Since Paul has kick started me on this thing again, I figured that I should post something since it has once again been quite a while since I wrote anything. There were nights when I told myself that I should put up something since there have been some pretty good stories from the first few weeks of soccer practice at the middle school and such, but I never got around to it. So here they are.
I went skiing this weekend at Winterplace with some people from my church, which ended up being pretty interesting in itself. I did the usual skiing, another girl tried skiing for the first time, and the other 3 people all went for the snowboard. Needless to say, I had myself quite the time watching the first-time snow-boarders bite it hard when they were first trying to learn how to walk with the board, and then how to go down a hill. It's kinda like what Paul says about thing that are always funny, and certainly people falling down while attempting to ski/snowboard should be one of the things on that list. I think the best crash that I witnessed was this one girl, who clearly had no idea how to ski properly, starts down this diamond hill attempting to snow plow her way straight down. All you hear is her screaming, "LOOK OUT!!!! AHH!!!!!", and then you see some poor person in front of her skiing correctly, and she catches her skis on the front of that person's board. She looses both her skis and continues most of the way down the hill while he stays upright perfectly fine on his board and continues on down the hill. The last I saw as I went over the ridge on the lift was her attempting to walk back up the mountain and failing miserably. Myself and these two boys next to me from a random church group got a good laugh out of it.
Now for the soccer stories. Today's classic moment as I was breaking up half of the kids for our first large scrimmage on an actual field:
Me: "Alright guys, what positions to you play normally?"
Them: "Defense, midfield, forward, whatever."
Me to an extremely small (barely 4 foot) kid who hadn't said anything: "How about you man, where do you play?"
Him: "I've never played soccer before...what's a forward?"
Me: "...um...just...go up there..."
I've also ended up having to play on a team the past two practices either from odd numbers or from someone getting hurt. It's funny, cause I'll get on the field, and whoever's team it is will be all excited cause they get the "coach" on their team, and then get upset with me cause I won't just go score goals for them. I have to say, I'm having to kind of relearn the game myself, because things that have become intuitive to me (like positioning, simple passing/trapping, soccer-talk) are completely foreign to these boys. I've not had to yell this much this consistently since I quit having to play as a sweeper in my competitive days. But I have to be on their case pretty often, telling people where they should be making runs, when they can turn or have a man-on, all sorts of stuff. Some people are slowly starting to get the hang out of talking with their team, but it is really slow going. The thing that gets me the most is that there is no concept of team defense. Someone will turn the ball over, the person with the ball will be all of 5 feet in front of them, and they'll just stand there and not even go after the ball. It kills me. They'll pick it up quick here now that we've split up teams now though. At least, they better pick it up quick.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Kicking and Screaming
So...it's been a while. Again. Oh well. It's been a busy week here, with coaching starting, astronomy observation sessions going on, and it being bitter cold. Especially while up on the roof until 10:30 at night. Even more so when you've forgotten a hat and gloves. Which I did each time. I'm a moron.
So, as some of you may know, the title of this post comes from the Will Ferrell movie kicking and screaming in which he becomes the coach of a team so that his son can play after Will Ferrell's dad (played by Robert Duvall) benches his grandson and doesn't let him play at all while his team goes on to win the championship. It's been a while since I saw it, but it did have its funny moments, and the usual Ferrell over-the-top antics and yelling, but it was funny at times. Of course, there are the usual stereotypes on the team - the son, who does something amazing to beat the team he used to be on; the short, dorky asian kid, complete with glasses; the giant kid who is 6 feet tall (or something ridiculous like that...), the star Italian soccer players who can't play because their uncle or someone wants them working in their families slaughter-house... - you get the point. And of course, they start off being the worst team ever, but after some yelling, practice, yelling, the team getting a surprise victory, yelling, the Italians making everyone look silly with their amazing skill, yelling, the son becoming angry at the dad, yelling, the Italians not being able to make a game, yelling, the team still pulling out a victory even with all the odds stacked against them, reconciliation, they are ultimately able to finally win the championship game against the "evil" team coached by the grandfather. Mike Ditka stops by for some pretty funny moments as well. Not bad if you've got an hour and a half to waste. Certainly not the pinnacle of entertainment though.
At any rate, the current middle school team that I am coaching doesn't quite compare to this movie. Not only do we not have any Italians, Asians, or really any other ethnicity, but we do have a few players that actually surprised me with their skill. Of course, there are plenty that surprise me with their lack of skill. We're trying to get up to 30 players so that we don't have to cut anyone...cause that would be plain awful if we ended up needing to cut players. We had 25 tonight, with the promise of a few more, so I think we'll be alright.
The first two practices have been ok. We've done the usual stuff just to see how they are with a ball. We'll do the usual toe-tapping on top of the ball, and boxing the ball back and forth between the feet, and then move on to a drill that I did for the last 5 years of my competitive soccer career which involved dribbling the ball in a 10 X 10 square with everyone else and having to keep control and do moves while dribbling, all while touching the ball with every step. It works well to improve your ball control and dribbling ability, if you do it right, since it's definately hard to keep solid control when you're in a small box with 20 other people.
We've also done 3 vs. 3 small-sided games, and a 4 vs. 4 keep-away game to see how they work together, how their sense of positioning is, and how well they can control and pass a ball in tight situations. Needless to say, there is a lot of work that needs to be done in that respect with all but a small number of them. It seems as if many of them don't play any type of competitive club soccer, and that a majority of them haven't really played all that seriously yet. Hopefully we'll be able to help them improve their skills...but there's really only so much we can do in 3 hours a week. We're planning on having a scrimmage in the next couple weeks just to get them in a game and see how they do. It's been fun so far though. Except for how much they talk and joke and don't listen...but I guess that's to be expected from 6-8 graders.
Only time will tell how this team will do together. I guess I figure if we can get the solid players to work together we can work in the people with lesser skill and in the process improve them as well. I'm glad I'm doing this, as I think it will be good experience, and maybe I'll be able to coach more in the future. We'll see how it goes though.
So, as some of you may know, the title of this post comes from the Will Ferrell movie kicking and screaming in which he becomes the coach of a team so that his son can play after Will Ferrell's dad (played by Robert Duvall) benches his grandson and doesn't let him play at all while his team goes on to win the championship. It's been a while since I saw it, but it did have its funny moments, and the usual Ferrell over-the-top antics and yelling, but it was funny at times. Of course, there are the usual stereotypes on the team - the son, who does something amazing to beat the team he used to be on; the short, dorky asian kid, complete with glasses; the giant kid who is 6 feet tall (or something ridiculous like that...), the star Italian soccer players who can't play because their uncle or someone wants them working in their families slaughter-house... - you get the point. And of course, they start off being the worst team ever, but after some yelling, practice, yelling, the team getting a surprise victory, yelling, the Italians making everyone look silly with their amazing skill, yelling, the son becoming angry at the dad, yelling, the Italians not being able to make a game, yelling, the team still pulling out a victory even with all the odds stacked against them, reconciliation, they are ultimately able to finally win the championship game against the "evil" team coached by the grandfather. Mike Ditka stops by for some pretty funny moments as well. Not bad if you've got an hour and a half to waste. Certainly not the pinnacle of entertainment though.
At any rate, the current middle school team that I am coaching doesn't quite compare to this movie. Not only do we not have any Italians, Asians, or really any other ethnicity, but we do have a few players that actually surprised me with their skill. Of course, there are plenty that surprise me with their lack of skill. We're trying to get up to 30 players so that we don't have to cut anyone...cause that would be plain awful if we ended up needing to cut players. We had 25 tonight, with the promise of a few more, so I think we'll be alright.
The first two practices have been ok. We've done the usual stuff just to see how they are with a ball. We'll do the usual toe-tapping on top of the ball, and boxing the ball back and forth between the feet, and then move on to a drill that I did for the last 5 years of my competitive soccer career which involved dribbling the ball in a 10 X 10 square with everyone else and having to keep control and do moves while dribbling, all while touching the ball with every step. It works well to improve your ball control and dribbling ability, if you do it right, since it's definately hard to keep solid control when you're in a small box with 20 other people.
We've also done 3 vs. 3 small-sided games, and a 4 vs. 4 keep-away game to see how they work together, how their sense of positioning is, and how well they can control and pass a ball in tight situations. Needless to say, there is a lot of work that needs to be done in that respect with all but a small number of them. It seems as if many of them don't play any type of competitive club soccer, and that a majority of them haven't really played all that seriously yet. Hopefully we'll be able to help them improve their skills...but there's really only so much we can do in 3 hours a week. We're planning on having a scrimmage in the next couple weeks just to get them in a game and see how they do. It's been fun so far though. Except for how much they talk and joke and don't listen...but I guess that's to be expected from 6-8 graders.
Only time will tell how this team will do together. I guess I figure if we can get the solid players to work together we can work in the people with lesser skill and in the process improve them as well. I'm glad I'm doing this, as I think it will be good experience, and maybe I'll be able to coach more in the future. We'll see how it goes though.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Oil and Water
Soccer is back. Wednesday night at 9 PM eastern on ESPN 2 the USMNT plays Mexico out in Arizona in probably one of the most heated national sports rivalries. The U.S. has recently been dominating Mexico, going 7-2-1 against Mexico since 2000. Both losses have been at away games, notably in the intimidating Mexico City stadium where few teams ever beat them. At home, the Americans are 6-0-1 with an 11-0 goal differential. Of course, some can wonder why, having only played 9 times in 6 years, there can be any type of rivalry. North American sports has saturated the idea since most "major" sports end up playing their rival at least once a year, if not more. There is so much more to a rivalry than simply playing each other every few weeks and having some people from each team trash talking. In the case of the US and Mexico, there is national pride, and regional dominance of the soccer world. The Mexican country expects their team to beat the US. They see themselves as superior to us in all things related to soccer. It's an embarassment to them to lose to us, and they have been embarassed a number of times, most memorably the 2002 World Cup Round of 16 where the US beat them 2-0 and knocked them out of the tournament. They still seek revenge for that game every time they meet. World Cup qualifying begins in a year, and usually the team of the two that comes out on top during the qualifying session has a chance at being put in the pot as one of the top seeded teams, meaning they have a better chance to avoid big names in the tournament. Mexico was given the last top seed at the '06 WC, and received a relatively easy group compared to the US.
At any rate, tomorrow's game does not necessarily carry the burden of qualifying for the World Cup. It does, however, mark the debut for the new Mexican National Team coach, and the 2nd game in charge for the interim US coach. A win for either will boost their standing considerably, while a loss will be devastating to the morale and future of both coaches. In addition, both teams are fielding relatively young teams. The new WC cycle brings about a necessity to have new faces fill the voids. The US team for sure has voids to fill with Brian McBride, Claudio Reyna and Eddie Pope all retiring from national team duties. That trio has essentially formed the spine of the national team for the past decade, from forward to defense respectively, and finding people to fill their shoes is of the utmost priority. It won't be an easy task, and although there are people that are promising in those positions, the reason they were around for so long is that nobody in the past decade was able to challenge them for their positions.
If you don't normally watch soccer because you find it boring, I think that this might be the best chance to "entertain" you. For sure when there is world cup qualification on the line, there isn't a whole lot better in our neck of the woods than US vs. Mexico. The teams despise each other and bragging rights go to the winner...at least for another 6 months or so. What more could you want in a game? If you have a minute, tune in and watch, cause I know I will be.
At any rate, tomorrow's game does not necessarily carry the burden of qualifying for the World Cup. It does, however, mark the debut for the new Mexican National Team coach, and the 2nd game in charge for the interim US coach. A win for either will boost their standing considerably, while a loss will be devastating to the morale and future of both coaches. In addition, both teams are fielding relatively young teams. The new WC cycle brings about a necessity to have new faces fill the voids. The US team for sure has voids to fill with Brian McBride, Claudio Reyna and Eddie Pope all retiring from national team duties. That trio has essentially formed the spine of the national team for the past decade, from forward to defense respectively, and finding people to fill their shoes is of the utmost priority. It won't be an easy task, and although there are people that are promising in those positions, the reason they were around for so long is that nobody in the past decade was able to challenge them for their positions.
If you don't normally watch soccer because you find it boring, I think that this might be the best chance to "entertain" you. For sure when there is world cup qualification on the line, there isn't a whole lot better in our neck of the woods than US vs. Mexico. The teams despise each other and bragging rights go to the winner...at least for another 6 months or so. What more could you want in a game? If you have a minute, tune in and watch, cause I know I will be.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Snow?
Well, it's now the 1st of February, and there has been snowfall in the East Tennessee area. Maybe a quarter inch at the most. It was amusing watching the news last night how everyone was completely freaked out, the stores had been rushed, the shelves were empty, schools even cancelled the night before just on the threat of snow. Nobody here can handle anything with even the slightest bit of snow on the ground. I'm sure our counterparts in the north mock us mercilessly whenever they happen to hear about schools in the southern states getting closed for a "snow day". It's alright though, cause I took the fact that Knox County schools were closed as a reason to not drive to Oak Ridge and therefore stay at home and work when I feel like it.
In other news, I will be coaching a middle school soccer team this spring. Mandi had told me at the end of the summer that I should coach a team, but it didn't look like it would happen since the coordinator that I knew for the coaching positions in AYSO moved away shortly after. I got a call late last week from a parent at church that helps run our small group that her son's school needed a coach and asked whether I'd be interested. So I said yes. I don't know the full details and we're having a meeting on Saturday to discuss how to get things going, but I'll be coaching a Varsity and JV soccer team at Cedar Bluff Middle School (I think) from later this month through the middle of May. I think it'll be pretty cool. Now I'll get to see if all those years spent complaining about coaches not knowing what they were doing when I was watching other teams play comes back to bite me.
In other news, I will be coaching a middle school soccer team this spring. Mandi had told me at the end of the summer that I should coach a team, but it didn't look like it would happen since the coordinator that I knew for the coaching positions in AYSO moved away shortly after. I got a call late last week from a parent at church that helps run our small group that her son's school needed a coach and asked whether I'd be interested. So I said yes. I don't know the full details and we're having a meeting on Saturday to discuss how to get things going, but I'll be coaching a Varsity and JV soccer team at Cedar Bluff Middle School (I think) from later this month through the middle of May. I think it'll be pretty cool. Now I'll get to see if all those years spent complaining about coaches not knowing what they were doing when I was watching other teams play comes back to bite me.
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