Youth Sports Spotlight

Among the great pleasures of being part of the PCA Movement is connection to so many like-minded people. One of those is Alex Kos (right), whose soccer background includes playing, youth coaching and training, entrepreneurship, and his blog, Improving Soccer in the United States.

In addition to blogging for PCA, Alex is conducting World Cup East Bay 2010,

a World Cup-themed soccer event for players and fans of all ages. Held at Northern California's Antioch Indoor Sports Center, the event comprises live World Cup game viewing, youth Futsal tournaments, soccer instruction, and quizzes tied to countries competing for the Cup and world geography.

We hope you enjoy, learn from and comment on his writing below.

Friday, June 11

The disallowed Mexico goal off the corner in the first half was absolutely the right call. It was a very unusual situation given that the last defender was not the goalkeeper, which confused the fans and comentators alike. It goes to show that referees know what they are doing. However, at too many youth matches, too many fans would have you convinced that they are the true experts and that the referees are incompetent.

Saturday, June 12

Greece is ranked 11th and South Korea 49th, but South Korea dominated. The lesson learned is that on any given day, any team can beat another. Players and coaches should never take a team lightly. Always prepare as if your next opponent is the best opponent you have every played.

Argentina and especially Messi had a great game against Nigeria. But the final was only 1-0, and Messi did not figure in the scoring. Players and coaches get hung up on goals. However, the number of chances Messi created and the difficulty he presented to Nigeria was immense. It is important for youth coaches to recognize good defense, goalkeeping, assists, and hustle, as much if not more than goals. A goal is simply the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae. A lot more goes into a sundae than just the cherry.

The most notable aspect about England's goalie gaffe against the U.S.: you have to forget mistakes as quickly as possible and move on. Robert Green did exactly that based on his post-game comments.

I have mixed feelings about professional goalkeepers. Many of them are terrible teammates, always yelling at their defenders. The defenders know when they make mistakes. They don't need the goalkeeper to compound the situation.

When Green made his mistake, only one player made any kind of gesture. John Terry gestured to keep his 'chin up.' It would have been nice to see more players console the goalkeeper. We all make mistakes and with over half a game left to play, the team was still going to need him. Youth players and coaches are much better at consoling each other.

Wednesday, June 16

It was great seeing the emotion on the North Korean players before the start of their game against Brazil. When I was young, I slept in my uniform before each game because I was so excited. I don't see or hear much of that excitement these days. Perhaps, that is because so much is organized and choreographed, with so little free play, where kids simply play on their own. Or, maybe it's because kids have so many activities that few strike them as exciting or unique.

Saturday, June 19

One thing no one has mentioned about Landon Donovan's goal against Slovenia: Four years ago against Italy, he was presented with almost an identical situation. However, instead of dribbling toward goal, he dribbled toward the sideline for a cross. This year, he showed he had learned from his previous experience.

One thing I always like to ask youth players during a teachable moment is, "what else could you have done?" By engaging them in conversation and having them figure out alternative solutions on their own, their answers will stick and stay with them longer.

Monday, June 21

I think it is safe to say that almost all young athletes want to play professional sports, and if given the opportunity, represent their country. I always thought that would be cool. I would have a blast, wouldn't I?

Maybe not. The French are not. The controversy swirling around their team seems to have sucked a lot of the fun out of the game. Soccer is still just a game. And boy, if I am advocating that professionals should be having more fun, then certainly youth players should be having tons of fun.

Wednesday, June 23

AAMMMMAAAAZZZZIIIINNNNNGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If the U.S. vs. Algeria did not get your pulse racing, nothing will.

What I liked most about Landon Donovan’s goal was that he did not stop running after he passed the ball to Jozy Altidore. Oftentimes, even at the professional level, players end up spectating and then react instead of anticipating their next move. Donovan anticipated the goalkeeper’s save and was in position to score the goal that ensured his team advanced to the knockout stage.

Congratulations U-S-A!
--Alex Kos

Despite last night’s obvious and admitted blown umpire’s call that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galaragga the last out of what would have been a perfect game, the aftermath exemplified PCA's principle of Honoring the Game.
 
Instead of losing his cool and flipping out on the umpire, Galaragga smiled and went about his business. Instead of focusing on what he could no longer control, Galaragga, like all Triple-Impact Competitors, prepared for the next play. He executed it flawlessly, retiring the next batter and recording the complete game, one-hitter (his first complete game and shutout of his career).

If, in a moment like this, Galaragga can keep his cool and show class, then youth sports parents, coaches and athletes can do the same during their own games.

In true Triple-Impact Competitor style, Galaragga improved himself (by rising above the umpire's call), his teammates (by calmly finishing the game even as some of them continued howling over the call), and the game (by providing youth players, parents and coaches a great example that we expect to see emulated throughout youth sports).

 
Post-game, umpire Jim Joyce also Honored the Game by personally apologizing to Galaragga and owning up to the blown call, without excuses, in media interviews. In Galaragga’s post-game interviews, he continued to shine, saying he knows “nobody’s perfect.”
 
The more youth sports participants remember this about each other, the better off we’ll be.
--Jason Sacks, PCA Director of Partner Development 

To share your views, click the Comments link below.

I went to Yeardley Love's funeral with my twenty-two year old son. Yeardley, a University of Virginia lacrosse player, was murdered early this month apparently at the hands of a former boyfriend. My son, a college lacrosse player, was friends with Yeardley, her accused murderer, and many of the men and women on the UVA lacrosse teams. Sitting next to him, I could feel and see him trying to process the conflicted emotions surrounding the enormity of this tragedy, compounded by knowing both the victim and the victimizer. The young men sitting around me sobbed and sniffled. At one point in the ceremony I turned to an emotionally distraught young man and asked him if I could give him a hug. I was surprised at the strength and endurance of his hug as he held onto me seeking comfort and, I suspect, affirmation of his emotions and manhood.  As he let go he said “thank you” without ever looking at me. Here lies part of the problem and a solution to the epidemic of violence women experience every day in Maryland and America.

At an early age, boys are fitted with emotional straightjackets tailored by a restricted code of behavior that falsely defines masculinity. In the context of “stop crying,” “stop those emotions,” and “don’t be a sissy,” we define what it means to “Be a Man!” Adherence to this “boy code” leaves many men dissociated from their feelings and incapable of accessing, naming, sharing, or accepting many of their emotions. When men don’t understand their own emotions it becomes impossible to understand the feelings of another. This creates an “empathy-deficit disorder” that is foundational to America’s epidemic of bullying, dating abuse and gender violence. Boys are taught to be tough, independent, distrusting of other males, and at all cost to avoid anything considered feminine for fear of being associated with women. This leads many men to renounce their common humanity with women so as to experience an emotional disconnect from them. Women often become objects, used to either validate masculine insecurity or satisfy physical needs. When the validation and satisfaction ends, or is infused with anger, control or alcohol, gender violence is often the result. Violence against women is often thought of as a women’s issue; but it is a mistake to call men’s violence a women’s issue. Since men are overwhelmingly the perpetrators of this violence, this men’s issue calls to question the cultural values that produce men who hurt women. Sadly, Yeardley Love was only one of four women murdered by intimate partners that day. Who knows how many others were raped, battered, sexually abused, harassed or exploited by men that day and every day in America? 

Since Yeardley’s funeral was packed with athletes, coaches, parents of athletes and sports fans, we need to look at the role sports could play in preventing future tragedies. Athletic Directors, coaches and educators have an almost unparalleled platform to bring together youth, families, and community partners to break the silence of gender violence and then design, implement and create preventive programs and activities. Educating boys and men in prevention programs is critical to reducing all forms of violence. Coaches can and should teach their players to challenge the attitudes and assumptions that dehumanize women. Players need to be taught how to confront abusive peers and how stand up and speak out on behalf of their mothers, sisters, daughters, grandmothers, aunts and female friends. Since so many boys no longer have a mentoring network of fathers, uncles, elders, and other males to initiate, train and guide them into manhood, coaches should and must assume part of this responsibility. 

I’d like to think Athletic Directors and coaches all over America brought their male and female teams together to help process Yeardley’s death and to implement prevention strategies within their schools and communities. Yet as someone involved nationally in the sports world, I know that did not happen. A teachable moment was overlooked in the name of business, schedules, tournaments and the reality that men often choose apathy and indifference when confronting the conditions that foster abusive male behavior. Two weeks after Yeardley’s death I watched the UVA male and female teams take the field under the banner of ONE TEAM-ONE HEART-ONE LOVE.  In the name of the world I want my sons and daughters to live in; I can only hope Yeardley Love’s murder sparks ONE MOVEMENT to eradicate gender violence. Robert Kennedy said, “Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills, against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence….Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of our generation.”  Each man and every coach must start challenging the social norms that define manhood and hold other men and players accountable for their behavior toward women.

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