Concussions in youth soccer are definitely alarming and, IMO, limiting probable head on head collisions by massaging the rules is a good thing. The thing that gets me is the coaches have to sit through concussion protocol training, Lindsey's Law training, and Safesport. There is exactly zero training on rules, teaching kids, working through fundamentals, dealing with parents, etc. Seriously, the training is -- here's two hours on why not to play an athlete who cannot stop vomiting on themselves after knocking heads, eight hours of videos on how not to diddle kids, and we think you're smart enough to figure the rest out on your own. This results in house teams having vastly different outcomes over the season.
I was going to make a scared straight joke about kids leaving soccer for baseball or football after meeting Hurtado. However, he is still the "second best striker" on the team and that makes me sad.
In fact, girls soccer has one of the highest incidents of concussion. I think it was 3rd among youth sports when I last saw numbers. Football was far and away the highest, but girls soccer was ahead of things like hockey and lacrosse (for both boys and girls). So it's not something to take lightly. Boys soccer isn't nearly as high as girls (leading theories are boys are less likely to get diagnosed or differences in neck muscles). Now heading a ball rarely causes concussion, it's the contact with other players. On training, you're slightly wrong. Any carded coach has to have a license, which does require a few hours online course, at a minimum. Obviously it doesn't get into too much detail about fundamentals. Actually, the new US Soccer training pushes play-practice-play, which de-emphasized fundamentals. Honestly though, you may know that there is a severe shortage of referees, but there is a shortage of coaches too. You have to keep in mind, that any requirements are also barriers to entry for some. Everyone's limit for time and cost before they say to forget about it is different. I took a survey about coaching training a few months ago. There was all kinds of stuff in there about from would I like to learn how to teach fundamentals to would I like to learn how to work with kids of varying ethnic backgrounds, etc., etc., etc. All of it sounds good and at first I was all "yeah, that would be great" until you start adding it up in your mind and you have to prioritize. Honestly, my biggest concern about coaching has been how to deal with injuries. I know soccer, at least somewhat. I don't know how to diagnose a sprained ankle. Oh, and Austin is the greatest soccer team in the whole world... for me to poop on!
I have heard that stat and assumed it was due to the sheer number of girl soccer players. Not that any concussion is good, but I wonder what the number is per participant. I'm guessing there are far fewer girls hockey teams.
I thought the numbers I saw were based on participation rates. So i asked the google machine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7734362/ Not counting Judo (since I don't think it's a standard HS sport), over a 6 year period its: Football Cheerleading Wrestling Girls Soccer Girls Basketball And really in those 6 years, Cheerleading had one year that was twice it's otherwise normal rate that skews the data. Which would put Girls soccer back at 3rd most years (again, not counting Judo) *edit - to be fair, it doesn't look like hockey is even on this list. But it was on the one I remember seeing. Girls hockey probably wasn't separated out in that one.
Elbows, knees, and head impacts were discussed at a clinic I attended as primary drivers for concussion symptoms. In hockey, all of those are padded in addition to helmets. It starts appearing on the injury lists at the Jr High ages when checking is allowed. Until then, the rule is incidental body contact. I have never seen girls hockey separated out. Maybe it is a sample size, but the youth programs I have been around (even Columbus pre-2010) have been most definitely co-ed.
Stand corrected -- however, I have not talked to a carded coach in the youth league. Soccer coaches have to go the CYA training to be around kids, but nothing on growing the kids. Hockey, in my experience, is different. Before you can be a puck pusher, even with Mites (U8), you did similar health/safety work, age specific training, on-site clinic, and an introduction to the philosophy of USA hockey.
Lots of youth clubs require coaches to take the entry level USYSA certification class. I would avoid any club that does not.
This is so. The CYA crap is just to indemnify the club. If you're gonna get touchy with a kid, nothing they say in the course will stop you from being skeevy It's true that there are a few good pointers, like hugging a kid from the side and skipping the tap on the butt, etc. but anyone with a brain already knows that. Didn't keep me, for exa.ple, from getting in a bit of a kerfuffle as a ref when I was calling U9 girls, Saturday AM sandbox league, and one uncoordinated girl took a mighty swing at the ball, missed it by a mile and whacked another girl in the leg. The girl she hit dropped Ike a rock but I had seen her hit nothing but a shin pad as big as a Russian T 34 so I knew she was fine, but the girl who kicked her dissolved in tears. Just sobbing. I made a big deal of retrieving the ball and otherwise stalling, anything to avoid having the. coach come out for five minutes of comisseratio. with a kid who was absolutely fine. As I trotted past the sobbing girl I said to her " It's OK sweetheart, she's fine". This came from the heart as a 40 year old father who just was trying to console a baby girl a little bit. But as a referee it was reported to the league and I got reprimanded. Of course being me I told them to go screw themselves and I refused to work there again, but I also get the point.
In the 80s/90s, the OSU cheerleaders did all sorts of lifting that looked real complex/fancy. When they got the dance team (I'd say all-female, but there's the occasional male), the complex stuff with the cheerleaders all but stopped. I'm sure some of it was safety-related as much as it was putting the focus on the dance team.
To get this conversation back on track, Andy Loughnane sucks: We’ve been told that @AustinFC will not allow instruments in the away section for Sunday’s game. MLS does not prohibit instruments for playoff games, this is Austin’s decision. We call on supporter groups to condemn this decision for the good of supporters culture league-wide. pic.twitter.com/G8mu9cYPO7— El Matador FCD (@ElMatadorFCD) October 19, 2022
I freely admit to not being well-versed in MLS Supporters' culture. So I genuinely want to know: What level of transgression is this? Is it a shocking violation of everything humanity stands for, or simple gamesmanship for a playoff game?
It's one step below a shocking violation of everything humanity stands for, but only because it's within their rights. It's a low-blow to be sure. MLS has no standard practice regarding away supporters and drums/smoke/banners/flags/etc because they leave it up to the franchises and SGs - as they should. What MLS does mandate is that (for games where the number of traveling supporters meets a certain threshold) both teams & SGs have a conversation ahead of time that outlines what's allowed and what the visitors want to bring. Most of the time that conversation is a negotiation: "We want to bring drums and smoke to your stadium." "Ok, then we want to bring drums and smoke to yours." "No no, we don't want you to have those." "Alright well then you can't have them in our stadium when you come here." It seems as though that conversation never happened for this playoff series. Or, if it did, the Austin FO backed out of the deal without talking to their SGs. Either way, because Austin fans took drums and stuff to Frisco, Dallas fans should be able to travel with their toys, too.
Interestingly, both of the primary ATX supporters groups have come out against the policy. Possibly because they know that it'll be a cold day in hell before they're allowed to bring the noise in Dallas, and nobody will blame them. But TwoButtons is oblivious to that. This is because he's an idiot.
More typical Precourt crap: the trophy for the so-called Copa Tejas ( for the Trxas team with the most regular season points against each other) was created by a council of the fan groups and was intended to be passed between the SG's. But when Austin won this year their front office grabbed it and refuse to hand it over to the supporters, who aren't even allowed to borrow it for events. Pure class down there.
F-ck Austin today to eternity and everything they stand for ! Everyone in Columbus (key part) that saved the Crew..took time out of there lives, to fight a good fight. To H-ll with Austin! You don't let up on what is truly evil.
There was literally an event this morning that Los Verdes put on for members to take photos with the trophy, and it wasn't the first time, but go on...
Ah, so LuaghLame has been shamed into allowing supporters to touch the trophy he has taken posession of. I'm not sure you're making the point you think you're making, Mango