Soccer Drills

I’m going to try to keep a list of soccer drills that have worked well for the girls’ teams. I was the only coach in town for both Reiley and Wren’s teams this week, so I had to bone up! I have crummy old websites for Reiley’s Sirens team and Wren’s Waves team, both now defunct – I’m falling behind! Reiley is on the Courage U12 team, and Wren is on the Spirit U10 team.

It’s good to have a solid list of drills, but bad to use too many unfamiliar ones too rapidly (like I did during Reiley’s last practice – I smartened up for Wren’s). Balance, grasshopper.

The drills (sorted from most advanced to simplest)… Continue reading “Soccer Drills”

2008 Olympics US Women’s Soccer

U.S. Women’s soccer was my choice Olympic event. I watched every moment as the team went for the gold, it was fantastic all the way there. Solid teamwork, with some great individual performances too – and it was hard work the whole way! The final game was full of incredible saves from US goalkeeper Hope Solo, as Brazil’s star striker Marta came on strong with beautiful jaw-dropping footwork. The US team seemed to have possession for most of the game, and never once slowed down, even though they fell back fast enough to triple-team Marta on most plays. Whoop!

CLICK ON THE TEAM NAME TO WATCH THE FINISHED GAMES! I don’t know how long these will be around, catch them soon! :>

Results
Date and time vs. score
Aug 6 19:45pm Norway 0-2
Aug 9 17:00pm Japan 1-0
Aug 12 19:45pm New Zealand 4-0
Quarterfinals: US v Canada, Brazil v Norway, Sweden v Germany, China v Japan
Aug 15 18:00 Canada 2-1 in OT
Semifinals: US v Japan, Brazil v Germany
Aug 18 Japan 4-2
Aug 21 Brazil 1-0 in OT

Live 2008 Olympics coverage

I can’t seem to find much Olympics coverage on TV. NBC apparently has the exclusive broadcast rights in the US. They’re showing a few hours a night, mostly previously recorded. 1000 cable channels, loaded with junk, and they can’t take over 3 or 4 to give at least some tiny modicum of coverage?

UPDATE: I’ve found lots of information at http://www.nbcolympics.com. You just have to dig in a little bit. I have just shed a tear watching the U.S. women’s soccer team score against New Zealand in the FIRST MINUTE. A long shot from Heather O’Reilly while the keeper was snoozing. Absolutely beautiful.

Check my next post for women’s soccer info.

So… all these ugly “workarounds” are no longer necessary:

  • http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Watch_the_Olympics_Online
  • http://www.sportizo.com/sports/olympics/
  • http://www.mightyfootball.com/category/beijing-olympic-2008-football/
  • http://techblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/08/how-to-watch-the-olympics-live.html
  • http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/08/viewers-eager-t.html

UPDATE 2018: There’s a great story on becoming an Olympic athlete, on Jen Reviews.

Sowa Nation Reunion

Had a grand time reuniting with all my Mom’s relatives last weekend at the homestead (Decatur, IL, of all places). I took a pile of video, I’ll try to post some soon…

The Ultimate Practical Joke Site

The world’s greatest practical joke site was created recently. It’s called NiceCritic, and I got victimized today at work. When I sat down at my computers this morning, my inbox had this to say:

    It seems like your thong is showing. – an anonymous “nice critic”

Now I received the message at work, so it had to be from a coworker. But seriously, there are very few practical jokers left at my work after years of attrition. And when you receive your first “nice criticism” out of the blue, it’s a whole new experience in paranoia. I was wracking my head ALL DAY LONG trying to figure out if someone saw me biking to work in my bike shorts and mistook them for a failed attempt at putting my (sexy) clothes on in the right order.

Well, after getting crank-emailed on my college buddies’ email chain (they are pros at this kind of thing – before I noticed, they had planned a full-blown reunion in my attic – people were buying airplane tickets thinking I was begging them to come see my “renovations” – but I digress…), I figured there’s no time like the present for a little revenge. So – fair warning if you read this my pals – you’ve been nicecritic’ed today…

Hurry up and use the site, I’m sure it won’t be long before some disgruntled hacker DDOS‘es the thing into oblivion because he was told his feet smell one. too. many. times.

UPDATE: Wow, that was scary fun. I might need therapy…

  • Doug needs to stop patting people on the bottom
  • As everyone knows, Mark’s pants are a bit too tight lately
  • Ken needs a breath mint
  • Erik has worn heels on his shoes
  • Sounds like it’s time for Keith to visit the barber
  • I hope Mike soon realizes that “yelling doesn’t help morale”
  • Kevin needs to look people in the eye when he shakes hands
  • Unfortunately, Paul doesn’t release his hug in a timely manner

Plan 101

How do you organize your life? In the past I’ve entertained the thought that the important tasks rise to the top like cream, and there’s no reason to waste time shuffling todo lists when that time could otherwise be put to productive use – oh the irony! There’s truth to that – you can’t be anal about every possible task you have. But… I HAVE TOO MUCH I WANT TO DO. I don’t want to be the jellyfish caught in the tide of life. I am pretty good at “not catching the ball” when it’s not the right thing to do, but I want a system that helps me be laser-precise in applying my limited resources. It just happens to be the time for that “sequence” in my life – no one is driven like a man in his 40’s. The requirements of the perfect task planning system:

  • responsive, intuitive – i.e., FAST task-calendar flip
  • quickly offload tasks from memory – i.e., available anywhere

UPDATE: Chandler is the current champ, and I got it working through a proxy, so I’ll give it a good strong thrubbing.

Continue reading “Plan 101”

Horse Show!

Mom and Sundance tear it up at their first show! Reiley and Wren ripped it up too, on Tuff and PonyBoy. It was Tuff’s first show, so Reiley had to take him through the events slowly to teach him the ropes. The other girl that rode Tuff almost got bucked off. Good job Rei! On the other hand, Mom and Wren were all about speed. Check it out… the video needs editing but I’ll throw the whole thing up for now…

Get the Flash Player to see this player.