Two Sports in the Same Season: What Can We Do?
Two sports in the same season, it doesn’t end. We just switch which team gets dibs on our kids. Now that fall soccer is over we head into the winter season. The fall soccer players are taking on winter sports, but also playing indoor or futsal, or just plain training outside. Two sports in the […]
Helping Our Female Athletes Be Confident, not Cocky
Talk about being surrounded by beautiful women… John Daly is loving this. He would tell you so; the ladies would just nod and smile – and defer to their teammates. Here’s how I know. I got to enjoy the company of four of these young ladies over brunch at the William and Mary Celebration of […]
Save the Knees: Beating ACL Injuries with Prevention
On July 10, 2011, Ali Krieger pounded home the penalty kick that advanced the U.S. Women’s National Team past Marta and the Brazilians in the 2011 Women’s World Cup quarterfinals. Remember? We couldn’t stop watching the replays. Now, it’s 2012 and time for Olympic gold, but where is Ali? Out with an ACL, an anterior […]
Concussion Conundrum: Referees’ Role In Preventing Head Injuries
Everyone agrees: We don’t want our young players suffering concussions. The difficulty comes in figuring out how to minimize them. There is a lot to this conversation; I only just scratched the surface in a two-part article. In the first, we looked at the nature of the injury and in the second, how to return […]
Concussion in Youth Sports Part I: A Shaking of the Brain with Serious Consequences
The kid is everywhere. She’s taking command of the midfield and dictating play. Balls in the air. Balls on the ground. Nothing gets past her. She camps under another punt, and tenses, ready to send it forward. She goes up for the ball, but so does their striker. Heads, elbows and ball collide. Both girls […]
Youth Soccer Players:Take Your Game Home Over the Summer
Don’t you love that last day of school? You return all your books, say goodbye to your teachers and head out the door. Don’t have to think about any of THAT stuff till September. All good, unless you volunteered to take the class pet home for the summer. Him, you have to feed, water, exercise […]
Penn State, USWNT coach Erica Walsh headlines “Celebration of Women’s Athletics” event at William & Mary
Erica Walsh, assistant coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team and current head women’s soccer coach at Penn State, took time out of her packed schedule to address a gathering at the Third Annual Celebration of Women’s Athletics at her – and my – alma mater, the College of William & Mary, last month. The […]
Soccer Stretches for Coaches and Athletes
These stretches will take just a few minutes after each practice and game, but it’s time well spent. One coach contacted me to say his biggest challenge was parents who would want to whisk their kids away. Yes, we are in a hurry these days. Just email those team parents and let them know you […]
Soccer Stretch: Dynamic Before, Static After
I get this question a lot: should they stretch? YES Follow up question: when and how? Before and after. Here’s how. Before practice they should perform a dynamic warm up, moving the body parts to be used in a controlled and increasingly intense manner. That means: forward, backward, at angles, in rotations, at increasing pace […]
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 […]