Posted on 03/11/2009 8:56:05 AM PDT by AreaMan
“It is unfortunate that lacrosse is a spring sport, it really should be a winter sport, at least in California.”
Don’t think that would work in the hotbeds, like Syracuse, New Jersey and Baltimore. Oh well.
“...lots of tie games and no one is measurably better than anyone else.”
Really? My son’s JV team just beat another JV team 16-0.
“It’s not my bias. I talk with my friends who have kids in soccer and that’s what they tell me. Nobody keeps score, everybody plays, only cheering allowed, nobody’s a loser.”
Where I live this is true at the youngest levels and I have no problem with that, but certainly not as you grow older. The rec leagues still require that everybody get at least a little playing time, but in the more serious leagues you’ve got to earn your time by being good.
“Clock-ruled games which permit ties are not positive metaphors for life.”
Where I live, clock-ruled games are necessary because there are only so many fields and a lot of teams. Most fields don’t have lights, so you have to get through the schedule before it gets dark. In tournaments, only the playoffs can’t end in ties. Once again, there are time limitations. It’s a practical thing, not a feel-good measure.
You do know that pro football games can end in ties, don’t you?
Yes, and that’s unfortunate, but it rarely happens.
JV are not beginners. Soccer was initially introduced to and is most widely played by elementary school-aged children.
I’m talking about at the lower levels of the sport. Obviously the pro’s and college level folks are incredible athletes. But at the lower levels, I stand by my earlier statement.....
.
I’ve watched plenty soccer and my father in law is hooked....I enjoyed watching my college team....But for the lower levels, see above...
“Actually, had you read the article you would have
discovered that he a college professor and author.
You offer no rebuttal and just name calling.
Must be a soccer fan!”
I did read the article, which is why I concluded he knows nothing about soccer. I also know that he is a professor, I was merely commenting that journalists ALSO write daily about stuff they know nothing about, which is why our voting populace is so ill-informed. And I am indeed a soccer fan and player, which is how I know that soccer is right next to ice hockey as one of the most physically demanding sports. People who think it isn’t, is socialist, or is for wimps are without fail ignorant of soccer and likely not enough of an athlete to play it.
I don’t know what kind of soccer league you or your friends’ kids have experienced, but every league I’ve played in has been cutthroat competition since a young age. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of breaking two guy’s legs and have had my own hand and fingers broken several times in the goal. If you aren’t a top-notch athlete, you quickly fail and are not allowed on the field.
Funny read. This article also appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com:80/article/SB123680101041299201.html
Since it became popular in New England, and that's the best time to play it, I guess there is nothing we can do about it now.
When do they play soccer in Syracuse? Isn't it a winter sport? It is in California.
I would guess the schools up there play soccer in the spring. Lacrosse players are generally beefier than soccer players, but both need to have good legs. Here in Virginia, we have track, baseball, soccer, tennis and lacrosse in the spring. So you’ve got three sports competing for good runners. A handful of people who play soccer also run in important meets, but of course they’re not in top track shape.
It certainly would not apply to the high school select travel level either.
They are tough as nails...witness the broken tibias and ACLs.
I guess that leaves the YMCA hurd ball and kids in high school that play on rec leagues.
My earliest memory of soccer is of watching the illegal aliens play it at Flushing Meadows Park just before they totally ruined the neighborhood of my infancy. (That would be Corona, NY, which used to be a nice place but is now an unrecognizable sewer.)
Never quite got over that image, which is one of the reasons my own boys never played it. Also, as a slightly older child, soccer was known as “the silk panty sport,” due to the silky drawers they wear. Not to mention the author’s quite correct assertion that the game is as dull as watching somebody watching paint dry.
Regards,
May I suggest fencing?
When my oldest was about three, he saw Darth Vader have it out with Luke Skywalker and spent the next few years pestering me with, “I wanna learn how to sword fight! I wann a learn how to sword fight!”
So...when he was nine, he came running into the kitchen saying, “Mommy! Come quick! You gotta see this!” It was a commercial for a local fencing academy that was running a week-long summer camp. We signed him up, and, well...that was four years ago now and he is a highly accomplished youth fencer, with a good chance at a college scholarship (if he keeps it up, stays on the Honor Roll and keeps his nose clean). One day he hopes to step up onto a pedastal and sing the National Anthem with a medal around his neck.
The sport is a good one. Its rules are courtly and courteous, it prizes agility and speed over brawn and raw power, and you have to be a neither a giant nor as small as, say, a gymnast to be good at it. That said, being tall with a long reach does give you an advantage and strength certainly doesn’t hurt.
Plus...you son will get to actually STAB his friends with a pointy (but not sharp) metal object, and nobody’s going to yell at him! What more could a boy want?
Regards,
Well, thanks, I will indeed look into it. They’ve been stabbing each other with light sabers for years.
Olivia,
I happen to be sitting at fencing class right now, and I just asked Billy’s coach if she could recommend a fencing school in the SF area.
She has recommended this school: http://www.halberstadtfc.com/
Apparently, there is another club (starts with an M, but I can’t remember the exact name right now), and that club does indeed produce champion fencers but is not very good at developing the whole child, or instilling a sense of good sportsmanship.
This is, of course, our coach’s opinion, but hers is an opinion I trust in these matters.
Let me know how it goes!
Regards,
Face it. Soccer sucks.
I can assure you with 100% certainty, I will not watch a single minute of any world cup match, regardless of who is playing.
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