Silicon Valley Eagles Blog

Kids love to move. They love to jump and climb and tumble and, as their coordination improves, to throw and catch.

But when does it stop being fun? For some kids, it’s when pressure from school or parents starts to make sports feel like work. For others, it’s when fixation on a single sport takes the joy and spontaneity out of it. Encouraging your child to try new sports can be a great way to remind them that sports are all about one thing…fun!

New sports provide new opportunities

Playing only one sport can make a young athlete’s world extremely narrow. It can limit opportunities for making new friends, and when the focus is on competition, the stress of winning and losing can put established friendships to the test.

Go climb a tree!

No, seriously, it’s good for young brains to climb trees, jump on rocks, balance on a log and many other outdoor activities. Known as proprioceptive tasks, when kids do movements that force them to be aware of their body’s position in space, it forces their brain to multitask and rely on working memory. 

According to a new study out of the University of North Florida (UNF), the improvements to working memory capacity are impressive, beating out more static activities like yoga or sitting in class.

Relationships with coaches can be tricky to navigate, but the key to any solid player-coach relationship can be answered with a simple question:

Does your coach trust you?

There are three simple habits that players (with the help of their parents) can develop that will build trust and immediately strengthen any relationship with any coach.

Each week in the world’s top soccer leagues, injuries take an expensive toll. Millions of dollars of talent left on the substitutes bench or back in the training room, risking their team’s place in the standings.

In the past, injuries were an accepted part of the game, but new training and prevention techniques and tools have emerged that allow coaches and players to monitor their training load and proactively predict risk factors to avoid downtime.

In the top European leagues, as well as many elite youth leagues, players can play between an average of 1.5 to 2 games per week for a 10-11 month season. Factor in multiple training sessions, travel and the ongoing stress of competition and the likelihood of injuries and missed games increase. Previous research has shown that the most likely predictor of future injuries is a history of a similar injury.

Typical Instruction:

“Toss-right foot laces-catch; Toss-left foot laces-catch; Repeat sequence!”

Unusual young players are able to toss the ball to either instep and are able to tap it back into their hands. These rare individuals are fortunate in having developed their eye-to-hand-to-foot coordination and will love to repeat the sequence because they are successful. These players often develop and fine tune their control of the ball, very quickly resulting in truly loving to play the game. They need to be challenged toward eliminating the “catch” in the sequence, resulting in “Right foot laces; Left foot laces; Repeat sequence!”