raising4boys.com » Sports http://www.raising4boys.com parenting tips, tricks and commentary Sat, 18 Dec 2010 20:20:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Skateboarding? No Thanks http://www.raising4boys.com/2007/08/06/skateboarding-no-thanks/ http://www.raising4boys.com/2007/08/06/skateboarding-no-thanks/#comments Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:55:52 +0000 dad http://www.raising4boys.com/2007/08/06/skateboarding-no-thanks/ Wow. After seeing this, I couldn’t be happier that our kids have yet to show any interest in skateboarding. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time, but at least we’re safe for now…

(Don’t worry, it’s not bloody.)

Talk about a brutal crash. Ouch.

As an aside, if one of your colleagues says (in all seriousness) that he thought you were dead after a workplace mishap, you might want to think about getting into a new line of work.

Update: The original video was taken down. This one is still pretty good, although it doesn’t include the reverse-angle. Thus, it’s harder to see things like his shoes pop off when he lands.

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]]> http://www.raising4boys.com/2007/08/06/skateboarding-no-thanks/feed/ 4 Soccer Gameday Tips for Parents http://www.raising4boys.com/2007/08/02/soccer-gameday-tips-for-parents/ http://www.raising4boys.com/2007/08/02/soccer-gameday-tips-for-parents/#comments Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:41:14 +0000 mom http://www.raising4boys.com/2007/08/02/soccer-gameday-tips-for-parents/ Soccer season is just around the corner, so this is for all you soccer moms (and dads) out there. You know as well as I do that soccer game days can be very hectic. Wouldn’t you like to lose a bit of the chaos? Here’s how…

1. At the beginning of the season, tape each kid’s game schedule to the inside of a cupboard door. This makes it easily accessible and you will always know where to find it.

2. When writing the games in to your planner or on your calendar, use a color code system to keep siblings straight (e.g., blue for one kid’s games, red for another, and so on)

3. On the evening before, lay out each kid’s uniform, cleats, shin guards and ball on a chair. Each kid will then know exactly where everything can be found, and you’ll know that it’s clean and ready to go.

4. Place clean and empty water bottles by the kitchen sink in preparation for filling the following morning.

Follow these four simple guidelines for a less stressful day of soccer fun. I promise that 8AM game won’t be quite so hair raising. Have fun! Play hard!

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]]> http://www.raising4boys.com/2007/08/02/soccer-gameday-tips-for-parents/feed/ 1 How Not to Coach a Kids’ Soccer Team http://www.raising4boys.com/2007/05/16/how-not-to-coach-a-kids-soccer-team/ http://www.raising4boys.com/2007/05/16/how-not-to-coach-a-kids-soccer-team/#comments Wed, 16 May 2007 10:01:35 +0000 dad http://www.raising4boys.com/2007/05/16/how-not-to-coach-a-kids-soccer-team/ Last night Son #2 had a soccer game. He plays in a local U8 rec league, and his team has been having a pretty rough season. They throw the teams together at random, and there’s a good bit of variation in talent across teams. Last fall he was on a great team that went undefeated, but this spring his team is winless. It’s partly due to inexperienced kids and partly due to an inexperienced and soft spoken coach. Regardless, he’s been having fun. But last night just about put me over the edge…

In our area, the U8 teams play on “micro” fields and the coaches, who are on the field with the kids, double as the refs. It all started out okay. The game was relatively even, and the other coach seemed to be genuinely interested in keeping things fair. But as the game wore on, he got more and more aggressive, and started bending the rules further and further. I’m pretty sure this was mainly due to the soft-spoken nature of our coach, and the fact that she wasn’t calling them for any sort of infractions.

Here are a few highlights:

» Slide tackles are illegal in this age group (it’s a safety thing), but his team was doing them left and right.

» The defending team is supposed to stay back behind the center line on goal kicks (recall these are micro fields) but his players were jumping the line on every goal kick, even after people on the sidelines called it to his attention.

» When the ball went over our end line after one of our kids had kicked it, he started insisting that it was our goal kick instead of a corner kick. As far as I could tell, this was because they were having better luck stealing the goal kicks out in front of the goal (since they were jumping the midline) than they were having with corner kicks.

» On our kickoffs, his team kept creeping up until they were standing directly opposite the ball. When we asked him to back his team up (as per the rules) he just looked over at us and then told the kid (on our team!) standing nearest the ball to hurry up and kick it. One time he even set the ball up for our kickoff about five feet behind the center line.

And so on.

But what really got me was what he did after they built a 4-0 lead… He pulled his goalie! They normally play four-on-four with three on the field plus a goalie. In this case, however, he decided to pull his goalie and add a fourth attacker. At first I thought his kids were just confused about where they were supposed to be playing, so I asked from the sideline if he had intended to pull his goalie. His reply?

“Yep, I don’t have to play a goalie if I don’t want to.”

What a total prick. As it turns out, his kids didn’t actually get it — they kept trying to set up in the normal formation, but he’d go back and push the kid playing goalie up the field. Why? Presumably so they could run up the score. There’s no other explanation.

Oh well, as my lovely and talented wife pointed out, he may have gotten the upper hand on a bunch of seven year olds for one night, but he gets to be an overbearing jerk for the rest of his life.

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