Dynamic Fitness Video: The Step-Over
Here’s a quick look at the step over drill, also known as the scissor drill. Girls are asked to perform continuous step-overs for 30 seconds over and around a flat cone at their feet. For some, this is a fitness challenge. Their weakness shows in sloppy steps, kicking the cone, or flat-footed stepping rather than bounding off the balls […]
Youth Sports: What Happens When Money Wins?
How much is your kid worth? Surely, there’s no answer to that question; they’re priceless. But what I am seeing in youth sports clubs lately makes me think that priceless is getting more expensive. We’re paying for them to do everything and at younger ages. The gear, the fees, the uniforms, and the professional trainers. A few […]
Team Tie-dye Bonds Girls into a Winning Mosaic of Fun
A dozen girls from the CSC Inferno were tie-dying t-shirts in my driveway last weekend. This weekend, they recorded their sixth win in as many games. They’re undefeated in the division of the Old Dominion Soccer League. Now, I’m not taking credit for those wins. But I do know that bonding as a team off […]
Coaching Well: Why Do We Coach?
This article was originally published in The Fairfax Times, June 2010. It so saddens me to read the endless stories of remarkably talented athletes like Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger behaving badly– these lives, full of potential, are then misspent by their worst natures. We are left asking: “How did we let these athletes get […]
Why “you can be anything you want to be” may be the wrong advice
I took my 14 year old daughter to see Wicked at the Kennedy Center this week. What an incredible show. What an incredible message. Young people everywhere are walking away with the courage to take on the world. Tapping into the ‘something that’s changed within them.’ Why not throw off what holds them down? Defy […]
Do you know what your children are doing for exercise?
“Many American youngsters are not getting enough physical activity and parents are failing to make their children’s health a priority, according to a new study,” reports msnbc.msn.com. Nothing new here. The article goes on to say, “research by the YMCA, which surveyed more than 1,600 American parents with children between the ages of 5 and 10, […]
The Parent-Coach-Kid triangle
“As a parent, it’s your job to see the very best in your child,” a coach once told our team parents. “It’s my job to see them as they are and to help them be better.” He was right. None of us is objective about our own child. But a good coach can be. I […]
Where Did Soccer Mom Go Wrong?
Part 2 in the 3 blog series: “Redeeming Soccer Mom” Soccer Mom has generated quite a lot of interest and not all of it positive. I found this out when I googled her. No longer just a Mom driving kids to their sports activities, Soccer Mom now seems to be: A crazy driver nearly causing […]
From Super Mom to Soccer Mom
First in a three blog series: “Redeeming Soccer Mom” Who is Soccer Mom? It’s hard to believe, but the term “Soccer Mom” has only been in regular use since 1996, when she was a highly sought after “swing voter” in the election of that year. According to Wikipedia, “One candidate Susan B. Casey ran with […]
Is it “just” Growing Pains?
I was stretching with my U13 soccer team after a scrimmage. Through a chorus of moans and evident wincing one player told me, “Coach, no one in my class can touch their toes.” Her teammates nodded in agreement. Yep, tight muscles in longer limbs are natural when they’re growing. But does that mean pain is […]