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Coaches and parents, how many of your players/children watch fox soccer channel or GOL TV on a regular basis? What percentage of a HS team or club team enjoys watching an entire match on TV? Thanks

Good question!

Our boys varsity and JV players at Brookland-Cayce numbers 35 players and roughly 20-25 are pretty avid watchers of FSC, etc. Much higher numbers than just five years ago, much less 10 years ago!

However, on the girls side, we have very few - if any - real "watchers" of the game on TV despite them being good players in their own right.

The "soccer viewer" population is growing and this current generation of players may well be the future "soccer on tv watchers" that we've been waiting on for the past three decades. Time will tell, but we're certainly headed in the right direction.

Now, for me to get ready for Euro '08! Great month of soccer ahead! Can't wait!

Good question I ask this often with my players. From what I can gather it would be 1 out of 7 for a full match. Usually it is if the Dad is watching the match. To bridge the gap I made highlight DVDs of the WNT team and my girls enjoyed watching those.
My kids watch FSC, they all play or have played, it has to be a game with some importance to get the interest. They enjoy Sky Sports and Gambare!.
They also forced on me a "two nights a week soccer blackout". This may have been after getting caught watching Dream Team. Hey some of the training ground parts are pretty cool.

sweet feet you need to clean out your in box.it will not let you recieve anymore PMs

If I was coaching a HS or Premier level club team I would require my teams to attend college matches and watch at least one match per week on TV and test them weekly on various aspects of the matches they watched or attended..

SF, that is a good idea! How would you administer the test and what rewards/consequences would you hand out? In with the baby, out with the "sport's package" from our cable company .

Jr:
The test would consist of an essay with the player discribing what style and system of play the team used, what adjustments the coach and players made during the match and what players played well and what players were struggling. Rewards/consequences would revolve around playing time.

So you would mandate your kids watch a match, give them an essay to complete, and then subjectively grade their answers which would be directly linked to their playing time. So, theoretically your most talented and skilled players could spend a lot of time on the bench if they struggled with the assignment, yes?

That's correct, if they struggled with the assignment, they would struggle on the field with systems, shape, etc,. I would be looking for players that would love to grow their soccer knowledge and love of the game, and watching soccer on tv is one way to grow your soccer knowledge.

I'm not sure that's entirely true, Sweet. There are kids with all different abilities and learning styles; a student who has trouble analyzing something by watching and then writing about it might be great at learning by actually DOING on the field. At the same time, a player who might be a great analyst and a brilliant writer could be two left feet when it comes to actually putting things into practice on the field. When it comes to determining playing time, I'd be much more concerned with watching what the players can do themselves than with what they can talk about observing from others; something my players have heard me say about a thousand times is, "Don't just tell me--show me."

I agree that watching good teams play and being able to understand what they do can help to develop a player's game, but I'm a little uncomfortable with using what a player can TALK about to determine playing time.