SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer How much more physical is R3PL than HS soccer?

Please give your feedback. Or is it?

R3pl is more physical..The difference in the two is respect for the players..If you play R3 then there is alot of contact but out of respect for the game the players try to play straight up..If that makes sense..For some HS players being physical is their only strong point so I feel there is more players getting injuried or hurt because the playing field is not as balanced with talent..Less respect for the player in front of you.

Understand the players respect each other more in R3PL - both my daughters have been subjected to lesser players fouling them intentionally at the high school level. It might make more sense to ask how much more "dangerous" is HS soccer than R3PL??

It would be easy to paint either argument with broad strokes - it's the isolated incidents that stay with my memory.

I'll always remember my oldest daughter being pushed to the ground from behind when she was a sophomore; clearly a cheap shot by a lesser player from a school not necessarily known for its soccer program. Referee calls a foul - no card, no "talking to", nothing. Because of that incident, she fully realized how dangerous playing high school ball can be.

No question, that incident - and others - at the high school level caused my kids to be stronger players - and put many gray hairs in their parents' heads!

Very limited experience with R3PL, but I agree with the assessment on the high school end; when players are pressed into competition with teams of a different level, many of them try to counter a gap in finesse and experience with the only weapon at their disposal: sheer physical force. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing if applied properly ("pressure wins ball" has been a fairly successful rule of thumb), many young people can't always make the distinction between attacking the ball and attacking the player.

I've even encountered one or two teams along the way that have used that as their primary strategy: batter them into submission; you don't have to worry about their skill level if they're too gun-shy to challenge for the ball.

R3PL is definitely more legally physical in terms of people honestly competing for a ball, but I know I got smacked around a lot when I played high school ball. Part of that was because I was a 7th grader playing varsity and just smaller than people, but I played for Ashley Hall and sometimes there'd be teams with seniors who had less experience who would just smash into me. My dad still tells the story where he swears I went flying about ten feet and flipped through the air before hitting the ground after a girl twice my size hit me after I passed the ball.

The meanies made me come out of the game =(.

I think my key was that I always knew how to hit the ground to avoid getting hurt and then was able to use the momentum to pop back up. So instead of smacking into the ground, you kind of just tumble down and up again. Less painful and looks darn cool.

This is why the SCHSL won't let 7th and 8th graders play varsity...

Pssh, I kicked butt, thank you =P. We went to the playoffs for the first time ever too.

You just gotta know how to fall and roll with it =P. Only time I was ill at a game was when I had the stomach flu and curled up under the bench at half-time and just shook like a leaf, lol. Dad refused to let me play the second half and carried me to the car and then the ER.

Wise of your dad, I'd say...you probably weren't getting much done curled under the bench anyway. Reminds me of my keeper a couple of years ago...wouldn't come out of a tournament, even though she was running behind the goal to projectile hurl between saves...

It was half-time; I was allowed to not be doing much =P. And I was playing fairly well anyway, lol. And it was a playoff game against Hammond. There was no way I wasn't gonna stick it in at left mid in a play-off game.

Course we lost the next play-off game =(. Sadness.

That's dedication...stomach flu? Got no time for stomach flu. Just let me shudder in peace through halftime and we're off to the races again.