months ago. There will likely be a backlog!
- With so much talk about possible economic stimulus through public works projects, many towns are looking to build new athletic complexes or complete/expand existing one. A town in OK just bought 130 acres for a new complex. (H/T @goodsports). That’ll be on HUGE complex. I was surprised at how many field and lighting vendors were at our state’s soccer show this January. I think they sense opportunity too. But the flip side is economic hard times make it hard to justify spending money on something that seems frivolous, like a soccer complex. Homewood, a town near Birmingham, Alabama, saw controversy over their plan to fund the completion of fields at their soccer complex. (H/T @Birmingham_News)
- Coaches of girls teams will often scrimmage against boys to help improve their teams. But in Iran, it can get you fired. (H/T @rfe_rl)
- Coach Mark has some tips in keeping practices fun for younger players. (H/T @soccercoachmark) I’ll admit one danger in using point totals is the more athletic kids always win the prizes. I always try to use 2-4 ‘teams’ so the points get spread around vs awarded individually. Another idea is to reward effort/intensity, not just successful completion of a skill in the least time, etc.
- A few months ago, the NY Times had an interesting article about Yelling At Your Kids and how in rare cases it may be a good thing. (H/T @goodsports) Granted, they’re talking about parents. But even as coaches – if you’re calm and collected all the time, an occasional shout may startle your team enough to know you really are serious. Above a certain age, of course, and never angry. But I’ve been known to shout out ‘Ladies!!!!’ to get my team’s attention. If you yell all the time, it won’t work 🙂
- @tonygravato shared an interesting article over at Youth Soccer Insider about ways to get kids to play soccer on their own. I think the ‘street soccer’ advocates are sometimes a bit too naive about the idea of free play, but it certainly can’t hurt to try and encourage it.
- In these tough economic times, it may surprise you (or your municipal government if you’re asking for support) how much money youth sports can bring to an area. @goodsports linked to an interesting article from Pasco County, Florida that highlighted a county that was actively working to recruit and sponsor youth sporting events to boost the economy.
- Since the research results seem to still be mixed, the debate continues about the safety of artifical turf. (H/T @yourdon)
- Steve Perkins (@SPerk15) had an interesting article about the politics of being a youth soccer coach. It was related to grades and steps some HS coaches might take to allow students to start soccer on time. As a coach I’d be VERY uncomfortable using a loophole like this. I tell my parents and players all the time, even in club, bad grades = no soccer.
- Thomas at Soccer Mastermind (@kidssoccer) wrote an insightful article about setting goals for yourself as a soccer coach. I agree 100% – Outcome/Results should never be a goal – it’s the performance and improvement goals that will help you get there.
- Jeff Carlisle wrote an excellent piece about how the US was overhauling it’s national youth programs. (H/T @mshund) This was part one of an excellent five part series. Much attention is being paid to how the USSF Development Academy works and what types of players it produces for the national pool in the coming years. I think the 3-1 practice-match ratio is a good goal for all youth teams, so long as you count pre-season practices. We tend to practice twice a week, not three times – but also have a solid month of preseason.
So there you have it – SoccerDad’s Weekend Reading. Obviously most of this came from January when I first started saving stuff. Hopefully I’ll catch up soon, and I’ll toss in more current stuff in future lists. Enjoy!
(Note H/T means Hat Tip – simply acknowledging someone who tweeted the link or a link that led me to the link)
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March 27th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Very worthwhile read.
Perchance, do you have the link for this? “@tonygravato shared an interesting article over at Youth Soccer Insider about ways to get kids to play soccer on their own. ”
Cheers,
Sean
March 27th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Sigh I knew I’d forget to link one when I was doing this. Fixed and linked above.
Glad you enjoyed the list! Should be fun to build up each week.
March 27th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Notwithstanding your kind mention of my Twitter ID, I have absolutely nothing intelligent to say about the safety of artifical turf….
March 27th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Ed – wasn’t trying to infer you did – just that I had found the link via a tweet you had made (granted indirectly through the picture but credit due where credit is due 🙂 )
March 29th, 2009 at 12:38 am
I like your thoughts and your blog shows up on my google search.
I just came back from Europe, attended a seminar on FIFA and its plans for
Artificial Turf. FIFA donated a pitch to every African country over the past few years. Plan is to expand this further worldwide. New standards are going into effect–approved turf systems will REALLY play like grass.
Anyway, here is an article on environmental safety of turf just out
T Environmental Headlines: Guilford High School Synthetic Turf …By [email protected] (Christopher Zurcher)Tests Say Guilford High School Synthetic Turf Safe – Guilford Courier: “Anyone with concerns of environmental toxins leaching from Guilford High School’s synthetic turf may now have their fears allayed, as independent testing has …CT Environmental Headlines – http://www.ctenvironmentalheadlines.com/
March 29th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Gday Soccer Dad,
Thanks for the mention, glad you agree with my post. I also found your site through twitter, great work keep it up. If you ever need a guest post give me a shout on twitter.
March 31st, 2009 at 9:53 am
My understanding with the turf was the high lead levels were in older fields still in use – that new turf like FieldTurf is much different. But that got lost in translation because everyone sees ‘lead’ and ‘kids’ and freaks – rightly so in some cases – but instead of focusing on the need to replace the older fields, people focused on the new stuff instead.