Happy New Year!

So, 2010 is almost done. 2011 starts tomorrow, and it is going to be a big year for the power soccer community. Why will it be so big? The second World Cup is being held this time in Paris. Even though the Paralympics decided not to include power soccer on their roster of events yet, it is great that there is still an international competition that promotes the highest level of play and competition. However, I think that there are other reasons why it will be such a great year for power soccer. It seems like the USPSA is extraordinarily growth focused right now, so I think that we are only going to get more teams and more activity here in America. Although I'm not 100% sure of what is happening in other countries, I would bet that they have a similar scenario to what we have. It seems like once the sport gets going, more teams just keep growing. Therefore, it should be a good year here and abroad. For our team, it should also be a good year as we are growing and learning more and more. Happy New Year to my readers, and see you next year!

Photo by Ed Yourdon on Flickr

Video Game Day

So, have any of you ever played Football Manager 2011? Highly addicting game to say the least. Basically, you become the manager of a professional football (soccer) team and try to manage everything from the finances to relationships with different reporters to tendencies of certain referees. The level of depth is insane, but I love that even though it makes me insane. It takes a long time to set up a team appropriately although I haven't even mastered that yet. The biggest mistake I've made so far is getting way too arrogant at a press conference and having my players crumble against a team that clearly should have been not essentially a challenge. Of course, that is what makes this game great. It is a lot deeper than just who has the better players. However, I would bet that it sells better everywhere outside the United States given that it is not named soccer. Of course, that makes sense. I wish more people got into soccer in the United States. It seems like everyone played soccer as a kid but no one seems to worry as much about it as they get older. Who knows, maybe there will be a soccer revival!

Photo from http://www.incgamers.com/images/screenshots/20229orig.jpg

Team Vision

I think that it is definitely interesting to think about what an appropriate team vision can do. What I mean is that if everybody on the team has a similar perception of the game then it follows that the team will work well together when it counts. For example, if everyone on the team sees that there is a hole on the left hand side of the court, some play is bound to be set up that will allow that weakness to be exploited. When I say that we will all have the same vision, of course you realize now that I don't mean that every player on the court is doing identical things. What I mean is that they all understand how to react to a given situation due to the same sense of purpose and goal of the sport. In my mind, I am thinking about power soccer right now, but it definitely can apply to many other sports as well such as basketball or hockey. Every player should never be doing the same thing as everybody else unless they are synchronized swimming. The goal is to understand the game in the same way as the team unit so that everyone reacts to every situation in a way that their teammates understand.

A Full Basketball Evening

Today is a definite basketball day. That will be good! I haven't had one of those completely since AAU season. Okay, I guess it isn't the whole day, but it is at least all evening which is excellent. It will be three games back to back to back, so that is definitely good. They will all be high school varsity so hopefully they will be competitive. Also, I will be seeing one boy s ' game and two girls', so I'm glad that there will be some variety. I always feel like with basketball, you're kind of supposed to be there for a long period of time. For example, a nine inning baseball game is three hours. A basketball game is only an hour and a half. Therefore, I like going to more than one at a time to make it worth the trip and just to maximize my personal enjoyment. Also, at high school games, you pay to go to both games anyway since there is no discount if you only go to one, so why not watch all the basketball you can? So, hopefully everything will go well tonight, and it should be a lot of fun!

Photo by familymwr on Flickr

A Solid Matchup

Well, I think we all had a lot of fun at practice tonight. I think that we are all definitely showing improvement, but I know a few things that I personally need to work on. First, I need to remember to keep spacing on the floor. Of course, the ultimate goal of this is to have one player be as consistently on the ball as possible without ever drawing the dreaded two on one. I tend to like to be very aggressive as I have found that applying pressure tends to force the opponent into mistakes, but in order for me to do this, I need to communicate well with my teammates so that they know what I am doing and we don't end up accidentally double teaming the opposing player. This didn't happen too much tonight, but I definitely need to make sure that it doesn't happen at all when it is my fault. Communication is huge, and as our team continues to work together, we will develop this communication. I tend to like to also talk a lot while on the court, but I need to make sure that I am saying the right things as well. I have no doubt that we are improving, but we definitely need to keep working as well. You can never reach perfection, but we should definitely try to improve as much as possible.

Green and Gold Classic

So, it is the night before power soccer practice, so I will list my goals for tomorrow night. Incidentally, it seems like when it will be more than a practice because my teammate Scott has termed tomorrow night as the first annual Green and Gold Classic. Assuming we have at least eight players (which we do pretty much every week), we will play a scrimmage by official rules and official time. It should be a lot of fun! Anyway, on with my goals:
• I need to remember that my spinning is not as powerful as it could be. Therefore, I need to utilize the front of my guard. Honestly, after watching a lot of power soccer videos, I may have to model my game after Jerry Book. He is definitely capable of spinning and is on Team USA, but at least in the video I have watched, he is amazing with the front of the guard and uses it as well as anyone I have watched.
• Lastly, I need to remember that field position is very important. Once we have the opponent buried in their end, we need to apply pressure and keep it down there. They can't score from the other end.

Video Killed my Blog Post Today

Okay, I am taking a holiday just like everyone else. Well, it wasn't really a holiday because I put together this video of our power soccer team last weekend in Durham! So, here is the link, check it out, and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I am not sure that it already feels like Christmas, but I'm glad that it is here. With exams right up until last week, I haven't had much down time to really realize how close everything is. I also got most of my shopping done relatively early, so I didn't have the last second scramble like many people do. Then, I had power soccer last week so that made the time up until then pass very quickly when combined with exams. All in all, it has been a crazy December, but it definitely has been fun. So, right now I just want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas because I will probably write tomorrow night and so the opportunity to send that message to the greatest number of people will be passed. Thank you for reading my stuff for the past year; I hope that it hasn't been a total waste of your time that you feel obligated to give me (just kidding). Right now, I still plan on continuing to write, so that will be good. Maybe you can see that my present to those of you I haven't actually bought something for. 'Tis the night before Christmas...
Photo by  Meepness - Daniel C on Flickr

Passion Grows

You know what really surprises me? There is no USPSA team based in New York City. The largest city in America does not have an official power soccer team. I wonder why? Maybe some reader in New York City (if I have one?) will see this and decide that there needs to be a team there. That is how I believe power soccer is going to grow. It needs to be word-of-mouth and it needs to be because of passion. I am not going to say that power soccer is a cheap sport to start. That is where the passion needs to kick in. The sport requires technical equipment that is much more than buying a basketball from Wal-Mart. Even power soccer balls run around $70. Nevertheless, people keep on playing. Why? Well, because most of the time passion comes without regard to price. For many of us, this becomes the one sport that we are able to compete and excel at. We get excited and decide that we want to elevate our game. We develop technique and strategy to become students of the game. That is how the sport will grow. It will grow through excitement and passion.