Jim Harbaugh advises football players to play soccer
http://scout.com/college/michigan/Article/Harbaugh-encourages-boys-to-p…
Most important quote:"I always encourage youngsters in America to play soccer. I think every American boy should play soccer till the eighth grade, then they should play football- American footbal.l"
August 14th, 2017 at 9:20 PM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 9:30 PM ^
Baseball had anticipated opportunities for big moments. Basketball felt the same way to some degree.
Especially early years soccer felt like a stupid scrum where the most hyperactive spaz case often had the most success.
I love watching pro soccer now and I think I could love playing that version of the game but it's a long painful journey to get to a decent game from the bunch fest that it starts out with.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:06 PM ^
Played it for one year. Worst sports season of my life. An entire game without hands. Just glad they didn't make that rule for loving.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:36 PM ^
August 15th, 2017 at 9:37 AM ^
I live in a state where the football season and the soccer season do not coincide. The football coaches at our school absolutely love that their football players can play soccer. The requirements of soccer at an individual and team level are much more applicable to football than let's say track
August 14th, 2017 at 10:39 PM ^
I don't know if they still do this, but when I was a little kid, our rec league played box soccer for little kids, and zone soccer for intermediates. One kid from each team in a box, 9 boxes on the field; 3 on 3/4 on 4 in 3-zone. If you were playing for a really bad team and you were on offense, you'd be sitting on your zone of the field for a half at a time without anything happening. If you were streaking up the field with the ball and hit the line, you had to pass. It was the worst.
August 15th, 2017 at 1:48 PM ^
I was that hyperactive spaz.
August 14th, 2017 at 9:21 PM ^
Harbaugh played soccer at Tappan Middle School.
First row, second from left in #12 jersey.
August 14th, 2017 at 9:23 PM ^
Who's J. Harbough?
August 14th, 2017 at 9:24 PM ^
Damn, just pulled a huge double-take... I read that as Tampon Middle School at first...
August 14th, 2017 at 9:28 PM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 9:52 PM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 11:12 PM ^
Eh, you're probably right...but I went there so I have to "rep it," right?
August 15th, 2017 at 12:24 AM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 9:34 PM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 9:45 PM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 10:43 PM ^
where do you find this stuff?
August 15th, 2017 at 1:19 AM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 9:23 PM ^
Well, if this advice somehow encourages more soccer-style-bullshit flopping to draw flags in American football, I'm going to be pissed. I frickin' hate the flopping around garbage. ...Yeah, yeah, get off my lawn and all that...
August 14th, 2017 at 9:27 PM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 9:31 PM ^
I have been a believer in this for a few years now. Soccer teaches kids great coordination and how to use their bodies athletically. I wish there wasn't full contact in football until around 7th grade anyways. 8 year olds tackling each other doesn't provide any advantage to them when they're older, there is still risk for head injury at that age, and there is the risk of burn out if they play from that young age on. Good job Jimmy!
August 14th, 2017 at 9:31 PM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 10:06 PM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 10:20 PM ^
My son is 12 and is playing football for the first time. He played travel soccer for the last 3 years and wanted to play football from now on.
These are my observations and opinions (this is really just a random stream of thoughts):
--soccer is great for kids to run around and get exercise and learn to be part of a team. My son's soccer team would practice next to a baseball field and the baseball kids looked soooo bored during practice and the soccer kids were having fun. I played baseball FWIW.
--out of about 200-300 kids who were in the soccer club (boys and girls), I know of one black kid and his dad is from Africa.
--About 40% of the football players are black.
--The football kids do a much better job at listening to their coaches and following directions. The soccer kids tended to goof off much more.
--There are much, much better "athletes" in football.
--The soccer kids were much more of mama's boys and were much whinier than the football kids.
--This is Chicagoland btw
August 14th, 2017 at 10:47 PM ^
Go into the city and look at the rec fields--soccer is an international game in Chicago. It's amazing how freakishly good a pickup game can be, and these guys are just messing around.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:49 PM ^
My observations are from youth soccer.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:52 PM ^
I mean, it's kids, too, but OK.
August 14th, 2017 at 11:32 PM ^
August 15th, 2017 at 2:00 PM ^
until I remembered our coach on the west side of the state who started the program getting kicked out of the club because he was too rough (yelling) at the kids. He was an amazing coach who really tought the game to almost any kid who played in the area. Yes he was yelling at you, but he was teaching at you while he was yelling. Once you got around the yelling, you really learned how to play. By the time I stopped playing club to go to college, the club had changed a lot and was run by an in group of moms.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:35 PM ^
At some of these observations about soccer. Talking about it like it is some afterthought to do when you are growing up, then you need to be "tough" and play football.
Give me a break. Yeah, soccer is a lot more finess. But to say that soccer players "just run around and get exercise" without any strategy is a joke. There's SO much more technical involvement than people can even understand about the sport. And let's not act like pee-wee football players are freaking memorizing plays. They run around in just as many circles and look just as lost as soccer kids.
Much better athletes in football? Based on what? What do you define as an athlete?
I'm sorry, but if my son had a choice between the two, I would actively encourage soccer vs football. I don't want to see my children growing up with these horrible injuries and be walking around with a limp and forgetting everything when they are 40. No thanks.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:43 PM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 11:10 PM ^
But please don't sell me that all these young football kids are geniuses.
I've seen PLENTY of young dudes playing the game that had no freaking clue what was happening. And I've played for young soccer teams that were beyond elaborate. Go tell travel soccer leagues, with kids starting at 8-10 that they are just running in circles. That would be news to them.
August 15th, 2017 at 8:02 AM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 10:51 PM ^
The part about conditioning and fitness is really key. My town was a really soccer-heavy place, and I grew up with a couple dozen folks who were either in ODP or very close to it. Our high school was strong in both boys and girls, and had a bunch of friends who ended up on soccer scholarships for college.
All of those people were in infinitely better shape, 12 months a year, than all but a small handful of the guys I knew who played football. They were athletes in every sense of the word--even the tiny, 4'11" girl on the team could kick your ass. Soccer athletes can, and do hold their own.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:59 PM ^
to be more athletic than the boys.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:58 PM ^
opinion and that is fine. My observations are about youth soccer and they pretty much just run around.
I'm basing my observations on one community of soccer and football players. and the football players have much better fluidity and coordination in their movements--ON AVERAGE. Sure you see some soccer players with this, but there are more kids who look "athletic" playing football, again, based on my observations.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:38 PM ^
August 14th, 2017 at 10:52 PM ^
for many reasons, including reducing injuries by using the same muscles over and over, and then by puberty, let them figure out what they think is fun. In the meantime, parents should find their own beer leagues to compete in to relive their glory days and stay away from coaching their kids.
Soccer early on helped my kids become much better at basketball and water polo later on. Conditioning, passing strategy and spacing, toughness, and understanding the quick transition from offense to defense and back again all were benefits from soccer.
Like any travel sport, coaches are the most important factor that can make or break a kid's passion.
August 14th, 2017 at 11:50 PM ^
My daughter plays both travel soccer & travel softball.
She's primarily a defensman in soccer, a bit heavy-footed, she excells due to her toughness, leg strength, passing, etc. But she's still one of the slowest, least nimble players on a pretty good team.
On her softball team she's an ok hitter, good fielder, but she's also a base running/stealing rockstar! Quick & fearless she stole 52 bases this spring/summer.
It's just funny/odd how some physical skills translate between sports.
August 15th, 2017 at 7:25 AM ^
Until I read this I had labored under the belief that there was no base stealing in softball. Never played much growing up, and just assumed it would be too easy to steal a base in softball compared to baseball.
So I learned something today other than a lot of folks have a funny idea of what competitive soccer is all about. Most of the negative comments seem to be referencing what you'd see in rec league soccer - travel soccer is a whole other animal, especially if you're in a soccer rich area with big clubs and some international presence.
August 15th, 2017 at 1:56 PM ^
There are no leadoffs in softball.
You can't leave the bag until the ball is out of the pitchers hand.
August 15th, 2017 at 1:01 AM ^
The breatheless restatement of old news.
August 15th, 2017 at 1:10 AM ^
August 15th, 2017 at 7:39 AM ^
August 15th, 2017 at 1:46 PM ^
Soccer is very good for developing coordination, body control, and balance. It also is very valubale for thinking quickly on the run. All of these skills translate nicely to football