Articles

· Kids, Football & Failure by Gill Cooper "In a world where children can no longer play outside without supervision, parents and coaches have taken over, and the competitive drive adults bring to the game means that youngsters no longer have time to fall in love with football, to play for fun and thus to truly develop their skills.""So what do we the adults need to do - the key is that we have to understand the needs of the young players as learners.

· People always need to be given responsibility for and ownership of their learning - after all 90% of the process goes on at their end. They need to be given the licence to experiment with new things free of the fear of failure, they need to be challenged in a variety of ways and they need to be trusted to get on with the learning (playing football) within the boundaries of respect for others and good behaviour that we (the adults) set and model. But most of all they need to have FUN and ENJOYMENT playing the game they love because that's how they LEARN best. If we can do these things the adult impact may well be a positive one. To READ the entire article click here>>

· Who is Koach Karl Dewazien? - Karl has been the Coaching Director of Cal North since 1978 and he wants to teach all parents and coaches that soccer is more than an game - it's a way of building character in our children.....let him help you teach soccer the FUNdamental way! click here to find out more about the Coaching Director for California Youth Soccer North and the 9-Step Routine for 9 years!

· The Adult Impact by John Allpress (Give us Back Our Game) "Learning about the game and how to play it is both a science and an art. So how did the greats LEARN the game? Matthews, Finney, Puskas, DeStefano, Pele, Best and Zidane - well the answers to that question could be many and varied but what is certain is that they loved the game and they played it as kids for hours and hours, day after day, come rain or shine, wherever and whenever they could, with whoever they could. They played in the streets, the playgrounds, on grass, on concrete, and on waste ground. They played with their mates - older or younger - with anything that bounced or rolled (and sometimes with things that didn't). Most importantly they took RESPONSIBILITY and they sorted things out because if they didn't nobody else would. It was probably unstructured and sometimes chaotic (15 a side on a pile of mud with players of all shapes and ages) but the greats were playing and LEARNING getting in their 10,000 hours of practice and experimenting. To Read the entire article click here »