Welcome to the GP Soccer Podcast! (S14 E16)

                          Welcome to the GP Soccer Podcast!  (S14 E16)

Proud member of the Sports History Network and endorsed by the National                                                  Soccer Coaches Association of Canada.     

Welcome to this special edition of the GP Soccer Podcast! This is the "Best of Season 14" where host Giovanni Pacini has selected the theme of street soccer to highlight this week's show. He formally announces the release of his new book- "The Importance of Unstructured Free Play: Coaching with a Street Soccer Mentality" is now available on Amazon! 

Starting next week, the GP Soccer Podcast will feature World Cup reports every week until the end of the tournament. 

The GP Soccer Podcast features new shows every Wednesday and can be found anywhere you listen to your podcasts. Listeners are encouraged to "Like" and "Subscribe" the GP Soccer Podcast and share the show amongst those within their social media network! Those interested in advertising on the show can contact host Giovanni Pacini at gp4soccer@yahoo.com. And be sure to check out the show website at www.gpsoccerpodcast.com. 

                    GP Soccer Podcast enjoys continued support from-
United Goalkeeping Alliance - Music Meets Sports - National Soccer Coaches Association of Canada - The Sports History Network - Feedspot.com - GP Voice Over Services - Zone 14 Coaching

Host Giovanni Pacini's new book- "The Importance of Unstructured Free Play: Coaching with a Street Soccer Mentality is now available on Amazon!

GP Soccer Podcast welcomes a new sponsor- Zone 14 Coaching! Check it out at Zone14coaching.com. Use promo code GP20 for 20% off!

To purchase a signed copy of Dr. Joe Machnik's book- "From the Sandlots to the World Cup: 7 Decades of American Soccer", e-mail "Dr. Joe" at joemachnik@no1soccercamps.com. Be sure to mention the GP Soccer Podcast!

Enjoy the show!

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 1:20

Well, hey there everyone, Giovanni Piccini here, your host of the JP Soccer Podcast. Welcome to all of you, my wonderful global audience, to the this week's episode. Now, typically, typically, this episode would be the final episode of season 14. And I would do the best of season 14, which I'm still going to do. But since we're in the midst of the World Cup, the World Cup has literally kicked off, we're going to do a special, special uh GP Soccer Podcast episodes each and every week, starting next week and going um right until the end of the tournament, which concludes on July the 19th. And I've decided to take a little bit of a different twist, if you will, with those World Cup shows, again starting next week. They're going to be World Cup stories and reports that sometimes just don't make the headlines. There's a lot of stuff going on out there besides what occurs between the white lines and when the whistle blows, and uh two countries, two teams are engaging in soccer battles, so to speak. So I'm going to kind of take a little different twist, as I noted, and uh share with you some different stories each and every week uh on the GP Soccer Podcast. But uh circling back to today, it will be the best of the season 14 of the GP Soccer Podcast, and there's gonna be a little bit of a theme to this week's show, and it's gonna be about street soccer. And uh what I have to choose a best of, I usually take a couple of um interviews and I place them back to back, and um sometimes it's a theme, sometimes it's not. But this week there is going to be a theme, and that will be street soccer. We're gonna have the terrific Jason Herbert and Jim Hart uh on back-to-back uh conversations with yours truly on the GP Soccer podcast. And there will be, again, a street soccer theme. And um, there's a kind of method to my madness, if you will, because of the street soccer theme. I can formally announce to you, by wonderful listening audience, that my book, The Importance of Unstructured Free Play, Coaching with a Street Soccer Mentality, is officially out and available uh out there in the world of Amazon. And uh I've kind of teased this over the last uh several episodes, but uh it has finally uh made its way uh uh to Amazon, and I and I certainly encourage all of you, my wonderful listening audience, to pick up a book. Um this is something that has um been on my mind, not just recently, but this goes back to literally about 26 years. Uh, the prologue of the book, and if you pick up the book, you'll see it, you'll read it, was an article I wrote for Soccer New England in the year 2000, where I talked about um extolling the virtues of street soccer regarding player development. And uh it was a great way for me to start this current book uh that is now uh obviously had been has been uh finished and out there, that um I think it's it's worth sharing amongst the masses. So a couple of years ago I said, you know what, I'm gonna put my money where my mouth is, and I'm gonna write a book. I'm gonna I'm really gonna take a deep dive. And uh, after a lot of research, a lot of conversations, a lot, a lot of studying, uh, a lot of trial and error, a lot of uh great people going through the book for me to make sure that I dotted my I's and crossed my T's and make sure what I was talking about wasn't crazy. Uh lo and behold, uh the importance of unstructured free play, coaching with a street soccer mentality uh is now available. So I can kind of make that a formal announcement. A formal announcement uh for all of you folks out there uh in the GP soccer uh landscape. So kind of a short opening. I want to get it right into our uh our back-to-back conversations with Jason Herbert and Jim Hart. Again, there'll be a street soccer theme, uh, and then we'll kind of wrap things up on the other side. So this is the best of season 14. We have not abandoned the World Cup. That will be starting more formally, as I noted, next uh next Wednesday, and each and every week going into the conclusion of the World Cup. So there you have it. Short opening. Um and we're gonna break for a couple of commercial messages. You know how that all works. And on the other side, we'll reengage. This is Giovanni Piccini, the GP Soccer Podcast. Now an author, now an author will re-engage on the other side. Don't you dare go anywhere. Youth soccer has changed. Expectations are higher, but systems haven't kept up. Coaches juggle endless tasks, players chase progress they can't measure, and clubs struggle to create consistency across teams. Zone 14 Coaching was built for this moment. 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And if you want to outfit your entire organization or even just one team, contact Zone 14 Coaching at Zone14Coaching.com for bulk pricing. Zone 14 Coaching, where high-level soccer knowledge and structured planning is accessible and simple. It is time to bring back the game that teaches players how to think. Modern youth soccer is more organized than ever, yet many young players are missing one of the most powerful development tools in the game, unstructured free play. The importance of unstructured free play, coaching with a street soccer mentality, challenges coaches, parents, and player development leaders to rethink how young athletes learn. Drawing from decades of coaching experience, child development principles, and the timeless lessons of street soccer, author Giovanni Piccini shows why creativity, decision-making, resilience, joy, and soccer IQ grow when players are given space to explore the game. The importance of unstructured free play, coaching with a street soccer mentality, is a book for grassroots coaches, youth soccer directors, parents, educators, and anyone who believes that player development should produce more than organized drill followers. It offers a practical approach for balancing structure with freedom using guided learning, constraints, small-sided games, reflection, and activity designs that let the game be the ultimate teacher. Order your copy of The Importance of Unstructured Free Play, coaching with a street soccer mentality on Amazon today.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Hey, this is John Barata from Oliver Am High School and Eastern Youth Soccer. Just wanted to say hello to the soccer world out there. I hope you are taking the chance to listen to the GP Soccer podcast being brought to you by Giovanni Pacini, a soccer all-star. Thank you so much and have a great day.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

Just a short while ago, I was attending the United Soccer Coaches uh convention in the wonderful city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And um I happened to stumble across this article that I had brought with me, that being the soccer journal put out by the United Soccer Coaches. And in this uh this particular edition um was an article entitled Why the Streets Matter: Building a True Soccer Culture in the United States. And I read the article and it resonated with me so significantly because as if you're a regular listener to my show, you know I'm very big on street soccer, I'm very big on unrestricted free play. I'm in the midst of writing my own book regarding all of this stuff, and I said, I've got to meet this guy. I've got to find him and see if he's here in Philadelphia, here with the convention. And lo and behold, I came across Jason Herbert, uh, who is the co-founder of the soccer neighborhood, and he's the head girls soccer coach at Tays Valley High School. And he and I had a chance to meet, and I say, hey, look, uh, we've got to do, we've got to carry on this conversation uh formally on the GP Soccer Podcast. So lo and behold, here we are, Jason Herbert. Welcome to the GP Soccer Podcast, conversation with the coach.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Well, thank you very much for having me, and thank you for all that you do for soccer. And uh it's a pleasure to be here and talk with you uh about all the things we're passionate about.

SPEAKER_04 10:55

Indeed. Uh and if it's anything like our conversation in Philly, Jason, this is going to be a pretty good conversation. Pretty good. So listen, here's here's where I'd like to begin. Before we kind of get into the meat and potatoes, that being you know, street soccer and the wonderful article that you wrote. Talk to me, talk to my audience a little bit about your coaching journey. So, what what originally inspired you to pursue coaching and and how did that path lead you to Taze Valley High School where you where you're situated now?

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Well, uh, I grew up, you know, like a lot of kids back in the 80s and 90s, uh playing three sports, playing, you know, wiffle ball, everything you could play outside. Uh my family was a a sports family, you know. We we always got together and watched, you know, college football, basketball, um, you know, bowl games, MBA football, uh or MBA, uh NFL football, all those things. So I was, you know, part of a a sports family, I guess, growing up. And then um I was fortunate enough to go on and play at the college level. And when I came back home uh as a teacher, um, I was actually in college still training one day uh at a local park, and my former high school coach, George Sauer, was coaching a I think it was a U-14, you know, girls club team at the time, and he came over and was bugging me to to come and help. And, you know, I was like 19 or 20 at the time, and and coaching was the last thing on my list at the point, you know, at that point I'm playing. And uh and also, you know, I was had no intentions of you know coaching girls at that point. I was I was a college player and I hadn't even thought that far ahead yet. So he bugged me and I went over and I helped with a couple of things. And then uh when I came home in the summer, it just kind of went from there. So when I was home in the summers, uh I would help with the high school team and you know, help with camps or some of their workouts, and then uh fast forward to graduating from college, I go back to uh where I grew up originally, which was Circleville, Ohio, and uh taught at the high school and I just started helping him. So I was an assistant for two years and then um kind of got into helping with the club teams, U12, U13, kind of that that age range. And uh I I just loved it from there. You know, I I think when I was younger, if people would have asked me if I wanted to be a coach, I probably would have said yes. Uh, but I I didn't dream I would be doing it that quickly, you know, or that young. And uh I still remember, you know, I'm sure like yourself as many other coaches, the first time that that I helped a kid, you know, work on something, and then they did it in the middle of a game, you know, completely on their own. Uh it was just something that, you know, changed in in me and uh kind of motivated me. And I've been doing it ever since. And then now I'm here at Taze Valley High School uh a coach club as well, and I've been here for about eight or nine years now.

SPEAKER_04 13:35

It's always interesting when I ask this question, Jason, how people kind of got on the path of becoming a coach. Sometimes, sometimes people just know I I want to coach. I I've interviewed a number of people, that that is what they want to do from the outset. And then there are others who just kind of fall into this path, and it sounds like this sounds like you. This they fall into this path where they start to, well, I'm gonna help this local team or I'm gonna help that club, and oh, they need a coach at that high school. I I guess I'll do that. Before you know it, you're you're well on your journey of you know, uh, you know, being uh being a soccer coach. And uh I was pretty much the same way. Uh I didn't have that aha moment, I'm gonna be a soccer coach. No surprise, my original career intent was to be in radio and TV broadcasting. Right up until my senior year in high school, and then everything changed. I discovered I could coach soccer and teach physical education, and uh and I went, well that that looks pretty cool, and everything changed thereafter. And uh but yet here I am behind the microphone, um, you know, realizing the the early career dream, if you will. So um so you coached the girls team there, is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Uh yeah, yeah. And uh, you know, like you said there, I'm you know I think like I said, if when I was younger, people always kind of pushed me that direction to be a teacher and a coach, and you know, when you get to that high school, college rebellious age, you know, you don't want to do what people are urging you to do. And so I think I just resisted that because everyone said, you know, you'd you'd be good at that, you should do that. And then once I got out of college and and like I said, kind of got involved, um, and I had a lot of good coaches along the way growing up, like I'm sure a lot of people you know can relate to, but uh I think I I would have known I wanted to be a coach when I grew up, but like I said, I just didn't didn't think I'd be doing it that quickly while I was still in college. So but it's been great.

SPEAKER_04 15:20

You know, I I started my career as a high school coach and uh got into collegiate athletics for the the the actual bulk of my career. Um but I look back fondly, Jason, to my days as a high school coach and uh still enjoy going to high school high school you know soccer games. I'm not a head coach collegiately anymore. I'm a I'm a goalkeeper coach, so I get to go to col high school games uh without having to think I gotta recruit, recruit, recruit. I get to go there and just enjoy the atmosphere that is high school athletics. Um what is what is the atmosphere where you coach in terms of uh high school soccer? Is it you know you still have to compete with I guess football, if you will, or has it found its place where on a Friday night or a Saturday afternoon the you know the local high school boys or soccer team teams are playing and folks come out, families come out, fans come out to watch the kids play?

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Well, I think soccer in most places around the country have come a long way in the last 20 or 30 years, but you know, in my community, for example, we're about 20 or 30 minutes south of Columbus, Ohio. So um we're outside of the city. Uh we have a good community though here that that does support the boys and girls soccer team, and it's come a long way uh in the last 20 years uh because even though I wasn't here coaching, I was you know nearby, I wasn't that far away, so I'm very familiar with the community. And uh we have a good following and good support, but it's um I think that high school soccer, when I was growing up, for example, it was still kind of an outlier, you know, it was kind of you got all these schools everywhere around that were, oh, they're starting a team. Or I heard a couple of years from now they're going to start a team, and now it's it's it's established, you know. I think it's an established high school sport. And um it's funny you mentioned that. I took one year off coaching uh when my kids were younger before I came here, uh, just to kind of reassess life, you might say, and uh what I wanted to do. And that year off, I actually went to high school games like you just said, and it was a totally different perspective. It was the first time in my life I got to go and just sit and watch games and and enjoy it. You know, I didn't care who won. And uh I just went to some local games anytime I saw a big game, and uh it was fun, it gave me a different perspective, and it was much more uh relaxing. Um but I think I think high school soccer is I mean, you know, it's not the magnitude of a of a Friday night football game by any means. Um, but I think it's definitely worked its way into being a mainstream, you know, household sport now uh around the country. You know, definitely in Ohio. Ohio is a very big soccer state.

SPEAKER_04 17:51

So and how is coaching high school, because high school is kind of a special entity in and of itself. How is coaching high school athletes shaped your own understanding of say youth development overall in the sport of soccer?

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Well, I talk about that a lot with my a lot of my buddies in the soccer world that people, I think parents a lot of times think that you know, you coach club, you coach soccer, you coach high school, you coach soccer. They're they're two very different animals. Uh, and I know that this varies from state to state, but for example, in Ohio, um high school soccer is in the fall, and then club at the high school level takes off pretty much in November and goes for the rest of the year, and then you know, whenever you can get back outside in the spring. But high school, the high school season in Ohio starts August 1st officially, and it's just so fast and intense, you know, five, six days a week, two, sometimes three games a week, and uh it's the regular season is only eight weeks long. So, you know, to cram 16 or 17 games into eight weeks, then you have the state tournament right after that. Prior to that, you know, you have three or four scrimmages, it's it's very fast and intense. And then on top of that, you know, you're you're monitoring the kids in your program at school and you know, their eligibility and and all of these other things. Whereas in club, you know, you you typically train a couple nights a week. You know, you might go to a tournament over the weekend somewhere, it's just a very different pace.

SPEAKER_04 19:18

Now you said eight weeks. My he my head ex exploded when I said that. Um that's an issue, not not to get off topic here, but that is certainly an issue. I know here in Massachusetts I could speak you know uh quite distinctly. Um they try to cram too many games that's a sh such a short period of time. But traditionally, typically here in Massachusetts and throughout New England, I would say, um preseason starts the end the last week in August. The the state tournament will kick off in the first uh excuse me, the last week in October and will end the weekend before Thanksgiving because winter sports start to kick in. So you've got a larger window of opportunities. But but as you noted, they're still playing two and three times a week. And when they get to the tournament, it's it's sometimes three three games in a uh a week uh you know to continue to go. Um so yeah, it's um it's I think it's one of the it's one of the issues facing soccer in this country, the the inability of having an appropriate uh time span to play you know games. And the same thing could be said in college, too, but have enough time to to play you know a game or two a week and not have to you know cram uh cram three games into a week. It's it's um you know it's it's it's crazy. So um so let's uh let's kind of move forward here. The the soccer neighborhood. Talk to my audience about what what is the soccer neighborhood?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Oh well, uh the soccer neighborhood, uh, since you asked, is a uh online movement, I guess you would call it, or a collective, where it's a it's a website, actually. So anybody that listens to this, uh shameless plug, but you can go out and visit our website, thesoccerneighborhood.com. Uh we're also on Instagram. But uh a good friend of mine, Michael Dublis, uh, who is the founder and creator of the Soccer Rebellion in Grand Rapids, Michigan, uh, was originally on my podcast, which uh straight from the training ground, and I just saw him and what he was doing on social media. And after we did our podcast, he and I continued to talk for, man, probably 20, 30 minutes. We shared a lot of the same passions and kind of views on soccer in our country, and we just developed a good friendship from there on. And uh we've worked together, collaborated on a few things, and then at some point, about uh, I don't know, a year, year and a half ago, we we had the idea about you know, we said kind of why don't we what more can we do? Uh, because he's very passionate as am I um about the lack of pickup soccer, free play, like you said, like you're passionate about in our country. And uh he does a great job uh putting on that kind of a culture, creating that culture not only in Grand Rapids, but he's gone around the country. Um he's had a deal where he's he's done some things with MLS and the women's national team uh at various locations. And we said, what more can we do to kind of unify these groups around the country? And so we came up with this website and we call it the Soccer Neighborhood. And basically the idea is just to have a one, a one-stop shop for parents, kids, anyone in the country to be able to look at our website or look us up on Instagram and find places in their community that are offering uh free play, pickup soccer, street soccer for kids and people in their community for either for free or at most a very, very minimal uh financial cost. So those are really the only pre prerequisites. And I think we're up to 41 or 42 organizations now around the country. Uh you know, we have groups in places like Virginia, we have places in, you know, people in Denver, Colorado, LA, and then we also have people in northern Kentucky. So kind of all around the country. Uh we we just ask for their their logo, uh permission to use their logo. We post it on our website as an official partner of the soccer neighborhood, and we put a link to their either website or their social media that directs parents to you know what they provide. And uh we we just kind of hope to keep building that. Uh like I said, just to try to be informational, to try to help this movement uh continue to grow around the United States with pickup soccer and street soccer.

SPEAKER_04 23:22

You hit the magic word, and I uh wrote it down, circled it, starred, put stars, I'm not lying, stars around it free. How is it free for the kids to play?

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Well, as you and I talked about when we met in Philadelphia, and you know, that anytime this conversation comes up, I don't know about yourself, but um when the World Cup comes around, a lot of my casual buddies, casual sports fan buddies, not my casual buddies, but you know, the casual sports fan will ask about our our men's national team, and they'll say, you know, why why aren't we dominating, you know, like we do in other sports? And and it, long story short, you know, it comes back to the fact that in our country we're kind of backwards in our development. And uh and and again, I coach club, and every time this comes up, I'm not here to condemn club soccer by any means. I think it provides some good things. Uh I coach club, my kids both play club, but the pay-to-play model and the current system of what we do now in our country um goes against what happens in the rest of the world where you know soccer or football, whatever you want to call it, is a working-class game. You know, that's kind of where it derived from is the kids we've all seen pictures by now, you know, Brazil and Argentina, Spain, uh, wherever it might be, running around, you know, sometimes without even shoes on, just kicking the ball around. And they develop that love for the game, and that's where that passion comes from. And also is where that true internal passion and skill comes from for these world-class players. But in our country, you know, we've kind of gotten, I believe, lost a little bit along the way in not providing other things. So while I do think club provides some good things for kids, uh, I think that it automatically, you know, the statistics say eliminates about two-thirds of the kids in our country right off the bat because either financially or or travel that's involved, I think we need to also provide these free options, uh, pickup soccer options for kids, because that's that's kind of the, to me, again, the culture that's that's still lacking in our country. It's come a long way in the last 20 or 30 years, but that's still something that's lacking at the roots of our communities around our country. And so, you know, I met people, you know, there's a guy from I think the Texas area that that I met online through Instagram on the you know, the soccer network neighborhood, neighborhood network. Uh, you know, he just bought a couple pop-up goals. He's an older guy. He bought a couple pop-up goals off of Amazon. Uh, he goes out to a local tennis court, you know, and he he told everyone in his community, hey, you know, Wednesday nights from uh, you know, 6 to 8 p.m., free play. And he comes out there on Wednesday nights, you know, puts his pop-up goals out. You know, there's no leagues, there's no signups, there's no registration, there's no jerseys, it's just no coaching. Whoever shows up and he's grown this into this community thing, you know? And so uh it's very possible to do it for free.

SPEAKER_04 26:14

Jason, what do you think are the contributing factors that um that that not denies, but why why we don't see kids going out and playing pickup soccer? Uh what are some of the things that that are contributing for these, you know, these kids not to want to go out or don't have the ability to go out or precluded from going out and just playing pickup soccer?

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Well, you uh you said you highlighted a keyword earlier when you mentioned free, and that that just kind of sparked something in me when you asked that last question because uh I'm also a high school teacher, and as a teacher, as a parent, as a coach, um, I think there are quite a few reasons for that. Number one is probably the world we live in now, right? You know, is that technology, cell phones, all these things are just constantly contributing um to kids not going outside like they used to. You know, like I said, when I grew up, now looking back on it, it seems strange, but uh to me and all my friends it was normal to, you know, what they call the good old days, just being outside till dark. You know, your parents, you went outside in the summer, you know, you'd play wiffle ball for a couple hours, you'd come back in, you'd eat dinner, you know, you'd ride your bike down to the park, you'd play pickup basketball till the lights came on, and then you had to be home, you know, and and you know, I didn't want to be inside when I was a little kid. Um, you know, we had video games and things like that, but it wasn't so accessible as it is now on your phone. And and I think I think cell phones and and and social media and all those things um provide a huge distraction to kids. Um I also think, you know, unfortunately, that you know, another part of the world we live in is, you know, parents, I think, myself included, you know, it's hard to feel like you can let your kids go places like that sometimes now. Um, you know, I remember when I was uh in sixth grade, that was the first time I was old enough my mom would say I was allowed to ride my bike to a local park, which was about a block away, you know, but it was around the corner and down a hill, and you know, you couldn't see me. She had no idea where I was at. And uh, but you know, back then everyone was allowed to do that. And so I think unfortunately safety, you know, might be a contributor to that. Um, but I also think, you know, through the soccer neighborhood, and we might get to this later, but one of the groups I work with here locally, it astounded me uh that last year I was working with them, and these elementary kids honestly didn't even know how to start up and organize a game. You know, they go out at recess and they just kind of run around and they go crazy. And I asked them, and I was astounded. They, you know, things I took for granted as a kid, you just go outside. What are we playing today? You know, are we playing kickball? Are we playing basketball? Oh, we're playing kickball. Okay. Then you pick teams, right? You know, I'm sure you did the same thing growing up. Um and then you make rules, you know, okay, are we are we are we playing to a certain score? Are we playing, you know, until the bell rings, what are we doing? And we just did that every day as kids. And uh so some of those social skills I think might be lacking. And then lastly, you know, I'd say I think a lot of kids just don't maybe know where this exists. I think, and again, um I'm just as much to blame as anyone as a parent. You know, my kids uh we live across from an elementary school, and I'm always, you know, kind of getting on them about, you know, why aren't you over there, you know, kicking the ball against the wall, you know, shooting some baskets, doing something. Um, but I think kids now have tons more stuff organized for them than I ever did as a kid, and probably you as well, but they don't do anything outside of that that's unorganized, you know. So they they do have club practice three, four nights a week with good coaching, you know, higher level of play, but they when they get home from that, they don't want to go outside and just play for fun, which to me is kind of is kind of disheartening. But I think that's just kind of our current society.

SPEAKER_04 30:07

Yeah, and it takes away, it has taken away something wonderful, something glorious about growing up as a kid, going out to play. Um, and I and I say that not as an oversimplification of the phrase, going out to play was something wonderful. I, like you, I think I'm a little older than you, but nonetheless, our our our stories are the same. Uh, you know, I used to get home from school and my mom said, Did you have any homework? If yes, you finish your homework and then go out to play. And you did. And it's it's again, it's cliche, but you know, you came home when the when the street lights came on, or it was five o'clock, it was dinner time, and you came home uh and you know, you were sweaty, you were dirty, you were whatever. Um, and that was your day. And and little did we realize uh all of the important things developmentally that were taking place in our young brains and our young bodies uh that would contribute toward us becoming uh you know better equipped adults cognitively, creatively, uh thinking deductively. Our social skills, you hit it right on the head, Jason. You're talking about, well, how how are we gonna play the game today? I grew up here in Boston, and I grew up during an era during the big bad Bruins, and if you're a Bostonian, you know what I'm talking about. And uh street hockey, it's huge here in Boston. And um I was a goalie, and I was a goalkeeper in soccer, but I was a goalie in in hockey, and we used to play street hockey, and we'd be out in the streets, and then when a car would come, everybody would scream, car. We'd get off the street, and me being the goaltender or my counterpart on the other side of the street, we'd have to pick up the goal, put it on the sidewalk, wait for the car to go by, and they usually honk and wave. We put the sh we put the goals back in and we play. Yeah. You know, uh if the if the ball rolled under a car, we had to figure out how to get the ball to continue to play. But all those things contributed to our development as young people are going on to becoming adults, and uh and and folks don't realize, and I think parents don't realize the disservice you're doing to your children for not putting them in those environments. And now, and you're a shining example of this, there are now opportunities where you can do something organizationally uh where your kids are safe, because you hit a very important point there about the safety of our children. There are places you can go that it's free, it's safe, and they're playing pickup soccer, and they get to enjoy all the wonderful things that you and I experienced as as kids growing up, you know.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

Um Yeah, yeah, it brings brings a tear to my eye when you I envision that street hockey game. I was never much for street hockey, but uh I could relate to a lot of wiffle ball games like that and uh kicking a soccer ball out you know in the street in front of my house with a couple of my buddies, and you know, same thing. You know, you someone saw a car coming, you just got out of the way. Uh once they went by, you got the ball and you kept playing.

SPEAKER_04 32:46

Talk to my audience, uh, and I'm setting you up for this is a this is a a real easy swing for this one. The corporatization of youth sports. Talk to my audience about that.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Wow, well, we could probably do a whole podcast just on that, couldn't we? Or we probably do a series. Uh well, I think, you know, some of the key points and the biggest things are just that, you know, again, when I was growing up, so you know, part of my passion comes from the fact that I grew up with uh you know a single mom who's an elementary teacher. Um, we lived about 45 minutes away from Columbus. So back then there were only a couple of clubs that even existed. And you know, I just never had the opportunity to do that stuff, both financially or or just getting there all the time. But none of my friends did either, um, you know, based on where we lived. And I think that as you look at how um in the last 20, 30 years, and you know, I hate to say this, but soccer was probably the leader in this, or you know, out in the forefront that uh you know, AAU basketball, club volleyball, travel baseball, softball, all these things have followed suit where you know people realize, hey, I can start a club, you know, right? Uh I can charge some fees, we have to pay for some things. Um, but if on paper and on websites the coaches are are listed as professional coaches, that means they're getting paid something, you know, whether it's $100 or whether it's a couple of grand to coach a team, it looks better. And you're gonna draw in this this market of people that as every community can relate to around our country, and I don't care what sport it is really, these kids and their families get to a certain point, whether they're in little league baseball, rec league, soccer, whatever it is, at a certain point, um FOMO, you know, the fear of missing out, is a real thing. And and I've talked about this a lot where parents get very stressed out about their kids getting left behind. And at some point they look elsewhere. Where can we join, you know, Billy down the street joined, you know, the Sharks travel baseball team, and we're gonna have to do that if we want to keep up. And um it's just it's just spiraled out of control, really, you know, in my opinion. Um, but but I think the people see that, they provide that, they know that parents and kids are gonna want to do that, and and I think mainly, especially for younger people, it's the parents that want to do that because the kids I don't think really know any better. You know, they just get involved because, like I said, parents have this fear of getting left behind, which which I totally understand, but it just feeds into this this machine of uh of you know money and pay to play. Um and and you know, just in the time that I've coached, I mean it used to be at least around here, I don't know about your neck of the woods, it it was $400, $500 to enter a team into a tournament. You know, if you coached a you know, let's say a U-14 club team, and now it's it's fifteen hundred, seventeen hundred bucks, you know, uh to go to a showcase to get three soccer games in, um, you know, and I think that the people see that this monetization uh opportunity is out there, and they start it, and and and then some of these clubs, you know, around the country have just continued to go around, and and I've seen it, especially since COVID, uh gobble up the smaller guys. You know, they go around, they have the the resources and the financial backing, and they approach smaller clubs to join forces, and it's just kind of like a business model, right? You know, it's it's a company, you know, merging and buying up more corporations and gaining more power. And uh, you know, so I think, you know, I don't know if that answers your question exactly, but uh I think that people see that that monetization available and parents and kids just really don't know where else to go, you know, and in our country, here's a major factor that kids really only look to play at the college level. You know, I don't know your opinion on that, but in other countries, you know, they're they're looking to become professionals. You know, they're like, how can I become a professional soccer player? And in our country, I think our a lot of our kids' goals are just the end game is to can I can I play in college? And so they get sucked up into this you know, college recruiting showcase club soccer scene, and uh next thing you know, you owe a lot of money.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

Yeah, you're spot on at your right. In in terms of the the soccer culture in the United States versus you know any other country around the world, yeah, the path here is college. You know, I I get to you know I'm gonna play this sport, but hopefully I get a college scholarship to play to play soccer or any other sport for that matter, versus like you said, in in in other countries, but you know, you want to play professional. That's it's a different mindset. Um this idea what we're talking about here is is the corporatization of youth sports. And I I always I always say what an obscene uh obscene thought where you have to put corporatization in youth sports in the same sentence or in the same breath. You know, it's just obscene. And it's uh and to your point, a great point. This has been growing over the last uh, I don't know, 20 plus years, at least in in my own observations, but with with the industry, and there's another word you never thought you'd be putting in with with youth sports, but in an industry that's uh estimated to be I don't know, t up to twenty-five billion dollars in terms of business globally, and it's expected to reach if my memory serves me correctly in the research I've done almost eighty billion dollars this year. It's mind-boggling, absolutely mind-boggling the amount of money that's being poured into youth sports and uh what an industry that it has become. And uh you know, to your description earlier, how how it has become you know corporatized or the corporatization of youth sports has now become a a common thing. It's just obscene, absolutely obscene.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

I think I saw last year, was it that uh youth sports are generating more money than the NFL. They do, yes, that's a fact. It's unbelievable. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 38:42

Um, you know, I not to get off track in terms of our conversation here, but these are the United States of America, and I don't want to pontificate, you know, about you know our our country with capitalism, that type of thing. But you know, we we're a capitalistic society. If if you want to go out and start a business or I want to go out and start a business, you can. That's the beauty of our country. You want to start a league, you want to start an organization, you want to start you know something. The United States of America provides you those types of opportunities to do it. So heck, I mean in the world of soccer or the world of sports, well heck, I want to start a team, I want to start a league, I want to start uh, you know, a whole organization. And you have every right to do so. Uh and there's a wonderful bottom line that can go along with all of that. And that you know, that's just how how it works. My opinion, I don't have a problem with that, but have some sense of morality. Maybe I'm being naive, Jason, but some sense of morality as to how you cap these things so you don't you're not pricing out parents to the tune of five, six, seven, eight, nine thousand dollars just to play a game.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

Um yeah, I I want to add this real quick, throw this in to you. My good friend of mine, uh, we played together in college, and and we were, you know, we uh been good friends ever since. Ryan Wall, uh he kind of helped me uh start our actual our podcast a few years ago, and we've been good friends ever since. He's he's Scottish, and uh he's lived over here in the United States ever since uh college. And he and I share this a lot where you know he told me about growing up, you know, and I think this speaks to your point about the monetization part. His his childhood growing up you know in northern England and and Scotland where he did um is very similar to my growing up here, except what I would equate to little league baseball. You know, and he he had these guys, his friends in his neighborhood that grew up, like you said, they put a team together. But his dad and another dad, who obviously had you know a strong soccer background and were good coaches, put the team together and they did it for free. You know, and they had a very high-level team. A lot of those guys went on to play professionally, um, but but they rounded up these kids and they put together a team, you know, and they did it all for free because that's what they wanted to do, much like you know, I grew up that same way with baseball. You know, I think when I was in high school, you know, we had a handful of guys on our baseball team that went on to play college sports, maybe not baseball, but various college sports, so obviously they were pretty good athletes. But growing up, we all played little league, you know, in our local town. And at the end of the season, you know, the dads would put together like an all-star team, you might go to a tournament or two just to get some higher level competition, but that's what everyone did, and it was all free. You know, the the the dads coach for free. Um, and I think that's a unique aspect that that we're missing is that you know, a lot of times, and like you said, you do have the right to start a business in our country, and and I totally understand that, but a lot of times, you know, the people that do this, like I said, I think we should be doing it as coaches for the right reason to develop and and help kids and also improve our culture of soccer and not to do it because we're getting paid.

SPEAKER_04 41:52

I guess that's the morality part of which I speak.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

Yeah, yeah. So I want to throw that in. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 41:56

No, well put. No, well put, absolutely well put. Let's dive into your wonderful article uh in the United Soccer Coaches Journal, Why the Streets Matter, Building a True Soccer Culture in the United States. Let's let's dive into maybe a little more player development in soccer culture um mindset, if you will. How do you think organizations like yours, for example, can help reshape the youth soccer landscape?

SPEAKER_00 42:22

Well, I think in several ways, part of what you alluded to earlier about the social skills that we all learned, you know, people are a little bit older as adults now that grew up in the times, like I mentioned. There's so many things I look back at, you know, now as an adult, I grew up where basketball was very popular, not not soccer, but so I grew up, you know, in this playground basketball kind of mentality. And now looking back on it, it's it's honestly one of the best things I ever did, you know, in my life. Because I grew up back in those days where 30, 40 guys of all ages would be standing around wanting to play on one court. And you know, if you lost, you know, you might have to sit out for an hour before you got a chance to play again. So, you know, when you're a younger person playing in that kind of an environment, it teaches you a lot of social skills, it teaches you competitiveness, it teaches you humility. You know, you don't want to be the guy that makes a mistake and costs your team the game because now you have to sit out an hour. And you know, if you're 15, you got 30-year-old guys on your team, you know, they're going to be pretty mad at you. And uh, not to mention, you know, just things like calling your own fouls, you know, organizing the game. Um, you know, when I mentioned that earlier about uh those kids that didn't even really understand how to organize a game themselves now as elementary kids, I started throwing out situations to them. And I you'll love this. I said, I said, you know, what if we go out today and we play soccer and there's only nine people at recess that want to play soccer? And you should have seen it was like their heads exploded. They're like, nine? Well, we can't play. You know, and I said, Well, yeah, well, one person could be a neutral and we play four v4, you know, but those problem solving skills uh You know, I can't tell you how many times I played wiffle ball probably, you know, as a little kid with three people. You know, one person was the all-time pitcher and you played it played a little bit like that. So problem solving skills, uh, you know, the social skills, uh, the competitiveness, I think. Um I think we're all getting so attached to these devices and screens, especially as kids, that we're losing those kind of skills. And also leadership. You know, I've talked to a lot of uh college coaches, and I'm sure you're the same, that are now having a lot of issues, even with men's college soccer teams, which I know sounds strange, having a lot of issues with leadership because they're afraid to to condemn each other, you know, or to to yell at each other and tell someone what to do because they're lacking those social skills. So I think that it's a lot more about helping us as people uh grow and improve as people than it is about the specific sport.

SPEAKER_04 44:54

We touched upon a couple of the big ones the pay-to-play, corporatization of youth sports, street soccer, the implementation of street soccer. But from your perspective, you know, what are what are some of the aside from those, the biggest challenges facing young players in the U.S. soccer system today?

SPEAKER_00 45:10

Uh just in general, or in terms of like development, or what do you think?

SPEAKER_04 45:14

Your call. You could hit both of those.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

Um, well, I think in terms of development, I think that again, social media and all this awareness thing, you know, I think kids are always trying to keep up again uh and not get left behind. Where, you know, when I was younger, you didn't really know how good someone was unless you played them, right? You know, unless you saw them in person and you played against that team. And now I think, you know, kids kids can look at Instagram, you know, every second of the day and they they only see the highlights, right? And I talk about that a lot as a teacher because uh we only see the good things a lot of times, you know, we only see that the great goals someone scored or the accolades that someone got. And so I think that it's hard to um stay focused as a younger player and just go out and kick a ball against a wall and fall in love with the game and and hone your skills. You know, I think that's where all of that really comes from. Um and it's it that makes it harder. Um and then I also think that kids are uh are just flooded with this overwhelming amount of of um I don't know how to call it media, but propaganda, but you know, from all these clubs and teams everywhere saying you should go here, you should come here, you should play on this team, you need this person to be your coach. Um and I don't know about you, but you know, I had a I had quite a few people along the way that weren't very good coaches, you know, but that's not why I played. I played because I love the game and I wanted to get better, and you know, sometimes we lost some games and sometimes we won, but it was all part of of growing up and developing a love for the game, and so I think that they're just constantly overwhelmed with this um amount of information that's out there now, and and you know, and and like I said, it I guess stems back to my my passion for and your passion as well for free play and and pickup play in all sports, but that's really to me where the true development of passion comes from. And it seems like there's a lot less internal motivation, I guess, from kids now as opposed to external.

SPEAKER_04 47:19

Given you know your your own history and what you do now professionally as a teacher and as a coach, and I guess we're gonna talk about maybe your personal vision about the future. So kind of looking ahead, um, what impact do you hope that your work as a coach and as as a founder of these organizations will have on the next generation of players? How do you look how how are you looking to hopefully impact this next generation of players?

SPEAKER_00 47:42

Well, I I hope that uh I really do think deep down inside that the next big step of soccer in our country is this this pick-up street soccer kind of culture. Um grassroots, community-driven, you know, kind of uh that's really the essence to me of soccer around the world. And I think that's the one thing that's both still lacking in our country, but it's also coming soon. I really do. I think that uh club soccer, you know, we talked about before, can only it can only uh, you know, everything has a ceiling. You know, it can only span so far and you can only charge so much money, and you can only have so many clubs available to kids to play. And I think that it at some point it's got to get somewhat diluted. Um and and I think it's always going to be there. I don't mean that by any means, but I think that uh the next big thing is I think that people that are like in their 30s or 40s who have played soccer now growing up, you know, if you're that age, you know, if you're around when MLS started and and soccer's really gained a lot of traction in this country during that time, now they're becoming parents and they see the need for these kind of things and they see the routes that, you know, hey, we we don't necessarily have to do all these other things. You know, you can go down the street and and play, you know, with this guy who has this uh you know free street soccer, you know, open courts, you know, from eight to ten on Saturday mornings, you can go down there and do that. And um my goal would be for for the I guess the overall culture in our country to to welcome that and to just continue to grow because I think that's really the next big step for our country. And I and I think it's also where the you know world-class players can come from, you know, as you know, our our men's national team a lot of times has gotten some flack for being you know some ODP type suburban players that when they get on the world stage, they kind of lack that you know skill and flair, and uh that's where it comes from. So that I know it sounds crazy, but I guess that that would be my ultimate goal.

SPEAKER_04 49:48

Amen, my friend. Amen. Well put. Well, uh Jason, uh it being a World Cup year, 2026, um each one of my guests uh on Conversation with the Coach on the GP Soccer Podcast. I want to get your your your sense. I know it's a little ways away as we record this. We're in we're still in January of 2026, but it's right around the corner. What are your thoughts on the upcoming World Cup in general and and your overall thoughts uh on the U.S. men's national team? I I know at this particular juncture that the team has not been set yet. It's still a bit of a work in progress. But from where we are right now uh at this particular date on the calendar, what are your thoughts on the World Cup and uh and your thoughts on the U.S. men's national team?

SPEAKER_00 50:28

Well, I hope that first and foremost that it goes off uh well as a World Cup in general. Uh like you said, in January as of right now, uh with a lot of unrest and all these things going on. I just hope as a soccer person that it it goes off well. Um I was able to attend a game you know the first time in '94 when we hosted the World Cup. And the the the fervor and the enthusiasm that that soccer gained in this country after hosting a World Cup, you know, was was unreal. So I feel very fortunate to be able to be a part of all of that. You know, and I can only hope that it continues after that, getting to, I guess, our team specifically. I think it was a little rough at the beginning, you know, for Pachatino. Um I think it's it's gotten a lot better in their last few games that they've had. Um they seem to be showing some progress. Uh I think uh ultimately for the U.S. men's national team, it'll be difficult. I think it'll be uh it'll be interesting to see, I guess, what team he selects uh at the end of the day, because I think he's he needs to find uh the right mix of the world-class players that we have now, which I think we agree we have more than ever before, playing in Europe and and some of the most prolific teams around the world, but I think he's gonna have to find a good mix, just in my opinion, of of that, but also with some of the um lesser knowns, you might say, that are the hardworking that kind of personify the grit, you know, of the American team and and how he can get that uh those two groups to kind of work together. I think that will be the the the recipe for our success.

SPEAKER_04 52:04

Well, there's an old saying that goes, it's not about getting the best players, it's about getting the right players. Yes. And it's a bit of a puzzle. You're he's in a process uh not to uh you know make light of it, but it's it's a puzzle. He's got to put together these puzzles and ultimately, hopefully that all these pieces fit, and then they can uh collectively put forth a good effort uh coming into the World Cup. Um we'll see. We'll see as each time uh each each day goes by. So, Jason, uh shameless plugs. If people wanted to learn more about the uh soccer neighborhood or contact you about all the things you've been talking about today, what's what's the best way to go about doing that?

SPEAKER_00 52:38

Uh sure, I appreciate it. Uh, our website is thesoccerneighborhood.com. Uh you can find us uh online that way. We're also on Instagram under the soccer neighborhood. Uh, you can also find information and links on our YouTube podcast, which is called Straight from the Training Ground. That's our YouTube channel. Uh, we also have a uh an Instagram page for that as well, Straight from the Training Ground. And you can email me personally at uh thesoccerneighborhood at gmail.com, which uh which is what you did. So I'm very appreciative of you not only reading our article, but uh I'm very appreciative of you reaching out uh and you know and getting to meet you and and share our common passion that we have.

SPEAKER_04 53:15

It's one of the fun things about doing this podcast. I've met, I'm going on almost 300 shows now, I've met a lot of really nice people, a lot of cool people, a lot of passionate people. Um, and it's just you know great to share stories. Like you and I a story. Yeah, we I stumbled upon you just by reading your article in the journal, and lo and behold, we meet, and here we are doing the podcast, and I'm quite sure we'll we'll be able to uh stay in touch as as time goes on. So our guest today on the GP Soccer Podcast, Conversation with the Coach, has been the terrific Jason Herbert. He's the co-founder of the Soccer Neighborhood, and he's the head girl soccer coach at Taze Valley High School. Giolani Pacini here, GP Soccer Podcast. We're gonna break for a commercial message or two, or two, you know how that works, and then we'll reconvene on the other side. Don't you dare go anywhere.

SPEAKER_06 54:01

The United Goalkeeping Alliance is the world's number one virtual educational platform for goalkeepers. The UGKA emphasizes a goalkeeper culture while supporting goalkeepers around the world through every stage of their development. United Goalkeeping Alliance is an ever-growing network of goalkeeper coaches with agreed upon goals of educating generations of goalkeepers around the five elements of a goalkeeper's development tactical development, technical knowledge, physical growth, psychological balance, and social connections. If you'd like to learn more about our memberships for goalkeepers, for goalkeeper coaches, and for clubs, please reach out anytime at 781-424-3028. Or you can email us at info at United GKAlliance.com.

SPEAKER_04 54:52

And welcome to the GP Soccer Podcast, Conversation with the Coach. Now last week we had a terrific, and I do mean terrific conversation with with Jim Hart, uh, where uh we talked uh extensively about his efforts um and putting together a high school uh champions league. If you have not heard that conversation, for some reason you missed you missed that episode of the GP Soccer Podcast Conversation with the coach, go back and listen to that. Um you're gonna you're gonna learn a great deal about his efforts and putting together not just in Florida where he's situated, but uh maybe even around the country. But today we're gonna shift gears. And by way of kind of reintroduction, our again, our our guest here today is Jim Hart. And Jim is the uh he is the founder of the Tampa Bay Top 10 U.S. High School Soccer Champions League, and he's the former UN, U9 and U10 director for Tampa Bay United in the Western Florida Flames. Jim, welcome back to the GP Soccer Podcast Conversation with the coach.

SPEAKER_01 55:50

Thank you so much, Shivani. Love being here with you.

SPEAKER_04 55:53

Listen, if if if this conversation goes as well as last week's, we're gonna do okay, my friend. We're gonna do okay. Um as most people know who listen to my show, and as most people who know me as a soccer coach, a clinician, a coach, developer, coach educator, this idea of uh the importance of unrestricted free play, the importance of street soccer, uh, having the capacity to uh coach with a street soccer mentality is near and dear to my heart. And as I I noted last week, and I've noted uh in previous episodes here, I have a book coming out uh uh entitled The Importance of Unstructured Free Play, Coaching with a Street Soccer Mentality, where I combine this notion that the game is the best teacher. I think there's every soccer coach out there would say that the game is the best teacher, but tying it in with the DNA of true street soccer and coming up with a method by which it it can actually be utilized in the coaching environment. Let's go back to you now for a second here. What what was uh what brought you to this idea of the the importance of street soccer? What was were some of your own experiences as to the importance of of using this as the cornerstone of how we develop plays, particularly at the youngest of ages?

SPEAKER_01 57:09

Well, thank you, Giovanni. And uh, you know, growing up in Chicago, playing without parents involved, uh all kinds of games was was a part of it. But the biggest influence on this was Dr. Tom Fleck. Uh I was fortunate enough to encounter uh Dr. Fleck uh at a very young age, maybe I was 24 when I first met him, and and start listening to him. And he's written books like the one you're about to release. He wrote one called Let Them Play, which is which is uh along the same lines of of the value of free play. And uh he is a great advocate for really that whole philosophy that the game is the best teacher. Um also ran across another genius named Nick Zlatar. Uh Nick was uh a guy who came out of the New York area, he was born in Yugoslavia, uh just a really intelligent guy, and he was uh uh an instructor, as was Dr. Fleck, in my uh B and A license courses uh in the 1980s that I took. And I got to know them really well. I for I'm very Dr. Fleck has passed on. I'm very fortunate to remain connected with Nick Slotar to this day. He lives down here in Sarasota. He's a big follower of the high school champions league movement. He's come to our Champions League finals and our Champions League draws, and it's interesting Nick uh has brought in a lot of his old school friends into the movement, people like Bob Gansler, who is a close friend of uh of Nick's, uh, and that Nick has told him about this high school champions league and other people like that, uh John Kowalski, other people whose names people would recognize from uh a a day gone by, and these old guard people teacher and recognize that there's too much coaching going on sometimes these days, and and uh and get it. They they just get it. These are people that I was fortunate enough, I didn't realize when I was younger how fortunate I was to to come under their spell and to be guided by them. And so that really led me into my teaching and valuing recess and valuing free play. Um so those were the sort of the the buds of uh of knowledge that came in. Jack McKenzie from Quincy College as well. Uh and just learning from these brilliant people.

SPEAKER_04 59:41

So we talk about unsh unrestricted free play for for our audience here who might not be familiar with what that means. Unrestricted free play basically is I'll I'm gonna keep it super simple, is going out to play. Going out to play. Uh we we all have history of when we were youngsters, no matter where you grew up, uh a certain point in the day, you maybe you come home from school and your mom or dad might ask you, hey, is your homework done? And you say yes, and they'd say those magical words, go out and play. And we did. We went out and played. And you know, it might have been maybe organizing a pickup sport, maybe it was, you know, uh pickup uh basketball, you know, in the in the driveway, or maybe it was flag football, whatever, but you you did things on your own. Unrestricted free play is climbing trees. Uh having relay races and all the things that kids do when they're out there on their own. Um share with my audience, Jim, that the how we can tie in this idea of unrestricted free play and morph it, you know, into the soccer world, into street soccer.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:42

Well, we need to have uh we need to have an open mind. I I I think that um, you know, as advanced as we're becoming in our soccer, we're becoming closed-minded in as well. I'll give I'll give you an example. When I was at Tampa Bay United, uh I was the director of uh the under 9 and under 10 competitive program. You know, tons of kids, tons of teams, lots of coaches. And one of the things that uh that we did that I said to the staff there was on Tuesday nights, no one can have practice uh on Tuesday night at our field because that's going to be free play night, Tuesday night. Uh make your practices Mondays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays. We had enough field space for coaches to be able to be able to do that. Unfortunately, none of our coaches would come on Tuesday night, but all of the kids would come. I mean, we would have 75 kids there with their parents, except I I saved none of the coaches. Let me take that back. One coach came every week. You might have heard of the guy named Martin Grammatica. He used to be a kicker for the Tampa Bay uh Bucks in the Super Bowl in 2002. Well, Martin was born in Argentina, and he's a big fan of Boca Juniors. I think he's in the Boca Jr.'s Hall of Fame, if I'm not mistaken. And he always wanted to be a soccer player. But when he came to the U.S. at age 11, uh, and uh there was no soccer where he was, but he learned to kick a football and he made a career as an NFL kicker. But his first love is always in soccer, right? Well, Martin put his kids in our academy. And I and I went up to him and I said, Martin, I know your first love is soccer. Why don't you join our coaching staff? He was like humbled, he couldn't believe the opportunity, blah, blah, blah. And he joined in with us, right? Well, as soon as I laid out that free play idea, Martin was like, oh my God, this is great. This is such a great idea. We should be doing more of this. Every one of the other coaches, Giovanni, thought it was a waste of time. And unfortunately, the club thought it was a waste of time. Now, the club didn't stop me from doing it, okay? But they didn't, and it's not that they didn't support it, because obviously we did it. We did this free play for two years, uh, but um, but they didn't, you know, they didn't announce it on the website, they didn't tout it as a great feature of the program. It was just something that the crazy guy did every Tuesday night. We just let him do his thing. And uh so when when these people would come, kids would come, luckily, as you know, there's a lot of parents that played soccer when they were younger, and I had too many kids there to um have them all play in one game. 75 kids, you got to have a bunch of fields with small-sided fields going on. So, what I was able to do was deputize some of these parents who had played soccer themselves and who enjoyed getting out and kicking around with their kids and just spread them out to different small-sided fields so that there was an adult there in case somebody got hurt and let them play with the kids. Well, this was the most popular thing that we did. And I thought it was the best thing we did. Uh, and uh we used to have music blaring, and uh, in fact, this thing started up called Win the Song. So kids would, they'd be playing in a game, right? And a song would be playing and it would come to an end, and a new song would start, and so right in the middle of the game, the score would revert to zero-zero. And then at the end of that song, somebody won the song because somebody scored during that song, and they won the song, and then a new song would start, and it the game wouldn't stop. A new kickoff wouldn't happen, it would just happen naturally, just out of the free movement of play. It was amazing how this stuff happens. Well, I left Tampa Bay United and Martine went into the uh went into the office and said, who's gonna take up free play? And they told him, we never really liked it, we never really supported it. We thought we were losing too much coaching time, so we're not gonna do that again next year. And I thought, that is what you're up against.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:11

So it you know, so they didn't realize that the coaching was not in the traditional sense of the human being who's got the whistle around their neck, but the real coaching was the game. Exactly. That's what does all the coaching. And it is astonishes me. And as I share this with you, Jim, it just blows my mind that you've got people involved in the game that don't understand that that very element that the coach, and again, I'm gonna beat this dead horse, and I apologize, but the coach is is the game. And you're really a master at this, but you're the person that knows how to you know manipulate the in the environment, change the environment, you know, to make the coach, you know, to make the coach still still be the game. One of the one of the the activities I have in my book that I talk about all the time, and I've done I've done youth clinics on this, and this is so simple, this is easy. For my my audience to visualize to kind of uh you know uh expand upon what I'm talking about here. Picture, if you will, it's a four versus four. They're a group of they're eight-year-olds. What I would do is I take the goals off the end line, about six to eight yards, and I turn them around. So the goal, the face of the goals now follow the end line. And you know, one of the premises of of of the way the method that I've kind of espoused here is the kids look at it and they would say, and I've done this, uh, they say, Um, Coach Pacini, I think that's just yeah. Um the goals are turned around. Yeah, they are. Well, well, well, what do we do? And ladies and gentlemen, here are the magic words. You heard it here first in the GP Soccer podcast. Figure it out. And Jim, you know the answer to all this. You're you know this as well as I do. What do they do? They go and they figure it out. Yes, figure it out. They go and you and they'll sort it out. You know that they have to, at some point, they're gonna have to hit the goal they have to score on, but now they have to go around it to go. And then I'll I'll take it a step further. Then you bring the kids in after a little a little while, you give them a chance to play, you you a little question and answer, a little Socratic method, like, well, what was the challenge? What was the problem that you saw there? Well, the the goals were turned around. Well, what did you do to solve the problem? Well, we did blah blah blah. We did this, this, and this. So that's a very long way of me saying, Jim, and you know this, and my audience now knows this. The coach wasn't me. I was just the facilitator of this environment, the facilitator of this ecosystem, to use all the fancy words, but the coach was the game itself. Just the game itself. And I don't understand. I don't understand why why your your your people who run your club uh don't get that, or or people like that don't get that. It's frustrating.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:47

Well, I haven't been back to Tampa Bay United since 2014. That's when I left and and went over to uh West Florida Flames, who by the way embraced wholeheartedly this idea. But that I and I haven't been to West Florida Flames since 2021, so I can't speak to what's happening there today. Uh all I can tell is what this is uh this is it, Giovanni. This is it. What you're talking about, doing something simple like you know, like turning the goals around. I mean, it's brilliant. We I had a soccer game for 39 years, and uh in the afternoons we had free play options, we called them. And two of the options were what we called rulers of the soccer field, five-minute games, winner stays on. If you lose the game, you come off. If you get back in line and try to, you know, try to win the next game and stay on, make your own teams. And the other one was something we called old school soccer. And it was uh just a never-ending soccer game with no boundaries, really. I mean, we used to make fun, like the boundary, the boundaries are the oceans. Don't drown, you know. I mean, but but uh, you know, and and no no stopping. Uh Dr. Fleck used to play uh games at the FYSA ODP weekends where he rolled two trash cans out uh and you had to hit the trash can, old school, right? We used to roll trash cans out, hit the trash can, and uh and that was it. Well, kids loved it and they would play it endlessly. If you had to if you had to get water, there's no water break, just go get water. The team will play without you for a minute. And here you have kids running over to get water and running back to join the game because they don't want to miss anything. And the and the and the coaches are just playing with the kids, nutmegging and everything else is going on. It's fun. You know, and and in those environments, that's where the real fun happens. Your you know, nicknames are coming up, and all kinds of all kinds of stuff is happening. That's what it is. Giovanni, I'm so congratulations on writing that book. I can't wait to read it.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:59

Well, you'll get a copy, my friend. You'll you'll get a copy, no question about it. Share with my audience, you know, predicated on your your your background, your in as a physical education teacher and your extraordinary history as a soccer coach and as a uh player development uh professional. Share with my audience all of the things in terms of let's just let's just talk human development. Let's just talk about that kid or your kid growing up, all the things that that he or she are learning, are developing, just doing the things that you and I have just described.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:32

They're developing they're basically learning everything you need to function, not only function, but function successfully in society. So when I was at uh Cypress Woods Elementary School and was a PE teacher, one the best thing that I did was supervise recess. And Giovanni, we had this program, we called it the clipboard and the list. Okay? And the clipboard was this. This is what we told the kids. If you mess up, you're on the clipboard. Don't mess up. There were there were no rules. Like, like just don't get on the clipboard. And if you get on the clipboard, you're gonna have to come over and sit down for a little while. Well, but if you but if you do something you don't have to do, but you go above and beyond what is expected of you, you might get on the list. And if you get on the list, you could be maybe potentially uh in line to win a spirit award or something like that. Well, the thing is, it's everything. It's stay out of trouble, you know. If you want to just if you want to just get along, fine. But if you want to go a little above and beyond, there might be something special in it for you. I mean, that's life, right? That is life. That is life. Don't commit crimes, do your work, but if you get, if you do more than what's expected of you, you might get a bonus or a promotion or a set, whatever the case may be. It is everything. So I found that recess uh was hiding in plain sight as the most important part of school. Uh, that's what I thought. I really came to believe that. And I think you're really on to something, Giovanni. I think this uh this idea of free play, this lost play environment that we used to grow, we all grew up with, and now everybody's afraid to let the kids out of their sight, which I understand, but uh we've really lost something with that.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:28

Yeah, in doing research for this book, I I get into recess and the importance of recess. And to the untrained eye, recess is just, well, just let the kids out for 20 minutes and then we'll just bring them back in. And, you know, no, so long as no one gets hurt or we don't lose anybody, it's been a successful, success, uh, sex successful period of time. Um and the the vast majority of our elementary schools here across this country are terribly deficient in terms of the amount of time devoted toward recess. Um I know I couldn't agree more. You know, you you've got to have, I mean, some of the some of the best, you know, experts in here will talk about having you know recess, you know, every single day, not just once a week or twice a week or Tuesdays and Thursdays, that type of thing. But every single day you have recess, and you have it for an extended period of time. And all the resources out there of all the benefits, I'm not gonna bore people to death. Uh, you can read it. You can read it in my book when it comes out. But it is it is an important and it is it is an essential part of your child's day, as important as your child sitting down and learning how to how to read or how to write and that type of thing, um, because all the benefits that are associated with with that type of activity is is extraordinarily benefit beneficial. Extraordinarily beneficial.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:41

100%. And what I what I found is uh just like in society, I mean, if there were no police ever, you know, people would drive the wrong way on one-way streets, they'd speed too much, they wouldn't do what they were supposed to do, they wouldn't mind the basics. And if you're if you don't have somebody like that's almost like a sheriff on the prowl at recess, not a scary person, not a person the kids are afraid of, but uh a figure that everybody knows that, uh-oh, you know, we we can't we can't we can't do that because we'll get in trouble. That's a people need that. That's human nature. They don't need to be frightened by it, but they need it. And uh then if you have something to aspire to, right? If if the best you can do is get back to even at zero, that's one thing. But if you can aspire to something, then that can bring out something in people. That can create, that can foster creativity. Having this idea of getting on, quote, the list, unquote. There was never a list. It was just sort of a designation, like, Giovanni, you're on the list. Good job, man. That's all. That's it. And then you're like, yes, you know, I I coach said I was on the list, you know. That kind of a thing is it should happen naturally. And if you have those elements in place, if you're not trying to say, okay, the first step, we're going to talk to you. The second step, we're going to do this, the third step, we're that's a game that kids are used to playing and defeating that game, by the way. No, the first step is don't get on a clipboard. If you mess up, you're on the clipboard. That's it. So don't mess up.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:20

It doesn't take very much.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:22

No. And then uh, but then when you have that, when you have that going on, a vibe gets created that uh is special. Then the other thing we used to do, Giovanni, is every Friday we would have something called the 10-minute talk. Uh I've had principals tell me you can't talk to the kids for 10 minutes, you're the PE teacher. You have to have them moving it all the time all the time. But the 10-minute talk, what I found was, first of all, any problem that happened at recess, we used to push it to Friday's 10-minute talk and deal with it then. So we don't have to the wheel every time somebody goes, you know, messes up, we just push it to Friday. But the other thing I noticed was uh kids like when we grew up, most people church every Sunday and right and wrong, you know, you didn't really listen to them, but you knew what it was. What I found was that the rhythm of kids' lives has been disrupted because a lot of kids don't have that rhythm anymore. That weekly rhythm of, okay, take a breath, sit down, somebody's going to pontificate about, you know, the right and wrong involved, and then you're gonna get up and play. We did that of our of everything we did, and people, kids really look forward to it. Eventually, kids started giving 10-minute talks to younger kids, and it was just became really something special. And I think we should recognize uh that the key you know, that people are in a different situation than the situation you and I grew up with. We grew up, we knew that our parents weren't gonna get involved too much in our lives, and that if we messed up too too much, our neighbors would tell our parents and we'd get in trouble, or our the teachers would tell our parents and we'd get in trouble. There was sort of this shroud of of uh consistency in our lives, and then this weekly rhythm of every week having to take a breath, reset, and let's go again. And kids don't have that right now, and they need it. I think it's important that they have that.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:31

Well, um among the many contributing factors to that point is is you know technology, social media. You know, it's it's just uh it's made its it's made its way into all our lives. Some of it is good, some of it is not so good, but to your point, uh no, it's a contributing factor there, contributing force is is technology and social media. Um that just is you talk about you know just being consumed by this little mechanism, i.e. the phone or their tablet or their computer. And uh, you know, there the research is out there, there are element there are portions of their brain which are not being challenged, which are not being developed, um, which sets them up for you know the uh incapacity to to to function in in a lot of ways. Um so yeah, your your your point about rhythm is spot on. Uh we had rhythm. You know, you did you you get up and you went to school and you got you came home and you had your dinner, or then you went out to play, and you know, and then yeah, you if there's 10 minute 10 minute talk on Friday, well, this is what you do. And you sit and you listen and that's it's just it's not there. That's just not there. Let's let's tie this into soccer a little bit. Um in your opinion, what what specific technical qualities they say do you believe that street soccer develops better than say traditional drills, and I use that word for a reason, or team training?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:44

Functional problem solving. Uh and uh, you know, I I liked it to to uh I'll tell two quick anecdotes. One one one is uh I ran into some kids uh in high school. I thought I was gonna be in basketball when I was coming through school, didn't know soccer was in my future. And I ran into some kids that were like there's one kid I remember particularly, his nickname was Deadeye, and he he was called Deadeye because he seemed to never miss a shot. It's nothing like it was supposed to be. Like no book would teach you to shoot this way, no PE teacher would teach you here's the correct way to let go a shot. But Deadeye, he made almost every shot he took, he had his own technique. And so, and it just came from playing. It just came from it's just how he learned how to do it. When I was uh ODP coach in FYSA, and we would bring in teams for you know, for trials, uh, I became enamored with curver methods, right? And and I still am, I great believer in them. But uh we used to have all these kids there for state trials and doing curver exercises, and there would be always like five, six, seven kids that were just struggling. But you know what? They were the best players there. They were the best players, and now we're asking them to follow this sort of cookie-cutter movements, which all the rest of the players needed, but the best players don't need that messes them up because they have a natural way of dealing with the ball. And so I think what free play does is you develop technique not based on following the steps of a drill, like following dance steps or something. You develop a technique that's born out of what's going to win you that game that day or gonna prevent a goal or whatever. And you develop technique that works for you, like those great players in FYSA. They struggled with curver, but they were the best players on the field because they can make things happen. When we don't do fruit relay, what we do is we get a lot of technicians that can put on a an exhibition of skill, but can't really play. Putting plugging that in to actual game situations is everything. And uh, you know, I think that's the big thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:17

You know, one of the things I I I love um what I refer to and I've read about productive chaos. And when you when you put a bunch of kids together, let we'll do we'll use soccer. This is a soccer show. Uh they're out there playing soccer, it it's obviously, you know, it's it's chaos. But there's something very, you know, productive about it, hence the term productive chaos. What does that look like, you think? And and and share with my audience why that productive chaos is indeed valuable.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:48

I think it's valuable for a couple of reasons, but one of the most important is the aspect of decisions. So, so, okay, so you've got a kid, right? He's playing a video game, right? And it he doesn't really know how to play that game yet. And things are coming at him left, right, and center. He's constantly losing, you know, and having to start over. But he's just continuing to go at it and work and get better and better and finally past level one and finally past level two and so forth. There's nobody, imagine standing over the kid's shoulder, telling him what button to push when. It would never work. It's like a soccer coach trying to tell kids how to play the game of soccer. No, it's the chaos of that game, that video game, which is completely chaotic and beyond the kid at first. But by but by operating in that chaos, they can, especially if it's if there's safety of not worrying about if you mess up, then you can learn to operate. You can find your place, you can figure out what works and what doesn't work. I'm not suggesting that this be the prime method of teaching kids how to play. But what I am suggesting is that by not including an element of this, then we are robbing the kids of something essential. I mean, why do we not get players in the top 250 players in the world? I think part of it is part of this, part of what you're talking about. Uh and uh by playing, you know, by just learning by playing, kids are gonna do things that make no sense in games. But, you know, they'll try them, they'll try them anyway, and they'll get better. And uh and they would never try them if they were afraid that a coach was gonna be displeased if they tried those things. One of the reasons I think we have robots, uh kids that play like kind of like robots is because of the lack of this chaos in their in their training and in their uh in their soccer lives. You need that. One of the reasons people love recess, kids love recess is it's chaotic. It's like they're in charge of the world. They love that. The fact that it's chaotic is not a problem. What it is, it means they're making the decisions. When you have productive chaos and nobody to teach you to sort it out for you, then you have to make a decision. Well, kids love, they will not put down a video game just because they lost it all every minute. They'll pick it right back up and they'll stay with it. Why? Because they're the one that decides when to push button A or button B. It's their decision, it's their game, it's all up to them. And productive chaos comes down to the decisions. The decisions kids can make. I want to run here. Oh, that was a stupid idea. Well, there's nobody yelling at me because of this, so it doesn't matter. I'll just continue figuring it out. Kids don't lose on purpose. One thing, one thing you notice when kids play a game, a pickup game, they don't kick the ball in their own net. They're trying to kick it in the other net. They're trying to win. You know, they're just they're just maybe not doing it in the prescribed manner that the coach has in mind, but they're trying to win. They're trying to find solutions. And that productive chaos, I think, really helps. Because look, we look at a game, right? Comes down to the final 10 minutes of a tie game. This is not as much a tactical battle anymore as it's a it's a war. Uh, or you look at the goal Christian Polisik scored against Iran in the World Cup, where it was a nice buildup, but the ball into the box, Christian Polisik had to give himself up at risk of injury to see that that ball went in the goal. That's that's the productive chaos piece. Here comes the ball, it's going to be chaotic in the box. Good luck, Christian. You know, go get it. And he scored a goal in the World Cup.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:48

Yeah. You know, you t you touched upon an extraordinarily important point in your answer there, uh that is kids being afraid to try something. Um and during that, during those periods of productive chaos where they're sorting, literally sorting things out, um, they may try something that you know didn't work, and all of a sudden you hear screaming from the sideline a coach or a parent up in the stands and why did you do that? How come you didn't pass there? And every time that that transpires, every time that that happens, the the element of fear is increased. One of the chapters in my book, and this is not a shameless plug of my book, uh it's all fresh in my brain, so it's I I it's all pouring out of me because of having just finished writing it, I have a whole chapter that it's entitled Less Is More. And it's all about you know lessening the amount of time you literally talk to the players and letting the game be the ultimate teacher. I talk at length about you know uh debriefing. And there's there's four times where you you would deb three times you would debrief in a training session, and it's all done Socratic method. And while the kids are playing, you don't say anything. You you let the game going back to to be the teacher. Um and it's it's my heart breaks. I'll I'll get emotion, not emotion, but my heart breaks, uh Jim, when I go, and I love go watching, I call them the Munchkins. The the U6s, the U8s, I love watching those kids play, and it's yes, it's productive chaos, and it's Amoeba soccer, and they're all clumped together, and you hear these screaming from the side, where are you going? What are you doing? You pass the ball there, and the coach is screaming, the parents are screaming, and my heart breaks for these these kids who just want to go out and play a game and figure things out, and and they find such immense joy when they figure things out, and and a coach or a parent or somebody up in the stands who thinks they know more, they just throw a big wet blanket on it, and you've just diminished and destroyed this newfound bit of joy from the kid. And um, it's just heart wrenching. It's heart wrenching.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:48

It is. It is, no doubt about it. You know, the other thing it does too, Giovanni, as you know, is when the coach what happens is a good Player or two kind of emerges. All of the rest of the kids know that they're the good players. And well, what they do is they begin to sort of copy that player and emulate, try to figure out what that player is doing. And so here the game, another element of the game being the teacher, is kids learning from each other. And when the overriding influence in the game is the voices of parents, whether they're in a lawn chair six, you know, six inches from the sideline, or the coach yelling. Well, even that best player is drowned out by all of that. And you and that best player doesn't emerge or has a harder time emerging anyway. And what if everybody, like when we grew up, there was always a best player. It was always the big guy. And everybody rallies around the big guy and kind of learns from the big guy. And so chaos, just let this happen. Because what happens is somebody on the other team says, okay, I've had enough of this big guy scoring. I'm going to do something about it. And instead of we're just taking the key elements out, we're just crushing them. It is heartbreaking.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:23

It is. A couple of last things I know, I'm going to let you go. As one who's been in coach education, coach development with United Soccer Coaches and SCA for well a thousand years, we oftentimes talk about what's sexy out there. You know, uh, for example, you know, the the sexy thing recently is uh you know, building out of the back when they changed the goalkeeper handling rule. You know, we can now come out of the out of the defensive third and you know make our way upfield. Um, you know, there's always that pressing was became a sexy thing not too long ago. Um and when I go to coaching education courses and I'm teaching something wrong, you're at the convention, I kind of eavesdrop and you you hear all these coaches moving, you know, the the beer bottles and the salt shakers and talking about this formation, that formation, and that's because that's what's sexy. Yeah. Not you know what's not then they're not talking about that should be sexy, you know, talking about turning the goals around with a group of eight-year-olds and how they figure things out. That should be the sexy conference. Maybe we might want to change the name sexy, uh, but you know, cool, whatever. That's what should be the predominance of discussions when you get together for coaching education courses, you go to the convention, you're having coaching meetings. You know, everybody likes to talk about what Barcelona is doing or what Manchester United is doing, what Juventus is doing in terms of you know tactics and strategy and formations and systems and all that kind of stuff. We don't spend enough time. In fact, we spend very little time talking about the real sexy thing or with a real cool thing is what do we do? What do we do to make these six-year-olds better, these eight-year-olds better? And I'll stretch it, I could talk about grassroots even to 10. I kind of still study them as grassroots. Um it's gotta be the sexy conversation, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:06

No, it's it's crazy. It's utter craziness. And, you know, the have you talked with Carl DeWazen from California?

SPEAKER_04 1:31:14

I know of him, but I have not spoken to him now.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:17

Uh he's he's right on your wavelength, Chio, right on your wavelength. He's pushing an idea called quad goal soccer, which is just basically having four goals on the field as part of regular, you know, recreational soccer league play, introducing that element. And and it's uh so it it when you said, hey, let's talk about ideas like turning the goals around. I mean, Carl is all over that. He's somebody that would be great on your podcast. You and him would click together. And then uh Nick Zlatar, I mean, such a genius. And, you know, there are what it what it reminds me of. Carl is in his 70s, Nick is in his 80s, I'm in just getting ready to turn 70. We've all, you know, we all can come across as a bunch of old farts. But uh I think that there's still an old guard out there, and they're still kicking, that understands this message that you're talking about and that believes in it. And I'm sure there are young people that do as well. Like we have a kid in here in uh Tampa Bay area named Ben Malou, who was in Boston for three years as an assistant, or two years as an assistant coach at Boston University at one point, but they get it, they see it, and they understand it, and these people need to be empowered. But I think the the element of money coming into the game at the youth level has had a detriment effect of, you know, the minute that somebody is now cashing a paycheck to be a coach, isn't that kind of uh an indicator that they're some sort of a quote expert unquote? But they really aren't. They aren't expert. They don't really understand the issues deeply, and they don't understand the fundamental things that you are talking about, Giovanni. The fundamental harm that is being done by all of these, you know, getting, trying to get kids to quote, build out of the back, unquote, or whatever it is that everybody's focused on in a in a given time. Just the deep simplicity of letting kids play and believing that the game is a better coach than you are. And just, you know, yes, give guidance, yes, give instruction, yes, you know, but find your place in that. Don't take it over. I don't know. That's that's what I think.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:35

Yeah, you hit your spot on. You know, we we talk oftentimes about, you know, the uh coach-centric versus player-centric uh environments. And play, you know, player-centric as well, the the player is the focal point of the environment, the focal point of a game. And coach-centric is the opposite. The coach is the focal point, and we don't want coach-centric people uh because invariably they're the ones who talk the loudest and you know have the most uh patches on their jackets indicating that their U-10 team won a championship somewhere along the line. Um, you know, and they like they want to just basically say, hey, look at me, look at me, look at me, and they just yell and scream. There's too many of coach-centric people out there involved with teaching the game of soccer versus player-centric coaches. Um until we can make that ginormous shift to getting coaches to shut up a little bit and really embrace this idea that you and I have been discussing over the last half hour or so about letting the game be in the teacher, and then having the ability to know how to manipulate the environments where the game is still the teacher. It's not street soccer to, you know, in its purity, but you're you're offering up some funky things, constraints. I'll get technical here, get funky. A constraint in there that changes it changes the way the game is played. Like I mentioned. 100% turning the goals around is one of the examples I use. They're still playing, they're playing soccer, the DNA of street soccer is still present. Your job as the coach is to minimize how much talk you you you know you actually put out there and let them play and watch and be a good observer. We don't have enough coaches out there at every level. I'll take it from not just the grassroots, I'll take it to the most advanced level. We don't have enough coaches just observes. Just shut their mouths and observes. I watch, I'm sure you do, this past weekend. We watched you know the English Premier League, and you watch, I watch the USA Japan women play, and coaches screaming and yelling and gesticulating with their arms, and you know, put and I'm like, A, if if you knew you had a if you knew any of this, these players really aren't absorbing what you're saying to them. They're involved in the game, and there's tension and there's anxiety, and they're and they're trying to play, and you're yelling and screaming, and they're just not absorbing anything you say. And a six-year-old is not gonna absorb anything you say. You know. Um, so again, it's it's one of the one of the many challenges we have here in this country in terms of changing the world. I agree, I agree with develop players. So, Jim, if people wanted to learn, oh go ahead, please, please, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:55

No, I was just gonna say coaching from the standpoint of principles and identifying principles and then just adhering to them and seeing that the kids understand those principles, and then letting them work within those principles to find solutions rather than giving solutions and expecting kids to memorize solutions. But uh, yeah, we're getting ready to launch a website for the high school champions league. Uh that's gonna that's gonna be coming out very soon. It's almost ready, and uh that, and then uh I mean I haven't really done anything in terms of writing or anything like that about PE since maybe 2021. Uh but um I've got uh well I've got a I've got a YouTube uh channel, and uh there's a lot on there that I did in my PE. We use music a lot. We use music in our training proactively. Kids loved it, absolutely loved it.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:54

I'm sure they did.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:55

I'm sure they did. Uh it was amazing. And so there's that, and uh, you know, anybody's well welcome to drop me an email. I'm I'm I'll talk to anybody. And by the way, we're taking Zoom meetings uh all the time about uh the development of the high school champions league. I see the high school champions league being an extension of this conversation, Giovanni, because high school soccer's got some of that productive chaos in it. You know, it's got some of that, it's it's not the prettiest, but it's got that element of deep emotion in it. And the kids really care. And that's what we're looking for. We're that's what the game is missing, I think, uh, in some cases, anyway. So the high school champions league movement is kind of like the uh the final act for me, if you will, to promote these ideas. They all come back to the same thing, though. I congratulate you on this book. Um, I've been trying to think like this for my whole career. Great stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:56

Well, I appreciate that. Uh our guest today, this this week and last week as well, uh, is Coach Jim Hart. Um again, he's the founder of the Tampa Bay Top 10, which has obviously expanded uh the U.S. High School Soccer Champions League and former U9 U10 director for Tampa Bay United and West Florida Flames. And we've had a spirited discussion, uh Jim and I, these last couple of weeks, about uh high school soccer and uh street soccer as well. So, Jim, many thanks for coming on the GP Soccer Podcast, conversation with the coach.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:25

Thanks, Giovanni. I'm on LinkedIn too. Anybody that reaches out by email or LinkedIn or even X, I will get back to you and we will talk.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:33

Fantastic. Giovanni Pacini here. This is the GP Soccer Podcast. We're gonna break for a couple of commercial messages. You know how that works. We'll re-engage on the other side. Don't you dare go anywhere. Soccer is known around the world as both a sport and an art with players of all ages and abilities enjoying the game. Now, the art of the game is only realized after hours of mastering ball skills, learning to communicate with your teammates, and receiving support and instruction from the right coaches. With over 100 years of coaching experience, Director John Virata and the coaching staff at the Beautiful Games Soccer Academy are pleased to offer their expertise to players and their parents. Coach Barada is one of the most decorated and accomplished soccer coaches in the Northeast with a proven track record of developing both talented players and coaches. The Beautiful Games Soccer Academy believes that success on the soccer field breeds success elsewhere in a young adult's life. Players who attend learn the importance of forming good habits, attempting new challenges without the fear of failure, and seeking out support and advice from others. The program fosters the creativity within each player and encourages them to experiment, improvise, and problem solve on the fly. At the Beautiful Game Soccer Academy, every day starts with a smile on our face and a ball at our feet. To learn more about the Beautiful Game Soccer Academy, visit www.beautifulgamesa.com.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:05

Hello, this is Keith Tosen, the technical director of the United States Youth Footstock. You've been listening to the GP Soccer Podcast by your host, Giovanni Latino.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:45

And welcome back, everyone, to the GP Soccer Podcast. Your host, Giovanni Pacini here, and there you have it. The best of season 14. A little bit of a theme there, as you uh uh now noted as you uh as we tune into the entire broadcast here. And uh so next week we officially start um specific World Cup coverage, and again, it's gonna take a little bit of a different twist. So we're trying to tackle some stories that typically don't make the headlines. So make sure you don't miss uh next week's show. And every week thereafter, going right until the uh the actual final match of the World Cup on July the 19th. So there you have it. That's our show for today. If you like what you hear, please tell everyone and remember, remember, remember, those likes matter, those subscribes matter, hit those buttons and uh offer up uh you know uh replies and all that kind of neat stuff that go along with uh your listening to your favorite podcast, those things do matter. You can follow the GP Soccer Podcast all over social media, and new episodes are available every Wednesday morning. Don't forget, don't forget, to check out my website at GPSoccerpodcast.com. And if you're interested in advertising on the show, then email me at GP4Soccer, and that's the number four at yahoo.com. This is your host, Giovanni Pacini, and I will catch you later.