Thunder Academy Thoughts-Part 1 The Key Development Time
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 01:36PM The most important time for a player’s skill development is between the ages of 5-12 years old. Until recently that age group has been largely ignored. There have been pockets here and there that have taken an interest in these age groups but it has not been a state wide, or nation wide, focus and because of this we don’t have as big of a talent base to draw on as we could.
Have we been able to get by without this set up and can we continue to get by? That depends on your definition of getting by. I believe Minnesota should be able to put out, at the minimum, two nationally competitive teams in each age group.
The twin cities population of 3,054,637 places it 16th in the nation for Metro Area Population.1 However, if we are just going to break down the number of players registered with each State Association, Minnesota ranks 3rd in Region II behind only Illinois and Michigan.
1) Michigan 84,358 (2006)2
2) Illinois 85,000 3
3) MN 79,000 4
4) Indiana 57,600 5
5) Ohio South 56,000 6
6) Wisconsin 56,000 7
7) Ohio North 55,000 6
8) Kentucky 38,970 (2006) 8
9) Nebraska 25,000 9
But having fewer players playing the game than other parts of the region/nation, or having a small population does not mean you cannot be a world power if you get the right training. The Netherlands has a population of 16,390,000 and Portugal has a population of 10,623,000. That makes them the 61st and 76th ranked countries in terms of population in the world.10 Despite their lack of numbers they still produce some of the top quality players in the world year after year.
If we can focus our efforts at the younger age levels by putting the kids in an environment that is both fun and challenging, we will be able to produce many more top level players in our state.
It all starts with the youth. 'My personal take is that if we can get ages nought to 12 right then the rest will pretty much take care of itself,' Simon Clifford says. 'Make our own raw material better in terms of instinctive skill and attitude, things that can be coached and trained, and let the rest of the world try to keep up.' 11
This comes from the man who is changing the way the English think about soccer. "His aim, he says, was to 'make football more beautiful, more entertaining', by encouraging young players to imitate the flamboyant Brazilian style. Then it became about success, about proving he could push forward boundaries of excellence. Clifford appears to be delivering. His system has already produced four England and five Scotland internationals at junior levels.
If he can do that with no scouting or selection, he asks, imagine what he can do if he gets the most talented kids."12 Simon's ideas are so influential in England that he was asked by 1998 English World Cup Coach Glenn Hoddle how to make the National Team more Brazilian.
Normally this means that the US can't be far behind right? Maybe 10-15 years and we'll have someone come over here and tell us that we need to start younger. Then Minnesota will wait to see if it works somewhere else first and then begin to try it. Well enough of that. Let’s be the first ones in on this.
Minnesota 's style is the well rounded person. Yeah, you betcha, Minnesota loves the well rounded person. The person who does well in school, plays three sports, and still has time to go to the lake during the summer. That is great for the majority of people, but it is not for the players who want to play at the highest level. People who show a love for anything should be encouraged to do it as much as they like. If a child loves soccer by the age of 3 then we need to give him the chance to play it as often as he can. It is the same for a child who loves to read. You do not tell a child to stop reading because they are becoming too one dimensional. That would be silly. If you find something your child loves let them pursue it.
"It is like a musician, it doesn't matter whether he is English or French, the one who works more becomes better."13
I realize that the thought of playing only one sport may cause some culture shock, but I am not suggesting that they can only play one sport. Especially at young ages playing multiple sports is great for developing coordination, dexterity, and passion. These are all crucial things that can be developed by playing more than one sport. However, if you want to be great at something you cannot play it for three months, put it away for 9 months, play again for 3 months and then put it back on the shelf again.
Would a young pianist who shows promise and above average interest be allowed to only play piano 3 months of the year because her parents are afraid that she may become one dimensional? Not likely. She can still learn the violin, trumpet and cello if she likes while still being allowed to sit down at the piano and enjoy playing it year round. If your child truly wants to be great at soccer let her play as much as she can year round.
The best players in the world constantly talk about how they grew up with a ball. "I worshiped the dribble. As a child I did nothing but dribble. In the living room, between the furniture and the chairs, in the garden around my dog. I learned all about life with the ball at my feet." Ronaldinho14
The best thing that this merger will do for us is that we will be able to identify the kids who love to play soccer at an early age and offer them as many opportunities to play as we can. Right now if a young parent who has no prior experience in soccer goes to sign their child up to play they will go to the local community center or community club between the ages of 5-8. They are then placed on a team with a parent coach, in most cases, and they will be told to play. This format does not foster a love for the sport. Kids need to be taught how to play and be put in a situation where the coach can make adjustments so every player will have an enjoyable experience. The Thunder Academy can create that environment.
The Thunder Academy will put top coaches at the younger age groups to not only teach the youngest age groups proper technique, but to grow player's desire to become better. "A good coach needs to have vast knowledge of the subject matter and theoretical teaching knowledge as well as the third and perhaps most crucial intangible of effective teaching; "enthusiasm". Just as students can usually feel the teaching attitude around them , they are also very aware of the teacher or coaches attitude toward the subject matter. An unprepared or bored teacher conveys this attitude to the students and effects their performance. However, the teacher who is prepared and highly motivated gets the most out of his students as it is fun and exciting to be taught or coached by this individual."15 Top level coaches are able to work with young players in creative ways that stress technique and creativity at the same time. They show the kids how to make the ball work for them.
With the Bangu Academy we started targeting players who were 10-12 years old. One thing we've found is that, even at the age of 10, players can come into the academy and display a lot of athleticism but when we see them play with and against other athletic and high level players, their athleticism is not enough. They already have so many bad habits that they cannot do anything but kick the ball and run after it in the situations that require more from them. If we can target the younger players aged 5-9 years old we can create the proper habits and do it in a fun environment where the kids will leave a session saying "Look what I can do!" and then they'll go and work on it on their own. "The main thing we look for in young players is how skillful they are with the ball. How fast can he do things with the ball. It is not so important how tall the player is or how strong the player is at 11 or 12 years old. So we concentrate all the time on the basic interaction with the player and the ball." Sporting Lisbon.16
In Minnesota there are tons of players playing between the ages of six and nine years old but the issue is that they are not receiving good coaching. "If I want to be very blunt I would say the best coach at the club should be involved with the youth teams. That is the future of the club. "You need to start going with the best coaches with the boys from seven. That is when they learn the fastest."13 Totenham Hotspurs Director of of Football David Comolli preaches.
The major benefit with the Thunder Academy is that we will be targeting this age group with their professional coaches and begin to turn Minnesota into a place where top level players are produced. If things turn out right, we will have everyone working together to raise the level of all the players who love to play soccer.
1 http://www.proximityone.com/msa03us.htm US Metro Areas 2000
2http://usyouthsoccer.org/index.php?s=&change_well_id=2&url_article_id=1150 US Youth Soccer
3http://usyouthsoccer.org/index.php?s=&change_well_id=2&url_article_id=1145 US Youth Soccer
4 http://www.mnyouthsoccer.org/about/glance.cfm
5 http://www.indianayouthsoccer.org/info.html Indiana Youth Soccer Association
6 http://www.osysa.com/NewLeague40.pdf
7 http://www.wiyouthsoccer.net/Forms/NewClubGuidelines.pdf Wisconsin Youth Soccer
8 http://www.nebraskasoccer.org/NewSite/Policies/Whatis.asp
9 http://usyouthsoccer.org/index.php?s=&change_well_id=2&url_article_id=1147
10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population
11 http://www.gosportslife.com/youth-soccer/five-years-to-save-english-football.html
12http://www.icfds.com/content2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=90&Itemid=125 Simon Clifford
13 http://www.gosportslife.com/youth-soccer/odds-against-england.html
14 http://www.gosportslife.com/listen-to-me-quotes/
Ice Cream Cones And Constantly Trying To Embarrass Your Defender
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 11:50AM As the kids arrived to training early today, I noticed a difference between the boys and the girls. While the girls talked with each other and started their tennis ball routine, (this is before we started training), the first 3 boys that were on the field immediately began playing keep away with the soccer ball. They played it in a tight space even though there were no cones or boundaries set up.
As I watched them play it seemed like they had two objectives for the game. One objective was to keep the ball away from the person in the middle. The other, and it seemed to the more important objective, was to try and embarrass the defender or make him look foolish for trying to steal the ball. To do this, the people with the ball had to see how close they could come to letting the player in the middle get the ball, without giving it to him.
So instead of them just running around all over the place and making simple passes that would keep the ball. Sometimes I saw them trying to pass it right next to the defenders leg. Or they would try to nutmeg the defender. Other times they would fake the pass and just try to dribble by him.
As they would try this over and over again, they lost the ball a number of times. But it didn't matter, they knew they would get the ball back again. What I really enjoyed was that the attackers received more joy out of making the defender look bad, than actually keeping the ball away from the defender.
While I was watching this, I had a flashback of when I was young and one time I was allowed to get an ice cream cone and my sister was not able to get one. (Probably because I had been good and she had not:) I remember taking such joy in the fact that I had the ice cream and she did not. Who knows if the ice cream was good or bad, it tasted great because my sister could not have it.
As I was eating it, I kept telling her how good it was. Then, I would hold it out as close to her as I could, without her being able to hit it out of my hands, and ask her if she wanted some. But then I would remind her "Oh yeah, that's right you can't have any!"
Isn't this why parents can go nuts? What a terrible thing to do, right? Oh well, I knew at some point she would return the deed to me so I felt I needed to enjoy the moment.
As I was reliving this childhood memory I realized that this is one of the differences that I see between boys and girls. Boys enjoy having the ball purely for the reason that they have it and the other team or person does not. Girls do not seem to derive that joy from simply having the ball. They want a purpose with the ball.
If you are playing a game of keep away with a boys team and you say 10 passes equals a point, the boys will try to get the ten passes and win the game. But at the same time they want to make the defenders look foolish. They will try to do give and goes around the defenders. Split passes will be attempted. Nutmegs will be tried. Every time something is successful, the person who had just been made to look foolish will be reminded of it in hopes that they will get madder and madder so you can do it again.
If you are playing a game of keep away with a girls team and you say that 10 passes equals a point; you will see a lot of passes around the outside of the grid and a race to see who can get to 10 passes the quickest because that is what the coach wanted. They take joy in winning the game to please the coach.
Relating this to the development of a young players game, the way the boys approach the challenge of getting 10 passes in a row is going to grow the young player the most. This is because in order to "embarrass" the defenders on a consistent basis they have to become very creative.
The boys version of the game is more difficult and you will hear coaches and teammates tell the player who just lost the ball trying to do a crazy flick to play it simple. But at the young age the more they think about these things, the more it becomes common place in their heads to look for the tricky move. The game changing move.
It is much easier to teach a kid who is full of tricks to make the simple pass. However, it is almost impossible for the player who always looks to play the simple pass to think about game changing moves. It is the Game Changers that the top coaches and teams are after. Those players can add something to a squad.
The goal of trying to Constantly Embarrass Your Defender, or CEYD, is one that demands creativity. In order to CEYD in our training environment you are going to have to become very creative because you will not be able to embarrass one of our players in the same way over and over again without that defender making adjustments and forcing you to do something different. Our players are all super competitive and hate to look bad. So when they look bad on defense, they become more determined to not let it happen again. The more determined the defender is to not look bad and take the ball from you, the more creative you will have to become in finding a way that the defender was not thinking about to beat her.
By having our players trying to Consistently Embarrass Your Defender, we are fostering a very creative and competitive environment. An added benefit of this environment is that it can help players deal with set backs on the field because if a defender does get embarrassed, she has to move on quickly or risk the chance of being embarrassed again and again. Of course the trick is getting the players to leave this mentality on the field after they are done playing. But if you can get your players to take joy in having the ball and get them to look to embarrass their defender, you will start to see their creativity flourish.
Training Like Martial Arts Fighters
Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 02:05PM Have you ever seen any type of Martial Arts class in progress or on TV? What is the most common sight? Is it two people on fighting? Do you see the whole class breaking boards and cement blocks? No. The majority of time you see students lined up following the instructors motions. The key is repetition. They work meticulously on their form. They work on their breathing techniques and they visualize. Then after hours and hours of form work, they begin to add in opponents or challenges. But it all comes down to developing the right technique. As soccer coaches we should learn from this process.
Coaches want their players to have proper form but often times we are too scared to make the kids focus on it. We are scared because we don't want our players to become bored so we rush them through the proper motions so they can play the game. If we would stop for a moment to think about this process we might change how quickly we rush through technique training so the kids can play.
Lets look at this topic in a different light. Lets look at students in math class. As in everything some people are good at math, some struggle and most sit somewhere in between. When the teacher puts a problem up on the board and is looking out at the class to pick someone to solve the problem there are two thoughts going through the class. One is head down, eyes avoiding the teacher and repeating; "Please don't call on me. Don't make eye contact. Please don't call on me. He can't call on me if I don't make eye contact right?" The other reaction is along the lines of "I can try this one. I can handle this." These reactions are not just because some kids are smart and some are not. In fact your reaction to a problem can differ from week to week. So what causes these differing reactions? Confidence.
Why wouldn't someone want to be called on to solve the problem? Probably because she does not know the answer or has no idea of how to get to the answer. On the other hand why would someone want to go up to the board and solve the problem? Most likely because she knows the answer or has an idea of how to work towards the answer. How do you become confident in math? Through repetition and seeing the same type of problems in a variety of ways. The more problems you complete, the more confidence you will have in solving that type of problem.
So how does this relate to getting coaches to spend more time working on players technique and less time rushing into the more advanced topics and playing? Next time you let your players play watch them closely. Which players are always around the ball and making plays? Which players are hiding on the field and look to get rid of the ball quickly when they have it? What is the difference between the two types of players? Confidence.
Players who are confident have good technique. Good technique puts the players in charge of the ball. When you are in control of the ball your head is up and you are relaxed. When you are relaxed and in control of the ball good things tend to happen. If good things are happening each time a player has the ball she will become more confident and want the ball more. Good technique also leads to these players having more creative ideas because they are able to do more with the ball.
Players who are not confident do not have good technique. Poor technique makes the ball in charge of the player, instead of the player controlling what the ball is doing. Poor technique causes bad touches. When you take a bad touch your head goes down and you can't see the field. Then you become rushed and when you are rushed bad things usually happen. If bad things are continually happening when a player touches the ball her, she probably wont want to keep getting the ball and her teammates probably will not want to keep giving her the ball.
Rushing into games of keep away and scrimmaging are not situations to develop good technique. Players need repetition. They need to break down their form into small parts and work on those parts; standing still, then going in slow motion, then at normal speed, then add in defenders. This should be done both with a ball and without a ball. As the players form becomes better through the repetition, they will become more confident.
But wont the kids will become bored with repetition? Yes. That is where the real coaching begins. Can you get the players to see how working on their form will directly relate to how good of a player she will become? Another key is being able to work on the same skill in a variety of ways. You have to be creative. If you can find a way to make the repetition enjoyable and get them to see how much it will help them, when you let them play you will be amazed at how good your players will look when they are playing.
Until later,
Andy
Play Catch With Your Girls
Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 10:10AM The first thing a father does with his son is toss a ball around. Whether it is a baseball, football, basketball and shooting hoops, it is all done through the air. Girls very rarely play catch at an early age so tracking a ball through the air is more difficult for them. If you have ever watched a girls game you will see the goaltender misjudge a long shot, take a step forward only to realize the ball is going over her head and into the net. This exact scenario happened a handful of times this past fall in the Womens World Cup. There is also a big difference in how girl goalies control their 18 yard box versus boy goalies. Girls can control their 6 yard box, but boys can control the entire 18 yard box. How can we change this? For starters we can play catch.
Growing up like a lot of young boys, my dad and I would go out into the yard and play catch. We would throw the ball normal back and forth to get warmed up. Then we would throw it harder. We would mix in ground balls and fly balls. As I got better, my dad would throw the fly balls up as high as he could. He would throw them all over the field and I would have to run after them and figure out where they would land. If I was lucky he would make it so hard that I would have to sprint after the ball and the only way that I could get there would be to dive. This was a fun game for me and an added benefit I was learning how to judge a ball in the air. This skill would come in handy later as I was learning how to; judge a ball, catch a ball, punch balls over the net while playing goalie, trap a goalies punt, judge a long ball, do headers, and volley the ball. It all related back to something that seems like it had nothing to do with soccer. Learning the skills to track a ball in the air by playing catch is one of the reasons it is important to give your players a strong athletic base to draw skills from. What creative activities can you set up for your players?
Go out, grab some tennis balls, and spend a couple minutes each session playing catch with your girls. It will be a fun and unique warm-up activity for them. After a while you will start to see some major improvements.
Until later,
Andy
Winter Is One of My Favorite Times of The Year
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 12:01PM "Did you win?" This is a common question asked by parents, siblings, friends, and coaches anytime a game is played. It may not be the first question, but it is always inevitably asked and scores are kept. When winning and losing are involved it is natural to want to win and plans will be formed so you can win. Even coaches who say they don't care about winning still try to instill a competitive streak in their kids and hope to give their kids skills while trying to win at the same time. Winning is a by-product of improving. Then there is the expectation when you gather top players together to form a team to win a decent amount of the time.
Every spring through fall there are so many games played and each game brings on new challenges and things to work on. These challenges are good and you can find something new in each game. The problem arises when you start trying to work on one thing, then the next game comes and a new issue comes up so you start to work on that issue. Then the next game comes and you find something else and so on and so on until ten games down the road you are back to working on the issue that you spotted and began to work on ten games ago. In order to improve players need repetition. You cannot expect any player to pick up a certain skill in one training session. It takes time. This is why the winter months are some of my favorite months of the year.
The winter is where the development happens. You can see it right before your eyes. Week by week you progress with no interruptions. You aren't distracted by what happened in the last game. You are focused on your development goals and how best to achieve them. There are no cries about scores, how we're playing, playing time or anything else. It is just constant improvement and it is great.
In the winter I can set out my training plans and I don't have to be worried about adjusting them based on day by day events. If we have a bad session, that is ok. I'm not going to get 20 emails saying the wheels are falling off. There are no kids leaving discouraged and feeling that they let their team down. (I am not saying that a player ever should leave a game this way, but it can and does happen.) If we have a bad session I can look at the session, see what needed improvement and adjust that within the framework of my goals.
When one training session is off it is not a crisis and it is easy to regroup and improve during the next session. If it is a topic that we are struggling with I can adjust the pressure and set the kids up to succeed. The more success they have the more challenging the exercises will become and with each new difficulty we can talk about how far we've come. "Last month we struggled to complete three passes in a row during our 4v4 games. Now I am not only asking you to keep the ball, but I am encouraging you to add in give and gos and overlaps. Do you see how far you've come?!"
Kids also enjoy the training period. While they do enjoy the games more than anything they realize that there is less pressure on them when we just train. There are no parents dissecting each move they made in a game and questioning them on their play. They can build and experiment with no worries as long as they are putting in the effort to improve.
Another benefit of winter training is that you can play a wide variety of games with the kids to peak their interest and keep them excited. Always playing 8v8 or 11v11 games can get stale. The variety of indoor environments we have up here provide the kids with unique training environments that can help all aspects of their game. You have dome fields that are like normal fields. We also have boarded fields in a variety of sizes that keep the games fast paced and entertaining. Then we have futsol in gyms. All of these different types of trainings keep things interesting for both kids and coaches.
The winter is a great time of year so go out and enjoy it.
Until later,
Andy
It's Not About Win, Win, Win
Monday, May 14, 2007 at 04:08PM It's nice when other people put your thoughts down on paper for you. This is from Big Soccer's Thread on Illinios State Cup Favorites but this section is dealing with what to do when your club/ state has a truly elite player. The post is by Region II Futbolr
us#1..This is very easy for you to say!! You told Menace to tryout with the likes of PDA, Eclipse or SoCal...Same can be said for you, Im sure you can find any club any where that mirrors Iowa. However it isnt that easy for all. Say you have a 'Elite' player. Im not saying a really good player, but a Natl or Regional level player. Is that player going to get better by playing and training with players who do not take the sport or the passion as serius as the Elite player?? That right there is the biggest problem Iowa has. They do a very good job with the good player, boys and girls..but when they have Elite players (and they do) there is nothing they do for them. So who suffers?? Not the club or the state, they have a ringer..So the question I ask is, is it about player development for ALL Levels, or is it more for the win win win per club?? Just like Menace said, we have our state cup teams over here, but once they go to Regionals, they are just a notch above the likes of the Dakota's, KY, KS and NE. All the other states in Region II have somewhat power houses because they are from bigger metro areas.
MN is Bangu, MO its mostly StLouis teams (StLSC), IL is Eclipse, MI is Hawks, IN is Carmel, OH is Ohio Elite, OP and Internationals. But let me stress thou, there are great elite players in every state. Its just to bad that they cant train together to make the enviorment more healthy for all involved.
Its not about the win win win...its about the training, the development..You do that right, and you have a few elite players, then the winning will follow.
I think Menace said it all, The talent naturally seeks its own level. And for the Elite finding that, why should they be criticized?
It Takes Doing Something 1,000's of Times Before You Get It Right
Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 01:01PM As I sit here and attempt to redesign this Home Page for the website I keep thinking about how much more fun it was to struggle with learning something new in sports than it is to struggle with web design. I have no doubt that the countless hours spent, working on a single move or technique, has given me the determination to push on through my current frustrations until I get it right. I often tell my players "It takes doing something thousands of times before you start to get it right." I'm on try 498 so I've still got a ways to go, but I think my form is getting better. What do you think?
He Just Has The Best Players
Thursday, May 3, 2007 at 10:21AM Wolves Lose. Way To Go!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 12:21AM PA and Dubay are talking yesterday morning about how depressing the 3rd game of the Wild's series with Anaheim made them feel. Then one of the guys says; "On a brighter note. Jason Richardson and the Golden State Warriors Crush the Timber Wolves last night to officially make us the 6th worst team in the league. Whoo Hoo! Way to go Golden State. Congratulations Timber Wolves you did it! We now have a good chance at getting our draft pick.
It seems like the Wolves have been putting forth less than full effort for quite some time now and it will hopefully pay off with a good draft pick. (Who am I kidding. Kevin McHale will probably trade the pick to McDonalds for some french fries and a large coke, but still manage to have to pay extra for the hamburger.) I listen to other NBA game wrap ups as the season winds down, I hear about the top seeds not playing their top players so they will be rested for the play offs. This whole idea of not giving your full effort to win every game reminds me of the big uproar over last years U15 Eclipse Girls team playing possession when they were down 0-1 in their final game of pool play at the national tournament so they would get to play a weaker team in the Semi Finals. They won their first two games. They didn't need to win their last game. They earned the right to take it easy and enjoy the 110 degree heat while resting up for the semi finals.
Looking back at the video now, are people still upset they did not play to win the game? They did win the tournament and that was their goal. Do people think it was smart to play the way they did? Does it come back to watching professional teams and athletes and imitating what they do? Would they have given their full effort if we always saw every team on TV giving their all to win?
We're Not Trying, So You Shouldn't Try Either
Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 01:22AM Bulls hand slumping Knicks most lopsided loss of season
"I think they were definitely trying to rub it in," said Eddy Curry, who spent his first four seasons with the Bulls. "But we'll see them next year."
Fans get free Big Macs if the Bulls score 100. Chicago's Chris Duhon acknowledged they were trying to feed spectators but denied trying to run up the score. Thabo Sefolosha missed a 3-pointer with 1:04 left, and Duhon missed two in the final minute. Malik Allen also missed a layup with 10 seconds left.
Is this a joke? No, seriously I'm not joking. Is this a joke? The New York Knicks are complaining that the Chicago Bulls were running up the score on them. They got to 98 points and the Knicks are saying that the Bulls were running up the score. They have got to be kidding me.
"As a veteran, I have been in the league long enough, and I know when people are trying to run up the score on you," Francis said. "And I told their players, if I was in the game, it would've been something different. If it was a threat or whatever, I'm a veteran. I won't do that to nobody, and I don't expect nobody to try to do that to younger players on my team, so that's what it was."
Oh really Steve? If you were in the game things would have been different? Why weren't you in the game? I'm sure that sprained big toe of yours really hurt. Nothing says we aren't going to try in this game quite like your star player sitting the game out because of a sprained toe.
It was 21-10 after the first quarter and 45-27 at halftime. It finished 98-69.
It is a completely different story in the amateur ranks. Things are not always going to be fair. Certain teams will always be better than other teams. That does not give the better teams the right to embarrass the other team. Here is where I get upset. Players look up to professional athletes. What are they supposed to think when the Knicks blame the Bulls for kicking them to the curb? There is not a set way for teams to lose a game.
To borrow from Jim Rome:
"You're a professional athlete. It's the NBA. You have to love that there is a protocol or an etiquette for getting your heads beatin in. Like; 'We gave up. You knew we gave up. So it's on you to stop trying. Let us off the hook and not embarrass us.' That is hilarious. If you don't want to be embarrassed guard somebody. If you don't want to look bad, get a hand in some bodies face. If you don't want to be humiliated, go to the glass. You're confusing their running it up, with them actually trying."
This sounds a bit familiar to something. Oh yeah. It's today's culture. It is not my fault I did something wrong. It is yours. It's not my fault that I have done some bad things. It's yours. Why would you hold me accountable for my actions? How dare you?
Who knows where people get this mentality that it is never their fault for what happens. You're the New York Knicks. It's your job to actually play basketball. I hear they are an up and coming team. A force to be reckoned with. Everyone has a bad game. But when you quite in the first quarter, don't blame the other team for still trying and giving their full effort because that is what they are supposed to do. If you don't like what is happening around you put forth some effort to change it instead of waiting until it is finished and then complaining that the other team tried too hard.
Support North Dakota?
Friday, April 6, 2007 at 03:21PM Last night as I was watching the NCAA Hockey Frozen Four game between North Dakota and Boston College I found myself screaming at the TV every time North Dakota got called for another bogus penalty and cheering loudly every time they scored. Just two weekends ago I was at the Xcel Energy Center going back and forth with those North Dakotans and telling them how I felt about Minnesota being so much better than their team. Two weekends ago I was fighting with them and this weekend I was cheering with them.
North Dakota ended up losing 6-4 in a very good game. After the game I had to stop for a second and decide if I should be disgusted with myself since I actually was cheering for the Soiux to win. I found that I wasn't disgusted or even slightly upset. Since Minnesota couldn't win the title I wanted the WCHA to win another title so we could continue to show that we have the best hockey in the Nation being played in our Conference.
I love the fact that I played hockey and any where I go I can always say with pride that Minnesota is the best state for hockey in the Nation. I am wondering- Can Minnesota soccer come together and cheer for their teams at National events? Or can other areas of the country do it? I hear and read about the Magic vs. Sockers rivalry and they don't seem to celebrate each others successes. Is it even possible to cheer for someone from the same area as you and wish them success?
Showcase vs Tournament Set Up
Monday, March 19, 2007 at 12:42PM With the tournament and showcase season upon us I want to know where people stand on the following idea that came from the mn girls soccer blog:
Teams aged 12-15 need to win or place well at regional/national tournaments so they can get into the top tournaments when they are older. They want to be in the top tournaments when they are older so they can be seen by the best/most college coaches. A lot of the top older tournaments have been going to the showcase format recently so teams don't have to be as focussed on winning so they can play all of their players so they can get an opportunity to play college soccer. (For the purpose of discussion we are not talking about State Cup in this thread)
Here is where the questions are:
-Should we actually switch the showcase idea around and have the teams between the ages of 12-15 doing the showcase events so every player can play more at this crucial time in development? Will it also allow players/ coaches to try new things knowing that it wont cost them the tournament championship?
-Do the majority of people like the showcase idea at the older level? I know it's supposed to be there to get more players playing time, but in all reality player's 1-15, maybe even 1-16, are going to get a lot of playing time already in a 3 day tournament where you may play 5 games if it is a regular tournament set up.
Why This Section?
Monday, March 19, 2007 at 12:39PM People like blogs and I want some discussion so I will try to post a question or topic every 1-2 weeks. The questions are meant to create some discussion and bounce ideas back and forth. You are able to discuss things in every section of my website so start to talk on those too. If you would like to post a question for the blog let us know and if it is good it'll be put up in bright lights for everyone to read.
I will try to write the questions in an objective manner and then interject my thoughts into the discussion in the comments section.
I was going to go to the Twins game today, but I got caught up working on things and I couldn't go. When I looked at the clock again I realized the game should be half way done so I turned on the game and saw the score was 3-0 for Chicago in the 8th inning. I thought to myself "Wow its a good thing I didn't go to the game today."
Is that the way to think about a game? If I knew before the game that my team wouldn't win the game would I watch it? If I joined the game late with my team losing, like I did today, should I still watch the game? I watched the game and hoped that we would come back and win. We didn't.
After the game I thought a little more about whether or not I watch sports just to see my team win and I remembered that I don't. I watch the games to see a good game. I've gone to Gopher hockey games, football games, Thunder games, and other games where the outcome of the game is all but a forgone conclusion and I stick around until the end of the game. People leave to beat the traffic. I stay to hopefully see something interesting happen. After all, that is why I went to the game in the first place.
Does something interesting always happen? No. In fact most times nothing that great happens. But sometimes something great does happen and I'm always happy to be there to watch it.