Almost Game Time

Well, tomorrow I head down to University of New Hampshire with my teammates to take on the Northeast Passage Power Cats. As I normally do before practice, I am going to outline some of my goals and what I hope I'm able to do individually tomorrow.
• I need to think about my teammates. Of course, I try to think about them often, but in the flow of the game, we all have a tendency to play what our coach Sandy calls "magnet ball." Not only does this lead to collisions, but it also inevitably causes the 2-on-1 which is entirely unnecessary.
• I need to remember that spinning is a good and powerful weapon. Note that it must be done with some caution because of the risk of a penalty, but it definitely should not be avoided. I have been working on them on my own and during practice, so hopefully I will remember them tomorrow.
• Finally, I need to remember to keep on the pressure. I tend to want to step back. Nevertheless, I need to remember that you only need to allow 15 feet on a free kick. From what I can gather, power soccer is about field position, so I need to take full advantage of it.

What a Year

Well, I ran an application on my Facebook that read what word I have said most in the past year. Of course, soccer was number one. Our team has had a great year of growth! I believe that the first clinic was last December, but I didn't start playing until March. Let me just say that it has been a great team to be a part of. We have grown a lot in the past year, but all that will be put to the test on Saturday. As many of you probably know from my incessant repeating, the Chargers are headed down to the University of New Hampshire for our only third game. However, this is incredibly important because we will have referees becoming certified which will enable us to host USPSA sanctioned games. With this building block in place, we will then be able to continue to grow. Who knows what the next level will be, but I do know that there will be one. It is kind of like the movie Inception where there is always another level. There is always a way to find a way to another level. Of course, some levels take longer than others, but they are all fun, and we will enjoy them along the way.

Vermont Power Soccer

So, I think that it would be pretty awesome to get another power soccer team going in Vermont. The more I watch our friends at UNH play, the more I want to play. Unfortunately, they are our closest opponent, so that is a bit of a trip. However, if the new team could continue to get started in Franconia, and if we could get another team going somewhere in Vermont, that would be pretty great for us. I'm not sure where we're going to find these athletes, but I know they're out there. It seems as if many people who use wheelchairs are not always very public simply because going out too much could be difficult without help. However, I have heard stories while watching games on the Internet about players who never really did anything outside the house until they started playing soccer. Once people get hooked, they figure out a way to play. I think that this could happen in southern Vermont. For example, Rutland has quite a few people, so maybe they could find four power wheelchair users. Brattleboro and Bennington might be able to get it together as well. Again, I am just hypothesizing, but I would bet there are enough players in southern Vermont to somehow put together a team.

Fun at the Clinic!

I know I normally write in the morning. However, I wanted to write tonight because I figured I could write a little bit about what I did this afternoon. I made the trek down to Bethlehem, New Hampshire with my family to attend a power soccer clinic with Adaptive Sports Partners of the North Country. Jerry Frick of the United States Power Soccer Association came up to introduce the game to the new team in New Hampshire, but I figured that I would go down to brush up on my fundamentals. I have heard Jerry referred to as "the Godfather of power soccer," so any time that I can go and learn more about the game from him, I am more than ready to go. It was a really fun time though! It is so great to be seeing another team coming together, and it brought me back to the excitement of when I first started playing power soccer. I didn't have any experience, but it was great to be able to finally compete in a sport. Similarly, I could tell that these players were excited to finally have this opportunity, so I hope that they're able to continue working and enjoying themselves. There is definitely potential there, and I look forward to playing with them more in the future!

Power Soccer Coming Up in New Hampshire

So, I think that everyone will know that tomorrow is Election Day. It is a pretty exciting day I will admit, but because of that, we can't have power soccer practice tonight. Seriously, what is more important, power soccer or politics? I think the answer is obvious, but most people in the government would disagree with this. Anyway, that is regrettable, but it's not too bad for me because my chair still needs a little bit of tweaking. Nothing too major, I just need the seat adjusted a little bit. It's too bad though that we can't practice because we are slowly becoming a team. I've noticed that people are beginning to understand how each individual player plays and how to best use each others' talent. However, we will pick up right where we left off I am sure. Also, I am not really sure where my readership is from, but our friends in New Hampshire are having a scrimmage next weekend at the Hamel Center at UNH. I'm sure they would appreciate the support. They're playing a game against a team from Canton, Massachusetts, and I have never seen them play, but I bet that it will be a very competitive game!

Highland Games

I'm not sure how many of you have ever been to a Scottish Festival near you. Well, today I was at one in New Hampshire. Even though it is largely a cultural happening, there is a definite athletic side to the event. Some people would definitely argue that dance is in itself an athletic event, but I do not even want to touch that issue right now. Rather, I would rather write about essentially what is the World's Strongest Man for Scotland. There are several different events that I do not know the proper name of, but I do know that they take an incredible amount of full body strength to be good. One event is basically pitching a giant bale of hay over a bar that is attached to a ladder. Even though these events are very basic, there is something entertaining about watching sheer physical strength. There is definitely some technique involved, but the games seemed to be largely about the pure physical. Although I tend to have a mind for the tactical side of things, I really enjoy watching these guys (although I do believe that there have been women before).
Photo By foxypar4 on Flickr

Take Power Soccer Defense Up a Notch

I think today is an appropriate day to return to the topic of power soccer. I was thinking about our upcoming match on July 25, and I was thinking about how we might adapt our game to bring something new. What I am thinking about it so we potentially might be able to improve our defense for a more efficient system.

As I have said many other times, this game relies on communication. However, this is easier to say than to do. However, I think that the advantage to playing defense is that you only have two dimensions to defend. The ball can go forward and backward or left and right. In regular soccer, you need to worry about up and down as well. Therefore, even though double teaming is not allowed, we have three defenders to cover the two dimensions that can be played. Therefore, that leaves us with one defender who needs to attack the ball. The two players who will be covering the two passing dimensions would be more than 10 feet away from the ball, so that one remaining defender needs to play the ball. Most people do not seem to hold the ball in power soccer; it is a very attack driven game. Therefore, the defense needs to be constantly challenging and attacking the attackers or else the offense will continue marching forward. However, if that one player from the offense continues attacking, we need to employ what is known in basketball as "help defense." If that one defender goes out to challenge the attacking player and gets burned, the rest of the defense needs to be aware and come to help. However, the difference between power soccer and basketball is that only one defender can come to help because of the rule against double teaming. Therefore, even more communication is necessary between not only the first player, but also the second and third players need to be talking to make sure that they know who should be covering the now unguarded attacker.

I could keep going on, but I will save some of that for tomorrow!

Photo by adobemac on Flickr

AAU Weekend

I think that it is very interesting to go out of state to watch basketball. Having spent the weekend in southern New Hampshire watching teams from all over New England, I think that it is safe to say that just because a team is from farther away does not mean they are exponentially better. That said, there are many teams from out-of-state that are exponentially better. Another important thing I noticed over this weekend was the difference between guys and girls basketball. I'm not going to get into the debate of which is better simply because I know that someone would read that and call me sexist, so I am just going to say that there is a vast difference between the speed of the games. I watched U-17 girls directly followed by U-17 boys, and I noticed that the guys' game ran at a much higher tempo. This could have been as simple as the differentiation of playing styles between the different teams. However, both teams ran a similar press, and the boys' simply ran much faster, and the subsequent break was executed quicker. I'm not really sure why because some girls are just as fast as guys, but these particular games had a major difference in regards to the speed. Whatever the reason was, the whole weekend was enjoyable at the Rockingham Athletic Club. I think you all should check out from the competition from as far north as Vermont and as far south as Long Island.
Photo from Flikr

Anticipation

Today is April 20. On May 15, I'll be playing my first power soccer match in Durham, New Hampshire. That means that I have 25 days to prepare and become capable of playing at a competitive level. That is why I must go practice as much as possible between now and then. But how do you improve? Personally, I have been working on the one area that has given me problems ever since I started playing: the spin shot. The idea is to spin your chair at top speed and hit the ball with the side of your guard as the power soccer form of a corner kick. The problem is, I have a hard time judging where my chair is relative to where the rolling ball will end up. I've gotten to the point where I can hit a stationary ball with quite a bit of power, but I still need to get the timing down with how fast I can turn relative to how fast the ball is rolling and where I need to hit it to make it go where I want it to. However, I'm working on this; do not fear teammates, hopefully I won't totally miss the ball while trying to make some spectacular shot during the game. It has been said that practice makes perfect, and I'm beginning to believe it as my skills are improving. What else is there to say but that I am excited to go and see how good we are compared to our Granite State counterparts.
Photo by Tony the Misfit