WHAT CHANCE DO THE PLAYERS HAVE?
I have noticed how toxic and chaotic the sidelines are in youth sports. Coaches and parents screaming instructions. At the players. What chance do these players have of developing? Or even enjoying this beautiful game? At weekend games, there’s no doubt we get excited to watch the team play. Calling out instructions and yelling our […]
DO YOU HAVE ‘THE’ ANSWER?
Dr. Jozsef Fabian comments on the ‘Open Letter’ Roby Stahl sent to US Soccer. I cannot go into every detail of (Roby Stahls’ article – ‘US Soccer Needs to Reset) and everything that US Soccer does poorly. There is insufficient time to deal with all that in one article. However, the answers can be found […]
SURPRISINGLY SIMILAR RESPONSES
The author (John Magnusson) missed a central point — the over-emphasis on competition (wins and losses) as opposed to player development. In short, every hour spent riding a bus 600 miles to play is lost in physical, technical, and tactical development. I also challenge the notion that the quality of coaching education and certification is […]
OUR SOCCER CULTURE IS THE CULPRIT
The lack of soccer culture in the USA is the biggest hindrance to becoming a consistent performer at the world-class level. There is truth in all being said, written, and done regarding the ‘No Need To Re-Invent The Wheel’ article. How many youth players were glued to the screen during the World Cup this past […]
Addressing Our Referee Shortage
After reading James Scaglione’s article “A Constructive Response.’ An overwhelming number of concerned individuals sent their thoughts/ideas on retaining and gaining referees. Here are a few … Maybe if USSF spent more money on training new refs and less on training the higher-level refs, we’d have sufficient retention that the decrease in training would […]
RESPONSES TO CRAIG WINANS ARTICLE
It’s just a matter of understanding the player’s age and cognitive and physical development. The youth national was fantastic, and I know we’ve switched models. However, it’s still interesting to watch parents yelling at their kids. Like Pat says, what do you do? Well, you praise them and play them. The lessons they will learn […]
Addressing Our Referee Shortage
You challenged me to come up with a solution to the referee shortage. This after I commented on an article, “TWO SOLUTIONS,” suggesting using a 2 man system of refereeing. While that idea does offer a short-term solution to covering more games with fewer referees, it still doesn’t address the underlying issue causing the shortage. […]
Referee of the Year – COMMENTARY
How/Why did you become a Referee? When I was 13 years old, my soccer coach, Russell Gonzalez, introduced me to refereeing. He informed my team of the opportunity to become certified by attending Pat Ferre’s class. I decided it would be a great first job because of my interest in the game. I had no […]
Answering the Question
Reactions to my article, “Words Communicate More Than Information,” gathered a gamut of responses. Here are two of them … I hated “drills,”, and so did every child I ever coached! It goes beyond buzzwords. As you said, it denotes a mindset on how we coach and train kids. I VAGUELY remember my childhood, but […]
