Pre-season Tournaments Beat Kids Up: Rest Days Allow them to Return to Full Strength
Are your players full of energy and enthusiasm at the beginning of practice? Or, are they pooped from school starting or the tournament weekend they just toughed it through? We all like those high energy days because we know that’s when we can really challenge them toward peak performance, but we are leery of pushing past […]
A Sound Mind IN a Sound Body is a Smart MOVE
What ever happened to a sound mind in a sound body? A friend and fellow coaching educator sent me that lament in an email the other day. I always thought the idea originated with Thomas Jefferson, but TJ, ever the borrower, got it from John Locke: “A sound mind in a sound body, is a […]
Morgan Brian Passed the Concussion Tests, Should She Have Been Allowed to Return?
I know this is not going to make me popular, but … not every collision spells concussion. The collision between midfielder Morgan Brian and Germany’s Alexandra Popp has the concussion lines a-buzzin’. Taylor Twellman’s tweeting and Briana Scurry’s Facebooking. From my living room, it looked rough. Brian, is face down in the turf, and Popp […]
Women’s World Cup 1999 to 2015: Pure Joy Makes No Apologies
The last time we won a Women’s World Cup, it looked like this… “The enduring image of Brandi Chastain, triumphant on a sweltering July day in Pasadena, will endure, documenting a populist victory that helped propel women’s soccer into the national consciousness,” writes David Davis in How the Most Iconic Photo in Women’s Soccer was […]
ACL Risk Assessment: 5 Simple Tests Every Parent and Coach Can Do
Do you want to know if you kid is at risk for an ACL tear? You don’t need a special assessment program or highly trained health professionals to run an assessment. You can evaluate your own kids to decide whether there is cause for concern. Here are five tests every coach and every parent can and […]
Physical Education Gone Missing: Can Sports Fill the Gap?
Has bullying increased as physical education has decreased? This is the question posed to our Chinese and American panel at the ACSM convention. There has been much conversation about the reduction in physical activity among our American children, and the logical place to introduce it is as at school where kids spend so much of […]
Bringing Out Their Best: motivation as art and story
Once upon a time there was a little girl. She could really catch and really throw, but the thing she could do best was hit. Every time up, she swung that bat and sent the ball way into the outfield. One day, Coach said, “Wow! How do you do that?!” “I don’t know,” the girl […]
Deep Practice: The Secret Weapon the Caterpillar Teaches
Everyone who has ever played the game well remembers the day it felt effortless. Smooth on the club, crisp in the hands, the timing is perfect, the loft just right, the backspin just so: swoosh, woosh, bam, pop. Even the sound confirms you’ve found the sweet spot. You’re in the zone. It’s a deceptive thing, this […]
The Second Secret Behind Coach Sumser’s Success: “I showed up at their plays and performances.”
Last week I introduced you to Chas Sumser, the “no-cut” coach, formerly of the Loudon Vipers boys team and then the Leesburg FC Avalanche girls team. Both teams he agreed to take on at the request neighboring children who asked him to ‘please coach my team’. Perhaps Chas was just being a good neighbor. He […]
The Secret Behind Coach Chas Sumser’s Success: No Cuts Ever
There are only two kinds of coaches in this world: those who cut players and those who don’t. Chas Sumser doesn’t. Oh, we would all love a dream team. You know, one where you scan down your roster and find every name on it belongs to a star player. Imagine: Jordan, Pippen, Stockton, Malone, Magic […]