On The Pitch

Thoughts on Youth Soccer from a Soccer Dad, Fan, Coach and Administrator

Back To Normal?

Sep.22, 2010 in Ramblings 2 Comments

My apologies for the site being so unstable and often unavailable. After we got hit by a malware attack, I tried out some additional security plugins to help monitor the site for suspicious behavior. Ironically, one of those plugins caused excessive database load and it spiraled downhill from there with the site often down due to corrupted database tables. Took a while to finally narrow it down, but I believe I’ve been able to fix all the corruption and get rid of the plugins causing problems. So OTP should be MUCH more stable and perhaps now I can post more.

How are your Fall seasons going?

The Youth Soccer Guide – Updates?

Aug.05, 2010 in Asides 5 Comments

As everyone starts to get ready for the Fall soccer season, I was wondering if any of you had feedback or ideas for the Youth Soccer Guide. The idea was to collect many of the more instructional/informative posts I’ve written through the years in one place for soccer parents, coaches, and league administrators to reference. Then add resources from other parts of the web to slowly build a comprehensive ‘Youth Soccer Guide’. Obviously it has been a slow process, not helped by my hiatus. But it’s still got a lot of info, even if it jumps around a bit topic wise.

What else would you like to see added? Existing posts or ones you’d like to see covered? What other solid resources exist online that you think would benefit from greater exposure? Use the comments to share.

Coaching Epiphanies

Aug.04, 2010 in Ramblings 10 Comments

Looking back as a youth soccer coach – what was your biggest epiphany? That ‘Aha!’ moment or a long term realization of ‘Wow I wish I had been doing that sooner!’. What was it that made you a better coach?

Mine was moving from direct instruction to asking the players for solutions. The whole ‘Coaching By Question’ where you ask leading questions to get the players to really THINK about what they’re doing. I think above all else, that change in my coaching style has helped my players learn, discover, and better understand the game. I used to think it would only work with older players, but found if you adjust your questions, even 4 year olds can start to think about the basics.

How about you all?

You have NO Idea

Aug.04, 2010 in Coaching 4 Comments

Browsing through the site stats the other day and I noticed this phrase was searched for a few times:


Coaching U12 Girls Soccer

HAHAHAHA You’ve got no idea what you are in for! Don’t get me wrong – I’ve enjoyed coaching my girls travel team EVERY year, but if you’re searching for that, you likely haven’t coached that age before and probably aren’t prepared for it. Good luck! 🙂

Dealing With Municipal Budget Cuts

Aug.04, 2010 in League Administration 2 Comments

Youth Soccer and the Economy - An OTP Series

« Previous Article    

With the economy in trouble for multiple years now, tax revenues have been falling sharply. Coupled with citizens and governments that refuse to accept tax increases as a solution, local governments are often facing severe budget shortfalls. Many cities are enacting severe cuts in what are viewed as ‘non-essential’ services to make ends meet. Parks and Recreation Departments are often the first to get hit and the results can have huge impacts for soccer leagues that rely on the use of municipal parks. Take the case of Colorado Springs:

The steep parks and recreation cuts mean a radical reshifting of resources from more than 100 neighborhood parks to a few popular regional parks. The city cut watering drastically in 2009 but “got lucky” with weekly summer rains, said parks maintenance manager Kurt Schroeder. With even more watering cuts, “if we repeat the weather of 2008, we’re at risk of losing every bit of turf we have in our neighborhood parks,” Schroeder said. Six city greenhouses are shut down. The city spent $19.6 million on parks in 2007; this year it will spend $3.1 million.

We’re not just talking reduced hours or maintenance and upgrades. These are cuts so severe that the turf may die out due to lack of watering. Once that happens, you’re talking about a significant expense to repair – something that is unlikely for some time.

So as the economy continues to struggle, what can leagues do to help local governments in times of severe stress?

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Youth Soccer and the Economy - An On The Pitch Series

  1. Youth Soccer and the Economy
  2. Youth Soccer Players and the Economy
  3. Youth Soccer Coaches and the Economy
  4. Dealing With Municipal Budget Cuts

Is There A Referee Shortage?

Aug.03, 2010 in Referees 9 Comments

When certain topics come up in youth soccer, like no offside for U10, one common refrain is “we don’t have enough referees as it is. This will help with the shortage.” This builds from the belief that the abuse referees endure in matches (a real problem) is causing some to leave and few to take it up. But is it a widespread problem?

I can only speak for central North Carolina, but for us, we’re turning certified people away and can’t get our current referees enough matches. Our referee assignor notes that in talking with other referee assignors, they have deep ref pools as well. Even on busy tournament weekends, the number of referees being brought in from farther reaches (since most ref pools can’t handle a large local tournament) is low. Some of our referees will note that they offer themselves to the larger tournaments 1-2 hours away and rarely get offers or get offered 1-2 matches, which isn’t worth the drive time. By far the biggest complaint I heard as a leageu president from referees was lack of games, not unwieldy parents and coaches.

I’m sure more rural areas struggle in this regard. But is it a problem in larger suburban or metro areas? Do you struggle to maintain a viable referee pool? Has the economy caused more people to take up officiating to earn a little extra money? What’s happening in your neck of the woods?

Youth Soccer and Social Media

Aug.03, 2010 in League Administration, US Soccer Leave a Comment

US Youth Soccer, US Club, USSF, and MLS seem to have finally gotten people who ‘get’ social media. I’ve enjoyed seeing the various updates coming in from them on Facebook and Twitter. USYSA and US Club have done a great job posting highlights from the recent regional and national tournaments. Events that have always taken place in obscurity are suddenly getting a MUCH wider audience. I think as more kids start to follow these groups and see what some of the best youth players in the country are doing, it will have a positive effect. So if your kids are already on Facebook, Twitter, and the like – suggest they follow these groups.

Keeping a steady stream of content is NOT easy or cheap – so hats off to all for taking the time and resources to put this content together.

I plan to write MUCH more about this topic in the coming months as I believe it can really help local leagues connect with their members beyond a website and email list.

For now – a good start!

Youth Soccer in a Bad Economy

Aug.03, 2010 in Ramblings Leave a Comment

Back in December of 2008 I started a series called Youth Soccer and the Economy. Then I got so busy I never got a chance to finish it. How crazy is it that 20 months later the economy is STILL bad and the series is still relevant. Guess I’ll need to work on the remaining two articles in the series!

The Big Bad Wolf

Jul.31, 2010 in League Administration, Players 3 Comments

I really need to find more time to read the blog posts over at US Youth Soccer. There can be some really good stuff over there, but also stuff that makes you scratch your head. Like this recent post from Susan Boyd about free skills camps:

Lately I’ve been seeing a number of clubs advertising spring skill camps for U-9 and U-10 players. These camps have no fees attached, are open to any child in the correct age range, and don’t require a reservation. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on – these are camouflaged tryouts for kids too young for any select program. Clubs know that if they can snag potential players when they are still learning cursive writing they may be able to snag and retain the next Landon Donovan or Abby Wambach. Anxious for little Molly or Mikey to be discovered, parents have no problem bringing their children to these camps. It’s either a win-win or win-lose situation with the clubs always winning.

While this certainly may be true in some cases, as someone who runs one of these clinics, this characterization annoyed me. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Not My Favorite Time Of Year…

Jul.31, 2010 in Coaching, League Administration Leave a Comment

If your child plays competitive/travel soccer, you know it can be stressful come tryout time for you AND them. I often think the parents stress over it more than the kids do. But as a league administrator, it’s even worse – for different reasons.

Most league administrators also coach. So as the season winds down and you’re wanting to catch your breath, here come tryouts! Then sifting through all the evaluations. Creating the team rosters in an environment that at best can be described as ‘tense’ since many of the evaluators will also be your most experienced coaches – all with their own agendas. Then ‘the calls’ go out and you inevitably get the calls from parents upset with the results from tryouts. Or you have teams with barely enough kids and you try to do whatever you can to find a couple more to fill out the team so the rest can play. Then you have to get them all registered, get uniforms ordered, reams of paperwork in order, and so on. There is no off season!

Needless to say, June and July are my least favorite time of year when it comes to youth soccer. It was such a relief to finally get back on the field with my girls travel teams for our informal summer workouts. They’re bored out of their minds with summer vacation and the coaches just want to lace up their cleats again. Only downside was the temps in the upper 90’s for two weeks straight. Let’s just say my new U9 girls team kicked my butt the first session – Soccer Dad is out of shape!

Here in NC, things get rolling in early August with games starting after Labor Day. Looking forward to it and happy to put yet another tryout season behind me.

Is Your Club One Click Away From Bankruptcy?

Apr.04, 2010 in League Administration 8 Comments

Our soccer club is a moderate size club – about 1000 kids – which isn’t huge by metropolitan standards, but it certainly keeps us busy. We offer Recreational, Travel, and Special Needs soccer programs to area youth. We do everything we can to keep costs low, but our annual budget is still in excess of $100,000. We don’t pay for facilities (use municipal fields) or coaching/staff (all volunteers). Imagine the amount of money that flows through a bigger league with facilities expenses and coaching salaries.

Soccer clubs (and many other youth sport organizations) process hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, with 5-6 figure balances in their accounts when registration fees are collected. This makes them prime targets for cyber criminals. Think about it – what would happen to your soccer club if your treasurer logged into your account to find that 5-6 figure balance gone? Transferred out to a foreign country, often via unwitting ‘mules’, with little chance of recovering it? Could the club survive? Would you have to declare bankruptcy? Could you maintain possession of facilities and other assets your club (or more often your funding bank) own if you couldn’t pay the loans? Do I have your attention yet?

[Read the rest of this entry…]

It’s Not An Offside Trap – It’s Defense!

Mar.17, 2010 in Coaching 4 Comments

There’s a great discussion about U12 8v8 formations going on in an older post I put up on the subject a couple years ago: Thoughts on U11/U12 8v8 Formations. Lots of interesting perspectives and experiences with all sorts of formations. One comment caught my eye:

I am halfway through the spring season and I am contemplating working the 3-2-2, mainly for a Myrtle Beach tournament coming up. I feel it would benefit the girls when playing teams that push defense to midfield so there would be two strikers to serve runs instead of one.

Emphasis mine. Regardless of the formation you play – do you play a pressure defense? If so, why, and if not, why not?

[Read the rest of this entry…]

A Coaching Life

Mar.16, 2010 in Coaching 3 Comments

In addition for not being able to write much lately, I haven’t been able to read much either. I know many more youth soccer coaches are writing blogs now than when I was regularly posting before, I just haven’t stumbled across them for lack of reading. Feel free to suggest them in the comments (I’m more interested in sites from regular coaches sharing insights and experiences vs those trying to make money or try to be the answer to all coaching questions – nobody is that good!)

One site I did stumble across that I’m really enjoying is ‘A Coaching Life‘ written by Chris, a U13 Boys coach in /near Atlanta who has a number of excellent posts up that I can’t wait to highlight and comment on. So if you haven’t given his site a visit, swing by and enjoy!

Good stuff!

UPDATE: Ooops – forgot to include the link. My bad!

They Didn’t Teach Me This In My D Class…

Mar.16, 2010 in Coaching 7 Comments

Clearly my life isn’t going to get ‘less busy’, so I need to just start setting aside some time each week to write. I miss it and blame my DVR! (and the new business, and soccer, and more soccer, and having four kids, and so on 🙂 )

I guess I need to catch you all up on the past year with a few posts. For those of you new to the site, I’m one of those crazy people who coaches a number of teams, most with no kids of my own. One of those teams is a ’96 girls travel team called The Lunachicks. Coaching this team has been an amazing experience because we’ve encountered all manner of things in the few years we’ve been together. I’ve certainly learned a lot coaching them. Last year we struggled with the decision to move up to the next level and in March were seeing some encouraging signs. Click the team name above to see other interesting things we’ve done, like playing in a sandstorm, freezing rain, and so on. Last March was about the time I stopped writing regularly and that’s unfortunate because as a team we went through a range of emotions and as a coach I learned a lot. I’ll admit I felt like it was all my fault and why should I write about what I hadn’t done right or didn’t know. Stupid, I know, but the way it goes. So time to catch up.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Helping Research Youth Soccer Coaching

Dec.01, 2009 in Coaching 2 Comments

A student at Elon University and local youth soccer coach is doing some research into youth soccer coaching and could use your help collecting information about how various coaches coach…

My name is James Bryant and I am a senior at Elon University, NC. For the past couple of months, I have been doing academic research on youth soccer coaches and the factors associated with sportsmanship, winning and knowledge of the game. I am currently a coach for a U10 Academy and a member of NCYSA.

I am trying to collect information from youth coaches about what coaches are emphasizing to their players and to what extent.

Below I have a link to a questionnaire (7 questions which will take 3 minutes or less). If you could pass this email or link on to all your coaches (all levels of competition) in your club, it would be greatly appreciated. I am trying to get a true representation of coaches from all levels (rec-classic). So anyone that has coached youth soccer before, this questionnaire directly relates to you!

The link has all the information and the purpose of my research in addition to contact information. I hope you and your club are able to participate in my study. Names and clubs are also strictly anonymous in this study. If you have any questions about my research or would like to find out the results of my study, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Thank you again for your future participation.

Best Regards,
James Bryant

The survey can be found at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3Y292BY

The survey is VERY short. James has said he’ll share the results later this year and I’ll be sure to post a followup with them. So if you coach soccer, take the survey and suggest that your local league share the link with all their coaches.

UPDATE: This survey is open to all youth soccer coaches – not just those located in North Carolina.

Welcome to On The Pitch, where all we talk about is youth soccer. Be sure to check out our Youth Soccer Guide!