Playing Up: Is developing their skills worth giving up our win?
Cat was her name; she was the ringer on my daughter’s U9 travel team. It was the spring season and they had been a miserable failure (in soccer terms) in the fall. When Cat joined the team mid-year, things had started looking up. This girl was small but fast. And was she ever good. She […]
Diving to draw the foul is cheating: cheating yourself out of developing skills that would make you a better player
Let me see if I am getting this right: keep your footing – no foul hit the floor – foul There are so many bodies and so many moving parts, how can any stripe-shirted, whistle-toting human being know for sure whether “illegal contact” was made? Why not help him out? Writhe on the ground, grabbing […]
World Cup Competition: Do You Believe?
How can competition bring out the absolute worst in some and the best in others? One head butts for a red card. The other heads it in for a winner. One crumples untouched to draw the foul. The other stands his ground in spite of the mugging. One bites and… What’s going on? There’s no […]
Top 10 Reasons for Injury Attrition at the World Cup
This World Cup is seeing a soaring tally of players who are out, unavailable and/or questionable. What or who is to blame? Here are some contenders: Overtraining. Possible, but unlikely by itself because the players on these teams are monitored day and night for workload and their body’s response to training demands. Fatigue. The number […]
Pick Up Soccer Alive and Well in Vienna, VA
I remember how excited I was as a kid when our team got to play the night game under the lights. Those big light standards hummed in the night sky, focusing all their energy on us, the stars of the show. It actually made it hard to see anyone in the stands, which probably was […]
How to Show Well in the Soccer Showcase: here’s what coaches are looking for
Showcase…just the word puts you on guard. You’re the center of things. On the big field, the feature field, the stadium field, the special turf. Coaches come from far and wide to watch you play. You know who they are, even behind their shades, because they are standing there with their clipboards and game sheets, […]
School Soccer + Club Soccer May Spell Too Much: Beat Overtraining Injuries with the 6+ Program
When my daughter’s team hit the fields for the spring season tune up, I was happily surprised by the healthy depth of their roster. I keep track of this stuff, as a mom and a sports medicine professional keeping a close eye on the injury tally. “Just wait,” her coach cautioned, “spring is overlap season. […]
How Young is Too Young to Recruit for College Soccer?
Does anyone really think that committing to college soccer as a middle schooler is a good idea? Yet, this is where we are, and it’s getting a lot of attention. The most recent announcement comes from Haley Berg, who verbally committed (as an eighth grader) to play for the University of Texas Longhorns in the fall of 2017, […]
Taking Action Against Concussions: 8 Things You Can Do with Your Team Right Now
Concussions are a terribly important issue in sports today. You’ll get no argument from me. I came into the conversation early digging up the facts and shaking out the recommendations. Read my investigations here: Concussions: Not Just a Bump on the Head Concussions: What Parents, Coaches and Players Can Do The conclusions: We need to […]
Want Them to Play with Urgency? Tell them the Final Whistle is About to Sound
A goal down and five minutes on the clock. There’s nothing like the play of a team in the final minutes of the game. There’s focus, determination, energy, persistence. They throw caution to the wind and attack relentlessly. They’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Go for it! When the final whistle is […]