This past week/weekend was the United Soccer Coaches Annual Convention in Philadelphia.
I've seen some funny tweets for products being offered there. Someone is trying to market an over-sized hula hoop as a RondoRing for $70.
The announcement of the new coaching curriculum had some interesting dialogue also.
I spent a few hours on Saturday morning watching the live stream of the 8 US Soccer President Candidates forum. It was pretty interesting.
At least 5 of them mentioned that the current federation is completely out of touch with what goes on within the 55 state federations. And that the recent changes to youth soccer (Age Groups, build out line, etc) were done without input from those at the youth level.
At least 5 of them mentioned that ODP should become a stronger part of the pathway along with DA.
Kyle Martino said "right now, we don't have a pathway. We have a game of "frogger" for kids/parents to navigate."
I think he was also the one that spoke about adding futsal goals to basketball courts across the country. He seemed to be a candidate that actually had some defined plans for change.
Eric Wynalada was pretty solid. He spoke very strongly about how US Soccer is out of compliance with 13 FIFA regulations. He spoke of solidarity payments. He spoke of changing the MLS calendar to be in-line with the rest of the world.
I missed Hope Solo's speech.
I really hope that Kathy Carter does not get elected.
I was surprised at how many candidates were very focused on the grass roots/youth game. It may have been because the audience was grass roots/youth coaches.
Based on what I saw (and I have zero insight into what it takes to run US Soccer), I'd love to see Kyle Martino and Eric Wynalda pair up and run the show together.
I've seen some funny tweets for products being offered there. Someone is trying to market an over-sized hula hoop as a RondoRing for $70.
The announcement of the new coaching curriculum had some interesting dialogue also.
I spent a few hours on Saturday morning watching the live stream of the 8 US Soccer President Candidates forum. It was pretty interesting.
At least 5 of them mentioned that the current federation is completely out of touch with what goes on within the 55 state federations. And that the recent changes to youth soccer (Age Groups, build out line, etc) were done without input from those at the youth level.
At least 5 of them mentioned that ODP should become a stronger part of the pathway along with DA.
Kyle Martino said "right now, we don't have a pathway. We have a game of "frogger" for kids/parents to navigate."
I think he was also the one that spoke about adding futsal goals to basketball courts across the country. He seemed to be a candidate that actually had some defined plans for change.
Eric Wynalada was pretty solid. He spoke very strongly about how US Soccer is out of compliance with 13 FIFA regulations. He spoke of solidarity payments. He spoke of changing the MLS calendar to be in-line with the rest of the world.
I missed Hope Solo's speech.
I really hope that Kathy Carter does not get elected.
I was surprised at how many candidates were very focused on the grass roots/youth game. It may have been because the audience was grass roots/youth coaches.
Based on what I saw (and I have zero insight into what it takes to run US Soccer), I'd love to see Kyle Martino and Eric Wynalda pair up and run the show together.