A player can always improve his fitness by working out hard. He can comprehend certain tactics by studying the game. But how far he goes will be determined mainly by how well he has mastered ball skills. Those are acquired by playing, day after day, year after year.

 

A player who really wants to excel will spend as much time as possible playing small-sided games when he has playmates, and juggling and kicking against the wall when he’s on his own.

  I spent a lot of time hitting the ball against the side of the house when I was a growing up. If my mother complained about the noise, I’d hop down the retaining wall at the end of our property to the office-building parking lot.  

I’d use that wall -- hitting the ball with both feet, seeing how long I could return the wall’s passes without losing control.

Continue...

"Let's kick, Daddy." Those were the words our 2-year-old son Braedon uttered a few months ago. As soon as the phrase had crossed his lips a flood of memories came rushing back to the forefront of my mind.

Two decades ago if you were a soccer player growing up in Millersville, Pa., "Let's kick! " or "Do you want to kick?" meant so much more than passing a ball back and forth as my son was now requesting. In our 1980s lexicon for soccer junkies, "to kick" took on a cult-like meaning that was as deep and varied as the characters who engaged in the activity.

The first step was to head over to the Millersville University soccer field, which was conveniently located a quick fence hop from Penn Manor High where most of us went to school.

If you arrived alone, you spent some time juggling and dribbling through mock defenders before drilling shots at the kickboard: a dilapidated structure the size of a regulation goal with peeling green paint.

Continue...

By rule in the State and District leagues, team rosters are “frozen” starting in August.  That means that there are no “guest players” allowed in fall league games as sometimes can happen in summer tournaments.  Starting in the fall, it has been the rule in the leagues Shadow has entered that a player must be rostered to one team and only that team’s rostered players can play for it.

The Player Development League (PDL) Player Pass allows for player movement among our club’s PDL Teams.  Because it is a PDL rule, the Player Pass only applies to our U12-U16 Boys and Girls PDL teams.

Continue...

Throughout the entire process, you may initiate contact (via email, instant messenger, fax, phone and/or letters) as much as you want.  Phone message (except specific camp related questions) CANNOT be returned until July 1st of your Senior  year and unfortunately College Coaches cannot text you!

Freshman/Sophomore Year

The beginning of your high school career should coincide with the beginning of your college search.  This is a time for assessment.   You need to begin to ask “Big Questions” at this time.  What do I want to get out of college?  Academically, where do I fit?  Do I want to be close to home? What do I want to do when I graduate?  More than likely, there will not be definitive answers to these life questions at this time and they may change, sometimes from month to month and even day to day.  The most important part of this assessment is not the answers but the thought processes which lead you to your choices. Make sure the place you choose is a ‘Good Fit’ for YOU!!

Continue...

If you are planning to play (or trying to play) in NCAA Division I or II athletics you need to sign up at the NCAA Eligibility Center (Clearinghouse):  https://web1.ncaa.org/eligibilitycenter/common/

This web site has a list of approved courses from YOUR high school that will meet NCAA minimums. If you are not on target to meet NCAA minimums on subjects and number of courses, you will know after your sign-up and submission of Junior year transcripts (see below), and you can make Senior year curriculum adjustments. Meeting NCAA minimums is not usually a problem for most HS college prep tracks. The Clearinghouse certifies that you are academically eligible to participate in DI or DII athletics.

*  When you sign up at the Clearinghouse, you will complete some background information and an amateurism questionnaire. Sign-up costs $60 and families with previously demonstrated financial need on SAT/ACT exam fees can have this NCAA fee waivered also.  

Continue...

One of the biggest gripes some people have when they don’t make a team is that it has to do with some political process. They blame lack of success on favoritism or prejudice. So, rather than discussing or evaluating failure through lack of ability or performance, the issue is politics. The problem with that specious argument is that it is made by those players on the bottom of a roster. So if you don’t want to leave it to chance, don’t let it be close. Make a clear statement in the trial about who you are and what you can do.

If you’re a good player you are going to make it. If you’re marginal, it may be left up to politics. If you want to be assured of making a team, be one of the top three or four players. Try not to be the 12th through 30th best for an 18-player roster, because in the selector’s eyes, players below the top 11 hold diminished significance. You may feel you will improve, benefit from the training and contribute to the team, but that is not likely what the selectors are concerned with. The selectors are most interested in the truly elite. That is their main responsibility.

Continue...

Every time I come away from a youth soccer game whether I am out recruiting for Whitworth or just watching my kids play, I end up shaking my head…and it doesn’t matter the level.   Do you know who cares the most about winning?  Parents!  Who is next on the list?  Coaches….however, the best coaches will always keep losing in perspective.  Who is last?  You guessed it, players.  Ultimately, players just want to play.

Continue...

Continue...

By analyzing street soccer yourself, you will conclude that its strength is that it is played daily in a competitive form, with a preference for the match on all sorts of ’street playing fields’, usually in small groups. Rarely in street soccer do you see youths busy practicing isolated technical and tactical drills. No, it is always the competitive form, where youth players learn from their mistakes, unconscious of the technical, tactical, mental and physical qualities they are developing through the scrimmages being played.

Continue...

When Manchester United’s Academy boys glide from their dressing rooms at the club’s magnificent skill factory hidden deep in the Trafford countryside, they run past 10-foot high photographs of David Beckham, Sir Bobby Charlton, Duncan Edwards, Ryan Giggs and George Best. "We want them to be inspired," said Rene Meulensteen, United’s skills development coach.   They are inspired. In the ensuing sessions of drills and small-sided games, the technique, ambition and vision of United’s youngsters borders on the breath-taking. "If this generation carries on maturing," confided Meulensteen on Monday night, "they will steamroller everyone at Under-18 level. They’ll have skills coming out of their ears."
 

Continue...

Continue...