1500 Hours

This weekend was brutal for me.

I was joined by CBFC coaches Dan McCoy, Dale Ruis and Mike Cheney in Kansas City for the World Class Coaching symposium. The event showcased four highly accomplished coaches presenting four training sessions each, it was a full weekend of soccer and note taking. The brutality of it all was that I was sick and felt horrible the entire time, to make matters worse, I am sure I spread it to multiple coaches including our own that were accompanying me. After downing cough drop after cough drop all weekend, somehow I survived. Other than the illness, it was a pretty great weekend.

One of the presenters is a long time hero of mine. Not only does he share the same passion for soccer as i do but he also shares the same faith. I purchased his latest book, had him sign it, expressed my gratitude and moved on. Anson Dorrance has always been the guy I wanted to be. I love UNC soccer, I love the women's side of soccer and I would do anything to be as success full as this man. Not many people in our country know who this man is or what he has accomplished. But if you read his profile on the University of North Carolina Women's Soccer web site. You will see that he is the most winningest coach in ALL college sports, not just soccer, but every sport ever. He has won more titles than anyone and his winning percentage is unmatched. He once went 92 matches straight without loosing!
My point is that as I sat and marveled about what he has accomplished, I wondered what sets him apart, what makes him so unique, what makes his players so brilliant on the field as well as off. I researched Coach Dorrance on the web and found these things on wikepedia.com;

Dorrance's success comes from several inter related attributes. First, he has an eye for recruiting outstanding talent. Related to that is his emphasis on competitiveness. He noted early in his time as a women's coach that women seemed to have an inhibition against open competition. He decided to develop an atmosphere at UNC in which women were rewarded for having an aggressive desire to win. Finally, he noted from his work with both the men's and women's team that women tended to play best in an atmosphere which focused on relationships.

Dorrance was able to bring out his player's aggressiveness and competitiveness while also fostering an almost family sense of the team. Regarding the aggressiveness, Santa Clara University women's soccer coach Jerry Smith noted in a 1998 Sports Illustrated article, "When you watch them, you can see the edge they have. I'll go beyond aggressiveness. It's meanness. Anson has found a way to bring that out of his players."
Mia Hamm added in the same article, "I grew up always good at sports, but being a girl, I was never allowed to feel as good about it as guys were. My toughness wasn't celebrated. But then I came here, and it was O.K. to want to be the best."[1]

I recently posted Coach Dorance's video on the web for a short time. I opened a window for players and parents to see what it is that the greatest college coach ever expects out of his players. I hope that parents, coaches and players all took an opportunity to look at the video, take notes and utilize it to improve. I watched the video and thought to myself, "wow nothing too complicated." Then I remembered a quote from, in my opinion, the most influential women's soccer player ever, Michelle Akers. She once was quoted to say, "Soccer isn't brain surgery, have fun!"

Too many times I think we as adults forget what soccer is all about...fun. Too many times I think the players forget that it is all about...fun. One of the down sides of modern sports is that we as adults tend to make soccer so very convenient for ourselves. (Disclaimer: I say that knowing how much we all do to get our kids to and from soccer activities that seem to consume our lives.)

When I use the word "convenient" my intentions are to recognize how easy it is to "have our kids play soccer" these days. The video that I posted on the web shows no more than four people at a time, outside, with a ball, doing real easy activities over and over again. I would like to say that today's children don't do that, because we have made soccer convenient to 'our' schedules by having training sessions convenient to when we can getthem to practice. This method has taught our youth to only "play" under adult supervision. Now they only touch a ball when there is someone there to instruct them. If our children are truly enjoying soccer they should have a ball with them at all times, come home from school, put down their phones, shut down the internet and walk to the nearest park with three cones and a ball and maybe a friend or three to "play" with. How often do we invite our kids to go outside, enjoy the weather and soccer ball during the summer? It seems to me that the 3v3 tournaments are making it "convenient" for our kids to play soccer in the summer when there are no schedule practices. The summer is the best time for kids to explore the game and develop their individual skills by being creative and exercise without boundaries or instruction. This spring break, encourage your children to go outside and "play." See how many hours your child will go out on their own and touch a ball.

Playing and competing are two different things. CBFC is putting on a 3v3 tournament. The PROVE IT! tournament, as it is called, is an excellent opportunity for our kids to showcase their skills. When we line up on the sidelines this July, we should not marvel in the many goals, or get discouraged when the children loose the ball. But we should get excited when a player gets around an opposing player or two without having to pass by "doing up" the defender by nutmegging or cutting around or through the opposition.

I hope that this spring the CBFC players go outside with a ball and play by themselves or with a friend or two, making up their own competitive games, trials or challenges. To be rather honest a player will never reach his/her full potential as a player if they do not spend a significant amount of time on the ball on their own, without teammates, coaches or structured training. Parents, our children are not satisfied with you just dropping your child off at practice or camps, they need mom and dad to get excited about their passion for soccer and encourage them to go out and play with a soccer ball for an hour a day. The only way someone falls in love with something is by dedicating his/her time to it. Your child has a romance with the soccer ball, but being passionate about that ball is different.

Ronaldinho, 2006 FIFA player of the year, was asked before the 2006 World Cup if he had a girlfriend. His reply was honest and charming. He looked at the ball in his hand, pointed to it, and said, "this is my love, this is my girlfriend." He has dedicated his entire life to the game and has become the premier player in the world. As you will see in the video...his smile is contagious and everlasting!



To conclude, the final Coach at the symposium was Mauricio Marques from Brazil. He concluded by giving us one key fact that i believe every CBFC coach wrote down. Now before I give you the quote, let me remind you that Brazil is considered to be the very BEST soccer country in the world by the majority of soccer advocates.

"Brazilian kids play soccer on their own (no coaches)on average, 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, 300 days out of the year (1500 hours), when American kids do the same thing they will be the best soccer country in the world."