Chance's Video Picks - This is Why We Practice Foot Skills

Here is one of my favorite goals of all time. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of Sweden’s best players and currently plays for AC Milan in Italy. Here he is early in his career with Ajax of Holland, showing why it is important to work on foot skills.

Amazing! Enjoy!

If you receive our blog in email, you can watch the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgqsaDnsEq8

Chance's Video Picks - The Scorpion Save

Goalkeepers….   check this out!   Tom Bunnell will be teaching this move in upcoming sessions.  Make sure you do plenty of stretching in preparation.

Enjoy!

For those of you receiving our blog via email, you can watch the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a633kGljLnk

Chance

Swedish Kids Symptom Checker

Our friends at Swedish Hospital have released a new iPhone app called the Swedish Kids Symptom Checker.    I'm wondering if it might be a useful tool for assessing potential concussions?  I don't have an iPhone, though.  Maybe someone who does, can download it here, check it out, and report back....

By the way, here is Swedish's fact sheet on concussion.

What Is It?

“What should I do when my child has flu symptoms?” “Should I call the doctor if she’s had a sore throat for three days?” These are questions that all of us have. Health problems with our children can arise anytime – evenings, weekends, when you’re traveling or when your doctor’s office is closed.
Swedish Kids Symptom Checker is designed especially for these times. The interactive iPhone application can help you make appropriate decisions on what level of care, if any, is needed and how to provide symptom relief for minor illnesses and injuries you can manage on your own.

Swedish Kids Symptom Checker is derived from the clinical protocols use by physician and nurses in 10,000 practices and 400 nurse advice lines in the US and Canada. They have been tested for 15 years on more than 150 million symptom calls.

The care guide that best matches your child’s symptom can be located quickly by using the alphabetical index, body area index, or keyword search.

Why parents and caregivers prefer Kid Care?

Reliability

The pediatric care guides are derived from the telephone protocols used by more than 400 hospital- and health plan-based nurse advice lines and by 90% of pediatric practices. They have been tested on over 150 million symptom calls.

Safety

      - The content is designed with your child's safety as the highest priority

      - Each care guide is reviewed by physicians, specialists
         and nurses for accuracy.

The annual review and updates also incorporate parent feedback regarding clarity and ease of use.

Easy 3-step Navigation

1. Choose the most appropriate symptom care guide (out of 89)

2. Use the symptom decision chart to find the recommended action

3. Follow the self care advice to make your child more comfortable

Immediate Connections

Connect to 911, your doctor, your child’s doctor or nearby Emergency Department are available if you have phone service.

Pediatric Dosage tables

One-touch access to the recommended dosage for common over-the-counter medications.

Photos and illustrations (111 in all)

The images help you identify symptoms (e.g. rashes), injuries and common causes of bites & stings. First aid illustrations support proper interim care.

The iPhone app is available now.  The Android version should be available shortly.

Girls U14 White Team Wins GRFC Winter Classic

Girls U14 Winter Classic Champions

Coach Emily Cole's U14 girls took the championship at the recent Greater Renton FC Winter Classic Tournament.  Two years ago the team started their Fall league in the PDL Div 4.  They moved to Div 3 in the winter.  Last year the team started in Div 3 and moved to Div 2.   This year the team started in Div 2 and was just promoted to Div 1 for the upcoming Winter League.

The real lessons here?  Teamwork.  Sustained commitment to a worthy goal over time.  Rising to a challenge.  Individual responsibility.  Overcoming adversity.  Leadership.

Great stuff - important ingredients to life well-lived.


Congratulations Coach Cole and team!

Eastside FC helping in Rwanda

Eastside FC coach Dan Redwine recently went to Rwanda to participate in the Play for Hope Rwanda program.

Play for Hope's mission is for long term, sustainable sports growth in Rwanda with two goals: to bring holistic ministry and rehabilitation to the 'street kids' of Rwanda,  and to provide these children with professional level coaching.

Dan's trip was made possible by donations from his G92 White and G94 White teams and Julie Chandler from Michelle French's Girls 94 Red team. Julie will be going to Rwanda with her daughter Katie in June as part of Play for Hope.

Here are a few highlights from Dan's trip in his words:

• Training the Rwandan coach’s who work with the street kids teams that Play for Hope has formed. We basically put the coach’s through a 6 day USSF D license course and added topics like Sports Psychology, Motivation, Drug Rehab, and Leadership Skills. We spent half the day in the classroom and half on the field.

• Traveling to the villages to work with the street kid teams.

• Distributing uniforms and soccer equipment to the street kids teams (it is a HUGE deal for the kids to play with “real” uniforms and a new soccer ball). A lot of the uniforms that Play for Hope has to distribute were donated by Sean Payton's Play it Forward Foundation, which I think some EFC girls are a big part of.

• Visiting the Genocide Memorial Center in Kigali (the capital city of Rwanda).

• Hosting and coordinating a 2 day tournament for all the street kid teams in Play for Hope (this is really hard to pull off in Rwanda because you have to pay for and organize every detail for the teams: transport to and from the fields, food, and we also refereed all the games).

• We were invited to train the top academy team in Rwanda (Club SEC) one afternoon…it awesome. One of their players was just signed by Barcelona and is leaving for their youth academy in Qatar on January 28th. (He is the one I am pictured with in yellow jersey)

• Living locally in Rwanda and seeing how blessed we are to live in America. 

And that last bullet sums it up pretty well. What a great way to give back and help those less fortunate.

Coach Redwine in Rwanda

The essentials:  kids+ball+goal+open space

The Play for Hope Rwanda Vision

One more word on concussions

We train our coaches to do their best in making sound decisions relative to the health and well-being of our players. Players and parents also play a role in prevention of serious concussion-related injury.  Statistics tell us that very severe, life-altering concussions are often sustained soon after an initial concussion.  This is the reason for focusing on keeping a player off the field until recovery is achieved.

It's very important for players and parents to share their concerns with their coach when a potential concussive injury has occurred and particularly if they suspect concussion-related symptoms.  Coaches make better decisions if they are provided with the good information.

Sometimes players and even their parents may feel as if they're 'letting the team down' if they don't play, and may minimize, or even keep important information from their coaches.

Please, if you suspect even the chance that your child has suffered a concussion, on or off the field, make certain that your coach knows the details surrounding the injury and any medical care the child may be under.

It seems like basic common sense, but in practice the pressures of competitive soccer can create an environment where it may seem more important to take the risk than to be 100% safe. Remember that it is just a game, and not worth anyone's long-term health or their life.

Concussion and Taylor Twellman

Here's an eye-opening interview with Taylor Twellman of the New England Revolution by The Shin Guardian yesterday.  He talks about the impact of concussions that led to his retirement.  It's a sobering read.

Thanks to Coach Ryan Dortch for sending it along....

It sparked the following message from Director of Coaching Chance Fry to all our coaches.  Coincidentally we had a training session on concussions last night.  Chance's email reflects the club's position on concussions and playing soccer.

=========

Dear Coaches,

It was great to see most of you last night. Ryan Dortch sent this story to me about Taylor Twellman, one of the best strikers the U.S. has ever produced, who had his career cut short with multiple head injuries. Yesterday's presentation was an excellent reminder about where the game stands in the order of importance.

It is one thing to have a player “loopy” and quite another to have them in a wheel chair or even dead…..and as Dr. Laker explained, the gap between those scenarios can be very small. I realize that most of us grew up playing when it showed toughness to get back out there after having your bell rung. Now there is so much more research and proof that we have to trump toughness with being smart and safe.

The slide last night that hit me the most was the one that asked…”What is this game worth?”  In comparison to the health and lives of all athletes, whether they play for us or not, all games (including state, regional, national or even higher) are really meaningless.  If you always keep that in mind, you can rest assured that you will make sound decisions for your players and you will always be supported by the club.

Have a great break in December!

Chance