Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Potomac Soccer Wire and Golme
As you hopefully read in today's wire, we've struck up a partnership with Golme. This is a first for HummerSport (that's our company name, while Potomac Soccer Wire is just one of our web site properties), but it won't be the last such deal. When we find great soccer products or services that benefit soccer participants, and those companies are willing to offer special discounts and/or incentives to our readers and clients, then we'll find a way to bring those products and servces to you.
I'll leave the details on our Golme pages, but on a personal note, I just wanted to reinforce how revolutionary I think these goals are.
As a coach, I always want at least two goals for a training session, but that's a rare thing these days with so few fields. PLUS even if your club allocates a full field to your team, more and more goals are permanently anchored for safety reasons. This all totally makes sense, and safety should always come first. But permanently anchored goals don't change the fact that a proper training session should end with two teams going to full size goals - on an appropriately sized field. Plus, in the interest of field quality (also a safety issue), many clubs do not allow training session in the "goal mouths" anyway. If you combine these two extremely valid limitations, that leaves a LOT of teams out there every night across our region running training sessions with flags or cones as goals - not very realistic is it?
Portable goals are clearly the answer, but until Golme came along, using portable goals was just a big pain. I've used a Kwikgoal quite a bit, and it's a great goal. But it stores in an 8-foot long bat that takes two people to carry, and a big SUV to transport. Some of the lighter, smaller alternatives, are just plain cheap and flimsy, often made of some form of PVC - yuk! There are even some out now that have to be pumped full of air! I'm blessed somewhat however in that my club has kick back goals stored on site at our training field. It's a fantastic luxury, that I'm sure very few teams enjoy.
But now, Golme has come along, and they're awesome! Even their full-size goal fits in a standard duffel that you could even transport on a motorcycle if you felt like it. It only weighs 24 pounds, and sets up in about 3 minutes (faster as you get used to it, and when you put it away properly when finished). There is NO hard cross-bar either - it's a thick nylon strap - so there are no worries about the thing tipping over and hurting someone. In fact, the goal won't even function without being "anchored" because it requires two tent-stake-like attachments on either side as part of the set up. Sort of a built-in safety device.
This goal could literally change the way we teach soccer. Time will tell on their durability, but the frame comes with a 3-year warranty, so they must be pretty confident their "aircraft grade aluminum" will withstand the heavy use. With these goals, teams can now literally hold practice on any large enough grass area, not just pre-defined fields only available by permit. This opens up pleny of free park space, baseball outfields, and even big back yards that just weren't a realistic option with the previous generation of "portable goals".
The result SHOULD be more realist training sessions, fewer player safety concerns, and higher quality game fields that have been spared some wear and tear. All of these only help us develop better players - which is the whole point.
Hope to see you on the pitch soon with a Golme goal, no matter where you buy yours. (but hope you get it through HummerSport).Labels: Fox Soccer Channel, Goals, Golme, HummerSport, Safety, Turf Fields
Monday, April 14, 2008
Remembering a forgettable night in Salt Lake
I took the time to put some thoughts down over on a BigSoccer discussion thread, and thought I might share it here to.
The subject - D.C. United's horrible loss to the horrible Real Salt Lake on a horrible field.
Although the thread topic was "fire the coach", my contribution was more reflective of the meaninglessness of the MLS regular season, and offered the idea that coach Tom Soehn actually made a smart decision in not really going for the win - but rather wanting to see if the bench could win.
Here is/was my take (BTW, my BigSoccer handle is "chummer"):
I really felt while watching [the DC/RSL match Saturday] that [Coach] Soehn had literally punted this game on purpose. Not that they didn't want to win, but that they really didn't care if they won or not. This game was NEVER going to mean anything. It was depressing, disappointing, and even a little inspiring at the same time for me:
Depressing because we really looked bad - not a single player had a "good" game, and it just wasn't soccer. Any game with visible "throwball" lines is depressing for me, even the ManU v Arsenal match would be depressing played on turf with football lines. Pushing to build SSS is the best thing MLS ever did, and will go down in history as the BIGGEST reason the league survived the "early years" when historians look back in 40 years when we're bigger than Hockey and Baseball.
Disappointing because with all talk about our adding "depth", this game made it look like we were no better off than a crappy team like RSL that has a brand new front office and barely a candle to hold against our foreign recruiting relationships. Have we really invested all this effort only to have to rely on $17K/year reserve players?
A little Inspiring because I actually get a warm fuzzy thinking that Soehn basically stood up on the mountain top - literally - and screamed to the league
"I'm not going to waste my time trying to win every MLS regular season game because it's a meaningless endeavor that only keeps us from our primary goals. Teams that only have MLS Cup to play must take seriously what I cannot, because D.C. United has other major concerns. All we have to do in the MLS regular season is get results at RFK and then peak at playoff time."
The inspiration continues as I imagine him continuing with "The season is all about winning a couple of tournaments for us. We put our all into CCC and clearly could have advanced, while beating the so called "best" team in Mexico. We will now focus on SuperLiga and the Champions League, and winning at RFK so we can also then focus this Fall on the tournament that is MLS Cup playoffs. EVERYTHING ELSE between now and those tournaments is little more than training for us. As long as we win 9 games we'll be in the MLS Cup playoffs, so take your away games on a concrete field with throwball lines and shove it MLS."
If this thought process is even close to what TS was/is privately thinking, then we shouldn't fire him, we should enshrine him for knowing how to focus on what's really important. And who can blame the players for not thinking the same thing. You never like to see a professional "take a night off", but we did, and it was a good lesson, but it is in the past now and should be completely forgotten, as most of the regular season in the early months truly is forgettable.Labels: d.c. united, Real Salt Lake, Tom Soehn, Turf Fields
I'll leave the details on our Golme pages, but on a personal note, I just wanted to reinforce how revolutionary I think these goals are.
As a coach, I always want at least two goals for a training session, but that's a rare thing these days with so few fields. PLUS even if your club allocates a full field to your team, more and more goals are permanently anchored for safety reasons. This all totally makes sense, and safety should always come first. But permanently anchored goals don't change the fact that a proper training session should end with two teams going to full size goals - on an appropriately sized field. Plus, in the interest of field quality (also a safety issue), many clubs do not allow training session in the "goal mouths" anyway. If you combine these two extremely valid limitations, that leaves a LOT of teams out there every night across our region running training sessions with flags or cones as goals - not very realistic is it?
Portable goals are clearly the answer, but until Golme came along, using portable goals was just a big pain. I've used a Kwikgoal quite a bit, and it's a great goal. But it stores in an 8-foot long bat that takes two people to carry, and a big SUV to transport. Some of the lighter, smaller alternatives, are just plain cheap and flimsy, often made of some form of PVC - yuk! There are even some out now that have to be pumped full of air! I'm blessed somewhat however in that my club has kick back goals stored on site at our training field. It's a fantastic luxury, that I'm sure very few teams enjoy.
But now, Golme has come along, and they're awesome! Even their full-size goal fits in a standard duffel that you could even transport on a motorcycle if you felt like it. It only weighs 24 pounds, and sets up in about 3 minutes (faster as you get used to it, and when you put it away properly when finished). There is NO hard cross-bar either - it's a thick nylon strap - so there are no worries about the thing tipping over and hurting someone. In fact, the goal won't even function without being "anchored" because it requires two tent-stake-like attachments on either side as part of the set up. Sort of a built-in safety device.
This goal could literally change the way we teach soccer. Time will tell on their durability, but the frame comes with a 3-year warranty, so they must be pretty confident their "aircraft grade aluminum" will withstand the heavy use. With these goals, teams can now literally hold practice on any large enough grass area, not just pre-defined fields only available by permit. This opens up pleny of free park space, baseball outfields, and even big back yards that just weren't a realistic option with the previous generation of "portable goals".
The result SHOULD be more realist training sessions, fewer player safety concerns, and higher quality game fields that have been spared some wear and tear. All of these only help us develop better players - which is the whole point.
Hope to see you on the pitch soon with a Golme goal, no matter where you buy yours. (but hope you get it through HummerSport).
Labels: Fox Soccer Channel, Goals, Golme, HummerSport, Safety, Turf Fields
I took the time to put some thoughts down over on a BigSoccer discussion thread, and thought I might share it here to.
The subject - D.C. United's horrible loss to the horrible Real Salt Lake on a horrible field.
Although the thread topic was "fire the coach", my contribution was more reflective of the meaninglessness of the MLS regular season, and offered the idea that coach Tom Soehn actually made a smart decision in not really going for the win - but rather wanting to see if the bench could win.
Here is/was my take (BTW, my BigSoccer handle is "chummer"):
I really felt while watching [the DC/RSL match Saturday] that [Coach] Soehn had literally punted this game on purpose. Not that they didn't want to win, but that they really didn't care if they won or not. This game was NEVER going to mean anything. It was depressing, disappointing, and even a little inspiring at the same time for me:
Depressing because we really looked bad - not a single player had a "good" game, and it just wasn't soccer. Any game with visible "throwball" lines is depressing for me, even the ManU v Arsenal match would be depressing played on turf with football lines. Pushing to build SSS is the best thing MLS ever did, and will go down in history as the BIGGEST reason the league survived the "early years" when historians look back in 40 years when we're bigger than Hockey and Baseball.
Disappointing because with all talk about our adding "depth", this game made it look like we were no better off than a crappy team like RSL that has a brand new front office and barely a candle to hold against our foreign recruiting relationships. Have we really invested all this effort only to have to rely on $17K/year reserve players?
A little Inspiring because I actually get a warm fuzzy thinking that Soehn basically stood up on the mountain top - literally - and screamed to the league
"I'm not going to waste my time trying to win every MLS regular season game because it's a meaningless endeavor that only keeps us from our primary goals. Teams that only have MLS Cup to play must take seriously what I cannot, because D.C. United has other major concerns. All we have to do in the MLS regular season is get results at RFK and then peak at playoff time."
The inspiration continues as I imagine him continuing with "The season is all about winning a couple of tournaments for us. We put our all into CCC and clearly could have advanced, while beating the so called "best" team in Mexico. We will now focus on SuperLiga and the Champions League, and winning at RFK so we can also then focus this Fall on the tournament that is MLS Cup playoffs. EVERYTHING ELSE between now and those tournaments is little more than training for us. As long as we win 9 games we'll be in the MLS Cup playoffs, so take your away games on a concrete field with throwball lines and shove it MLS."
If this thought process is even close to what TS was/is privately thinking, then we shouldn't fire him, we should enshrine him for knowing how to focus on what's really important. And who can blame the players for not thinking the same thing. You never like to see a professional "take a night off", but we did, and it was a good lesson, but it is in the past now and should be completely forgotten, as most of the regular season in the early months truly is forgettable.
The subject - D.C. United's horrible loss to the horrible Real Salt Lake on a horrible field.
Although the thread topic was "fire the coach", my contribution was more reflective of the meaninglessness of the MLS regular season, and offered the idea that coach Tom Soehn actually made a smart decision in not really going for the win - but rather wanting to see if the bench could win.
Here is/was my take (BTW, my BigSoccer handle is "chummer"):
I really felt while watching [the DC/RSL match Saturday] that [Coach] Soehn had literally punted this game on purpose. Not that they didn't want to win, but that they really didn't care if they won or not. This game was NEVER going to mean anything. It was depressing, disappointing, and even a little inspiring at the same time for me:
Depressing because we really looked bad - not a single player had a "good" game, and it just wasn't soccer. Any game with visible "throwball" lines is depressing for me, even the ManU v Arsenal match would be depressing played on turf with football lines. Pushing to build SSS is the best thing MLS ever did, and will go down in history as the BIGGEST reason the league survived the "early years" when historians look back in 40 years when we're bigger than Hockey and Baseball.
Disappointing because with all talk about our adding "depth", this game made it look like we were no better off than a crappy team like RSL that has a brand new front office and barely a candle to hold against our foreign recruiting relationships. Have we really invested all this effort only to have to rely on $17K/year reserve players?
A little Inspiring because I actually get a warm fuzzy thinking that Soehn basically stood up on the mountain top - literally - and screamed to the league
"I'm not going to waste my time trying to win every MLS regular season game because it's a meaningless endeavor that only keeps us from our primary goals. Teams that only have MLS Cup to play must take seriously what I cannot, because D.C. United has other major concerns. All we have to do in the MLS regular season is get results at RFK and then peak at playoff time."
The inspiration continues as I imagine him continuing with "The season is all about winning a couple of tournaments for us. We put our all into CCC and clearly could have advanced, while beating the so called "best" team in Mexico. We will now focus on SuperLiga and the Champions League, and winning at RFK so we can also then focus this Fall on the tournament that is MLS Cup playoffs. EVERYTHING ELSE between now and those tournaments is little more than training for us. As long as we win 9 games we'll be in the MLS Cup playoffs, so take your away games on a concrete field with throwball lines and shove it MLS."
If this thought process is even close to what TS was/is privately thinking, then we shouldn't fire him, we should enshrine him for knowing how to focus on what's really important. And who can blame the players for not thinking the same thing. You never like to see a professional "take a night off", but we did, and it was a good lesson, but it is in the past now and should be completely forgotten, as most of the regular season in the early months truly is forgettable.
Labels: d.c. united, Real Salt Lake, Tom Soehn, Turf Fields
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