Twice this week, I was asked by parents – each from opposite sides of the country – about how to improve the competitive mindset of their children. One dad is father and coach of a 7-year old in California. The other is a mother of a 9-year-old in Maryland. In this episode, I will share […]
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Relative Age Effect in Youth Soccer is a bias that highlights the attention we give towards winning vs development. At its worst, it can be cheating
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Travel tournaments can be full of excitement and fun. What are the pros and cons of travel tournaments for our players and families?
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Please consider leaving a comment and/or supporting the show financially (https://thesoccersidelines.com/go/). We can not control what happens to us in life, but we can control our reaction to what happens to us in life! This weekend, we came across the perfect example of poor sportsmanship. We could have reacted in a number of ways. The way […]
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I’m hearing some variation of this over and over again: “My kids looked forward to playing varsity soccer in high school, but they (or we) have been disappointed with the experience.” Why? In this article, let’s explore the downside of the varsity experience and what we can do about it. The Varsity Experience SummaryWhere we live, […]
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Physical exercise like playing soccer is preventative for many disease processes. Diseases brought about by obesity, for example, are often prevented or avoided through regular physical exercise. It’s ironic, therefore, that physical activity itself can cause injury too. As with all things: too much of a good thing can be bad for us. Being or getting […]
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The job of being a coach requires men and women who pursue this craft to know the kids they’re working with. Different age groups have different needs. They have different communication styles and differing abilities to understand the game, one another, or even instructions given them. Most coach’s training programs parse development into physical, mental, emotional, […]
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Support the Show (https://thesoccersidelines.com/go/) Access to affordable youth sports is at risk. It’s facing extinction in communities all across America. I’m afraid that too few people understand how precarious the situation is. In this article, I share two very personal stories that I hope illustrate the problem as well as some solutions. Volunteers Keep Costs Low […]
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Support the Show Finishing in the game of soccer is a string of a complex series of actions and thoughts that end with a net rattle. The finishing mentality follows a flow, from the goalkeeper and defenders through the midfield, to the player taking the shot. Each player in the chain processes a three-part Do loop […]
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My team came to me two years go with the goal of playing varsity soccer. Today, my team makes up half the varsity bench. They didn’t pay thousands!
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