Outdoor Winter Soccer Fitness - How to Prepare For the Cold

By: Mike Grafstein 

Winter is a great time to maintain an "aerobic" base in the off season. This will compliment off season base strength training programs. It will allow you to maintain fitness levels, prevent injury and build up of body fat. You could also prepare for your soccer fitness. If you are lucky enough to live in a warm climate enjoy the heat! You have other issues to concern yourself with. 

If you live in a cold climate here are some tips to keep you warm while you maintain your soccer fitness. 

You want to be coolly invigorated when you start your interval or fartlek run and toasty at the end. You must keep in mind that your body heat will move up 10-20 degrees F warmer than the current air temperature as you are five minutes into your interval run/jog. To reduce the effect of the chill factor plan your run so that you start into the wind and return with the wind at your back.

It is important that you are properly dressed for your soccer winter run/jog. Layering your clothing is the most important.

Your first layer/inner layer should contain a material called polypropylene. This layer is the one that lies against your skin. This material allows water vapor to pass through. This allows your skin to stay dry even if you are sweating. This lining may be a long sleeved turtleneck, or may have round necklines, and may be a short sleeved shirt or even a sports bra. The style you choose will depend on the weather. 

Do Not Use Cotton As The Inner Layer because cotton holds moisture.

The middle layer is usually a thin turtleneck that is either all synthetic or part cotton/part synthetic material. Very often it will zip up allowing you to control the ventilation. It acts as additional space to trap heat.

The outer most layers protect you from the elements: wind, rain and snow. The outer layer you use is determined by how cold or wet are the elements. This outer layer may range from a vest or jacket to a complete suit depending on the weather condition of that day. The outer layers made from the following fabrics will suit you fine: Gore-Tex, Windstopper, DryRoad, Fleece and Microfiber. 

You will lose approximately 40% of your heat through your head. Thus a hat made from wool is ideal. A mask that leaves slits for your eyes, nose and mouth is another option. For your hands you may wear light insulated gloves under mittens.

Wear two pairs of socks. A thin synthetic pair of socks with wool or part cotton pair over the top will help prevent frostbite. Do not forget to protect your neck. This may be done by wearing a scarf, turtleneck sweater or a jacket with a zip-up collar.

Also, on sunny days, sunglasses and sun block are advised because the rays of the sun reflect off the snow. 

Finally it is beneficial to your fitness to run/jog in the winter. Keep these thoughts in mind: 

1. Your run/jog should follow resistance training if you are working out with weights. 

2. Take the time to be properly dressed for your outing.

3. Focus on keeping warm and dry. 

4. Always protect your extremities.

5. Enjoy the outdoors.

Have fun with winter.

Mike Grafstein B.Ph.Ed, CAT(c),YCS, RMT

Get your complimentary copy "Athletic Development for Soccer Players", a strength and conditioning guide that includes basic strength, power, speed, agility, quickness, stamina, nutrtion and soccer injury prevention tips. Go now to http://www.elitesoccerpower.com and download it to your computer.

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Liverpool FC off to worst start in 101 years

By: Steven Hawkins

It can't be described as the start Brendan Rodgers was hoping for as Liverpool's new manager. The club is winless in its first four matches (two draws and two losses) for the first time since 1911.

Rodgers, 39, was brought in from Swansea City to replace legendary Liverpool player and former manager Kenny Dalglish. Managing at Anfield is always going to equate to added pressure. Replacing the likes of “King Kenny”, as Dalglish is known to supporters, makes Rodgers life all the more difficult.

Dalglish had returned to Anfield and rescued Liverpool amidst the miserable 2010-2011 season. During that season Roy Hodgson (now England's manager) was struggling to adjust to life at Anfield. Halfway through the season ownership practically begged Dalglish to replace Hodgson; he agreed ensuring Liverpool's third manager in less than a year.

Dalglish's side, while struggling in the Premier League, did perform well in Cup competitions winning the Carling Cup as well as reaching the F.A. Cup Final in 2011-2012. There appeared to be hope for the future so Dalglish's firing came as surprise to many and ensured that Liverpool would have its fourth manager since 2010.

The team has struggled at times to adjust to Rodgers' style of play (one which favours possession and quick passes). Compounding the problem was the struggle to add new players to his club before the transfer window closed. As a result current players (such as Captain Steven Gerrard) are being asked to take on new roles and adjust on the fly. The most glaring error to date was failing to sign a serious attacking threat after loaning Andy Carroll out to West Ham. Fabio Borini, a young Italian whom Rodgers has managed before, was brought in prior to Carroll's exit but has failed to impress alongside forward Luis Suarez.

Things aren't getting any easier for Rodgers and his club as this weekend Liverpool welcomes their arch-nemesis Manchester United to Anfield. United has not won a match in Liverpool since 2007, a trend Rodgers certainly would like to see continue. Defeating Manchester United would be a great distraction from the poor start and alleviate some of the growing pressure on Rodgers. A defeat would be equally disastrous for the club.

Adding to the pressure of the already enormous early season match is the fact it was recently announced Kenny Dalglish will be in attendance.

Even though the pressure is rising it is not a must win for Brendan Rodgers' job security. Ownership has acknowledged Rodgers will be given ample time to implement his vision and strategy in an effort to succeed with Liverpool. It may however be a must win for Rodgers' popularity with supporters and it would serve him well if his first win could come at the expense of Liverpool's most hated rivals.  

Examples of Soccer Drills for Young Players

By Lisa A Mason

Soccer is a great way to get kids away from their electronics and to get them outdoors and exercising instead. This is an easy game to get started with and it does not cost a lot for the parents to get their children involved. It can be difficult once the kids are all together to get them start learning the fundamentals. Thankfully, there are some great drills that entice children to want to learn the game and it makes the learning fun. The following are some examples of soccer drills for young players:

• Pirate Treasure - This game is also a drill that teaches children skills at both dribbling the ball and accuracy at shooting. Half the team is the pirates guarding the treasure and the other half of the team are trying to get to the treasure. This treasure is cones that are placed at one end of the pitch. One player battles two defenders and attempts to dribble past them. When the knock down the cones, they get a point for their "treasure".


• Defending the Dribble - Using cones, set up a perimeter in the middle of the pitch by placing four cones equidistant from each other. The team should be divided into two groups with each wearing different colors. One color plays offense and the other plays defense. One player from defense is in the middle of the perimeter to attempt to steal the ball from the offensive player who has to make it past the defender. If he does, the ball goes to the player on the opposite side and so on. If the defender gets the ball, the sides are switched and the offensive player becomes the defender.


• Keep Away - Probably one of the most common and easiest of all the soccer drills for young players. Keep away builds up defending and dribbling skills. Start with a circle that is marked off by using cones. The circle should be at least the diameter of half the pitch. Two players will act as defenders and the rest of the team are trying to keep the ball away from them. If a defender gets the ball, the player who lost it becomes a defender.

Getting the kids to have fun and exercise is not hard to do when there are so many fun drills that keeps them on their toes and interested in the game. If none of the above appeals to your team, use the examples to help to create your own game for them instead. Just remember to keep it fun and the kids can follow the lead easily.

About the Author:

Lisa Mason is a freelance writer with a specialty in Internet content and SEO articles and the author of How to Earn a Living Writing for the Internet. She has written thousands of articles, hundreds of ebooks and thousands of website pages and related content in more than 10 years as a professional writer.

See her website for a free article writing template guide as well as more writing tips and info on the writing services she offers.

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The World's Most Beloved Sport - The History of Soccer

By Rebecca Blain

While it is undisputed that the origins of modern soccer, or football, originated in Britain, there is a great deal of evidence that points to this beloved game as having an older history.

Where did the game of soccer really begin, and how old is it? To understand how many different varieties of "soccer" there are, you need to understand a bit about the older versions of the game and how they have evolved.

Below, you will find a list of the predominant cultures that had a variety of soccer, and learn how each one differs from what we play today. And no, they never used anything like Lotto shinguards back then either!

• Chinese Soccer History
• Japanese Soccer History
• Egyptian Soccer History
• Greek/Roman Soccer History
• British Soccer History

Chinese Soccer History

To many, this is the oldest version of soccer to exist. However, there is quite a lot of controversy of whether or not this is the oldest, or Japan's version is the elder. The Chinese version of the game, originally named "Tsu Chu", involved players on a field that had to hit a leather ball stuffed with fur into a small hole. Like Soccer, no hands were permitted during the play of the game, and it was considered an honor to be a member of a team.

The Emperor of the Han Dynasty, when the game was developed, was an avid player and fan, and spread the popularity of this game all over China during his reign. This roughly dates back to 300 B.C., although there is controversy on the subject of dating, which could result in the origins of the game being as far back as 5000 B.C. Regardless, this version of Soccer is extremely old. Despite that, there is still a version of Tsu Chu played today. While the two games are similar, Tsu Chu has had no effect on the modern version of the game, as it was originally developed and created for play in Great Britain.

Japanese Soccer History

Kemari, the Japanese version of "Soccer", is perhaps one of the most different forms of the sport, in comparison to modern soccer. Kemari was a game of "Keep it up", much like modern hacky sacks, although used with a larger ball that was stuffed with saw dust. This version involves a "pitch", or the field, designated by the selection of four trees, the cherry, maple, pine and willow. Many great houses in Japan would grow trees to have a permanent pitch, or field, established.

Kemari was normally played with two to twelve players. Established in roughly 1004 B.C., it vies for position of the oldest game with China's Tsu Chu. In fact, China's Tsu Chu players and Japan's Kemari players were the first to have an "International" game of their versions of Soccer, which is dated to have occurred in roughly 50 B.C., although a definite date of 611 A.D. is known. Regardless, this game stands with China as a sister sport to Soccer, while it never affected the modern version of the game.

Egyptian Soccer History

While not much is known about Egyptian Soccer, or other ball games, it is thought there was a version of a type of ball game played by young women during the age of Baqet III. On his tomb, images of this sport were depicted, although no one is certain how the game was played or whether or not it truly affected the outcome of modern soccer. Recordings of this game date as far back as 2500 B.C., although not much more is known asides the fact that it was played with a ball. The lack of information on the sport and how it was played has eliminated it from runnings as the first evidence of a game similar to soccer.

Greek/Roman Soccer History

Perhaps the closest relative to modern soccer are the games that were formed by the Greeks during the prime of their culture. They had numerous varieties of football style games, some of which required hands, some of which forbade hands. In the end, after the Roman conquering of Greece, the game Harpastum is what modern soccer would be based from. This game, probably a modified version of the Greek's "Harpaston", which translates roughly to handball. While grossly misnamed, this game is what is considered to be one of the precursors to modern soccer.

British Soccer History

In Britain during the 8th century, soccer was created, not as a recreational sport, but as a war game. One of the stories of the original roots of the sport comes from when a Danish Prince was beheaded, and his head was used as a ball and was kicked around. Ever since this 'legendary' tale, villages and other communities would play a game where they would have to kick a ball to a specific goal. It was a violent game, where injury and death were not uncommon, but it was popular nevertheless. In fact, it was so violent, that in 1331, King Edward the III passed laws to try to stop the playing of the game. It did not work, however, and the sport continued on.

There are even stories of soccer games that involved hundreds upon hundreds of players. In these games, there were many deaths, some resulting in the hundreds. It wasn't until 1815 when Eton College set up a series of rules for the game that it became less violent and more of a true sport. At this time, other colleges and universities took up the banner and began to play under similar rules. Later, the rules were evaluated and judged, and the Cambridge rules were created as a result in 1848. In the Cambridge rules, shin-kicking, carrying the ball and tripping were all forbidden. Rugby rules allowed these aspects, and the two varieties of soccer, or football, split to form their own followings.

On October 26, 1863, London schools and sports club sent representatives to the Freemason's Tavern, where the Football Association was formed. Rugby supporters left this association to form the Rugby Association. This is where the birth of modern soccer began. In 1969, the Football Association finalized the modern game of soccer by forbidding the use of hands in the game.

The term "Soccer" was coined when someone was asked if he was a Rugger, which is a Rugby player. The -er signified that the person participated in a a particular sport. The individual, Charles Wreford Brown, replied with "Soccer!", taking the phrase from Association, SOC, and adding the -er. The term stuck. While British individuals still call the game Football, Americans and other countries call it Soccer, especially if they have heavy support in American Football present. Ever since the foundation of the Association, "Football" has risen in popularity, becoming one of the best love games in the history of Earth. Now, hundreds of thousands play the sport, although it lacks the initial violence present at its creation.

About The Author

Rebecca Blain is a professional and hobbyist writer who enjoys taking care of her fish and educating people about soccer equipment such as goals which you can read about here:

http://www.everything-soccer.com/8-24-soccer-goals.html

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Is Italian football going backwards?

The Italian League has some of the best footballers in it but why is it their top players want to leave and go to a rival leagues? There may be many reasons; one could be that it has been stagnant for many years. You could say it is also down to the match fixing which saw the most successful club Juventus stripped of two of their league titles and caused them to get demoted to the Serie B. Also there have been other problems such as low crowds, racism, hooliganism, and various other problems that have plagued their game, despite Inter Milan did win the European Champions League which they weren't favourites to win.

Don't let the Champions League win deceive you as only one of the players were Italian and to make things worse he was a substitute that play in the final minute of stoppage time. If you were to compare it with their German opponents they had five Germans in the starting line up and then had two more Germans who came off the bench with the second one coming on around the 75th minute. So in theory it wasn't really an Italian team which is why the Italian public have played it down a bit.

If we were to look at the national side of things things don't look good as the team, they have been heavily criticised and after the world cup, the criticism has gotten more vocal. They have been criticised for their ageing squad. Most of the players that were picked were veterans who were part of 2006 championship winning team.

When there were calls to inject young players these calls were ignored for example Antonio Cassano who just had a great season at Sampdoria has been absent from the national team for two years. Being snubbed from the Italian squad before the world cup led to widespread criticism of Marcello Lippi from not only fans but the media alike. Although he has been remitted into the Italian team by head coach Cesare Prandelli.

The 2010 World Cup campaign was a complete embarrassment for them - they couldn't make it out of the first round; it was a fall from grace, from champions four years ago to in 2010 being held to a draw by country that is 50 ranks blow them in the FIFA rankings. Undeniably they had an group compared to what their rivals had - it was shameful for the country. The final game was the straw that broke the camel's back; you could visually see the players themselves where ashamed of how little they accomplished in this tournament and that they want to go back home to their villas in Italy as soon as possible.

You could say since the 2006 victory was the beginning of the downward spiral that has seen them perform worse at each competition - knocked out of Euro 2008 after passing the group stage came and third in their group in the Confederation Cup. In that time Italy has searching for new managers every few years.

Italian Football in general is at an all time low compared to the glory days of the 80s and certainly the 90s. What can be done to improve the state of league play and can the national squad get out of its rut? Flagging national teams' problems generally dissipate only young talent us slowly introduced into the team. Has Italy strung out one group of players for too long?

The Italian League has some of the best footballers in it but why is it their top players want to leave and go to a rival leagues? There may be many reasons; one could be that it has been stagnant for many years. You could say it is also down to the match fixing which saw the most successful club Juventus stripped of two of their league titles and caused them to get demoted to the Serie B. Also there have been other problems such as low crowds, racism, hooliganism, and various other problems that have plagued their game, despite Inter Milan did win the European Champions League which they weren't favourites to win.

Don't let the Champions League win deceive you as only one of the players were Italian and to make things worse he was a substitute that play in the final minute of stoppage time. If you were to compare it with their German opponents they had five Germans in the starting line up and then had two more Germans who came off the bench with the second one coming on around the 75th minute. So in theory it wasn't really an Italian team which is why the Italian public have played it down a bit.

If we were to look at the national side of things things don't look good as the team, they have been heavily criticised and after the world cup, the criticism has gotten more vocal. They have been criticised for their ageing squad. Most of the players that were picked were veterans who were part of 2006 championship winning team.

When there were calls to inject young players these calls were ignored for example Antonio Cassano who just had a great season at Sampdoria has been absent from the national team for two years. Being snubbed from the Italian squad before the world cup led to widespread criticism of Marcello Lippi from not only fans but the media alike. Although he has been remitted into the Italian team by head coach Cesare Prandelli.

The 2010 World Cup campaign was a complete embarrassment for them - they couldn't make it out of the first round; it was a fall from grace, from champions four years ago to in 2010 being held to a draw by country that is 50 ranks blow them in the FIFA rankings. Undeniably they had an group compared to what their rivals had - it was shameful for the country. The final game was the straw that broke the camel's back; you could visually see the players themselves where ashamed of how little they accomplished in this tournament and that they want to go back home to their villas in Italy as soon as possible.

You could say since the 2006 victory was the beginning of the downward spiral that has seen them perform worse at each competition - knocked out of Euro 2008 after passing the group stage came and third in their group in the Confederation Cup. In that time Italy has searching for new managers every few years.

Italian Football in general is at an all time low compared to the glory days of the 80s and certainly the 90s. What can be done to improve the state of league play and can the national squad get out of its rut? Flagging national teams' problems generally dissipate only young talent us slowly introduced into the team. Has Italy strung out one group of players for too long?

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Soccer Awards - All About World Cup Trophies and Awards

By Nico B Rama

The most popular and most coveted of all soccer awards, or football awards, is definitely the championship trophy of the FIFA World Cup. The league is the most valuable single-event sporting competition across the globe. Its latest staging, in 2010, attracted almost 50,000 spectators for every match and was aired to over 200 countries.

The FIFA World Cup has given two types of trophies in all its years of existence. One is the Jules Rimet Trophy, which was given to the winners since the league commenced in 1930 until 1970, when Brazil was entitled to keep the trophy for good as they won their third World Cup. Jules Rimet is the name of the FIFA President who pioneered the tournament.

Currently, the trophy that is awarded to the winner is simply named the FIFA World Cup Trophy. It is made of solid 18 carat gold and with a base that has 2 layers of malachite. Engraved at the bottom side are the names of the winners of the World Cup since 1974.The 6.175 kg trophy was created by Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. The FIFA World Cup Trophy is "lent" to the winning country until the next tournament comes. Afterwards, a gold-plated replica is given to them.

Aside from the trophy, the players and coaches of the top three teams are given medals engraved with the insignia of the World Cup Trophy. As in the tradition of most competitions, gold, silver and bronze are respectively given to the winner, the runner-up and the third-place finisher.

This particular tournament gives trophies symbolizing special accomplishments, too. The FIFA Fair Play Trophy is given to the team with the top fair play record during the season. It is the first special award that's given in the tournament from the time it was established. On a lighter note, an award for the Most Entertaining Team is literally for the team who has entertained the public the most in the whole duration of the tournament.

Individual players who have achieved extraordinary successes in their performance during the World Cup are also acknowledged with trophies.

The Golden Ball is given to the overall best player, which is named after voting by media members. The Golden Boot, on the other hand, goes to the number one goal scorer in the whole tournament. Silver and Bronze versions of the Ball and the Boot awards are given to those who ranked second and third in the said categories, respectively.

The best goalkeeper is also cited with the Golden Glove Award and is determined by the FIFA Technical Study Group. Recently, the said group has also started to decide on the most outstanding player aged 21 or younger, who deserves to be given the Best Young Player trophy.

The FIFA World Cup Trophy is undoubtedly the most fiercely fought for prize among all soccer trophies. The whole tournament is one of the most festive and fun sporting events in the world and the FIFA member nations couldn't always wait for the next 4 years to fly by.

Soccer trophies and medals are available for ordering online at Awards and Trophies. Visit their site to see their selection of awards, trophies and plaques and their delivery provisions.

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