Youth sports in the US is dying, not because the business model isn’t working, but because it is working too well. It’s drawing in $17 B at what expense?
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If you think coaches are not paying attention in youth sports, don’t. They are. Things like being reliable matter. If you think I’m talking about just consistently hitting a crispy seam pass through defenders, I’m not. I’m talking about a players ability to make an honor commitments. Seemingly little things matter: being late to practice […]
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Imagine yourself sitting at a table. You’re at a nice cafe in Paris. You’re drinking a cup of fresh brewed coffee, eating your favorite breakfast and watching people walk by. People watching can be fun. We all do it. All the different sizes, shapes, colors, personalities, voices… it’s not a half bad way to spend […]
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Skills, fitness, physicality… It’s all important. And it’s often an athlete’s Character that helps them make the cut. Character matters.
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Become a PatronWhen you’re moving with the current, you can afford to relax. When the current is flowing opposite of the direction you want to go, you may have to paddle like crazy. A mental image of yourself in a canoe on a powerful river is useful for understanding how time can affect the outcome […]
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Soccer offers students many benefits as they mature through the development years, but benefits of soccer don’t stop there. In this episode, we explore how the game of soccer can connect us with 3.5 Billion fans around the world and create networking opportunities in situations far removed from the soccer field throughout life. Soccer is […]
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If you haven’t heard it yet, there is a new training methodology in soccer town called Play, Practice, Play. It’s not really new. We’ve been doing it in the context of US Youth Soccer for more than a year now and you’ll find correlation with an article titled Teaching Games for Understanding: A Comprehensive Approach […]
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How eager would you be to allow a surgeon to cut you open and remove your gallbladder if that surgeon never watched a surgery before? Not very, right? You instinctively know that performing a physical skill is easier if you’ve watched someone else do it first. Likewise, if you want to learn to play music, it […]
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Whether you’re a coach, a parent, or an interested observer, you bring more than your lawn chair to a game. You bring your ability to spot leadership, form a thought about that leadership, courage to share your thoughts, and an ability to express yourself. These are powerful tools! Accidental leadership may not even be noticed by […]
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Putting the ball up in the air… should be do it, or should we keep it on the ground? Choosing what to train in youth soccer and when to train it is a combination of science and art. US Youth Soccer gives us some useful guidelines, but how closely we follow those guidelines requires a […]
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