The beautiful game is one of the many names that we have for soccer. Soccer isn’t just a sport, its where a group of guys and girls come together and form a family. I speak from experience. My name is Maria and I am a Junior in an inner city high school. I am a U-1`6 player for the club in the nearby suburbs. and I have experienced playing for my high school girls varsity soccer team. Soccer does have its set of rules and regulations but each team has their own unique way of playing. They have different ways of training and playing as a team on the field. I have been very grateful to play for both teams but I would have to say that my club team has taught me more and helped me better myself on the field. The club team is a travel team. I recently started playing for them under the training of great coaches many of whom are from Bulgaria. In such little time training with them I have learned amazing new tactics and skills. My footwork, stamina, kicking have gotten better.
The workouts are hard-working and require a lot of strength and patience. Every soccer player has a weak foot and mine happens to be my left as it is for many players. But the coaches at the club don’t believe in a weak foot. They have taught me how to control and pass with my left, the same way I do with my right. Now my dribbling with both feet are surprisingly, the same. The drills, playing with the girls on the team and the coaches have taught me a lot and helped me better myself on the field.
On the other hand, playing for the high school team has a set of good coaches too. When I played for them it always felt like you were also part of a family. We always stuck together but unfortunately it was through many losses. I can say that the drills and practices in many instances were the same and I understand that this was necessary in order to work on the development of skills that were lacking in the girls. These players many times had never played soccer before and they were starting quite far behind the development of players from the suburban high school teams. Those players had been playing travel and club soccer for many years before entering high school.
Another problem with many of my teammates was we never really worked as hard as we could and that deficiency in fitness caused us to lose many games in the second halves. I did not see improvement in my playing on the field and as a player one always want to better oneself. The coaches had mixed ideas about training and tactics and sometimes they were in conflict with one another. Coach Stu was trying to implement a long-term program at the school but there appeared to be a lot of political conflict between his assistant coaches. I don’t regret playing for the high school but my improvement as a player has come directly from the time spent training and playing with the club team.
Soccer Tales II-second edition., "Born to Play the Game"
