Change in Scope - Change in Name

Anyone who has visited this blog can see that I haven’t posted anything for a couple years. That’s because after 13 years of coaching youth soccer I “retired” and shifted my focus to refereeing. While my daughters ended their soccer career in 2006 when they graduated from high school I continued coaching at a club and with a friend whose son played in the town’s recreational program. I enjoyed it but the demands of business travel and family commitments won out. Rather than pull the plug on this blog I decided to expand it’s scope to include other sports, primarily tennis and skiing. I thought about rolling this into my blog on flourishing but some of the things I’d like to talk about have to do with technique lessons I’ve learned.

Getting back to soccer, I started to referee because I blew out my knee playing soccer in a men’s pick up game in 2002. (The same year I got a kidney stone so I call 2002 the Year of Pain.)  Torn ACL, PCL and MCL plus a detached hamstring and the muscle bundle at the top of the fibula. Had to have two cadaver ligaments installed and the surgeon needed to sever my quad to make a repair behind it then reattach the quad. The surgery took 6 hours while the rehab took 7 months. I now have to wear an ACL brace to give my leg lateral stability because the replacement MCL isn’t as tight as the factory installed MCL. When I asked the surgeon (whose specialty is knee and shoulder repairs) how my injury rated on a scale of 1 (minor injury) to 10 (major injury) he said it was a 9 for a sports-related injury. (!) Still, I was actually thinking of playing again! That was until my wife threatened to divorce me if I stepped foot onto the pitch again. My compromise was to get a referee license so that I could still be out on the field even though I’m not passing or shooting the ball.

It was a good decision. I was still coaching during the first five years of refereeing so I think seeing things from the player’s perspective helped me see things differently than standing on the sidelines. You also hear the players grumbling about what their coaches and parents are yelling at them. Refereeing gave me the workout I’m looking for but there was something else: the camaraderie with my fellow referees. I have chosen to referee just the games in my town’s recreational program where there is a small pool of referees. And each game typically has three referees assigned: a center and two assistant referees. As a result we get to know each other. It’s similar to the camaraderie that I experienced playing in the pick up games.

So what does this have to do with the change in the blog? Good question! I guess it’s my final installment on a purely soccer-related subject. In future posts I’ll share my experience trying techniques that don’t fall into the traditional advice that people are given when they want to learn to play tennis, ski or even run. As a preview I’ve worked on applying the ideas of the late Mark Papas at Revolutionary Tennis, Harald Harb’s “phantom move” in skiing and Danny Dreyer’s chi running which I use when refereeing. Stay tuned!

Mia Hamm Interview

I found this interview with Mia Hamm to be interesting. I like her comment (quoting a coach) that parents should be parents. "As a parent myself, I can pay other people to do their job in terms of coaching my kids. I don’t want anyone but me and my husband to be their parents."

RickyMasterCoach.com

Recently I happened to come across this web site, RickyMasterCoach, that has exactly the kind of information I've been looking for a long time. Some of his posts show a point he wants to make, say how to make a penetrating pass or defending, by providing photos of professional players in action. He then adds comments and arrows onto the photos to explain his topic. Highly recommended!

Women's World Cup Final: Another Perspective

Scott Carlson thinks the U.S. ladies suffered from overconfidence.

In the end, I think the U.S. team’s overconfidence/borderline cockiness also came back to bite them in the worst way. At first, it was too much swagger, and then when PK’s came around, it was not enough. Three missed PK’s in a row, wow, what can you say? Despite some great individual efforts (Megan Rapinoe is an absolute beast, that girl can play), the team collectively crumbled, and I ‘m not afraid to say it.

I think he has a point based on the quotes he provides in his article. I think the results also showed the resolve and determination of the Japanese team. I'm sure a large part of this will to win was rooted in the Japanese player's desire to give their compatriots at home something to lift their spirits after the earthquake and tsnunami.

Zonalmarking's analysis of the Women's World Cup Final

I always find the analyses on Zonalmarking interesting so I was waiting to see if they would cover the Women's World Cup final. They did.

Japan 2-2 United States (AET): Japan win their first ever Women’s World Cup | Zonal Marking

The only thing I'd add is that it seemed that the U.S. team tried to play more possession soccer which obviously depends on technical ability than what I recall of previous World Cups where the U.S. women relied more on their speed and athleticism. I also read an interview of Anson Dorrance who was impressed by Coach Sundhage's practice in which she focused on crossing for 30 or more minutes where most coaches would not devote so much time for fear of boring the players.

I don't know how much time Sundhage practiced PKs. I've seen comments on a coaching forum questioning the sequence of players who took the PKs. What struck me is how weakly the first three players struck the ball. I don't know if it was the result of being under intense pressure or if they decided to pass the ball into the net as opposed to shooting. It also seemed that Japan's keeper had a good read on what our players were going to do. Results of scouting? Or did she pick up cues?

In any case, I'm happy for Japan and pleased that the U.S. players were gracious in defeat.

Fall 2010 Observations

Another season of refereeing has ended. This fall was a bit different because I also helped coach a boys U12 town team in addition to refereeing. I’ve seen some recent threads on a couple of soccer discussion forums bemoaning the poor state of officiating. Speaking as a referee I know there is a great variety of quality among referees just as there is among coaches (and parents). The job is not as easy as it might look to parents and coaches who are standing on the sidelines. Decisions have to be made on the fly without the benefit of instant reply.

I also know that there is no unanimity among referees. My home games for the boys’ team I coached were officiated by referees with whom I worked on other games. They made some calls I wouldn’t have. I’ve also worked the lines for a number of games where I would have called something differently than the center referee. When I’ve centered games I asked my A/Rs about certain calls I made. Sometimes they agreed with me while sometimes they didn’t. Even when I take the annual referee recertification in which we watch USSF videos of actual games the opinions among us differs.

I think people also forget or aren’t aware of the fact that referees do have to take annual recertification classes in order to keep their badge. Admittedly it’s only 4 or 5 hours a year but it’s more than coaches get! After I getting my USSF D license four years ago there is no requirement to follow up this course. (I think the A and B licenses do have follow ups but I’m not certain.) I’m also lucky in that my referee assignor works some games with me so I’ll ask him for feedback after a game.

I did get a chuckle earlier this season when in one game the coach from my town accused me of favoring the visiting team. In the following game the visiting coach accused me of favoring the home team! In both cases the teams of the protesting coaches played much more physically, using their elbows freely to buy space.

In any case, I know none of the above excuses us referees from trying to do a good job. Part of the frustration, especially for younger teams is that the referees typically are only a couple of years older than the age group they’re officiating. Assignors do this to help these young referees get the experience they need to get better without throwing them to the wolves (by giving them games of older ages where the competition is stronger and the demands and expectations are higher).

Why Try Outs Are Making Your Team Worse from A Coaching Life blog

Came across this blog while reading one of the coaching forums. Has an interesting approach.

http://acoachinglife.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/why-try-outs-are-making-your-team-worse/