5 Cold-Facts That Could Change Freestyle Soccer in 10 Years Time

On a cold day while walking along the streets, I stumbled a couple of kids doing silky tricks while juggling with the ball. To my amazed, they can do tricks in different combinations or what they called as combo and link among themselves. The soccer tricks intrigued me that I began practicing a few of them, well at least one of them. So then I walked along the park to watch guys playing a nice friendly game on a cold hard rainy afternoon. Some of them particularly in the midfield outmaneuver the defenders with silky skills that left the defenders puzzled. Cool soccer tricks and skills. On my way back, I watched some videos on Youtube, usually I received a link from my friend via email and immediately I watched the video link and thought, " The guy's insane to pull off those tricks!". I researched on these guys and found out that they're definitely freestylers.
Cool and silky tricks in different combinations during juggling or dribbling are what freestyle soccer is all about. A new trend and relatively new to the world of soccer. It's addictive and mouth-watering to watch that most people perceived freestyle as a hobby rather than a professional activity. Freestylers typically practice their soccer tricks and work on their combinations to showcase their skills to their friends and the world itself. Silky tricks and skills are recorded and edited to the video including slow motion and credits in order to upload to the streaming sites like Youtube. Freestylers even go one step ahead by performing in competitions and performances like advertisements and documentaries.
A couple of well-knowned freestylers like Billy Wingrove, Abbas Farid, Soufiane Touzani and Palle perform in competition and some of them even releases their very own DVD to teach the newbies in freestyle soccer. Other forms of soccer like beach soccer and five-a-side futsal have flourished in the last 10 years. So, can freestyler soccer follow the same footsteps to grow as a sport? I believe that freestyle soccer has the hidden potential that's yet to be harnessed. Unless these potential actions are taken, freestyle soccer is prone to dullness. 5 factors that could impact on the world of freestyle soccer:
1. Making it a "Big" hit
Performing irresistible silky and cool soccer tricks in front of the audience on a live performance raise freestylers' reputation and recognition worldwide. Profit-making companies play a huge role in promoting these outstanding individuals to a world stage like for instance, Nike in promoting top dog superstars such as Billy Wingrove and Abbas Farid. These freestylers often featured in Nike commercials along with soccer superstars like Ronaldinho, Edgar Davids, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Television programmes play a crucial role in promoting freestylers by broadcasting informative documentaries about their lifestyle for example, the BBC Match of the Day program featured a special section about Billy Wingrove and his lifestyle as a freestyler.
2. Engage freestyler with the club via a contract
A boring plain piece of paper that includes all the nitty gritty information on engagement between a freestyler and the club in order to validate their relationship for an agreed number of years. Freestyler's role are explained in the contract including their wages, privileges with the club like access to the club's stadium and training ground and travel with the club.
Billy Wingrove, a British freestyler, is contracted to his childhood club, Tottenham Hotspur which gives him the privileges to watch Tottenham's matches at White Hart Lane, access to their training ground and meeting top players like Aaron Lennon.
3. Train and Travel with the Club
Under a contract, freestylers have the access to the club's training ground to participate in five-a-side matches with the first team or even teach them some new soccer tricks to the players as Billy Wingrove did with Tottenham Hotspurs.
By training, freestylers have the privilege to travel with the club for away matches or continental championship like the Champions League. This allows them maximum exposure on different lifestyle and cultures on soccer and other things.
4. Coaching the Players
Freestylers have the option to coach whether on a part time basis or on a full time basis.
On a part time basis, a freestyler teaches soccer tricks to the players of the club as Billy Wingrove did with a former Tottenham player, Robbie Keane.
The fun begins in a full time basis. A freestyler coaches the players about freestyler soccer that's integrated to the club's training regime. He could influence on coaching decisions on their training regime like improving the team's ball control and also travel with the club on away matches as well as watching home matches to monitor the team's progress.
5. Half time Shows and Team Mascot
It's a rarity in the world of soccer but more common in American sports like the NBA and NFL. But, half time shows evolved in the world of soccer quite recently thus an opportunity for freestylers to shine on the soccer pitch.
Maradona first did half time shows during his days at Boca Juniors. Similarly, Billy Wingrove did the same for the Premiership pre-match entertainment and for international friendlies involving England and Wales.
Freestylers also act as a mascot for the team to welcome new signings or as a pre-match entertainment. Recently, Abbas Farid and his friend did a pre-match entertainment about freestyle with Ronaldinho. The fact that Ronaldinho stares the whole time and giving ovation to those freestylers was a hilarious moment. So, I could conclude that freestylers are related but completely different to soccer.
Conclusion
There's no doubt that a breathtaking sport embeds into freestyle soccer and the governing body, FIFA should harness to its full potential. An addictive hobby that can earn freestylers a lot of money for their uniqueness in producing exceptional combinations and awesome tricks that should be rewarded and why not. I believe that freestyle can rise to be as good as soccer if these factors or others are put into practice.

Freestyle Soccer - Confused on Where to Start?

First of all, let's start with a simple question, what is freestyle soccer? Freestyle soccer is simply the style and ability to combine various soccer tricks in juggling and ground moves. It's a new trend in soccer along with other types like five a side futsal and beach soccer. In a soccer context, freestyle is perceived as less significance to the modern game. However, freestyle soccer does improve a footballer's ability to control the ball.
The ball control is what I perceived as the most important element in soccer before other attributes like fitness and tactics. There's a saying that if you can control the ball you can control the game. In fact, I stumbled one of Zlatan Ibrahimovic's, an Inter Milan player, quotes saying that as long as you have the ball, you'll have the advantage. Yet majority of footballers still ignore the importance of freestyle soccer. There are reasons behind it and one of them is that the soccer tricks are difficult to execute and only brings less to the modern game. True enough, but let's not forget the concept of ball control. Learning freestyle allows a player to enhance his touches especially the first touch. A great first touch buys you thousands of mili seconds to give you an edge over the opposition.
Those seconds could change the game in an instant especially in the modern game where it demands fast and furious soccer. As a result of those reasons, they don't even bother in the first place. On the other side, the ones who love freestyle soccer perceived it as something that they can express their creativity and improve on ball control and touches to a greater heights. But I'm more concern to those who are ignorant and may not have the slightest interest on freestyle soccer. The problem is, they may not know where to begin especially after watching a series of freestyle videos on streaming sites like YouTube. I'm assuming that they only watched the difficult tricks and instead forget the basics of freestyle soccer. I believe that freestyle soccer should begin with the basics like juggling and planting before moving on to the more advanced soccer tricks like the around the world, crossover, flip flap and others. It's important since juggling is the principle of all types of ball control along with dribbling. In this case, I shall focus on juggling since it's related to freestyle soccer.
Juggling the ball
Simply done by doing kick ups without letting the ball fall on to the ground and expanded to different parts of the body from foot, thigh, shoulder and head. The aim is to be able to link your juggling skills from one part to the other. For example, transfer your juggling from foot to your thigh. You can start with a simple transfer and improve to more advanced transfers like juggling from foot to thigh and then head. Once you've mastered juggling, you can start planting or stalling a soccer ball.
Planting the ball
The ability to balance the ball on a specific part of your body like balancing the ball on your foot. You can start by placing the ball on your foot and once you've mastered, you can plant the ball during your juggling. For example, juggle with your foot which is then transferred to your thigh and then balance it with your foot i.e. foot plant. Focus on these two abilities will help build confidence for you to start on learning some of the basic freestyle soccer tricks. Improving your juggling and planting skills increases your coordination abilities especially when you practice your transferring or linking skills. For this one, I'd recommend the around the world trick because it's the principle of all soccer tricks. Once you've mastered this trick, you have a great chance of doing other tough soccer tricks like the MATW, TATW, crossover etc. The trick is simply to rotate your foot around the ball after either juggling or footplant and kick it as you finish the rotation to complete the process.
These are a couple of basics that you'd need to constantly bear in mind. Similar to soccer, the techniques are very important and I highly encourage you to practice these tricks with a lot of dedication and once mastered, you'll begin to appreciate the beauty of freestyle soccer.

The Organizations That Made Football What it is Today

Ever wonder how many associations there are for what probably is the world's most watched sport? Wonder no more. We have listed them for your convenience.
1. The Football Association
In 1863, the English FA (Football Association) was established and is responsible for all its leagues in England, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It has been a member of FIFA since 1905 and UEFA since 1954. Currently, blue-blooded Prince William is seated as president of the association. It manages England's national football team generating considerable income each year.
2. Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Formed in June 15t, 1954 in Basel, Switzerland and initially composed of just 25 associations, UEFA is the now the governing body of football in Europe (including international competitions) with currently 53 members making it the richest among the other organizations by far.
3. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
The famous FIFA was established in Paris on May 21, 1904 initially handling European national associations. Today, it is the chief governing body in world football having quickly expanded across the globe which is why it is now comprised of 207 domestic Football Associations. Along with the changes over the years, its nerve center is now in Zurich, Switzerland.
FIFA organizes the World Cup which is why the latter is almost synonymous to the organization's name. Also, it operates the Confederations Cup taking place every four years between the winners of six confederation championships. It is also interested in the host country's football and the World Cup winners.
FIFA actively engages itself in the sport and its development around the world. It has even created less notable awards such as the FIFA Club World Cup, where the leading clubs from the six confederations compete with one another yearly; the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, a beach football which first happened in 1995 in Brazil; and the FIFA Futsal World Championships which is an indoor football.
The FIFA World Player of the Year award ceremony is also their making. This is an avenue for honoring the best player in the world of football.
It is said that FIFA's motto is "for the good of the game" but there have been allegations of a so-called "financial irregularities" in the organization. A major deliberation in recent years has been FIFA's financial interest in football. This goes the same for domestic FAs and UEFA.
Concerns have been expressed with the establishment of the Club World Cup and the Confederations Cup due to a clash for clubs and national sides and mainly with the profits of these clubs going to FIFA. This is supported by the fact that FIFA indeed took a big slice of the cake between 2003 and 2006 with reports of its $1.64 billion revenue and on top of that, its $144 million profit.
The establishment of the Club World Cup and Confederations Cup were met with some consternation due to fixture congestion for clubs and national sides, particularly with the profits predominantly going to FIFA. Indeed, between 2003 and 2006 (the four year cycle including the World Cup), FIFA announced $1.64 billion worth of revenue, with a $144 million profit. In effect, FIFA directives are now being monitored other footballs clubs and associations.

Watch Sports on the Internet With ESPN360

If you do not necessarily want to buy the full Dish Network sports package, or you have basic cable and cannot afford more, or you just are one of those people still in the Dark Ages of TV with only an antenna and you still want to watch sports, that is what ESPN360.com provides. ESPN360 allows you to watch sports on the internet that you otherwise not might be able to watch. Even if you have every sports channel possible on DirecTV or Dish Network (they have more sports than anyone as they are satellite providers), you will still be able to catch a few sporting events exclusively on ESPN360 and nowhere else.
These days, a lot of internet users want to watch sports on the internet for whatever reason. Of course it helps if you have a fast connection, but fast connections are common these days. Most readers of this article will be able to watch ESPN360, provided their internet company provides it. The list of providers will continue to grow, I am sure, as it is becoming quite the popular place to watch sports on the internet in general and to watch soccer internet matches exclusively, for one.
As for the ESPN360 schedule of live events, on the day I am writing this (Thursday, October 9) I see 15 live events scheduled to show. Some events like college football, UEFA Champions League matches, NFL games, etc. will be shown live on TV and on ESPN360. For the soccer lovers who do not have the dough to be able to get all the soccer channels on satellite TV, ESPN360 includes Serie A, the Dutch league, Chinese league, U.S. soccer and other soccer matches that you will not see on any channel in the U.S. So for the soccer fanatics like me, it is fantastic to be able to watch soccer on the internet with ESPN360. They even show some futsal and beach soccer when they have tournaments.
These days, sports fans want more and more options for watching sports. I know as I am one myself. When I miss a game or can't find it anywhere else I'm often able to go to ESPN360 online and catch it. One of the best features is they save most every game shown on ESPN360 for you to come and watch it later. You just have to search on their convenient list for the game you want to see, even after it has already ended. That is the beauty of watching TV online and that is why I think it will happen more and more in the future.

New Soccer Coach's Sample Letter to Parents

You are a young or inexperienced youth soccer coach, and you have a bunch of excited and excitable parents who are yelling at their kids or who are simoply eager to help. What do you say to them to get them on your side? How can we enlist them to be part of a great organization? If we don't manage their expectations and focus their energy we are missing a great opportunity or worse, running th risk of drama. Drama is not good for the team!
Don't worry! All will be well! Here is a technique I have used with great success: a Coach's Letter To Parents" which establishes firmly the expectations of parents, players and coaches for the season. You can easily adapt this to suit your own needs. It has worked like a charm for me. It's gratifying to see the parents using the right language of support and encouragement for their girls and it lets me focus on the job of coaching.
Here's the letter:
Memo for: Parents of ___________Girls soccer team for _________ Subject: My coaching goals, perspectives and intent
1. I will coach the U10Gs as a volunteer. I have a lifelong love of soccer, played on a really good club team for a couple years in college and am competent in building skills and managing practices/games. I've coached many of the girls on the team already through 2 outdoor and 1 futsal (indoor) season, with excellent results as measured by our Big 5 (see below).
2. My focus for the girls are the Big 5, and it's how we as a team will keep our focus and evaluate ourselves during and after every game:
1. Play hard
2. Have fun
3. Support your team
4. Love the game
5. Respect the other team and the referees
We are winners when we do that. I will keep asking them to express what these mean to them in their own words.
3. It's very important for you to be the parents of your girls, and let me be their coach. They thrive on knowing they have your unconditional love, admiration and enthusiasm, and letting me challenge them on the technical aspects of the game. The Big 5 would be an excellent set of discussion points with your girls to reinforce what's really important for them at this age.
4. My goals are to provide a supportive environment for the girls to grow strong character through healthy competition and to develop their individual and team skills in soccer. I want them to contribute to and value the strength of their team. We know that strong, positive, social groups are an important source of moral strength for our girls in the teen years.
5. My focus on the girls as players is to give them equal time to play, and to help each girl grow her skills each practice, game and week. We measure success by our effort, our attitude and how far we have come.
6. My relationship with parents has been very good and I appreciate your help in reinforcing the lessons above through positive language and good sportsmanship.
7. I strongly encourage you to be active with your daughter in between practices. Soccer is great fun and kicking the ball around is a great way to burn some calories and enjoy playing together. If you'd like to help at practice, we can make that work too.

Exercise Your Stress Away

Sitting around at the office all day can't be that relaxing for most. And after a long day at work, not many people have the energy or motivation to want to get up off their bum and get some exercise. A run, a short work out session in the gym, futsal, tennis or even a swim are great ways to keep in shape and at the same time burn some stress out of your mind and body.
Exercise Releases Endorphins
Endorphins are natural pain killers and also help lift your mood. They are basically a natural way of getting yourself high, much like a sugar high might improve your mood, except with exercise, there's no down after the high, it just slowly fades away back to normalcy.
People who are in depression often lack these neurochemicals and hence are stressed and sad all the time. High amounts of exercise could slowly pump back these neurochemicals back into their brain and pull them out of the hole of depression that they are in.
Exercise Is An Outlet For The Mind
Let's face it, running on the treadmill or swimming in the pool can get a little tedious and repetitive. It's at times like these that you can use exercise as an outlet for mental soothing and repair. The best way to demonstrate this is through an example. Imagine you are running on the treadmill and just staring out straight. Rather than focus on the task at hand and trying to ignore the building burning sensation in your legs, why not try a few mental exercises?
For those 15 minutes, try and imagine your frustrations and stress burning away out of your body through your arms and legs. Or try reinforcing your metal state by thinking of very positive thoughts, such as how successful you will be in the future or how happy you are with your family and friends. It'll do you a world of good.
Exercise Is The Best Vice
When people are feeling stressed of frustrated with a situation, it is too easy to reach for a vice to calm yourself. These include alcohol, smoking, gambling and excessive eating which are all bad for you in the long run and may double up on your stress levels in the future.
Exercise is something that you can and should use as a vice when times are bad. Feeling the pressure at work and your boss? After work, try and put in a 15 - 20 minute medium intensity work out. It won't prevent your boss from shouting at you the next day, but at least it'll keep your mood up for whatever is left of the current day.
Thinking of exercise as a way to keep your mind and body healthy is the best approach to it, instead of thinking of it as a chore. Exercise has been proven to increase life expectancy, reduce heart problems and cancer as well as a great way to keep your mind in a positive mood.
So get up, do a sit up, a push up, a pull up, anything. And get on the road to reducing stress and improving your life today.

William Lee has worked for a large multinational corporation as a marketing executive and deals with work related stress every day.

The History of FC Barcelona

FC Barcelona, or Futbol Club Barcelona, is a sports club based in Barcelona, Spain. Though it is primarily known for its football club, FC Barcelona also consists of four other professional sports teams, competing in basketball, handball, futsal, and roller hockey. FC Barcelona, known familiarly by its fans as Barça, has been around for over one hundred years and has been consistently popular throughout.
FC Barcelona was founded in 1899 by Joan Gamper, a Swiss businessman who had relocated to Spain after falling in love with the country. Gamper sought to start a football club and placed an ad in a paper, receiving several responses and quickly assembling a team that went on to emerge as one of the leading teams in their home region of Catalonia and the greater country of Spain. In 1902, the club won the Copa Macaya.
In 1908, Gamper became club president in order to save the club from going under. FC Barcelona had been experiencing hardships due to many of their best players retiring and the fact that they had not won anything since 1905. Gamper was able to get the club its own stadium, formally moving into the Carrer Industria on March 14, 1909. Gamper was also able to recruit top-notch players and managers and get the club back into the business of winning with him at the helm. The club moved yet again in 1922 to an even larger stadium, Las Cortes, which eventually had a capacity of a whopping 60,000.
The mid- 1920s and 30s marked a period of hardship for the club. During this period, a crowd at a Barça game jeered the Royal March as a spontaneous objection to Spain's dictatorship. As a result, the stadium was shut down for three months and Gamper was forced to concede the presidency of the club. The club's founder committed suicide on July 30, 1930 following a bout of depression brought on by personal and financial problems.
After the Spanish Civil War, Dictator Francisco Franco banned football clubs from using non-Spanish names. As a result, FC Barcelona was changed to Club de Futbol Barcelona. During this period, the club was oppressed by Franco's regime, which favored their rivals, Real Madrid. Despite the political climate and oppression, FC Barcelona was able to go on and win many trophies and championships during the 1940s and 50s.
Though they became the first club to beat Real Madrid in a European Cup eliminatory in 1961, the 60s were not a great decade for CF Barcelona. Because the club lacked money to acquire better players after building a new stadium, the league was dominated by Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. The 1970s, however, saw the arrival of the soon-to-be-legendary Johan Cruyff, who led the team to the championship in '74.
Despite winning many championships, the next fourteen years saw the team experience conflicts with their management. Finally, in 1988 Johan Cruyff returned as team manager and assembled the "Dream Team", a group of elite players. Cruyff led the team to many victories and remains their most successful manager to date. After Cruyff's departure in 1994, managers and players came and went, but the team continued having limited successes.
Finally, in 2003 a young new president took over FC Barcelona. Joan Laporta brought in manager Frank Rijkaard and many international stars that led the team to many victories for a few years. In 2008, after many failures Laporta decided to replace Rijkaard with Barça B coach Josep Guardiola.