Elastic Shoe Laces

Are you a weekend athlete (warrior), a serious triathlete or marathon runner, a recreational coach, or do you have kids whose shoe laces always seem to be untied?

The answer is now available! Striker Marketing has special shoe laces for all levels of athletes and children. These laces are an elastic lacing system that feature specially designed elastic laces combined with a spring activated locking device.

And guess what, you only have to tie them once!

Striker’s elastic laces are great for running, triathlon, playing sports and casual wear. They are also ideal for children, the elderly and the physically challenged. Wear them with all styles of running shoes, athletic shoes and casual lace-up shoes for any desired use.

When using these elastic laces, you never have to stop to retie your laces during any race, sport or activity. You can simply slip your shoes on and off, no more tying and untying laces or double knots!

Striker Marketing LLC--Innovative Products for Athletes of all Ages

Motivate Your Players

Many young soccer players come to practice or report on game days with a high sense of internal motivation. However, the question is “Is it the correct motivation for the tasks at hand?” As coaches, our challenge is to ensure that individuals’ intrinsic motivation stems from an intent corresponding with the specifics of the team’s practice or game.

This is not easy because we are dealing with individuals. Our society brings young players to our doorsteps with low self-esteem, poor habits, ballooning egos, grandiose visions, etc. To make it even more complex, many of these mindsets mask deep-seeded personal issue. However, we are recreational coaches, and the community is our team.

So we must become aware of the players who are intrinsically motivated by their love of the game or desire to compete. They play for an inner pride and work hard towards accomplishing challenging objectives. On the other hand, coaches must be equally aware of young players who may need external motivation.

In Sports Psychology for Coaches, it is noted “the four primary needs of athletes are to have fun, feel accepted, have control, and to feel competent.”The most common tool to meet these primary needs is recognition. Yet there is a danger in using recognition in that it may trivialize or diminish the purpose of recognition itself. Therefore, when recognizing young players, make sure the recognition is specific, sincere, and is targeting a particular athletic feat. And above all else, be consistent in how you delve out the accolades.

For a recreational coach, it can be highly stimulating and rewarding to see apprehensive, self-doubting, average youngsters transform into self-confident, poised, hard-working athletes. These same attributes will be carried with many of our young players throughout their lives.

Teach Your Players to Have Class

In a previous article, I talked about the importance of identifying your “Coaching Philosophy.” When considering your own philosophy or set of values, did you contemplate good sportsmanship? Have you thought of instilling in your team the concept of playing, winning and losing with class? I present these questions because most recreational coaches at one time or another have been exposed to, victim of, or participant in an act of poor sportsmanship.

In the book The Soccer Coaching Bible, I recently read Chapter 2 and it talks about “Competing with Class.” The authors promote the concept that teaching and maintaining class is more important than winning. If you think about it logically, it makes good sense. Because the big picture is that we are developing individuals first, soccer players and athletes second. It can be argued that coaches who reflect good sportsmanship and class produce higher quality people.

And don’t forget about your fans—parents and family members. Most recreational soccer programs now have rules that penalize—yellow or red cards--the coach for unsavory spectator behavior. As coaches we have personal relationships with most of our parents. Communicate clearly to them what is expected or unacceptable spectator behavior towards other teams, officials and fans. This should be done at the beginning of the season and periodically during practice during the season.

In the end, coaches establish the true measure for a team’s standard of conduct. Players and most parents will follow coaches’ examples and guidelines. The bottom line for teaching your players to have class, as outline by the authors of The Soccer Coaching Bible, is to follow the golden rule: “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. Second, do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, for the right reason.”

Planning Youth Soccer Practices

Just a few more months before Spring soccer practices begin. Or maybe you are fortunate enough to have an indoor facility to use over the winter months. Either way, have you seriously considered the purpose and goals of your practice sessions? Where do you begin? While standard drills are an important part of a team’s practice schedule, young players may become complacent or lose focus if not presented with new challenges.

Each successful soccer coach is challenged to make their practices productive and fun. Soccer players gain the most benefit from practices that are challenging and fun and activity oriented. They benefit from constant movement, ball touches and scoring exercises. Soccer Practice Games by Joe Luxbacher will help you plan these types of practices. The book is broken into six sections:

¨ Warm-up and Conditioning
¨ Passing and Receiving
¨ Dribbling, Shielding and Tackling
¨ Heading and Shooting
¨ Tactical Training
¨ Goalkeeper Training

The six different sections contain a total of 125 game-simulated activities that youth soccer coaches can adapt to create a favorable practice environment. All of the games teach fundamentals and focus on skills and tactics. Coaches that use these proven training methods seek to create controlled competitive situations providing players an opportunity to succeed.

Let’s face it--soccer is a running game!!! So isn’t it sound coaching to incorporate physical fitness into every skill development exercise? Sure it is. The important thing for coaches to realize is they do not have to recreate the wheel to accomplish this. This is why Joe Luxbacher wrote Soccer Practice Games—for recreational soccer coaches like us.

What's Your Coaching Philosophy?

Ever recreational soccer coach has an influence on their young soccer players—mostly positive but sometimes negative. At the core of this influence is the coach’s philosophy. Don’t let the word “philosophy” turn you off like it often has done for me. Simply contemplate your answer to the question “What do I hope to teach my young athletes?”

If you ponder the question carefully, your response to the question will come pouring out. Some possible responses might be:

• To teach the fundamentals of soccer
• Make sure the kids have fun
• Teach them how to win
• Develop them as individuals
• Help them realize their potential
• Show them how to compete
• Build character
• Winning is everything

Whatever your answers might be, you have just outlined the core tenets of your coaching philosophy. These tenets reflect the values coaches hold in their personal lives.

Recently, I completed a book titled Sport Psychology for Coaches. The book motivated me to define and evaluate my soccer coaching philosophy. I found my personal perspectives were mostly positive, but there is room for improvement. This thinking process increased my level of awareness surrounding my personal values and to prioritize my competitive objectives based on those values. Sport Psychology for Coaches is a great eye-opener!

The Bible of Soccer Coaching

There are many books and articles hyping the best methods for coaching soccer. But each time you open The Soccer Coaching Bible you’ll learn something new and useful for your next practice, game, or season. Whether you coach at the club, high school, or college level, this book is an essential addition to your coaching library. With The Soccer Coaching Bible, you can draw from the expertise and experience of 30 of the game’s most successful coaches, learning new and better ways to coach the game and develop your players. The National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) assembled an all-star lineup of 30 coaches to tackle every important aspect to coaching the sport.

On- and off-field duties are covered in detail, and the material in each chapter is rich with the voice of experience. From Anson Dorrance’s chapter on organizing and orchestrating a winning program to Lauren Gregg’s chapter on creating the ideal training environment, this book provides the answers you’ve been looking for. Steve Sampson explains the technical and tactical nuances of controlling the ball, and Tony DiCicco encourages and informs mentoring developing players and coaches. The vast coaching expertise is divided into six sections, making it easy to choose what to implement into your program:

§ Priorities and Principles
§ Program Development and Management
§ Optimal Training for Learning and Performance
§ Technical and Tactical Insights for Competitive Success
§ Player and Team Development and Motivation
§ Growth Opportunities in the Coaching Role

Are these folks the prevailing experts when it comes to coaching soccer? What do you think? The National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) is the largest coaches’ organization in the United States. Since its founding in 1941, it has grown to include more than 16,000 members who coach both genders at all levels of the sport. In addition to a national rankings program for colleges and high schools, the NSCAA offers an extensive recognition program that presents more than 10,000 individual awards every year. It fulfills its mission of coaching education through a nationwide program of clinics and weeklong courses, teaching more than 3,000 soccer coaches each year.

Coaching Girls' Soccer

Do you want to build a winning girls’ soccer program, on the field and off? In Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully, one of the nation’s top high school coaches, Debra LaPrath, shares her expertise on all aspects of coaching. From establishing a coaching philosophy to making decisions during a game, this is the approach that has made her program a perennial powerhouse.

The author clearly outlines the importance of defining your coaching philosophy. It zeroes-in on your values and beliefs, the individual and team’s goals, keeps you focused on what’s best for the girls, and emphasizes being true to your own personality. At the core of her approach to coaching, is developing the character of individual players and team cohesiveness.

Developing a coaching philosophy is just the beginning. Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully covers many different aspects of the coach’s role including:

• Developing and perfecting skills
• Evaluating players and defining their roles
• Organizing productive practices
• Scouting and preparing for games
• Adding variety to training
• Developing leadership qualities
• Motivating the team
• Communicating on and off the field

The coaching techniques illustrated in this book will help you develop better players, more complete athletes, and more confident young women. The book features seasonal training plans, drills for developing fundamental to advanced skills, and advice for handling off-the-field challenges. Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully is a “must-read” if you are searching for motivational tips, coaching guidelines, and specific strategies for working with female soccer players.