Be Recruited

The Phillies are back to losing, but we won't talk about that right now. I also wanted to have you all check out the Vermont Chargers Power Soccer Club website because we actually now have a logo designed by Chris Brosky. There is a link on the sidebar to the website. However, that isn't really what I wanted to talk about either. Today, I wanted to talk about the website berecruited.com. I had heard of this website because one of my friends was using it, but I never really explored too much. Last night however I was wasting time looking around the website and noticed how extensive it really was. If it is used right, it can provide it a pretty good picture of an athlete, but of course it falls because of self reporting. I could say whatever I wanted on there to attract attention. Once a coach explored deeper, the lie would become obvious. However, I would like to say that most people are honest, so making this assumption would dramatically raise the value of this website. When you have 700,000 athletes all on one website, I definitely think that it is an impressive feat, and they have done a good job of presentation.
Photo by kitykity on Flickr

Continued...

To continue from yesterday, I left the power soccer defense in a predicament with a three on two situation. Again, one of the defenders needs to step up and stall to give the player who got burned a chance to get back into the play. What should the other defender be doing? He or she should be aware of any potential forward passes that could be made. If the offensive player makes either a backward pass or a horizontal pass, it will take enough time to allow the player who got burned to find the opening on the floor and defend it. However, the forward pass will just leave that burned player farther behind and make a potential goal much easier. Again, as I said last time, power soccer is a constantly moving game. Therefore, the offense will continue to move forward unless you aggressively try to stop them. Power soccer is also a contact sport. Therefore, because any guard to guard contact is allowed, an oncoming defender can be very distracting to the offense and maybe even lead to a breakaway if there is a steal. All in all, I think that power soccer while primarily an offensive sport has the potential for lockdown defense at any time.

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

My Weakness

Whatever the reason, I couldn't get my mind off of that pitch. I could hit a fastball, curveball, even knuckleball (although I had never faced a Tim Wakefield caliber one), but I could not handle the crazy change up. There was something deceptive about that pitch, a thinly disguised fastball. However, I just couldn't handle it. I guess it was one of those things that no matter how many hours I spent in the batting cage or how many hitting camps I went to with how many retired professionals I just could never figure out.

I think something had to do with tension. When I stepped up to the plate, I was grabbed by a desire to swing. Something in my arm muscles or perhaps everything in my body wanted me to jump on every pitch. I guess when you are jumping on every pitch, it makes sense that a change up would be your downfall. I would step up to plate telling myself to be patient and to sit back on the inevitable pitch that I knew had to be coming. But the result was always the same, it had always been and always would be my downfall, but I tried to hide it as best I could and go on bashing fastballs.
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Best Matches So Far

Again, nice to see the Phillies pull out a win while actually bringing some offense. However, there is a bigger story to write about today. How about the World Cup so far? Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to watch as much as I would like to, but it's still been quite the event so far. First off, we saw the United States and England battle to a 1-1 tie in a match that might be an indication of American improvement. Then, we saw Brazil almost get upended by North Korea in a 2-1 match that at least surprised me. North Korea has not been to the World Cup finals since 1966 whereas Brazil is always a force to be reckoned with on every level of the competition. Finally, yesterday was the biggest surprise of all as the Swiss took down Spain 1-0. Spain was the favorite entering the tournament for many people after winning Europe, but somehow they let this one slip by. It's kind of funny to look at the Group H standings right now and see that Spain is behind everyone (Chile, Switzerland, and Honduras). Whatever, I'm sure they will make a comeback and put this one little bump behind them, but congratulations to the Swiss on playing the game of the tournament so far.
Photo by ianlord on Flickr

Izzo Stays at MSU

I am glad to say that Tom Izzo is staying at Michigan State rather than making the jump to the NBA. Personally, I think the college game is so much more intense than the NBA. I think that there is more intensity because the NCAA is sort of like the minor leagues for the NBA (I realize that there is the development league, but the NCAA also keeps track of players who are waiting to make the jump). Because everybody in the NCAA wants to make it to the NBA, they are trying to impress various coaches and general managers, the media, and the fans to support them in this venture. Once you're in the NBA, you don't need to establish your name because it has been established by being drafted and offered a contract. There are thousands of NCAA players who are all driving towards the same goal, so each one knows that he must step it up and outplay almost every other player on the circuit to advance. Also, the same goes for women's players and the WNBA; I'd much rather watch the NCAA for the same reason.

Being enrolled at a Division I university, I have known a number of athletes. I must say that I admire how they can study and be highly competitive athletes all at once. Once you're a professional, you don't need to worry about studying anything but your opponent. This ability to multitask also makes me more impressed by the college game. I know that if I were a coach, this is the level I want to be at.
Photo by Kind of Bruin on Flickr

Big 12 Survives

Well, it is all but certain that the Big 12 will remain a conference. To be honest, I had my doubts when there were rumors flying around that Texas or Oklahoma might be moving, but now it seems like only being down Colorado and Nebraska will not hurt the conference that much. However, it is odd that now the Big 12 has 10 teams in the Big Ten has 12 teams while the Pac-10 has 11 teams. Whatever, maybe it's just like some very complex upper level math where things aren't really what they are because they have been applied using a different system.

So what does this mean for the Pac-10? USC has fallen into some problems as of late, so maybe Colorado do well in football. What does this mean for the Big 12? Well, I don't really think it matters that much because you always have Texas and Oklahoma on top anyway. What does it mean for the Big Ten? More quality competition from Nebraska, but I don't think it will totally upset the power balance. Whenever we see a major turnover like this, I always wonder about the amount of money that is involved. If it is financially beneficial, I think any team will leave the conference. Money talks.
Photo by Ed Yourdon on Flickr