General Soccer Talk

[ndc soccer]

Since I see no one's being too chatty on here, let's start a talk!

Can be HS, College, or even Professional!

Let's just not let the soccer talk stop, since the season never truely ends!

[MHS_Soccer_Dad]

How many of your kids play indoor for fun during the winter?

Still bouncing back and forth on having my son play traveling soccer or track (freshman) this spring to get ready for summer conditioning...any thoughts?

[rxburgfan]

travel soccer is great for the kid serious about playing. it is a commitment both financially and time, but the rewards are great. key is to keep touching a soccer ball.

[ndc soccer]

I always played indoor during the winter. The more teams i was on, the better lol

Ah, Spring Club Soccer. Some of the best memories i have come from Club Soccer. It's a differnt feel from HS. More competitive, more intense. Like RxBurgFan said, it's great for the serious kids, and will def help your son out greatly.

[MHS_Soccer_Dad]

He has been a Club player since he was 8...time and money is a definate commitment...those 2 things being compared to benefits of track. I definately don't want him losing any skills in the off-season by not playing. Curious to what people say about running track.

thanks guys

[4thgoal]

Personally, I would recommend travel soccer over track. You can run on your own to keep in shape, but you can't gain the soccer experience of being on a travel team on your own.

[rxburgfan]

have to agree track is track but nothing takes the place of playing and playing soccer in club is certainly at a higher level.

[warrior2012]

playing on an indoor team help greatly!
you go home sore and beaten up every weekend but you
get stronger. i recomend the zanesville field house for anyone
close, we travel there every weekend and you can see the improvement
in skills.

[ndc soccer]

# 4 seed (#2 in the nation) Notre Dame College (23-1) from Cleveland, ohio lost last night in the NAIA National Championship to #2 seed (#3 in the nation) Hastings College from Nebraska, 5-3. Freshman for NDC Sam Vail, is from Lancaster and started the semifinal and played big minutes in the championship game. Congrats to a local kid playing on a very good team.

[ssusoccer]

Congrats to ND on a great season! Forward Luke Holmes (only a junior) is one of the best forwards I have seen in a while.

[ndc soccer]

Notre Dame's Forward Luke Holmes was named the National Player of The Year, along with Tom Mellor as First Team All-American's

[grndma1]

This year's schedule for the Columbus Crew has been posted on their web site thecrew.com. First MLS home game is March 26th against the New York Red Bulls.

[soccerguru]

Anyone have any ideas of how you rebuild a program from the ground up when the only people you can get to coach soccer in the league have never played before but coach bc no one else will do it? I understand you need to have coaching classes before the season, but how do you police the coaches when you have to coach yourself?

[socman]

'From the ground up' can be taken many different ways. You can't simply start with freshman and expect them to compete at a high level. It starts in the youth leagues and then up to the junior high team. It takes a commitment from parents to get their kids involved in open fields during the offseason or playing club soccer in Chillicothe or West Virginia in the spring.

Coaches need to stick to the basics. Understand that most of your teams aren't capable of running the same drills that say college teams or national teams run. Simplify and get your kids as many touches as possible. Finally, make sure they are having fun. If they hate practices then they won't get anything out of them.

Just some thoughts.

[4thgoal]

If you are talking about "rebuilding" then you are working on a soccer program that has been around for a few years and is now down? You have to start with the basic skills (dribbling, passing, trapping, proper positions, etc). If you have weak coaches, is it possible to get high school players or former high school players to help them during practices? If not, then you will need to have coaching classes (like you already mentioned) and maybe get a couple instructional videos for the coaches to pass around and watch. Keep it as SIMPLE and as socman said FUN. I don't know what area you are in, but you may talk to some of the other local league coaches and presidents and get some ideas as well.

[soccerguru]

To Socman and 4th n Goal i so appreciate the input. I see how our team struggles from yr to yr and then when you look at what there is on Saturdays I just haven't seen much to put my hat on. If you coach hs and have no valid players coming up I wondered how you could get the program started and make sure they dont revert back to the way they played before. Across the board, there are great parents working with the kids but none teaching the kids. By the time they get to my hands in HS I have to teach them how to play solid structural mental soccer.
When the cats away the mice will play I guess. I want them to win so very badly. Guess I need more people with soccer knowledge to help out this year until others really catch on.

[ssusoccer]

Would it be beneficial to have a coaches clinic this spring similar to the one the state of Ohio (OSSCA) has at OSU?
They could watch the team go thru drills for all levels and watch a scrimmage.
[email protected] for any questions or comments if you don't want the worldwide web to see.

[rxburgfan]

i think a coaches clinic would be beneficial. getting a good idea of drills and practice ideas would be helpful. i would hope the county league would be supportive of it.

[soccerguru]

It is exactly what we need. Someway to get coaches excited about the game of soccer. I know it would make my life easier to have kids taught correctly by coaches who have been taught correctly.