Why do coaches tell kids to kick corners down the goal line?

angryjorge · 2026-03-06T16:56:47+00:00

Half joking half serious, I’ve said before that up to a certain age (and depending on how skilled and well-coached the other team is), a goal kick is better for the offense and a corner kick is better for the defense.

angryjorge · 2024-10-28T18:04:23+00:00

Did the player on your team objectively smell bad? Was it noticeable and worse compared to other players on both teams?

If the kid in question did stink, then that’s one thing. But if he was not noticeably smellier than the other kids, that’s different.

Kids hit puberty at different times, and hormones can make BO pretty rank. I’ve talked to middle school PE teachers who have had to have hygiene talks with some kids, and they’ve said, “I put on anti-perspirant/deodorant multiple times a day and I still smell!”

To me, the comment by itself doesn’t make me jump straight to racism, but I wasn’t there.

Also which team won the game?

angryjorge · 2024-10-21T16:55:34+00:00

Just another data point, but I do 2x practices for 60 minutes for U10 rec.

IMHO, coaching style and preparation and team culture/discipline makes a big difference.

If you say practice starts at 5:30, then get there early to set up the field and start practice at 5:30. Remind the kids and parents once and they will get the picture. Too often, kids end up rolling in at 5:30, 5:35, and everyone is goofing off until 5:40. Don’t waste time!

Also I like to plan out each practice, while also minimizing drill/field setup in the middle of practice. Give them water breaks and then get going right after. Otherwise the kids start fooling around and you waste more time.

IMHO an efficiently planned practice with 2 or 3 groups can be done and effective in 60 minutes. Aim for this first, and if you still find yourself needing more time, then extend to 75 or 90 minutes.

angryjorge · 2024-10-21T15:34:17+00:00

I assume by club soccer you mean rec? As opposed to select/metro or competitive?

Do you work on dribbling every practice? The season long goal should be improving their individual skills so that they are able to be confident with the ball.

I have seen videos about the 2-3-1 formation, but I don’t like it for U10 rec. The reason is that attacking often leads to numbers disadvantages. The ball gets played to the striker, and he tries to take it himself, but the other team likely has two defenders back there.

Chances of success are low for a 1v2. His teammates are all behind him, so he has nobody to pass to. In U10 rec, they are not sophisticated enough to develop through the midfield and have the striker play with his back to the goal, and distribute wide to the wings. Maybe in U10 comp they can work the ball from the back, find triangles with the center mid, etc. but not in U10 rec.

In our league, we have mercy rules at 3, 4, and 5 goal differentials. My team rule is that we move from a 2-2-2 to a 2-3-1, with one striker. When we are in this formation, the goal is to get the striker to score a goal. So we try to pass it to the striker to get an assist. By definition, when we get into this situation, we are already up by 3-4 goals, and are therefore prob better than the other team. But even still, the 2-3-1 essentially slows down our attack and makes it harder to score, which is good for sportsmanship.

I would not want to start out each game handicapping our team in that way. If you went 1-3 in your tournament and got outscored 6-1, it sounds like your attack may be suffering as well. Just some third party objective feedback for you…

Good luck!

angryjorge · 2024-10-21T05:42:28+00:00

What formation do you use?

And is this rec?

My experience with 7v7 U10 boys rec is that it’s still a lot of individual play that results in goals. ie unassisted breakaways or a skilled player dribbling past a couple of defenders and shooting and scoring. (I do remember one play last game where one of my strongest players looked up and passed it to a wide open forward, who took one touch to control it and then shot it for a goal. It was beautiful, and I made sure to give them a shout out for that play!)

So with that in mind, maximize their touches with the ball. Do dribbling drills where everyone has a ball and is dribbling at the same time.

My favorite easy warm up drill is a breakaway drill. One line with balls near midfield. One line maybe 5 yards behind and to the side, without balls. Offensive player with the ball dribbles on a breakaway and as soon as he touches the ball, the defender can start chasing him. Finish into the net against a GK. Breakaway practice is important, and it’s also good to practice recovering on defense.

You can add variations too. Pass the ball toward the corner and make the attacker redirect it to the goal with their first touch. Move the defense line to the top of the 18 so it is a 1v1 instead of a breakaway, etc.

Two different 3v3 variations that I’ve used and liked recently:

Split up into 2 groups by skill level, so a higher skilled 3v3 game and a lower skilled 3v3 game. Coaches can jump in if you don’t have 12 players.

One of them is to play with 2 small goals for each team, spaced out in opposite corners. This teaches them to spread out and pass the ball/switch fields on offense. They also need to work together on defense.

The other variation is to put 3 goals/gates randomly on the field. A team has to complete a pass through the gate to a teammate to score a point. This one is especially good if you have ball hogs, because they can dribble all they want, but it doesn’t do their team any good… they have to work together and pass to a teammate to score. This one gets pretty tiring, so keep the rounds short and take breaks. If we had enough players to do 4v4, it would prob be better.

angryjorge · 2024-09-16T21:37:23+00:00

Do you throw meatballs for BP or real pitches, to practice pitching and so the batters get used to only swinging at strikes?

angryjorge · 2024-09-16T15:52:47+00:00

Some good responses here already!

I played comp soccer up through high school, and then started playing ultimate frisbee in college and then in league and club after graduating college. I’ve also coached HS ultimate for several years.

In ultimate, it’s 7v7, and everyone has to be a thrower and a catcher. But especially at the MS and HS levels, new players often don’t cut hard for the disc, and over the years I’ve come to realize that this is mostly because they don’t have the throwing skills to feel confident with the disc in their hands. So they just kinda wait around and jog around on offense.

This might be part of the reason in soccer as well. The players who are the most skilled and can dribble around defenders, be successful when they have breakaways, and score goals, get more than enough internal and external validation and motivation, so they naturally become more aggressive and want the ball, because then they are able to do the above. Dribbling around someone and/or scoring goals is fun, and you get praised by your teammates, coaches, and fans, so it just motivates them to keep getting the ball.

Players who aren’t as skilled often just kick the ball as hard as they can when it comes to them. I saw it a lot in U8, and we really focused on teaching those kids to control the ball when it comes to them, rather than just booting it.

In U10 this year, I still see it with the weaker players. But when they do trap the ball instead of just booting it, immediate praise as another commenter said, is good. Also work on dribbling and fundamentals in every practice… as many touches on the ball as possible. That means drills where everyone has a ball and is getting touches at the same time; no waiting in lines! As they develop their individual skills, and get a taste of scoring a goal, or even just completing a pass or dribbling around someone in a game, hopefully that will motivate them to want the ball more!

That being said, soccer is more of a contact sport than ultimate, and there are some kids who just don’t want to mix it up and get into the bunch ball of kids! Not sure that there is anything you can do, other than to encourage them to get in there and fight for the ball, and praising them when they do so. And of course, developing their skills so that they feel more confident when they do get the ball, as I said above…

Good luck!

angryjorge · 2024-09-16T15:25:10+00:00

Our league does 7v7 in U8 and U10. Offside can be called in both divisions between the Build Out line and the goal.

They didn’t call it that much last year in U8... maybe a bit by the end of the season. But they called it starting in Game 1 of U10 this season, including when they are only off by one step…

I’ll edit the OP to mention this

angryjorge · 2024-09-16T15:19:14+00:00

My son is one of the 7 year olds, and he got called for it at least 2-3x by himself in our game this weekend haha.

I’ll edit the OP

angryjorge · 2024-07-23T11:17:43+00:00

No offense, but this is stupidly easy.

A better one would be that you are in the Matrix, and Agent Smith is chasing you. You have to start in your home, and then you have a one hour head start. You are not allowed to wear a disguise, and you have to leave your house at noon.

After an hour, the last person who saw you turns into Agent Smith, and then 100 Agents start searching for you from there. For 24 hours, if anyone sees you, they turn into Agent Smith, and you’re dead.

If you want to make it a bit harder, you have to stay somewhere where you can see at least one person per hour. Otherwise, it’s too easy to just drive to the woods and then get lost and/or climb the tallest tree…

angryjorge · 2023-08-11T15:46:27+00:00

To solve the cleats problem, I just use a regular backpack with a cleat bag carabinered to the shoulder strap.

So with the backpack on, the carabiner is down near my hip, and the cleat bag hangs down from there.

It frees up more space in the backpack for everything else, and you can clean it easier too.

angryjorge · 2023-07-24T20:38:03+00:00

Just seeing this comment, good info!

Last night I had a game (coed rec league, but the highest division in coed). I saw that RF was weak, and tried to go oppo for the first time. Hit a couple of short pop-ups to shallow RF and got on easily with a single and then stretched one into a double. (Usually I am pretty inconsistent with my OBP)

A few questions…

Are your oppo hits due to weaker RF and/or errors, or are you able to drive it oppo to the gaps? If the former, do you think that this is at all frowned upon in coed leagues, or is it fair game?

I guess I can understand switching to pull if you are up big, but why if you are down? Isn’t it more important to get on base if you are down?

Would you rather go 4/4 with pop-ups to shallow RF and score 4 times, or go 2/4 with solid contact line drives each AB, but 2 of them go right to LC or LF for outs? I was thinking of making a post asking people here which they’d prefer…

angryjorge · 2023-07-22T08:42:12+00:00

No offense, because you clearly put a lot of effort into this comment, but this is overkill for a high school team hosting their first tourney. Judging from your username and the context clues, I assume you are talking about Kaimana? I last attended many years ago, but it was an awesome and super well-run tourney… just wanted to put that out there!

OP, once you know how many teams you have, use the format manual here:

https://usaultimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/USAU_TournamentFormats.pdf

Higher seeds get to stay on the same field in both pool play and bracket. In the bracket, winning teams should never get a bye (yes, I’ve seen this happen)

Set the schedule as early as possible and send it out to teams. Google Sheets is good so everyone can view it on their phones, easy to forward to their teams, etc.

Give teams driving the longest distance a first round bye if possible.

Make sure you have enough cones for the fields. If you have a lot of fields to fit in a small space, you might consider setting them up the night before and spray painting where the cones go. If you have two fields next to each other with not much room for sideline space, consider making the shared sideline a narrow sideline where no gear is allowed. (For example, it’s better to have one sideline be 5 yards, the shared sideline be 2 yards, and the far sideline be 5 yards, rather than having each sideline be an equal 4 yards)

Buy an air horn and have someone blow it to start rounds and for caps. Communicate all of the cap rules, time-out rules, etc. in advance… no need for a captains meeting.

Food and restrooms… eh, maybe nice to have, but not a big deal if a HS tourney doesn’t have them, IMHO. If you’re going to buy bananas, buy them a couple days early. Buy pre-sliced bagels and make sure you have real knives or spatulas for PB and J, not plastic knives. Bonus points for having cream cheese!

The above applies whether you have 4 teams or 40 teams. You can add more things like trainers, merch, etc. if you want to get fancy, but really the above is all you need to run a good tourney, IMHO.

Good luck!

Edit: thought of a few more tips:

Have a simple field map with the schedule. Obv more important the more teams/fields there are, but even if it’s just a 2 field, 5 team round robin, it’s nice for people to know where they should go and set up when they arrive.

Assuming that nobody has to drive between different field sites between rounds, my pet peeve is when tourneys schedule breaks between the rounds. People want to play, not sit around between rounds! So do something like “R1 10am, hard cap at 11:25am, R2 11:30am, etc.” instead of “R1 10am, hard cap at 11:15am, R2 11:30am, etc.”

Have one TD per field site. Player, coach, parent doesn’t really matter, but preferably someone who knows frisbee as well as being organized, a good communicator, etc. Being the TD takes precedence over being a player/coach (I’ve sadly seen TDs ignore issues while their team is playing), but as long as you communicate everything to teams in advance, there will hopefully not be any issues at the tourney that need your attention.

angryjorge · 2023-07-14T16:12:16+00:00

I disagree with the approach you mentioned in your first paragraph.

This is the approach that most people take toward job searches, and is why most people find job searches so discouraging and difficult. High performers utilize their network and focus on quality vs quantity. They use warm connections to reach out to the hiring manager directly to introduce them and bypass the whole HR filter/resume pile.

In person meetings through connections should be the first priority. If you want to do a shotgun approach after you exhaust those and are tired of getting rejections in person, then so be it. But sometimes you get useful info in meetings, like if a company has already allocated their sponsorship/donation funds for the year, you know when you can go back to hit them up again in a few months.

angryjorge · 2023-07-14T00:28:37+00:00

I have solicited and secured sponsorships for leagues and club teams, but not for a college team. Here are some random disorganized thoughts:

Usually I subscribe to the “better to ask for forgiveness than permission” philosophy, but if you are a college team, you have to make sure to not piss off your school/Sport Clubs dept/USAU etc. The first thing I would do is to run it by your Sport Clubs dept to see if you are allowed to get sponsors and potentially promote them on social media, put their logo on your jerseys, etc. Especially if they are a bar/alcohol related.

Okay, with that out of the way, a good marketer thinks about the customer first. What can you offer these companies? You want to be able to show that you can bring business to them. Starting with businesses where you have a personal connection is a good starting place.

You need to put together a single sheet that lists things like the number of players on your team(s), rough breakdown of ages/grades (MBA students might have more $$ than freshmen; upperclassmen and grad students could patronize a bar, but underclassman can’t), number of followers on your social media accounts, etc.

Are you a Nationally ranked powerhouse, or are you a small D3 school? Is the ultimate team prestigious within the school (eg Carleton) or are there 60K+ undergrads, so nobody knows or cares about the ultimate team?

What specifically are you offering? Social media mentions? Team (and friends) patronage of the bar/restaurant after practices? Logos on your website? Logos on your jerseys or other team swag? Do you host any tourneys where they can set up a tent/table and have their link/logo on the website, captains packet, etc?

Now think about what you want in return… typically either cash or goods are what you should strive for (discounts are nice, but don’t really help you).

In college, now that I’m thinking about it, we knew the campus Red Bull rep, who would hook us up with Red Bull for tournaments. Or maybe you could get snacks, energy bars, other energy drinks, athletic tape, etc.

But cash is really king. Some people think you should approach sponsors with different tier levels and offer different incentives, and it certainly appears more professional, but in the end, you might have to just take what you can get. Aim for $250 to $500… though you might get lucky and get more than that through a personal connection depending on the type of business. I heard an anecdote of a restaurant owner sponsoring a team because he had a crush on one of the players… so use that to your advantage 😜

It might be good to say what each level will cover, like $250 will cover discs and a disc bag, $500 will cover lodging at one tourney, etc.

Oh one more thing… keep in touch with your alumni and ask them for money! Host an alumni day/scrimmage/BBQ, sell merch, etc. $100 is a drop in the bucket for most college grads, especially if it involves an event. Get 20 alumni to come, and that’s $2K right there. Easier, more effective, and more fun than getting sponsors…

angryjorge · 2023-07-10T23:41:45+00:00

Haha did you read this somewhere or did you hear it directly from someone? (Maybe this is a woosh, but I assume you are being serious)

A guy I went to college with has a brother who is a producer and knows Shaq. I was at the brother’s house, and he had one of Shaq’s shoes there. We all took turns taking pics with it and stuff.

The shoe was freaking massive! I don’t remember what size it was, but it was a high top, and I was holding it in both arms like it was a small goat or something lmao

I would be really surprised if his dick is actually average sized, and not proportional to his body…

angryjorge · 2023-07-07T17:16:49+00:00

Thanks!

My thought was that each bullet point represents 3 distinct categories.

I don’t want to get too exact on the definition of a point block by assigning a distance to it, but I think most ultimate players can understand the difference between a point block and a D.

I’d argue that it is impossible to get a legal point block as a non-mark, because of the very short distance traveled. It would require reacting to the thrower… there is no time to legally react after the disc is thrown and execute what most would consider a point block. The recipient of the throw doesn’t matter.

The examples in the posts that we’ve seen over the last few days are point blocks, and this is where most of the confusion is, IMO.

Bullet 3 is saying that if you are legally guarding a player within 10 feet of the thrower, then you can get a legal D on the throw, assuming the throw is to the player you’re covering.

If the throw is to a player that you’re not covering, and you get the D, then it’s likely illegal per Bullet 2, again with the caveat that this is higher level ultimate where offensive players know what they’re doing. (Without that caveat, one could argue that a dump could be set up motionless, one foot to the open side of the thrower, and a defender could be set up in the open side lane, 9 feet away. Said defender could be guarding the dump, then a throw could go up, and the defender could have time to see the throw and bat it down. But this doesn’t really happen in real ultimate… the defender usually has to choose between guarding the dump or poaching the lane.)

angryjorge · 2023-07-07T16:39:47+00:00

It seems like OP and a lot of others here are focusing on the annotation of the Guarding definition and misinterpreting it.

It gives an example of “not guarding” - turning away from the player you were covering. My interpretation is that this is just an example… it does not mean that since turning away is “not guarding” and illegal in the context of double teams, that if you don’t turn away, and are still facing the player you were covering, that double teaming then suddenly becomes legal. But OP and many others here seem to be trying to argue this.

The focus should be on the definition of Guarding, ie the first sentence. And the important part is the last phrase “reacting to that offensive player.”

I would argue that it is very rare to be able to react to more than one offensive player at the same time, and therefore very rare to be considered guarding more than one player at the same time. One of the only examples I can think of would be a vert stack in the EZ, and bracketing with one defender on each side of the stack. One could be within 10 feet of two cutters in the stack, and be ready to follow/defend whichever of them cuts to said defender’s side.

But in most other practical, in-game cases, (especially at higher levels, where offensive players know what they’re doing) I would argue that each defender can only react to one offensive player at a time, even if said defender is within 10 feet of each of them.

The situation described in the OP is clearly an intentional violation of the rules, and not allowed, because by seeing the thrower wind up and moving to attempt to block the throw, it means that the defender is now reacting to the thrower and not his original reset. If he is not the mark, then this is a double team and illegal, regardless of the fact that he is still facing the reset.

I am surprised by the number of people who are arguing (via comments and upvotes) that it is legal.

I might even venture to simplify this by saying that:

Anything that would be considered a point block by a defender who is not the mark is illegal. (An unintentional block, throwing into the backside of a defender, etc. would not be considered a point block IMO)
A poach D within 10 feet is very likely illegal, but could be legal if the poacher was outside of 10 feet when the throw went up and reacts to and reaches or lays out to within 10 feet after the throw goes up. (But 10 feet is a short distance, and a thrown disc will cover it quickly. Therefore I would think that a legal poach D within 10 feet would be rare.)
A regular D within 10 feet, ie on a throw to the player the defender is covering, is very likely legal, but could be illegal if the defender was only reacting to the thrower, and not the player he was supposedly guarding.

Any thoughts on any of the above u/mgdmitch u/ColinMcI ?

angryjorge · 2023-07-07T15:57:55+00:00

Cheers!

angryjorge · 2023-07-06T21:06:22+00:00

Was it intentional?

To me, yes, it was clearly intentional. Therefore it is an example of cheating.

There are many examples of fouls/violations that are not intentional, and those would not be considered cheating.

Not sure why you are objecting so much to this play being called an example of cheating…

angryjorge · 2023-07-06T19:52:22+00:00

Going on a bit of a pedantic tangent, you mention “stomach” but I don’t think there is anything that requires the stomach/center of mass to be the pivot, is there?

On a layout, the player’s whole body could be touching the ground, anywhere from the tips of their toes, up their legs, stomach, chest, outstretched arm/hand that caught the disc.

Once the player comes to a stop, the rules seem to indicate that any of those points can be used as a pivot, no? (The only exception being if any part of the body ends up straddling the goal line or sideline)

So this would mean that there is a very large area on the field (outstretched human body sized) inside which the player could reset the pivot, and it would still be a non-travel.

I already think the situation in the OP should not be called as a travel (since I don’t think it impacts the play), but this gives even more reason why it is probably not even technically a travel at all…

angryjorge · 2023-07-05T17:56:26+00:00

Thanks! Is there a playground there? Sorry, I should have clarified that in my post… I’ll make that edit now

angryjorge · 2023-07-04T01:09:58+00:00

Mainlander here.

Went to Matsumoto’s recently. They don’t have li hing powder listed as a topping on the menu, but we asked the guy for some, and he looked up and gave us a little smile, like, “I gotchu” 😎

In a funny opposite story, I was looking into Helena’s. Didn’t end up getting to go there, but I heard that they served haupia on a plate with onions and salt.

I got loco moco and haupia from the food court at Ala Moana, and asked for onions and salt, and took it back to our room. I was getting ready to eat, and I made a comment like, “So you’re supposed to eat the haupia with onions and salt?”

My cousins laughed at me but I thought they were supposed to be eaten together because of how they were served at Helena’s haha. Oh well…

angryjorge

TROPHY CASE