(Dr. Dev Mishra‘s article on teenage sleep has been among the most popular since we launched the Youth Soccer Insider in 2007. The feedback has included parents appreciating coaches who help encourage healthy habits.) I’m sure anyone who’s raised an adolescent or teenager can attest to the idea that teenagers don’t get as much sleep […]
Youth Soccer Insider
Posted inYouth Soccer Insider
Ref Watch: Mark Geiger’s advice for ambitious young referees
It’s a long journey. With every single match, you’re developing that skillset.
Posted inYouth Soccer Insider
Choosing the optimal college ID camps
College ID camps come in various forms and have become an entrenched part of the college soccer process.
Posted inYouth Soccer Insider
Five tips to help you come back from an injury
Most folks come to the orthopedic surgeon after they’ve been injured. We’ll often prescribe rehabilitative therapy or surgery to help with the condition. Either way, you’ll be making your way back to your objectives, starting typically from a deconditioned point. Here are a few things I often recommend, and with some modifications these are applicable […]
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Are college ID camps a necessary evil?
It is first important to know that all ID Camps are money makers for college soccer coaches.
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Coaching tips: 5 from pros that can apply to all
Our interviews with pros often include nuggets that could prove useful for youth coaches. Here are five from the pages of Soccer America. 5. “During the week and in training, coaches need to coach. But on game day — of course, if there’s something that needs to happen you can intervene — I believe that […]
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Ref Watch: The Best of 2023. And is MLS Next Pro referees’ best hope?
As usual, the abuse of referees remained a big part of soccer officiating news in 2023.
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Ref Watch: Rule-makers to tackle the dissent problem? We've heard that before.
A player so aggressively approaches a professional referee that the ref has to raise his arms in a protective gesture. If you think that referee would obviously yellow-card the player — for “dissent by word or action” — you’d be wrong. Tune in to games from around the world and in nearly each one you’ll […]
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Ref Watch: A fun part of reffing — meeting the players
Last year while checking in a U-14 team, one boy’s name, Briegel Morales Pérez, piqued my curiosity. So I spoke to him after the game. He had moved to California from Guatemala, and his father had indeed named him after Hans-Peter Briegel, Germany’s left back at the 1982 and 1986 World Cup. One of the […]
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Ref Watch: Throw-ins, corner-kick own goals and the new rulebook
There were only five minutes left in the U-15 game when I first got yelled at by a parent. While I was jogging back to the center circle while looking for the jersey number of the scorer who gave his team a three-goal lead, a dad started yelling at me about not calling a foul […]