A Ref's Perspective

It’s the holidays and all of us referees want to wish the parents of our players a joyful season. Your players are a delight to work with, and we have seen them grow in strength and talent over the past season.

I want to take this opportunity to update everyone on a few rules that we’re working at getting a better handle on. If everyone understands how the rules work, it will help the parents and referees work together to make the players’ experience even better.

1.Hand Balls: When the ball bounces off a player’s hands, it’s not always a hand ball. For clarity, the new term is “handling the ball.” If the referee perceives that the player purposefully played the ball with his/her hands, the penalty is called. If the ball simply bounces off a player’s hands the penalty isn’t called unless the player moves his/her hands or arms to control the ball.

2.Offside rule: The offside penalty is judged from the field position of the referee. A person in a different field position will not have the correct information to judge whether a penalty should be called. Sometimes all it takes to be offside is the placement of the elbow – it is not an easy call to make.

3.Advantage calls: Sometimes it seems like the referees wait too long to make a foul call. However, referees must wait to blow the whistle until they can determine if the team in possession will gain advantage by the foul not being called, so it takes a bit longer to make the call.

I hope this makes a few things more clear. It would be a great gift to the refs to have your confidence in them increased. Here’s to a happy new year of working together to make another great season.

Thanks, Diane Redman
MI Express Referee Assigner

Coach Matt provides insight on how to achieve a successful, enjoyable soccer career!

Balance vs. Burnout - by Matt Johnson

How do you get to Wembley Stadium? Practice, practice, practice. The goal for many young soccer players (and many parents of young players) is to improve, to get better. ‘B’ team players want to make the ‘A’ team, ‘A’ team players want to qualify for Premier, make the ODP team, etc. The way to do this for many seems pretty clear: spend more time on the field training.
While it is undoubtedly true that the best way to improve is to practice, as a coach I can also say with certainty that the best, most successful players in any sport are the ones who are motivated to play because they enjoy playing the game. I am sure many of you have seen very talented individuals or teams lose to others whose talent level wasn’t as high, but who worked hard for each other. The difference was not talent or skill, it was desire and motivation.
Just as we monitor and work on skill development, we also must constantly evaluate and help improve motivation level, especially with young players. As a coach that means taking time during practice to play games the players enjoy, even if they don’t always have a direct benefit like working on ball skills or tactics. In many cases a little time spent playing ‘fun’ games can help improve the focus and level of play for the rest of a session. As parents this means paying attention to how your child feels about playing soccer. Does she spend time outside of practice playing with a ball, passing around with friends, or playing pickup? Does he look forward to each practice or do you have to make him go? Is it a fun game or a chore? Observant parents shouldn’t have too hard a time noticing how their child feels about playing.
The important thing to remember is to keep things in perspective. Missing a couple of winter practices, or sitting out one session, is much better than playing when you don’t want to, which could lead to giving the game up altogether. Taking a little time off can help kids realize how much they miss playing, and help make them more hungry to push themselves harder when they get back on the field. Again, it’s better both for skill development, and psychological development, to play one indoor session and work hard than to play two half-heartedly.
As we go through these cold winter months, the best advice I can offer is to let the player dictate the level of commitment. If they want more, look forward to playing, seem excited to be there, keep pushing them. If they start to pull back or seem less motivated, you may need to back off too. The most important thing is for everyone to enjoy the game!

From the Director's Bench

The Measure of Success - by Paul Kato
“What constitutes success in your eyes?” I was asked this question by a friend a few days ago as we were passionately discussing the deep meaning of life over a…well, milk. At first my response was “what do you mean, are we talking about life…family…work…religion…soccer?” This started me thinking; is the definition of success different for each one of these areas or is there a common denominator in all these areas? And how do we measure “success” in our club?
Some would say that if we win more games than we lose, VOILA, success! Others would say if the kids have fun and get along well, that would be success! Others would think (but probably dare not say) that if their kid gets lots of playing time and scores lots of goals that would be success! And I’m sure there are plenty more good points out there. I would not begin to dispute any of these claims as they all have their merits.
The question I keep asking myself as Director of Coaching is, how do we as club define success? Would it be determined by the number of divisional championships we win? Or perhaps the number of trophies we bring back from tournaments? Maybe it’s the increase in the number of kids playing in the club. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with all these achievements, I would like to think we are about so much more than that.
In a world where there seems to be more division, uncertainty, apathy, and heartache; I would hope that the Michigan Express would be a safe haven where kids can learn lessons that would serve them well as they navigate their way through the sometimes treacherous path known as life. To me, soccer has always been so much more than just chasing a little round ball around a field. It has taught me perseverance, team work, sacrifice, hard work, responsibility, honesty, disappointment, humility, and unbelievable thrill; among other things. Some of the best lessons I’ve learned are not from scoring that game winning goal; or winning a championship (thrilling as they may have been) but rather they were the times I went to practice when I did not feel like it (mom and dad made me -because of what they called dedication); being disgruntled because I only played 2 minutes when I felt I was better than half the players on the field; losing a game because of an unfair or missed call by the ref! Coach getting on my case for what I considered to be “a little mistake” and then letting the next player get away with an even bigger mistake! If you’ve been in the game for any time you know what I’m talking about!
No, success to me is about giving confidence to each and every player on the team; demonstrating to them that they are part of something bigger than themselves; that they are important to the success of the unit; that there are people that care for them far beyond the field. That sometimes sacrifices are necessary in life, that compassion and care for others is a virtue far more important than winning games. That soccer is a tool or a reflection on the challenges of life.
So while we continue to strive to win games, bring home trophies, attract the best soccer players, and win divisional championships; let’s not forget the ultimate goal: getting our kids equipped to handle life: to win with dignity and humility; lose with grace and class; determination to find ways to be better next time. My hope is that though we may fall short at times; that we as club (coaches, administrators, parents, players) can honestly continue to work towards finding success as opposed to just chasing that little round ball around the field! GO EXPRESS!!

What does it all mean……???? Coach Rob Barnes shares his thoughts on the topic in this article.

The Meaning of Club Soccer - by Rob Barnes
Club, what is the meaning of a club? You have to ask yourself that question when we are coaching, playing, or even watching a game/practice. Soccer clubs have been around for many years, but why have they been successful? They have been successful for one simple reason, because of the unity that soccer brings our players, coaches, and parents. Being a part of the Michigan Express is not just coaching one team or improving as a player, it is about everyone in the club having the same goals, to get better and have success. It is about lifelong friendships we are building for our players and parents. While sitting on the sidelines it always gives the players and teams an extra push when they see players from another team in our club take time to sit and cheer on their Michigan Express club members. A club mentality is like a family, parents teach the kids as they are growing up and older brothers and sisters help out. It always makes you smile to see older players help with younger groups of players to give them role models to look up to, or when you see parents taking valuable free time in order to help organize scrimmages, tournaments, games, and practices. If I stand alone I can be no greater than myself, but if we stand together our possibilities are endless.