NoVaRTP wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NoVaRTP wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take your player to a local soccer field when he doesn't have practice and let him play pickup with the Hispanic kids that can't afford a team but feel their soccer and are crazy about it. Your player will improve by leaps and bounds on a technical level, might learn some tricks and footwork that he would never learn from a coach, and he will make some soccer friends that are for life. You won't regret it and your player will have a blast getting an occasional reprieve from the shackles of organized soccer.

Anyone care to PM me about where and when some of those pick-up games are played in Northern VA or DC ? I won't repost. I've asked this question several times, and answer still remains elusive since nobody wants to ruin a good thing. I'd like to get my elementary aged travel boys roughed up playing in some pick up games.

Arlington just listed its drop in soccer schedule for the upcoming weeks: http://www.arlingtonsoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DropInFall17edit.pdf

I just checked out the flyer, and I can't help but laugh. First of all, who gets up early in the morning and is ready for pick-up anything. And having the ASA staff choose teams is the worst you can do, wear shin guards??, please don't come on this forum and say the kids didn't enjoy the spontaneously-scheduled organized-fun they were supposed to be having.

It's a good program, no others in the area like it, so no reason to knock it.

+1

We are no longer with the Club, but my kids always enjoyed it. We still try to make it occasionally when our schedule permits.

Anonymous wrote:

NoVaRTP wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NoVaRTP wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take your player to a local soccer field when he doesn't have practice and let him play pickup with the Hispanic kids that can't afford a team but feel their soccer and are crazy about it. Your player will improve by leaps and bounds on a technical level, might learn some tricks and footwork that he would never learn from a coach, and he will make some soccer friends that are for life. You won't regret it and your player will have a blast getting an occasional reprieve from the shackles of organized soccer.

Anyone care to PM me about where and when some of those pick-up games are played in Northern VA or DC ? I won't repost. I've asked this question several times, and answer still remains elusive since nobody wants to ruin a good thing. I'd like to get my elementary aged travel boys roughed up playing in some pick up games.

Arlington just listed its drop in soccer schedule for the upcoming weeks: http://www.arlingtonsoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DropInFall17edit.pdf

I just checked out the flyer, and I can't help but laugh. First of all, who gets up early in the morning and is ready for pick-up anything. And having the ASA staff choose teams is the worst you can do, wear shin guards??, please don't come on this forum and say the kids didn't enjoy the spontaneously-scheduled organized-fun they were supposed to be having.

It's a good program, no others in the area like it, so no reason to knock it.

Actually ASA summer program is run a whole lot better, this program seems to want manufacture fun. As for other clubs, I know NVSC has a 'street soccer' program but sometimes the coaches try to get too involved it feels like another practice session. FPYC has a similar program, though not sure if it's still going. This program sounds to me like a fun activity for the adults as they get together on days they're off and have the kids play something while the parents catch-up. The informal soccer that was being talked about earlier was for players to actually play soccer and pick-up a few things they wouldn't otherwise see at their practices. It depends on what you're rating the program on to say it's "a good program, no others in the area like it".

Was he saying that because it's open to non-ASA members? Vienna has restarted its Friday night free play, but it's only for players already registered in House or travel.

NoVaRTP wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NoVaRTP wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take your player to a local soccer field when he doesn't have practice and let him play pickup with the Hispanic kids that can't afford a team but feel their soccer and are crazy about it. Your player will improve by leaps and bounds on a technical level, might learn some tricks and footwork that he would never learn from a coach, and he will make some soccer friends that are for life. You won't regret it and your player will have a blast getting an occasional reprieve from the shackles of organized soccer.

Anyone care to PM me about where and when some of those pick-up games are played in Northern VA or DC ? I won't repost. I've asked this question several times, and answer still remains elusive since nobody wants to ruin a good thing. I'd like to get my elementary aged travel boys roughed up playing in some pick up games.

Arlington just listed its drop in soccer schedule for the upcoming weeks: http://www.arlingtonsoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DropInFall17edit.pdf

I just checked out the flyer, and I can't help but laugh. First of all, who gets up early in the morning and is ready for pick-up anything. And having the ASA staff choose teams is the worst you can do, wear shin guards??, please don't come on this forum and say the kids didn't enjoy the spontaneously-scheduled organized-fun they were supposed to be having.

It's a good program, no others in the area like it, so no reason to knock it.

Actually ASA summer program is run a whole lot better, this program seems to want manufacture fun. As for other clubs, I know NVSC has a 'street soccer' program but sometimes the coaches try to get too involved it feels like another practice session. FPYC has a similar program, though not sure if it's still going. This program sounds to me like a fun activity for the adults as they get together on days they're off and have the kids play something while the parents catch-up. The informal soccer that was being talked about earlier was for players to actually play soccer and pick-up a few things they wouldn't otherwise see at their practices. It depends on what you're rating the program on to say it's "a good program, no others in the area like it".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NoVaRTP wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take your player to a local soccer field when he doesn't have practice and let him play pickup with the Hispanic kids that can't afford a team but feel their soccer and are crazy about it. Your player will improve by leaps and bounds on a technical level, might learn some tricks and footwork that he would never learn from a coach, and he will make some soccer friends that are for life. You won't regret it and your player will have a blast getting an occasional reprieve from the shackles of organized soccer.

Anyone care to PM me about where and when some of those pick-up games are played in Northern VA or DC ? I won't repost. I've asked this question several times, and answer still remains elusive since nobody wants to ruin a good thing. I'd like to get my elementary aged travel boys roughed up playing in some pick up games.

Arlington just listed its drop in soccer schedule for the upcoming weeks: http://www.arlingtonsoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DropInFall17edit.pdf

I just checked out the flyer, and I can't help but laugh. First of all, who gets up early in the morning and is ready for pick-up anything. And having the ASA staff choose teams is the worst you can do, wear shin guards??, please don't come on this forum and say the kids didn't enjoy the spontaneously-scheduled organized-fun they were supposed to be having.

It's a good program, no others in the area like it, so no reason to knock it.

Anonymous wrote:

NoVaRTP wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take your player to a local soccer field when he doesn't have practice and let him play pickup with the Hispanic kids that can't afford a team but feel their soccer and are crazy about it. Your player will improve by leaps and bounds on a technical level, might learn some tricks and footwork that he would never learn from a coach, and he will make some soccer friends that are for life. You won't regret it and your player will have a blast getting an occasional reprieve from the shackles of organized soccer.

Anyone care to PM me about where and when some of those pick-up games are played in Northern VA or DC ? I won't repost. I've asked this question several times, and answer still remains elusive since nobody wants to ruin a good thing. I'd like to get my elementary aged travel boys roughed up playing in some pick up games.

Arlington just listed its drop in soccer schedule for the upcoming weeks: http://www.arlingtonsoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DropInFall17edit.pdf

I just checked out the flyer, and I can't help but laugh. First of all, who gets up early in the morning and is ready for pick-up anything. And having the ASA staff choose teams is the worst you can do, wear shin guards??, please don't come on this forum and say the kids didn't enjoy the spontaneously-scheduled organized-fun they were supposed to be having.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of clubs have field space set aside for pickup soccer once or twice a week. If your player is high school aged, Draper Park in Fairfax usually has some great pickup games in the evenings, you'll see some real talented players there all the time.

FPYC allocates a full turf field at Draper in the summer and winter twice a week usually Fridays 5:30-7:30 and Sundays 2-4pm. During the seasons (spring and fall), they provide a grass field every Sunday 2-4pm. Very few people have been turning up the past few seasons. Not sure why. Someone even invited everyone on this message board there over the summer on Friday nights and still no one showed. I see that Vienna provides Jones Branch for pick up on Friday nights, but you have to be a member of the club...exclusive pick up! : )

Scheduling pick-up games is kind of like trying to conjure innovation and creativity out-of-nothing. Not sure about you all, but I played a lot of pick-up basketball as a child/teenager, and somedays the court would be me and this other guy, and other days we'd be running 4v4 games with several people waiting to come on. I would say find a place to go to play with your son/daughter and see who shows up. By the way I'm Latino, college-educated, wife and three kids, and find the type of stereotypical comments on this board about pick-up soccer amongst Latinos means your kid will get "roughed up" to be completely ignorant bordering on prejudicial, untrue and have to believe the people posting are misinformed. This is where other whites get the idea that Latino men will violate their women because they are blinded by their rage and are naturally sexually deviant.

Dirtiest play we've seen this year is by entitled white kids on PAC and McLean.

PAC? Really? What age group? Most of their teams are waaaaay too timid. We're talking "flinching when someone five yards away gently passes the ball to someone else" timid.

Yeah, I'll tell you even though it may out me because I feel like people are too secretive about this stuff. PAC 05 Navy Boys. The coach was abusive, and encouraged bad fouls, and seemed to have rubbed off on the boys. One player was ejected and the coach nearly was.

What??? I don't have a kid on this team but I know the coach well. He is absolutely not abusive and does not encourage bad, or any other kind of fouls. I am honestly shocked that someone would vilify this particular coach.

Maybe you don't know the coach trains or talks to his players during the matches.

And you do??

I said that I don't have a child on this team but he has coached many other teams in the past and is currently coaching other teams. I know very well how he trains and how he talks to his players in matches. He has coached more than one of my kids and is an excellent coach, firm but quite positive. Maybe he had a bad day last week, maybe he was provoked--what I can tell you is that this coach is absolutely not abusive and I have never heard one person in the club who feels that way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of clubs have field space set aside for pickup soccer once or twice a week. If your player is high school aged, Draper Park in Fairfax usually has some great pickup games in the evenings, you'll see some real talented players there all the time.

FPYC allocates a full turf field at Draper in the summer and winter twice a week usually Fridays 5:30-7:30 and Sundays 2-4pm. During the seasons (spring and fall), they provide a grass field every Sunday 2-4pm. Very few people have been turning up the past few seasons. Not sure why. Someone even invited everyone on this message board there over the summer on Friday nights and still no one showed. I see that Vienna provides Jones Branch for pick up on Friday nights, but you have to be a member of the club...exclusive pick up! : )

Scheduling pick-up games is kind of like trying to conjure innovation and creativity out-of-nothing. Not sure about you all, but I played a lot of pick-up basketball as a child/teenager, and somedays the court would be me and this other guy, and other days we'd be running 4v4 games with several people waiting to come on. I would say find a place to go to play with your son/daughter and see who shows up. By the way I'm Latino, college-educated, wife and three kids, and find the type of stereotypical comments on this board about pick-up soccer amongst Latinos means your kid will get "roughed up" to be completely ignorant bordering on prejudicial, untrue and have to believe the people posting are misinformed. This is where other whites get the idea that Latino men will violate their women because they are blinded by their rage and are naturally sexually deviant.

Dirtiest play we've seen this year is by entitled white kids on PAC and McLean.

Really?? I am curious what age groups. In my experience, these two clubs seem less physical than others.

Dirty is not the same thing as physical. This is boys side, preteen age group. Coaches encouraging bad fouls. Intentionally violent fouls to disrupt scoring opportunities. Players bitching at the ref the whole game.

Exactly, people that see soccer as the no-contact sport that is super safe and their child will not be pushed around have a misinformed perspective about how the sport is really played. Just so that everyone knows, shoulder-to-shoulder contact is fine, even if one of the kids is launched 3-5 feet. What that shows is the player has not been properly trained in maintaining balance and to lower their center of gravity by bending their knees.

This is incorrect. If a shoulder charge is carried out with excessive force, the ref can and should blow the whistle.

I saw an amusing scene in a pro game once in which a player -- a guy with a pretty big rep as an indoor/outdoor "enforcer" -- came sprinting over and leveled someone from the other team. He managed to make it shoulder-to-shoulder, but this was by no means a legal play. The ref blew his whistle. The player half-heartedly pointed to his shoulder but then walked away. He knew what he did.

There are a lot of parents who don't understand that shielding and shoulder-to-shoulder contact are legal in most cases. At the same time, there are a lot of parents (and coaches and players and refs) who think anything goes as long as a player makes shoulder contact first or happens to be near the ball.

I've never seen a ref in Northern Virginia who calls too MUCH. Only refs who call it right or do little but pace around and occasionally blow the halftime whistle on time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of clubs have field space set aside for pickup soccer once or twice a week. If your player is high school aged, Draper Park in Fairfax usually has some great pickup games in the evenings, you'll see some real talented players there all the time.

FPYC allocates a full turf field at Draper in the summer and winter twice a week usually Fridays 5:30-7:30 and Sundays 2-4pm. During the seasons (spring and fall), they provide a grass field every Sunday 2-4pm. Very few people have been turning up the past few seasons. Not sure why. Someone even invited everyone on this message board there over the summer on Friday nights and still no one showed. I see that Vienna provides Jones Branch for pick up on Friday nights, but you have to be a member of the club...exclusive pick up! : )

Scheduling pick-up games is kind of like trying to conjure innovation and creativity out-of-nothing. Not sure about you all, but I played a lot of pick-up basketball as a child/teenager, and somedays the court would be me and this other guy, and other days we'd be running 4v4 games with several people waiting to come on. I would say find a place to go to play with your son/daughter and see who shows up. By the way I'm Latino, college-educated, wife and three kids, and find the type of stereotypical comments on this board about pick-up soccer amongst Latinos means your kid will get "roughed up" to be completely ignorant bordering on prejudicial, untrue and have to believe the people posting are misinformed. This is where other whites get the idea that Latino men will violate their women because they are blinded by their rage and are naturally sexually deviant.

Dirtiest play we've seen this year is by entitled white kids on PAC and McLean.

PAC? Really? What age group? Most of their teams are waaaaay too timid. We're talking "flinching when someone five yards away gently passes the ball to someone else" timid.

Yeah, I'll tell you even though it may out me because I feel like people are too secretive about this stuff. PAC 05 Navy Boys. The coach was abusive, and encouraged bad fouls, and seemed to have rubbed off on the boys. One player was ejected and the coach nearly was.

What??? I don't have a kid on this team but I know the coach well. He is absolutely not abusive and does not encourage bad, or any other kind of fouls. I am honestly shocked that someone would vilify this particular coach.

I don't know what to tell you. He was ranting during the game. At one point the ref stopped the game and went over to warn him. I wouldn't want my kid coached by him.

Just wanted to say thanks, PP. I have a kid there in a different age group so I don't know this coach, but it's good to be aware of what other folks are seeing.

NoVaRTP wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take your player to a local soccer field when he doesn't have practice and let him play pickup with the Hispanic kids that can't afford a team but feel their soccer and are crazy about it. Your player will improve by leaps and bounds on a technical level, might learn some tricks and footwork that he would never learn from a coach, and he will make some soccer friends that are for life. You won't regret it and your player will have a blast getting an occasional reprieve from the shackles of organized soccer.

Anyone care to PM me about where and when some of those pick-up games are played in Northern VA or DC ? I won't repost. I've asked this question several times, and answer still remains elusive since nobody wants to ruin a good thing. I'd like to get my elementary aged travel boys roughed up playing in some pick up games.

Arlington just listed its drop in soccer schedule for the upcoming weeks: http://www.arlingtonsoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DropInFall17edit.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of clubs have field space set aside for pickup soccer once or twice a week. If your player is high school aged, Draper Park in Fairfax usually has some great pickup games in the evenings, you'll see some real talented players there all the time.

FPYC allocates a full turf field at Draper in the summer and winter twice a week usually Fridays 5:30-7:30 and Sundays 2-4pm. During the seasons (spring and fall), they provide a grass field every Sunday 2-4pm. Very few people have been turning up the past few seasons. Not sure why. Someone even invited everyone on this message board there over the summer on Friday nights and still no one showed. I see that Vienna provides Jones Branch for pick up on Friday nights, but you have to be a member of the club...exclusive pick up! : )

Scheduling pick-up games is kind of like trying to conjure innovation and creativity out-of-nothing. Not sure about you all, but I played a lot of pick-up basketball as a child/teenager, and somedays the court would be me and this other guy, and other days we'd be running 4v4 games with several people waiting to come on. I would say find a place to go to play with your son/daughter and see who shows up. By the way I'm Latino, college-educated, wife and three kids, and find the type of stereotypical comments on this board about pick-up soccer amongst Latinos means your kid will get "roughed up" to be completely ignorant bordering on prejudicial, untrue and have to believe the people posting are misinformed. This is where other whites get the idea that Latino men will violate their women because they are blinded by their rage and are naturally sexually deviant.

Dirtiest play we've seen this year is by entitled white kids on PAC and McLean.

PAC? Really? What age group? Most of their teams are waaaaay too timid. We're talking "flinching when someone five yards away gently passes the ball to someone else" timid.

Yeah, I'll tell you even though it may out me because I feel like people are too secretive about this stuff. PAC 05 Navy Boys. The coach was abusive, and encouraged bad fouls, and seemed to have rubbed off on the boys. One player was ejected and the coach nearly was.

What??? I don't have a kid on this team but I know the coach well. He is absolutely not abusive and does not encourage bad, or any other kind of fouls. I am honestly shocked that someone would vilify this particular coach.

Maybe you don't know the coach trains or talks to his players during the matches.

They list two coaches. I know one and would be surprised if he acted this way unless he was really provoked. (If they were playing Calverton -- that might be a provocation. That club, like NVSC, seems to have a club-wide problem.) I don't know the other one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of clubs have field space set aside for pickup soccer once or twice a week. If your player is high school aged, Draper Park in Fairfax usually has some great pickup games in the evenings, you'll see some real talented players there all the time.

FPYC allocates a full turf field at Draper in the summer and winter twice a week usually Fridays 5:30-7:30 and Sundays 2-4pm. During the seasons (spring and fall), they provide a grass field every Sunday 2-4pm. Very few people have been turning up the past few seasons. Not sure why. Someone even invited everyone on this message board there over the summer on Friday nights and still no one showed. I see that Vienna provides Jones Branch for pick up on Friday nights, but you have to be a member of the club...exclusive pick up! : )

Scheduling pick-up games is kind of like trying to conjure innovation and creativity out-of-nothing. Not sure about you all, but I played a lot of pick-up basketball as a child/teenager, and somedays the court would be me and this other guy, and other days we'd be running 4v4 games with several people waiting to come on. I would say find a place to go to play with your son/daughter and see who shows up. By the way I'm Latino, college-educated, wife and three kids, and find the type of stereotypical comments on this board about pick-up soccer amongst Latinos means your kid will get "roughed up" to be completely ignorant bordering on prejudicial, untrue and have to believe the people posting are misinformed. This is where other whites get the idea that Latino men will violate their women because they are blinded by their rage and are naturally sexually deviant.

Dirtiest play we've seen this year is by entitled white kids on PAC and McLean.

PAC? Really? What age group? Most of their teams are waaaaay too timid. We're talking "flinching when someone five yards away gently passes the ball to someone else" timid.

Yeah, I'll tell you even though it may out me because I feel like people are too secretive about this stuff. PAC 05 Navy Boys. The coach was abusive, and encouraged bad fouls, and seemed to have rubbed off on the boys. One player was ejected and the coach nearly was.

Ah -- OK. I thought someone said "preteen" earlier, so I was thinking U12 and below, in which I would've been totally shocked. I don't know the U13s as well. Was it a tall coach or a medium-height coach?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of clubs have field space set aside for pickup soccer once or twice a week. If your player is high school aged, Draper Park in Fairfax usually has some great pickup games in the evenings, you'll see some real talented players there all the time.

FPYC allocates a full turf field at Draper in the summer and winter twice a week usually Fridays 5:30-7:30 and Sundays 2-4pm. During the seasons (spring and fall), they provide a grass field every Sunday 2-4pm. Very few people have been turning up the past few seasons. Not sure why. Someone even invited everyone on this message board there over the summer on Friday nights and still no one showed. I see that Vienna provides Jones Branch for pick up on Friday nights, but you have to be a member of the club...exclusive pick up! : )

Scheduling pick-up games is kind of like trying to conjure innovation and creativity out-of-nothing. Not sure about you all, but I played a lot of pick-up basketball as a child/teenager, and somedays the court would be me and this other guy, and other days we'd be running 4v4 games with several people waiting to come on. I would say find a place to go to play with your son/daughter and see who shows up. By the way I'm Latino, college-educated, wife and three kids, and find the type of stereotypical comments on this board about pick-up soccer amongst Latinos means your kid will get "roughed up" to be completely ignorant bordering on prejudicial, untrue and have to believe the people posting are misinformed. This is where other whites get the idea that Latino men will violate their women because they are blinded by their rage and are naturally sexually deviant.

Dirtiest play we've seen this year is by entitled white kids on PAC and McLean.

PAC? Really? What age group? Most of their teams are waaaaay too timid. We're talking "flinching when someone five yards away gently passes the ball to someone else" timid.

Yeah, I'll tell you even though it may out me because I feel like people are too secretive about this stuff. PAC 05 Navy Boys. The coach was abusive, and encouraged bad fouls, and seemed to have rubbed off on the boys. One player was ejected and the coach nearly was.

What??? I don't have a kid on this team but I know the coach well. He is absolutely not abusive and does not encourage bad, or any other kind of fouls. I am honestly shocked that someone would vilify this particular coach.

I don't know what to tell you. He was ranting during the game. At one point the ref stopped the game and went over to warn him. I wouldn't want my kid coached by him.

Anonymous wrote:FFS... Please please please keep trump talk off this blog. This is my 'safe space' where I can pretend my kid's soccer life is the most important thing going on in the world today.

You're right, my fault!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of clubs have field space set aside for pickup soccer once or twice a week. If your player is high school aged, Draper Park in Fairfax usually has some great pickup games in the evenings, you'll see some real talented players there all the time.

FPYC allocates a full turf field at Draper in the summer and winter twice a week usually Fridays 5:30-7:30 and Sundays 2-4pm. During the seasons (spring and fall), they provide a grass field every Sunday 2-4pm. Very few people have been turning up the past few seasons. Not sure why. Someone even invited everyone on this message board there over the summer on Friday nights and still no one showed. I see that Vienna provides Jones Branch for pick up on Friday nights, but you have to be a member of the club...exclusive pick up! : )

Scheduling pick-up games is kind of like trying to conjure innovation and creativity out-of-nothing. Not sure about you all, but I played a lot of pick-up basketball as a child/teenager, and somedays the court would be me and this other guy, and other days we'd be running 4v4 games with several people waiting to come on. I would say find a place to go to play with your son/daughter and see who shows up. By the way I'm Latino, college-educated, wife and three kids, and find the type of stereotypical comments on this board about pick-up soccer amongst Latinos means your kid will get "roughed up" to be completely ignorant bordering on prejudicial, untrue and have to believe the people posting are misinformed. This is where other whites get the idea that Latino men will violate their women because they are blinded by their rage and are naturally sexually deviant.

Dirtiest play we've seen this year is by entitled white kids on PAC and McLean.

PAC? Really? What age group? Most of their teams are waaaaay too timid. We're talking "flinching when someone five yards away gently passes the ball to someone else" timid.

Yeah, I'll tell you even though it may out me because I feel like people are too secretive about this stuff. PAC 05 Navy Boys. The coach was abusive, and encouraged bad fouls, and seemed to have rubbed off on the boys. One player was ejected and the coach nearly was.

What??? I don't have a kid on this team but I know the coach well. He is absolutely not abusive and does not encourage bad, or any other kind of fouls. I am honestly shocked that someone would vilify this particular coach.

Maybe you don't know the coach trains or talks to his players during the matches.

Anonymous wrote:The vast majority of the dirty teams I've encountered that play like that resort primarily to long ball tactics. It's as if they've resigned themselves to be inferior, rather than just working with their players to ensure more synergy when they have the ball

If you think about it, the long ball tactic is used when you already have the win and are trying to waste time to hold on, or if you don't have the win but you can't concede a goal, you have the ST press the back line and hope for a break away goal.

Both of these scenarios shouldn't apply in youth soccer since most of the time the ulittle games don't count. Frankly, you can't blame the players.

Let's take it to a basketball game and say that you havent trained the kids to shoot, dribble, pass correctly. Now lets say you put them in a competitive league. The players will naturally not know how to play offense, and will play defense the entire time since they dont know what to do with the ball when they get it. One fast kid who knows how to do a layup or dribble, or both, will stand at the halfway line and will expect the pass from one of the four players trying to get a rebound.

In the basketball game, I would say it is the parents and coaches fault for enrolling and their players in leagues that are too advanced for their skill. These players would be fine at their local rec league. Also, the coach needs to take the time to figure out what skills the players need work on, not just follow a training regiment passed down by the Technical Director. Finally, the players could benefit from watching an NBA game every now and then so they can get some ideas about players move, and how fun it can be to k ow how to play and do the dribbles and shots that look really good on tv.