Power Soccer Styles Part Two

As promised yesterday, today we'll talk about a few other power soccer styles namely the San Jose Steamrollers and the RHI Sudden Impact. To start with the contrasts, I need to establish I'm talking about the Sudden Impact of 2009 which is after JC and Natalie Russo went to Ball State but before Katie Dickey went to Arizona State. Basically, San Jose has two complete lines. Both of them are insanely talented, but there are two distinct styles. One is more of a finesse team while the other has much more power. The point is that they use a lot of players. The contrast is that the Sudden Impact of the era that I have indicated essentially played a two-person game. A majority of the time Katie or Jordan Dickey was handling the ball or playing defense. The third player on the floor, usually Andrew Seever, played forward but was mainly used as the weak side sniper. As the ball rolled across the floor, he was normally wide open to finish off the goal. Basically, the point I am trying to make is that one team rotates so many players whereas another team basically played three players with a definite focus on two. Again, just like I said yesterday, you have to play with what you have, and both of these teams used definitely different strategies and both experienced tremendous success.
Photo by Power Soccer Shop

Power Soccer Styles Part One

It is surprising how many variations can be made from four players playing on a power soccer team. Note that all of the styles I will mention are drawn from video that I have watched on Xable.com from a few years ago. Therefore, while they might not be representative of the teams I mention anymore, they are still definitely relevant styles. One style is that of the Atlanta Synergy. Essentially, everybody is a forward. Even the goaltender plays an extremely aggressive style that often involves coming out almost to half court much of the time. On the other hand, the Circle City Rollers are much more conservative and star driven. As a contrast, it is extraordinarily rare to see their goaltender leave the box or even the goal line. However, they don't really need to do that because Michael Archer is essentially everywhere. He is definitely the general out there. The Synergy plays much more of a team oriented game. I feel like it is much more of an opportunistic style. The player who has control of the ball tends to attack whereas it seems like Circle City always tends to run back to Archer in some way because he is always right where the ball is. Both teams are highly successful, and both do it in separate ways. Tomorrow, I have a few more teams to talk about namely the San Jose Steamrollers and the RHI Sudden Impact.

How to Build a Presentation

There's something about giving a presentation that makes me feel like talking about something. However, tonight I feel like talking about presentation itself. I was thinking about the many different ways that one can get across his or her point. One can go Bobby Knight on the audience and scream their minds out. One can go John Wooden on the audience and simply come across as intelligent and yet mellow. However, no matter how you want to come across, I think that there are a few key ideas that must be included in any good presentation.

• Avoid "filler words"- words like "umm…," the excessive and improper use of "and," "stuff," and the improper use of "like" can really kill a presentation in my mind. Admittedly, I am overly compulsive with bad grammar (although the other day on the highway to Burlington, a particularly interesting and insulting sign criticizing drivers who were riding his bumper use the wrong form of "your" instead of "you're" which I found hilarious; if you're going to insult somebody, please at least use proper grammar). Also when speaking aloud, putting a filler word in between sentences simply gives the appearance of a run on which does not separate ideas. Again, I am overly sensitive to improper grammar, and I'm sure that I mess up far too often with my own grammar, but when presenting a rehearsed speech, please make sure that it is somewhat similar to the English that you would feel comfortable printing on this paper.
• Make eye contact- don't pretend to be a politician and read off of the Teleprompter at some point on the wall. While eye contact may be intimidating for the presenter, it makes a much better impression on the audience because it seems like the presenter cares about making a connection with each individual audience member.
• Use a comfortable tone- I realize that the presenter should be dynamic to be able to appeal to the audience and draw them in. However, a poor effort at this will appear fake and therefore not be as strong as a presentation that is comfortable. Very few people are talented actors and actresses, so for the rest of us, we need to make the most of what dramatic talent we do have within our bounds, but we cannot go beyond dramatic limits just to prove a point.

I'm not a professional orator; the latest audience had spoken in front of was probably about 1000 people at my high school graduation. Therefore, I'm probably not qualified to offer my opinions for all of you to follow. However, if I am ever your college professor and I give you a presentation, you better turn back to this list.
Photo by Stephan Röhl