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Learning Soccer Basics
Learning any new sport is a lot of fun, but it is also a lot of hard work. There are many sports from which to choose, with most going with things like baseball, basketball, and football. However, there are other sports out there that are gaining popularity, though they are not available at all schools. Soccer is one of those sports. Some schools touch on the soccer basics in physical education classes, but in order to play on a team, you have to be sure the basics are taught and securely fixed.
Getting out on the field to play is often what some think of as the best part of playing soccer, and of course that is usually true. However, some of the most important soccer basics are taught off the field. In order to be a great player, you have to know the rules inside and out. That means studying the basics of soccer that include where each position can go, what they can do, and also what might bring about a penalty. This can be done in conjunction with field play, but it has to be done early. That makes training much easier.
Soccer Videos
What do soccer fans do when it's raining and they want to pass the time? They watch soccer videos! So much for physical fitness! They watch! Not play!
There are numerous soccer videos for sale, covering different aspects of the game. Young players who want to improve their techniques can choose from instructional videos, some of which are presented by famous soccer stars. Others available include films about the history of the game, history of particular clubs, footage from particular seasons, competitions or matches.
Bill Shankley was one of the most liked soccer managers in Britain. He was devoted to Liverpool FC and managed them for fifteen years. In Shankley - the Story of a Soccer Legend, we see Liverpool progressing to the top division and footage from FA Cup and Uefa Cup ties. There is plenty of action and interviews from players of the time.
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Manchester United is another club with an illustrious past. They have produced very skillful players over the years and many soccer videos are devoted to different periods of success. The 1960s and early 1970s are celebrated in Soccer Legends - Law, Best and Charlton, subtitled The Greatest Trio of Footballers the World Has Ever Seen. This BBC release shows the individual talent and teamwork of the toast of the club. Dennis Law was lightning in the box and was a Scottish international. George Best is often cited as the most gifted player who ever played and Bobby Charlton was part of the England team that won the World Cup in 1966.
More nostalgia is on view in Soccer Superstars of the 50s and 60s. Featured players include English stars, Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, Bobby Charlton and Gordon Banks. Matthews played top class soccer when he was in his 50s and Banks was goalkeeper in the 1966 World Cup winning team. Many soccer videos celebrate the genius of the Brazilian, Pele and he is included here. Franz Beckenbauer is also featured and is one of the best players and managers to come from Germany.
The instructional videos look at the development of certain techniques or different positions within the team. Some give exercises and practice techniques to follow, as in Soccer Drills - Vol I - Individual Skills and Drills. Striker Michael Owen, of Newcastle United and England, presents a video titled Michael Owen's Soccer Skills - How To Become the Complete Footballer. It shows footage of Owen in action and he enjoys teaching young people on how to improve their playing.
One of the more unusual videos on offer is Guitars for Goalposts, a montage of British pop stars in action in charity soccer matches. Stars strutting their stuff include members of Blur, the Lightning Seeds, the Prodigy and Mark Owen of Take That and Robbie Williams. It's a musical version of soccer videos for fans that like to see their idol's knees!
If you live in the United States, as I do, it might be hard for you to realize how big world cup soccer really is in most of the rest of the world. Here, we have football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and other sports all competing for attention, but in much of the rest of the world, world cup soccer is really the ultimate thing. During the world cup final championship, passions can run so high that fans actually fight, or sometimes kill each other in the stadium. It might be easy to miss if you are not from a soccer crazy country, but the fact is that just sitting in the wrong side of a soccer stadium with the wrong colors, or the wrong world cup soccer jersey on your back, could be really dangerous in quite a few parts of the world today.
I never study world cup soccer rankings, or follow the game that is called football in the rest of the world that closely, but I can still truly say that I love to watch the game on tv. I go to an Irish bar downtown in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district and, over a few drinks, watch the game with some of the rowdiest and most fun soccer hooligans this side of Manchester. Even if it is not world cup soccer on tv (sometimes it is just a club game, or a rugby match) it is almost a guarantee that the crowd will be really in to what is going on. Just being in a place with that kind of energy is almost all that I can handle.
But I am not just in to world cup soccer. I also like to play the game. I have a soccer team, and it is more fun than you can imagine. Without all of that rough and tumble physical activity, I am quite sure that I would go crazy on a daily basis. There are no two ways about it. Soccer is not my life, but it sure does improve my quality of life. There is no question that, because of soccer, I am much happier and healthier than I would ever be otherwise. There are no two ways about it. It is fun to watch a world cup soccer match on the tv, but it is even more fun to play soccer with some good friends on a Saturday afternoon.
The soccer basics that most coaches will focus on are ones that will seem like common sense. Kicking is important, but probably not as important as learning to dribble. Unlike basketball, dribbling is done with the feet. Good skills in this department can mean the difference between being a decent soccer player and being a great one. This is one of the soccer basics that must get the most attention at first. If you can’t move the ball, you aren’t going to help your team out in any way. Unlike other sports where the ball is carried in the hand, running fast is not the only thing needed for game play skills.
Other soccer basics will include passing to teammates. This is something that grows as a talent as someone plays. Knowing who to pass to can be hard at first, but with some practice, this can become as easy as anything else. It becomes second nature. Only then do kicking skills come in. These basics of soccer are all very important, and will be mastered over time. Learning them in a simple form at first can pave the way to a really great career in soccer, even if it only lasts through high school. It’s great fun, full of exercise, and keeps many children out of trouble. Not bad for an after school activity.
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