Why I quit hating soccer.....besides the soccer moms!

[Creamer]

Ahh, the beauty of youth soccer... the clock keeps ticking as they drag the casualties off the field and the game is over in an hour.

Not sure what kind of soccer they play up there but I have worked with our local youth soccer league - ages 4-14 and about 300 kids participating in each fall and spring - and i only know of one injury that required a doctor's care and that was where two somewhat non-athletic 13 year old girls collided an done fell backwards and popped her collarbone. Others have been taken to the doctor but no care was required. Considering all the hours of soccer and the number of players and coaches, etc I would say that is a great record.

We also are very strict on how rough they can play, having the right equipment, and focus on learning the game and having fun and not on winning the game. Of course the kids keep score but number one is for a kid to ahve fun at a sport because then they will play it when they are not at practice or a game and that is when they will get good.

 

[Creamer]

Soccer is a beautiful game once you understand it. It is one of the few games that once the game starts the coach is mostly out of it and the players have to think for themselves - they decide how to set it up and play the game. It is very tough for coach to be heard across a field that large and most of the good coaches aren't. It is also good training for a lot of general physical skills that all players develop such as balance, coordination, breathing, running, endurance, how to kick, positioning, etc. Things that are applicable to many other sports. Our local high school football coach who fought soccer coming twenty years later grudgingly admitted that the player she had that had played in our local rec soccer league were better athletes in general.

The other thing about soccer is that you can continue with it after organized sports as it takes virtually no equipment and any open grass area can be your field, play with as many players as you have, and push it to a high level or just have fun. The local indoor league has a non-competitive division where adults just come for exercise and to do something as team that is fun.

As far as the most boring spectator sport - precision air rifle. You wait all day for the thirty minutes that your child's team is shooting. You can watch them shoot but you really cannot see much even with binoculars. After they are done shooting they take the targets away to score them and you wait for the score. I find it even worse than cross country when you get to see them take off and then at the finish line.

 

[airbiscuit]

I like Cross Country as a sport. IN NW WI, they run in beautiful places, spectators cheer for gifted runners from opposing schools, and the last runner to cross the finish line gets rousing cheers. Seems to have the best sportsmanship of the fans.

 

[oosik]

I never could get interested in soccer. Don't understand the rules.

 

[MossRoad]

I never could get interested in soccer. Don't understand the rules.

Kick the ball into the net.

Hope that helps.



No? That's not all the rules? Crud.



Offsides is the one that gets me.

 

[MossRoad]

I like Cross Country as a sport. IN NW WI, they run in beautiful places, spectators cheer for gifted runners from opposing schools, and the last runner to cross the finish line gets rousing cheers. Seems to have the best sportsmanship of the fans.

One of our kids ran cross country. It was very fun to watch what you could. Some courses were so heavily wooded or hilly that you had to pick a spot where they might run past you once or twice, then hustle back to the finish line before they get there. Our kid was kinda strange in that she'd PR on the hardest, hilliest courses, and kinda fall off her game on the flat ones. Some kinda psychological thing. She ended up being city champ on the 2nd team her senior year.

 

[CalG]

Not sure what kind of soccer they play up there but I have worked with our local youth soccer league - ages 4-14 and about 300 kids participating in each fall and spring - and i only know of one injury that required a doctor's care and that was where two somewhat non-athletic 13 year old girls collided an done fell backwards and popped her collarbone. Others have been taken to the doctor but no care was required. Considering all the hours of soccer and the number of players and coaches, etc I would say that is a great record.

We also are very strict on how rough they can play, having the right equipment, and focus on learning the game and having fun and not on winning the game. Of course the kids keep score but number one is for a kid to ahve fun at a sport because then they will play it when they are not at practice or a game and that is when they will get good.

When I got into the high school boys level, there was an "incident" that set me on edge. I went for medical training and ended up with the National Ski Patrol "Out Door Emergency Care" program.

I still use the the training as a full time active member of our mountain rescue group. But don't coach anymore.

eta

In perspective. At age 50, I was feeling "old", didn't want to jump in or out of pickup beds and that sort of thing.

I started playing soccer with a local "run what you brung" group Guys and gals, young and old (we did have to cut out the high schoolers, they were too fast!

Perked me right up, my agility improved 100% and a lot of fun was had.

 

[John_Mc]

Offsides is the one that gets me.

That one has changed over the years

 

[MossRoad]

Can you explain it?

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Offsides in Soccer; when the attacking team has control of the ball, once past the mid field line, that team can not have a player between the goal and a defensemen when the ball is played forward.