It is difficult to summarize the career of Matilda’s mid-fielder, Aivi Luik. She has done so much, achieved so much and had so many successes in so many footballing spheres that it is hard to get your head around it all. One of her most astounding achievements was the way in which she forced her way back into the Matildas team in 2018 after spending many years (and two world … [Read more...]
Tribalism in sport – lets hear it for the twitter twits
A few days back I stumbled onto an example of one of the sports clubs that, despite being ranked highly by the Australian Sports Commission as being potentially worthy of a federal government sports grant, had been turned down by the Federal Sports Minister. The Victorian soccer club in question had been assessed by the ASC (Australian Sports Commission) on a ranking scale … [Read more...]
Ancient philosophers discuss what makes the beautiful game beautiful! Laozi and Socrates get technical.
Socrates: Tell me Master, you are an internationally renowned philosopher and guru of football, I am sure that many of your fans would like to know what is your favourite aspect of the beautiful game of football? Laozi: Are, yes, Mr Socrates. That is a very wise question. My favourite aspect of the beautiful ancient game of football is “the pass”. Socrates: “The … [Read more...]
Forget technical genius. Great coaching is managing player expectations and emotions.
A while back I had the opportunity to teach a new activity to a soccer team at practice that I thought would be of great benefit to them. I had seen this particular “practice game” work miracles for other teams both in terms of the individual technical skills it helped to develop in participating players and in the effective teamwork it tended to facilitate. This activity had … [Read more...]
A football career… without peer!
Want a career in sport? One bloke thought that he could fulfil his dream of creating a sporting career through belting a tennis ball against a wall for hour after hour at his parents Hunter Valley farm with a cricket bat. His three younger sisters no doubt thought that their brother was nuts (as he sweated and swung his bat at the small yellow object time and time again), but … [Read more...]