Team Meetings

Team meetings can be good or bad, it depends on the situation and what will be discussed at this meeting. Coaches will have team meetings with the parents of the players to talk about the season, the players, and anything concerning their role as a coach. Coaches will have team meetings with the players to talk about upcoming tournaments, the players, the atmosphere of the team, and anything that is getting in the way of the team being successful. Players will have team meetings with each other in order to talk about their passion (if there is passion with that player for the sport), things they need to work on off the field and on the field, coaches, parents, and anything that is being dramatic with certain players. The good meetings are the ones that are about how the team is doing and congratulating and recognizing certain players for their accomplishments. The bad meetings are the ones that end up in yelling, people being mad at each other for what one said, and talking about the drama that is hurting the team and keeping them from succeeding or improving. Also there are those meetings that you have between parents and players discussing playing time, other players, the coach, and games or tournaments coming up in the season. There are also those meetings that are supposed to happen but they never do because some people are scared about what will be said and how people will take it. My team was supposed to have a team meeting to discuss where some player stand on the commitment to the team and their attitudes towards games and tournaments we go to. As you can see, we never had it and no one will ever think about bringing it up so it is forgotten and not seen to come back into the minds of the team. Such a shame that it didn't happen, because it needed to. It is all on you whether you take a meeting in a positive way or a negative way.

"Sorry Ladies"

Those are the two words throughout my soccer career I was told not to say. You should never say sorry for other people's mistakes or mistakes of your own. You need to realize you did something wrong then correct it and improve. You could have been the nicest person in the world but if my coach heard you say sorry, he would stop the game and put you on the spot. He would ask what are you sorry for. She made the mistake not you! You rarely hear us say sorry now-a-days. Even at games, if we hurt someone on the other team we just turn around and walk away. We don't apologize because we haven't said sorry for so long that it just doesn't come to mind anymore. If someone on the other team hurts us, they say sorry but we just look up and give them the "death glare", get up, shake it off, and keep playing. When our team would motivate each other some would say "Let's go ladies!" Our coach was furious that we used the word "ladies". You could not call any of your teammates ladies, girls, or women. We had to say "Let's go team!" or "Let's go guys!" So pretty much we referred to our girl teammates as men. We have gotten used to saying these new motivational sayings, other teams still use the words ladies and girls. I think that not saying those words makes you look more intimidating. Saying girls and ladies is very girly and weak and no one will take you seriously. Every team changes so then their coach will respect them more, that's what my team did.

Dehydration

It doesn't matter if you are not thirsty or not during your game, you need to force yourself to drink because if you don't you have a high chance of getting dehydrated even if it is not hot out. My excuse to not drinking water during a game is because I don't want to get water log, water log is when you can feel the water bouncing around in your stomach and then it creates aches and pains in the lower stomach. This doesn't feel good, but you have to drink water so then worse things don't happen. One game it was really hot out and I didn't drink any water that day to keep myself hydrated. I went up to head the ball and everything went well but after i headed it I got a huge headache. Then I noticed that I was really light headed and was dizzy, but I ignored these signs and just kept playing. When the game was over I collapsed by the benches and just laid there for a couple minutes. One of my teammates was kind enough to give me a piggy-back ride to the parents because I was too dizzy and light headed to walk. On the car ride home I drank so much water that I started feeling better after a few hours. I didn't have a horrible dehydration incident but I now drink water every opportunity I can because I don't want to go through that again. Water log is way better then dehydration. The point is, that every player of some sport should stay hydrated and drink lots of fluids. If you don't you are seriously hurting yourself.

Conditioning

Soccer isn't just about knowing how to dribble, pull moves, and shoot. You have to be in shape, being able to run for 90 minutes straight. Yes, there is some resting time when you don't have the ball or it is not one your side of the field, but what is it is by you the whole game. You have to be able to not run out of breath or be tired. Physical fitness is very important in soccer, if you have a coach that finds this important, don't be surprised to run for a segment of your practice each time. If your team is really out of shape don't be surprised to run  the whole practice for a couple practices in a row. Every coach wants their players to be able to stand 90 minutes of running even if they don't play that long or at all in games. If something were to happen to one of the players and you are put in as their sub you have to complete their role for them and be able to complete it well. My coach makes us run to get our heart rates up before games but at practices we spend 30 to 40 minutes running with poles and cones. We do sharp turning runs and any situation that can occur in a game. Long sprints, short sprints, we do it all and it is worth it in the end because we are very fit and able to play the whole game if we have to. Conditioning can also help you from getting injured, the coaches teach you proper techniques so then we can have a less chance of tearing an ACL or MCL. Fewer injuries are always a good thing, who knew running was something that benefits you in the long run.

Cliques

Every team has this problem, the coach can say that cliques aren't present with the players but they are there. You have to popular players, the weird players, the players who all go to the same school, the player who doesn't go to school with anyone on the team, the "best" players, the "worst" players, the nice players, the mean players, and the new players. People can be really mean when they start making certain cliques and exclude people from them because they are "different". When I first joined the team, the one I am still with today, the girls didn't talk to me. One out of the popular group talked to me, she was very nice but she wasn't the "leader" of the group so even if she talked to me I wouldn't be in their clique. I stayed with the nice, quiet players. They accepted me for who I was and I didn't need to change for them. It kept me out of the drama too that was going on with other cliques. As the years passed and we all got better acquainted with each other, the groups started opening up and talking to everyone. I am very close to the girls that wouldn't give me that time of day when I first started. I don't hold grudges so even though they didn't talk to me I wasn't going to do that to them. Even though I was making new friends I didn't ditch the players who were with me from the start, unfortunately none of them are on the team anymore. Now that everyone is talking it is nice to make new friends and hang out outside of soccer. Everyone has a group that they prefer to hang and talk to but you should really be on talking terms with everyone even if you don't think you will be on that hangout stage anytime soon.

1 vs. 1

1 vs. 1 is when it is you and another player competing to score. One is defending the goal, the other is trying to score. The person trying to score is pulling every move they can so the defender will mess up and the attacker scores. Some people like this situation, others do not. I like 1 vs. 1 in games but in practice I hate it! In practices you know everyone there and they all know your favorite moves you like to do, so it is hard to score. It is more slowly paced and all planned out while you are waiting in line, 1 vs. 1 needs to be spontaneous and the moves just come with the situation. At practice if you get beat you don't hear the end of it from the player who won or the coach who is praising the person who scored or blocked your shot. It also gets you down if you lose, you confidence decreases and you don't play good anymore and just don't care. If you are the person who won you get really confident and sometimes cocky and then you are at risk for hurting yourself at practice because of silly mistakes. Games are better in my opinion for 1 vs. 1 situations. You don't know the person who you are up against and they don't know you so that means that neither of you know what move the person will pull to try to beat you. The moves come with the situation, they aren't planned out like they are in practice. You just do what comes to you and if it doesn't work the other players on the field on your team have you back to defend that person next. If you mess up and lose it is no big deal you just get right back in there and keep playing. If you win, good for you! Don't let it get to you now, you still have the rest of the game to play and you have to go up against that person again and they will be looking for victory.

Grass vs. Turf

Everyone has their own preference of what surface they like to play soccer on the most. You have grass and you have turf. I honestly like both, it depends on the game and what pace it is going at.
Long grass can be a pain to play on, it slows the ball down and it slow down your running. If you are on a breakaway to the goal you don't want to be slow because of the grass length, you want to be fast so you can fake out the goalie and score. When the grass is wet, it adds pace to the ball but it doesn't rain everyday where I live, so long grass isn't my preference.
Soft, short turf is the best turf to play on. It makes the ball move really fast, so fast that sometimes you can't catch up to the ball! Besides that, it doesn't cut your leg when you slide or fall. The only bad thing about this kind of turf is that it has little centimeter balls of tar everywhere. When you do fall you get tar in your shorts and in your sliders. This can be uncomfortable but it is better than getting cut up.
Hard, scratchy turf is the worst ground you could ever play on. Just like soft turf the ball moves fast, this can be nice when you're on a brakeaway to the goal but if you need to save the ball from going out of bounds you aren't fast enough to stop it. When you slide or fall on this type of ground your legs and arms get all scratched up and will produce scabs. Along with that you also get the stinging and pain from the scraping of skin and scratchy needle-like grass.
Short grass is my preference, it makes the ball move fast but not as fast as turf. This is nice because you can keep up with the ball and it doesn't slow you down. Sliding on this grass is comfy, it doesn't hurt you and sometimes you slide further then you wanted too and it makes it fun!
No matter where you play, you prefer one ground over another. You always chose the place where you look the best playing at.

Pointless Tournaments and Games

There are different levels of soccer, there is a higher more competitive level and a lower less skills, not as competitive. My team played in the higher level a couple years ago, it was called MRL. That was where the best teams went to get better competition and to improve on their playing. The lower level is called IPSL, my team and I have been playing in that forever. We are the best team in Iowa and we are playing in the lower level soccer. When we played in MRL we got second place out of our "bracket". We have no idea why we are playing in the worst level when we did so well in the higher level of soccer. Every game we have played in IPSL my team has been winning every time with scores of 6-0, 7-0, 5-0 and so on. We shut out the game and don't get scored on at all.
When it comes to tournaments, we beat the competition there too. First of all we are not going to college showcase tournaments like we should be because, all the great teams from around the nation go there to play. At these other tournaments we are beating the teams not as badly as we beat the IPSL teams but we still win. It is ridiculous, we should be getting some better competition if we want to play at the fast paced, aggressive level in college!

Annoying Parents

No one forgets the teams with the annoying, rude, and mean parents who yell the whole game about the stupidest things. These parents yell at the opposing team's players, they yell at the opposing team's parents, and of course they yell at the referees. They spend most of their time yelling at the referees, but what is nice that only the refs have the honor of doing is throwing those specific parents out of the game and having them leave the game to where they cannot come back. These horrible parents will swear at everyone and will yell assuming that the players, coaches, and referees do not know what they are doing or anything about soccer. Honestly, if we did not know what we were doing then why are we playing? I would like to see those parents play against us and see how good they would do since they "know" everything about soccer. If they actually played and saw that they are the ones that do not know anything they would shut up forever. I am so glad that my team's parents are quiet because I would be crushed if our team was known only because of our parents being obnoxious and not because of our talent and skill in the game of soccer.

Captains

Those players who are the leaders in the world want to be honored with the title "captain". They want to be the person that everyone listens to and respects. I honestly want to be a captain on my team someday, my opportunity has not come yet but I hope it does sometime soon. There are those captains that the team hates and there are those who the whole team likes. The ones that people hate are just cocky and think that they can act like the coach when they should not. We have a coach, we will listen to them and not the captain all the time. The captains are not necessarily the best on the team, they could be a person that sits on the bench all the time. The captain is a person who takes responsibility and shows leadership on and off the field.
The nice captains are the ones who usually get walked on, they do whatever everyone else tells them to do. These people should be captain because they are not mean or cocky, but you have to be to some extent that you are not a doormat to all the players on the team or the coach. I will be that captain that is in between, I will be nice but at the same time the job will be done to the best of its ability. Captains are a huge role to the team and you need to have the best person for the job.

Male vs. Female Coach

Males tend to be more demanding and yelling. They think that everyone should strive to be perfect with everything in soccer. They don't let you mess around which is a good thing since it keeps you in line and paying attention. Male coaches in my opinion are better they make you a better player by always having that pressure on you. I guess I am biased but I also haven't had the pleasure of having a female coach so I only see one side of the coaching experience. Male coaches want you to be in perfect shape, you do a lot of conditioning and muscle toning. They want you to be the best and to compete with the best, no clowns will survive on the team of a male coach.
Female coaches, from what I observe, they are not as mean and put less pressure on the players. They tend to get off topic a lot when they should be focusing on practice or the game. Female coaches tend to only coach girls teams while male coaches tend to coach both boys and girls. The reason is that teams of boys will not listen or take professionally since men think women are not as good as them. Again i have not had the privilege to be coached by a woman, so my idea of them being coaches most likely is not the same for all women. There could be those hard headed, mean, striving for success women coaches but I have not met them yet. I am excited to meet one sometime soon.

Ball Hogs

No one likes the player who never passes the ball and if they ever do pass it, it is passed only to their best friend every time. The player who tries to dribble every player on the field, who might be successful one out of every ten tries. It is so frustrating to play with those types of players, if you think you're the best then go be on a team by yourself. Everyone is working their hardest to get open for you and make runs that might potentially be the pass that takes the person to the goal to shoot and maybe score. If they keep making their runs and you keep hogging the ball then that person who is busting their butt off will stop helping you. Let's say they finally pass the ball but you didn't make the run, that person then comes up to you and yells at you for not making the run. What I would say to them is "well maybe if you passed the ball every time maybe I would make the stupid run!" Bottom line is that no one, no one likes someone who doesn't pass the ball. It will make your teammates not feel like wasting their time opening up when they know that you will just hold on to the ball every time.

1st Place

Over the weekend my team and I went to a tournament in Des Moines, Iowa where we had to compete in the U18 bracket. U18 teams are mostly consisted of players who are 17 and 18 years old. We had three games we had to play and if you made it into the final round, that game was later that Sunday. Our first game we won 1-0 against a very aggressive team. The second game we won 4-0 against a team that we beat the previous weekend 6-0. The third team we played we won 3-1 against the team who we would later that day, not even two hours later, play again. That final game we won 1-0, the team showed up to win but early in the game we scored then had a tough defense the rest of the game. We have one of the best defensive lines in the state and it is very hard to get past us. With the win we received a trophy for 1st place, all of us were very excited since we played in an older age group and won the whole thing. Another accomplishment was that we only allowed one goal to be scored on us and we scored a total of nine goals throughout the weekend. Those are great stats and our team takes great pride in our success.

New Coaches

Recently my coach told my team and me that he will no longer be coaching us. It broke us all down, he was a great coach and no one can compare to what he has helped us with for these past two years. We all looked up to him and we will never forget how good of a person he was to all of us. With him leaving that means that we will be getting a new coach who doesn't know any of us or what we are capable of doing on the field. This means that all of us start a new slate on tryout week. We have to prove to this new coach that we are good and should continue being on the top team. You have to fight to keep your spot because you never know if a better player is around the corner that can start playing your position and you end up on the bench. I wouldn't usually say this because I don't like doing this but you have to be a suck up to the new coach in order to be on his good side. Don't be a horrible suck up to where it is noticeable and annoying but just enough that he knows who you are and that you are on his good side. You have to show that you are a coachable player and that you won't give him attitude when he tells you to do something. We are still young players and we don't know everything about soccer, we still have a lot to learn. So don't act like your perfect, do into the new season with an open mind and an open heart and see what happens.

Mean and dirty players

There are those players who are all muscle and no skill so they think the only way they can play is if they tackle you every time you get the ball. They are just aggressive to the point where they should get thrown out of the game. Then you have those players who swear and say mean things to you because they want to break you down. They say unnecesary comments that they think will make you mad and try to do something back to them whether that is a physical or verbal response. Lastly, you have those players that grab and pull your jersey or pinch your arm when the ref isn't looking. No one likes to play against these players, I know I don't. They take the fun out of the game, they actually make me prefer to be on the bench. They can seriously injure you and put you out of the rest of the season and no one wants to be injured.
There are some refs that will let the aggressiveness slide and that gives everyone else the freedom to get dirty. Then there are those refs that will call even the little things and then you feel like you can't even put your finger on the player because you think the ref will call that as a foul. You have to study all the players and all the refs that are involved in your game. You will be a better player if you know what is allowed and what isn't.

Time Consuming

Club soccer can be very time consuming, you have to travel out of state every weekend for three to four months. Practices take up your nights and are during high school sport activities that you want to watch with your friends during the week. It is a big commitment that is why you have to be 100% in it. It is hard missing time hanging with your friends and trying to make new ones because you are gone all the time. It really affects the friendships you have with those people because they get used to not having you around so they stop inviting you to things. I have had some teammates quit recently due to not having enough time to spend with friends. I would rather have the player quit then to not have them there to play and not give it their full effort to win the games that mean a lot to us since most of us will be playing at the college level. Soccer has to be your main priority if you are going to be gone all the time playing.
High school soccer is less time consuming then club soccer but it still takes up your time after school to about 5:00 p.m. This cuts into your homework that you have to get done for the next day. Those sporting events that you want to watch during the week you can't always go to because you have to get your homework done. The games also cut into your week time, you have to be there an hour early to get warmed up and the game can last up to three hours if you go into two overtimes and penalty kicks. It can drag on and get very tiring, that is why you have to finish the game as quickly as possible and out some goals in the back of the net. Every so often we would have a practice on Saturdays but those were usually very early in the morning. Those aren't so bad but they do cut into how late you can stay up on Friday nights with your friends.

Thinking about quitting

My mom always told me when I felt like quitting to give it three more practices, if I felt the same after that then I could quit. Every time I gave myself the three day rule I didn't feel like quitting anymore. I know in my heart if I wouldn't have listened to my mom I would have regretted it so much. There are always going to be those coaches, or players, or games that make you feel bad about yourself and want to quit. If it is really bothering you try bringing it up in a nice way to that person and let them know that what they are doing is making you feel horrible. They can listen or they can be jerks about it, if they are a jerk then just shake it off. That person obviously isn't worth you quitting what you love so just get used to how that person is. I play with girls that I don't always agree with but they are like sisters to me because I have been playing with them for so long. Even the girls who don't give you the time of day they eventually will get used to having you around and you will make friendships with them. Just wait your time will come. I guess my only advice is to stick with it and wait for a better day. Nothing is always perfect so don't expect it to be, just look on the bright side there is one there.

Playing in the rain

I love playing soccer games in the rain. To me it is like one of those scenes in a movie, where the rain is pouring down really hard and all you see is the player, everything else is blurry. You see the intensity in their eyes and the love in their heart for the game. The scene is in slow motion and it adds more effect until you see that slide tackle and everything gets faster and more intense. That is how I feel when I play in the rain. Slide tackling is more fun in the rain, reason one is because you get really muddy afterwards and those girly-girls stay away from you, and reason two is because you slide faster and further. In my soccer games I seem to be the first person who slides first and the muddiest after the game. I guess I just take advantage of the weather I like to play in since it doesn't come every day. For me playing in the rain makes me feel invincible, almost like nothing can stop me. It gives me confidence and makes me play better. Everyone has those certain situations or environments in games that they prefer playing in. Mine just seems to be rain and mud.

Team Bonding Time

It is good to know and be good friends with you teammates. Teams have to have chemistry, if they don't your team won't be successful. My club team has team dinners for special events like State Cup, we all have spaghetti the night before and we play some games to have fun and to get to know each other more. For State Cup every year we make it a Breast Cancer awareness game for a fellow teammate who lost her mom to breast cancer. We dye a strip of our hair pink, we tye-dye shirts that we warm up in, we try to get pink socks, shoes, tape, headbands. Our team tries to go all out because this game is supposed to bring awareness to the spectators. We don't usually have sleepovers because it is hard having everyone go to different schools and having busy schedules outside of soccer with jobs and friends. We try as hard as we can to get together and make our team bond stronger.
My high school team has dinners almost every week, with everyone being in different grades we try to make the upcoming freshman feel welcomed and comfortable around us. We do try to have a couple of sleepovers because at the first one during our season we do freshman / new players' initiation. It is so much fun and everyone has to go through it. It makes us all get along better and make long term friendships. We also do a Breast Cancer game, for this game we go all out. My teammates and I do the same things as I mentioned above with my club team but for high school we get pink jerseys. It is fun to play in a different color then you usually do and they are always cute shirts.
No matter what team you are on, try to get to know the people on it. Yes, you might not like everyone or get along with everyone but you need to put on a happy face and try to make the chemistry work on the field.

Getting Tougher

Girls the only way you are going to get tougher and stronger is if you have the guts to practice and play small sided games with boys, they are faster, stronger, and very skilled. They can get you used to having pressure on you constantly and having to think faster about where you are going to play the ball. Along with playing with the boys you should probably lift weights to gain muscle in your legs, abs, and arms. If you work on getting stronger then the boys will have a tougher time pushing you down. The one thing that sucks about practicing with boys is they think they have to go easy on you because you are a girl. One way to get their mind-set to change is to become a dirty player with them, then they feel like they can't look bad in front of their other friends so they go harder and in the long run this can be better for you if you want to be a better soccer player. Get a schedule to organize the days you lift weights and the days you play with the boys, you should probably go at least two times a week for both. On the other days relax and stay healthy and maybe get together with some of your girl friends to pass the ball around and work on some of the technical sides of soccer. That being passing, shooting, moves, corner kicks, and so on.

College Coaches

During your high school years you are supposed to contact coaches to come and watch you play and hopefully ask you to play for their school. The day comes and they are going to watch you play you are either one of these three types of people. You are either very nervous and are going to play worse then you usually do because you feel under pressure by having to look good. Another type is very excited and plays even better because this is your time to show off. Lastly, you can be that person who turns into a very aggressive and dirty player because you have the mind-set that you have to be tough to make it in the college level. Personally I am the person who gets very nervous and plays worse then I usually do. I prefer not to know when a coach is going to come and watch me, "out of sight out of mind" is what I go by. Eventually you will hear from the college about your playing, if they are interested in you they will contact you if they don't contact you that means that they don't think you are the type of player they are looking for.

Womens Soccer

Over the past few years I have been hearing from soccer spectators, that women's soccer is not as good as men's soccer. I ask these people what is so bad about watching women's soccer. I have been told so many things from it being slow paced, not as aggressive, horrible skills, and bad decisions. Yes we aren't as fast or strong as boys but we still have skill. None of these things make sense to me because while I am playing the game it seems pretty face paced and aggressive. I try changing people's minds on watching women's soccer because everyone has this set opinion that every women's soccer team is the same, when they aren't! My team is very aggressive, exciting, and fast paced. When I try to convince people they don't believe me. Fortunately we have convinced our friends to come and support us and to their amazement they saw that we were correct. Then it is a chain reaction, our friends tell their friends and eventually more people come to watch us. We still don't get as much support as the boys but we are going to get there someday.