SCSOCCER.COM is proud to have a first-person editorial of the 59th NSCAA Annual Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania provided by Andy Robinson of the Eastside HS girls soccer program. We certainly thank Coach Robinson for providing this information to the S.C. High School Soccer Coaches Association's website!

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This year's convention was tremendous, with a great showing for all levels of coaching. Some of the educational offerings that I attended were:

"Finishing in the Penalty Area" presented by Mike Barr who is The Director of Coaching, EPYSA. His focus was on quickness of play, limited touches, and accuracy. He went through a 90-minute practice demo with players from the Philly area. His premise was that you needed to make every aspect of this focus as game like as possible ... don't let the players be stagnic by standing in long lines and chasing after other players shots. It was interesting how the practice flowed and everyone was active ... but also the players were in more game like situations dealing with his three areas of focus (quickness of play, limited touches, and accuracy). His final phase of his demo was to let the players end with the most creative celebration. It was entertaining to watch as the players not only wanted to score first but also were excited about showing their celebration routine.

Another Session was "World Class Skill/Development from the Mind to the Match" led by Rob Kehow from Winning Ways Team Training. The session's goal was to provide instruction on the mental, physical and environmental essentials for expanding and improving the range and effectiveness of skills displayed by players with a view of ...

* Increasing individual play making ability, performance dynamic, and enjoyment in the game;
* Improving team play through skillful individual performance; and
* Adding to the attractiveness of the game.

He also went on to talk about the three development environments which were ...

* Introduction -- Imitation >> Imagination >> and Instruction;
* Repetition -- Backyard >> doing things on your own
* Competition Display -- Team Games >> Pick up Games >> Etc.

Rob, finished by saying that the game is most enjoyable and entertaining ... when it is played well and with skill and this is what coaches should strive to do in their practices!!

Julie Foudy had a great prevention and answer question time on the Women's' National Team over the last two decades. Briefly ... she attributed their success because of Team building and Leadership themes. In closing she talked about her new Sports Leadership Academy to launch in the summer of 2006. She discussed the where, why and the philosophy behind the academy and why a Leadership based sports camp is so important for young girls!! Very informative presentation.

Thursday morning I went to the NSCAA/Adidas High School Coaches Breakfast. I was fortunate enough to have Jeff Tipping sitting at my table ... which was so informative to hear about all that he is involved with. He did talk about a new certification that the NSCAA is launching. It is a diploma for high school coaches that deals with all the areas of coaching on and off the field. He was very excited about and encouraged everyone at the table to look in to it and encourage all high school coaches to investigate this opportunity. The different speakers at the breakfast were Schellas Hyndman (Southern Methodist University), the NSCAA President and Joe Cummings to mention a few. The main speaker for the breakfast was Kate Markgraf who was a member of the U.S. Women's National Team, 1999 World Champion and 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist ... Founding Member of the Boston Breakers, WUSA.

The Gatorade Sports Science Institute did an impersonation of how we, as coaches, can educate our players on the benefits of prehydrating and the correct meals to eat before and after the games. They also went on to talk about how the science of performance is changing and how a correct diet is playing a part in this. The last part of this presentation was the different myths about Soccer nutrition ... If any type of food is critical in soccer nutrition it is protein, not carbs, and so on. I have an information sheet for anyone that is interested.

One presentation that got a little heated was "Hot Topics in High School Soccer". This presentation was led by Tom Flannery, National Federation of High schools, Mark Beyer, Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Marti Coan, National Junior College Athletics Association, and Mark Tinkham, Rules Committee of the National Federation of High Schools. They were only able to cover four topics in 90 minutes because of the heated dialog that transpired between the coaches and the group leading the discussion. Here is briefly what was said ... obviously the shin guard issue came up and was discussed ... then they talked about three rules that were being brought in front of the committee to be discussed and voted on this weekend. The first one was that if a player receives a yellow card, that player has to sit out for 10 minutes for a cooling down period (10 minute sit out rule) and three yellow cards = a red card, I am sure you can imagine all the emotions this invoked and questions it raised such as ... who monitors the 10 minutes to tell the player when they can return and so on. The next one was to reverse the rule that players cannot wear a face mask when the player has an injury such as a broken nose. The new rule would enable them to play with a face mask and releases the players from a physician. Finally, the last topic was when does the official no longer has authority to issue a red card. Here were the three options:

* Final whistle blows ref can't issue a card;
* Officials have jurisdiction all the way to the parking lot to issue a card;
* Officials have jurisdiction on school property example Competition area ... i.e. soccer field.

After much discussion the presentation came to an end and they did not get to the other topics they wanted to discuss. They concluded that the vote on these rules would not go into effect until the fall of 2006.

The NSCAA Schedule was packed full from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m., with great educational offering like this from Thursday until Sunday. This was only a few that I attended and for the sake of time I will end here ... if anyone is interested in more they can feel free to e-mail me with any questions.

Finally the big "BUZZ" was the MLS Super draft and the unveiling of adidas new uniform line for the MLS. The new designs for the teams were pretty impressive.

I hope most of this makes sense, it was a great convention and the resources are unlimited. I would encourage any coach to take advantage of this opportunity when they can.

Thanks for letting me pass on my experience at this year's convention.