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Feb 8, 2012, 10:29 pm
I find this hilariously funny!
David Beckham got sent off from a youth soccer match:
“It was the younger kids of Romeo’s club, and they’re playing in the game and there was a penalty given. And the kids are 7 years old and he sent the kid off.” After that, Beckham, who has seen his share o... Comment - Like
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Feb 7, 2012, 12:45 pm
Lately we’ve been getting hammered with spammy new user accounts here at On The Pitch (dozens a day). It was becoming an administrative nightmare, so we’ve taken a few steps to try to reduce the load on our server and still make it easy to comment and participate in discussions.
We’ve enabled... Comment - Like
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Jan 30, 2012, 10:05 am
Ron Clark has a fantastic article up at CNN highlighting the flight of teachers from the profession, in part because of trouble dealing with parents. Reading it, I saw a lot of parallels with coaching youth sports and dealing with soccer parents, which can have a huge impact on a team and player dev... Comment - Like
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Jan 29, 2012, 9:29 am
A common belief is that US youth soccer players suffer from over coaching, and in many cases that is true. But in our helicopter parent society where kids rarely can just go ‘play in the park’, coaches are in a situation where they have to provide SOME instruction and opportunity to develop. How... Comment - Like
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Jan 23, 2012, 1:13 pm
Soccer calendars vary by state, primarily due to the local climate. Yet many soccer parents chuckle at the concept of ‘Spring’ soccer, because the weather can get pretty wild (and cold) some years. Still, the idea of ‘Spring’ soccer generally meant the bulk of the season was played in… the... Comment - Like
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Jan 17, 2012, 10:45 am
Just a heads up that tomorrow, January 18th, On The Pitch will go dark in protest of the pending SOPA and PIPA legislation. If you haven’t heard about this legislation, you need to educate yourself, as the major media companies are trying to get Congress to pass legislation that will allow for gov... Comment - Like
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Jan 16, 2012, 1:18 pm
We’ve all seen the ‘magic spray’ soccer trainers use to heal injured soccer players – everyone wonders what it is and given how it often causes a miraculous recovery, it must be magic.
While researching something else in the USSF Advice To Referees and IFAB Memorandums, I came across this s... Comment - Like
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Jan 10, 2012, 11:40 am
The Phoenix New Times has an in-depth look at some events in Arizona a few years ago that highlight some of the problems inherent to youth soccer and how youth soccer has changed recently. A successful coach at Sereno Soccer Club named Les Armstrong was suspended from coaching after he forged a pare... Comment - Like
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Jan 10, 2012, 9:31 am
I’ve spent a lot of time using social media to expand the reach of various organizations, non-profits, and even our own soccer league. So it made me laugh when I realized I had Facebook pages for just about everything except On The Pitch. What a silly oversight. So if you find yourself on Faceboo... Comment - Like
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Jan 9, 2012, 2:21 pm
I realize this has been around for a while and has likely made the rounds, but it cracked me up. The sad part is many youth soccer coaches have had to deal with what is said in this video, and it can be impossible trying to get parents to understand why winning is not important when they’re 10 yea... Comment - Like
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Jan 7, 2012, 8:49 am
I’ve written a number of times before about youth soccer referees not wanting to use their cards. Initially it seemed to be due to the age of players that I coached. But now that my older girls team is in high school, I haven’t seen many more cards, even though I’ve seen plenty of fouls to war... Comment - Like
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Jan 5, 2012, 12:05 pm
ESPN has a radio show dedicated to youth sports called ‘Hey Coach Tony‘, and all the shows are up on YouTube – which is very cool. Word is the show will soon be simulcast on many cable systems. Podcasts would also be a great thing to have for those with iPods. It’s an entertaining show that ... Comment - Like
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Jan 4, 2012, 12:09 pm
Our recreational league has been coed since it’s inception. We formed coed divisions simply because of numbers. When our league formed in 2002, we had ~350 players or so from U6 up through U12 – just enough to form small two year divisions of coed teams (U6/U8/U10/U12). A few years later players... Comment - Like
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Jan 3, 2012, 10:09 am
Stories of loud and obnoxious soccer parents are not hard to come by. We’ve all encountered them, though in my experience they’re not as widespread as the media would lead you to believe. When you do encounter them, it’s usually a couple of parents being loud and/or obnoxious while the other p... Comment - Like
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Jan 2, 2012, 10:08 pm
One of the neat experiences I’ve had coaching youth soccer is having a player who can do a flip throw. We actually have two players on our 96 girls team that can do it, though one is a striker and only throws in on occasion. The other is one of our starting defenders and was a competitive gymnast ... Comment - Like
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Jul 18, 2011, 6:12 pm
How could you not be pulling for the USWNT after that run to the final? The breathtaking win against all odds vs. Brazil. The late dominant surge against France. My girls teams were talking about it all summer and were pumped for the final. I had encouraged them to watch every game they could – wa... Comment - Like
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Jul 9, 2011, 10:12 am
I’m getting very close to my 10 year anniversary of coaching youth soccer, and I guess I’m reaching that stage where I look back and think ‘Oh my God what have I done!’ when it comes to those early years. Blessed with children born 8 years apart, I hope I’ve learned from my mistakes coachi... Comment - Like
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Jun 13, 2011, 7:13 am
A running joke among soccer league officers and volunteers is ‘Offseason? What offseason?’ Here in NC, we’ve already held tryouts (two weeks surrounding Memorial Day), formed teams, and are currently registering players and submitting Intent To Play forms for the Fall.
But beyond that, summer... Comment - Like
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Jun 1, 2011, 9:01 am
I hate tryouts. I’ve always hated tryouts. Kids are stressed. Parents are stressed. Coaches are stressed. Some of it reasonable, some of it not. In some areas with large programs, it amazes me the intrigue and drama that goes on with the ‘B’ teams and the accusations (sometimes valid, sometime... Comment - Like
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Dec 12, 2010, 8:38 am
I’ve been meaning to start posting again for a while now that my life has gone from barely managed chaos to just insanely busy. So while perusing the excellent NY Times Chrome Edition, I stumbled across an interesting article on young athletes and energy drinks:
In a recent survey of American hi... Comment - Like
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Sep 22, 2010, 9:39 am
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 ... Comment - Like
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Aug 5, 2010, 9:41 am
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 a... Comment - Like
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Aug 4, 2010, 9:47 pm
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 wh... Comment - Like
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Aug 4, 2010, 12:10 pm
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, y... Comment - Like
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Aug 4, 2010, 9:30 am
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 b... Comment - Like
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Aug 3, 2010, 10:28 am
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. ... Comment - Like
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Aug 3, 2010, 8:40 am
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... Comment - Like
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Aug 3, 2010, 8:18 am
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 tak... Comment - Like
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Jul 31, 2010, 8:03 am
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 spr... Comment - Like
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Jul 31, 2010, 7:17 am
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... Comment - Like
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Apr 4, 2010, 2:45 pm
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 e... Comment - Like
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Mar 17, 2010, 12:40 pm
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 s... Comment - Like
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Mar 16, 2010, 1:57 pm
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 (... Comment - Like
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Mar 16, 2010, 12:52 pm
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 fe... Comment - Like
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