Soccer Rules-Fouls- Kicking

Under the rules of soccer there are ten offenses for which the punishment is a direct free. This means that the fouled team can score directly from the kick that serves as punishment for the foul. If committed by a defender inside his own penalty area, this direct free kick becomes a penalty kick. These fouls all punish acts on the field that the sport considers to be unfair or unsafe.

Most acts are fouls only if committed carelessly, recklessly, or with excessive force. Most acts on a soccer field are fouls only by degree. This is because most actions during the run of play are harmless in themselves, and become fouls only if done in an unfair manner. Players can bump into each other while running, or push past each while each is trying to avoid a collision. They may tussle over the ball, or leap to head a long pass and collide another player who is trying to do the same thing. They may kick at the ball and narrowly miss kicking their opponent?s shin. All of these actions are just part of soccer, where most bodily contact is quite incidental to the players? attempts to win the ball and passes quite uneventfully during the course of the game.

At other times, though, a player may mistime a kick, misjudge a jump, or overestimate the body?s ability to follow whatever instructions are coming from the brain, and those actions will exceed the bounds of fair play. Nobody can distinguish between fair and foul contact from a cold narrative of course, but there are some aspects of each foul that referees use to determine the result in a particular case:

Kicking
Kicking the ball is something every player on a soccer field tries to do. Kicking an opponent, on the other hand, is a foul.

Sometimes, a player?s foot will come in contact with an opponent through an otherwise fair play. Contact may be superficial, or a players?s foot may strike an opponent as one or both are falling to the ground (which may be grounds for a different foul, but might not be ?kicking?). On the other hand, kicks can be quite painful, often leading players to lose their tempers. Under the rules, a player who does not exercise due care to avoid kicking an opponent commits a foul. A referee who sees two players contesting for a ball on the ground will be paying careful attention to the likeliest point of contact, their feet. If the foot misses the ball and connects with the opponent?whether through a knock on the shins, or a stomp on the foot?it will be a foul.

Jeffrey Caminsky, a veteran public prosecutor in Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. Both his science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the first volume in the Guardians of Peace (tm) science fiction adventure series, and The Referee?s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating, are published by New Alexandria Press, http://www.newalexandriapress.com.

Coaching Youth Soccer - Dribbling

Coaching youth soccer is a challenging task, and in order to train the players efficiently in an impressive manner, it is important for a coach to train the players using the various dribbling techniques. Remember that if you want your team on the winning side, you must have your players keep their feet moving.

Barefoot: Fast Way To Enhance Dribbling

It is one of the quickest ways to enhance the dribbling skills of your players when you are coaching youth soccer. As per this method, you have to get your players play the usual dribbling around ten cones, but make sure that the players are doing so barefoot ? no shoes, no socks. If playing barefoot causes problem, you can let them try with socks.

Calling For The Ball: Teaching When, Where And How

It is very important for you to teach your players the right time and the right way to call the ball. When it comes to calling the ball, the right time is just before when the opponent player is about to pass the same and when your player is about to attempt for the ball.

When you are coaching youth soccer, train your players to attempt for the ball only when they have enough room with the ball. The players should not say, ?It?s mine?. Rather, they should mark it out clearly. For example, they can call their own name, such as ?Harry?s call? or ?Harry?s ball?.

Cone Head: Teach Your Players To Keep Their Heads Up

This is a quite effective dribbling technique, in which you have to get your players put cones on their head. Once the cone is on their head, have them dribble the ball, but only within the twenty-into-twenty square area. A thorough practice of the same will help your players learn to control the ball and dribble the same quite effectively.

Controlling Dribble: Teach Your Players To Play Ball Closer

It is important for the coach to teach the players about how to play ball closer. Playing while keeping the ball closer maximizes the chances of your team?s winning a match. In order to have your players learn these skills, it is always a great idea to break your players into small groups, such as groups of four or five. Now, let these small groups of players to race by dribbling the ball to the end of the field and then back to the starting point.

The above dribbling techniques are quite effective in coaching youth soccer.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority on the subject of coaching youth soccer. His web site, Youth Soccer Drills, provides a wealth of informative soccer articles, resources and tips for soccer coaches, parents and players.

Soccer Rules: Offside

The Purpose of the Offside Rule

The purpose of the Offside Rule is the same in Soccer as it is in hockey ? to prevent ?cherry-picking? by a player who camps in front of the other team?s goal. Without the Offside Rule, Soccer would be a large field game of ping pong, filled with long kicks and alternating mad scrambles from one end of the field to the other. By preventing any ?offside? player from participating in the game, the rule puts a premium on dribbling and passing, rather than long kicks. This promotes teamwork, which, in turn, encourages quick switching from one side of the field to the other, and compresses the action to a smaller area of the field ? usually about 30 or 40 yards long. The end result is that all the players stay closer to the action, and everyone has a better chance of participating in the game.

The Offside Rule:

"Offside Position"

A player in an offside position is only penalized if, at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee, involved in active play by interfering with play, or interfering with an opponent, or gaining an advantage by being in that position.

Law 11 states that a player is in an "offside position" whenever "he is nearer to his opponent?s goal than both the ball and the second last opponent," unless "he is in his own half of the field of play." Put more simply:

? No one is "offside" in his own half of the field.

? No one is "offside" if even with, or behind the ball.

? No one is "offside" if even with, or behind two or more opponents.

In addition, there are three major exceptions to the offside rule. Anyone receiving a ball directly from a throw-in, a corner kick, or a goal kick, cannot be "offside." So, if Sally receives the ball directly from her teammate?s throw-in, it doesn?t matter if she is in an offside position. The fact that it was a throw-in means that the play was not offside. However, if she flicks the ball along to Jane, who is even further downfield than Sally was, Jane can be offside, since she received the ball from Sally, rather than from the throw-in. The same holds true for corner kicks and goal kicks, as well. If the ball comes directly from the restart, the play cannot be offside; but once the first player receives the ball, the "offside" rule comes back into play.

"Involved in Active Play"

Contrary to some popular misconceptions, it does not violate the rules merely for a player to be in an offside position. The violation comes only when an ?offside? player becomes involved in the play. So the referee ? or the assistant referee on the sidelines ? who allows play to continue even if everyone can see a player well beyond the offside line is probably not missing anything. Rather, they are applying the rule correctly, by letting play continue until the player in the "offside position" becomes "offside" by getting involved in the play.

There are three ? and only three ? situations where someone in an offside position is penalized for being "offside." All of them, however, require participating in play from an offside position ? or, in the wording of the rule, becoming "involved in active play" in one of three ways:

? Interfering with play

? Interfering with an opponent, or

? Gaining an advantage by being in an offside position.

The easiest example of "offside" comes when an offside player receives a pass from a teammate. In this case, he is directly "interfering with play" because he got the ball. Other examples of the same principle apply this same logic, but seek to spare the players a few steps, or the coaches and fans a few heart attacks. So, if one or more attackers is trapped offside and running to play the ball, the play will be "offside." On the other hand, if an offside player removes himself from the play ? pulling up, for example, in order to let an onside teammate collect the ball ? an alert official will allow play to continue. And if the ball is going directly to the keeper, the officials will usually let the players keep playing.

While it is not an offense to be in an offside position, a player who never touches the ball may nevertheless affect play in such a way as to be penalized for being offside. The offside player who runs between an opponent and the ball, for example ? or one who screens the goalkeeper from a shot, or interferes with the keeper?s ability to jump for, or collect the ball ? violates the offside rule by participating in the play. But this sort of participation does not come from touching the ball. Rather, it comes from interfering with an opponent?s chance to play the ball. In this case, once the assistant referee sees the participation, the appropriate response is to raise the flag. But, if the offside player pulls up, steps to the side, or clearly indicates that he is removing himself from the moment?s active play, the alert official will simply allow play to continue.

Among the trickiest things to spot ? either as a spectator or an official ? is the player who exploits an offside position to gain an unfair advantage. This does not mean that the player is "gaining an advantage" by avoiding some extra running on a hot day, however. Instead, it means that the player is taking advantage of his positioning to exploit a lucky deflection, or a defensive mistake. So, if an offside player is standing to the side of the goal when his teammate takes a shot ? but does not otherwise interfere with play or inhibit the keeper?s chance to make the save ? then he is not offside...and the officials will count the goal. But if the ball rebounds, either from the keeper or the goalpost, and the offside player bangs the rebound home ? the play is offside, and the goal will not count, because the player is now gaining an advantage from the offside position.

"The moment the ball touches, or is played, by a teammate..."

The Offside rule is the source of more controversy than any other rule in soccer. Partly, this is because there are at least two critical moments of judgment in every offside call, or no-call. The second of these, the moment of participation, is often easy to see: that?s usually where the ball lands and the players are playing, and that?s where everybody is looking. But the first "moment of truth" is usually away from everyone?s attention, because what determines the ?offside position? is the relative position of each player at the moment the ball is struck.

Players touch the ball a lot during a soccer game, often in quick succession. And soccer being a fluid game, on a good team each player is constantly in motion. This means that the first moment of judgment ? determining whether any players are in an offside position ? is constantly changing, and the relative position of the players will often be very different from one moment to the next. Yet the officials have to keep it all straight, and have a heartbeat or less to take a mental snapshot of the players? positioning at one frozen moment in time ? the moment the ball is played by a member of one team ? in order to judge whether an offside member of that team subsequently moves to play the ball, interferes with an opponent, or gains an advantage from being offside. From the official?s perspective, the game is an endless series of these snapshots, because each new touch of the ball redetermines the offside line....and the official often has less than a heartbeat to make the decision.

The important thing to remember is that the moment of judging "offside position" is different than the moment of judging participation. And this is true whichever direction the players are moving. An offside player who comes back onside to receive the ball is still offside; to avoid the call, he cannot participate until another teammate touches the ball, or his opponents manage to collect it. On the other hand, a player who is onside will remain onside, no matter how far she runs to retrieve it, and no matter where the other team?s players move in the meantime. So, if Steve is onside when Tom kicks the ball forward, it doesn?t matter if he?s twenty yards behind the defense when he collects the ball. The play will be onside...because he was onside at the moment her teammate passed the ball. And if Steve is onside...but Frank is offside...then an alert official will wait to see which one of them moves after the ball ? because if Frank takes himself out of the play, and lets Steve collect it, then play can continue because there is no offside violation.

Soccer Officials and Offside

The offside rule has been part of Soccer for a long time, sparking arguments and controversies since its inception. But its purpose is simple: to prevent "cherry-picking." Since it is an important part of the game, the referees will enforce the rule to the best of their ability. But when they rule a play offside ? or let play continue, because they saw no infraction ? they are not doing it out of spite, or to hurt one team or the other. Rather, they are doing so regardless of which team it hurts or benefits, simply because the rules require it.

Jeffrey Caminsky, a veteran public prosecutor in Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. Both his science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the first volume in the Guardians of Peace (tm) science fiction adventure series, and The Referee?s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating, are published by New Alexandria Press, http://www.newalexandriapress.com

Teaching Soccer - What Coaches Need to Know

There are several factors that a coach must take into careful consideration while teaching soccer tactics, especially while training young players.

Simple Soccer Tactics

The expert coach always starts with teaching the players about the simple soccer tactics. You should teach the tactics that the players can use with the skills they possess. Once you start seeing the improvement in their game, it is only then you should offer them more advanced tactics.

Appropriate To The Players' Age

This is again one of the most important things that the coaches must keep in mind. This is something that many soccer coaches overlook and they start teaching the same tactics to everybody irrespective of their ages.

This is something that can bring adverse effect to your team?s performance. Therefore, make sure that you teach them the basic soccer tactics that are appropriate to the players' age and match.

Simple Language

The language and the way in which you give instructions to the players must be simple, direct, and unambiguous.

Brief Instructions

True that you need to make your descriptions easy to understand, but it does not mean that you should tell them everything in such detail that it should eat up most of your training time.

It is equally important for you to keep in mind the time factor and be as brief as possible. However, you should not compromise on clarity just because you need to brief in your instructions.

It is not at all a good idea to use long lectures in the training session. Furthermore, many coaches use sarcasm in their instructions. Always remember that is not good for the health of the game and for your team?s performance.

Therefore, make sure that you are not using any sarcasm that could be misinterpreted. It is better to avoid jargon as well. You should try your best to speak carefully and be specific and brief.

Always remember that seeing is better than hearing and Doing is better than seeing. Therefore, when it comes to teaching soccer, an expert coach should introduce his topic, show it, and get the kids doing it quickly.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority on the subject of teaching soccer. His web site, Youth Soccer Drills, provides a wealth of informative soccer articles, resources and tips for soccer coaches, parents and players.