Archive
User feedback like this makes my day!
We met Coach Becky at the NSCAA Convention. When she got home she did the full iSoccer Technical Assessment with her son and he’s been working to improve his scores ever since (in the basement no less). It’s great to hear stories like this. Thanks for sharing it Coach Becky!
My son is really having a great time with it [iSoccer]. He’s gone from a yellow to a green since we got back from NSCAA. Now he really wants to be blue. He tried 20 times yesterday to get from 20 to 21 on the change of direction test. It was the first time he wasn’t able to improve his score with a lot of effort, but he was not discouraged. He knows he needs to go full speed to get in 21 points.
- Coach Rebecca Thatcher Murcia
Learn more about iSoccer at www.iSoccer.org
iSoccer Wins Soccer Product of the Year Award
Thank you to all our members, everyone who voted for us, and the judges panel for selecting us! Here is Scott accepting the award for the Best Soccer Web and Software Service of 2009.
Learn more about iSoccer at www.iSoccer.org
Motivation before your very eyes
A few players stopped by our booth at the NSCAA Convention in Philadelphia to test their toe taps against the national standard. See how they did and how they felt about their results. Competition is a great motivator!
Learn more about iSoccer at www.iSoccer.org
SPY Awards Ceremony NSCAA Convention 2010
Rebroadcast of the 2010 SPY Awards ceremony at the NSCAA Convention in Philadelphia. It plays on a loop so you can’t fast forward or rewind (unfortunately) but if you’re waiting for the part where Scott accepts the award for iSoccer it is just after Kixsport wins for their Kixcube product.
Learn more about iSoccer at www.iSoccer.org
MLS’s Taylor Graham participates in Standards Project
Taylor Graham, defender for the Seattle Sounders, takes the iSoccer Head Juggling Assessment to participate in the National Technical Standards Project. He scored 47 juggles in 20 seconds… How many can you do?
What is your iSoccer Level? How do you compare to the National Standard?
www.iSoccer.org/NationalStandard
Learn more about iSoccer at www.iSoccer.org
US Soccer Lags: iSoccer Launches Technical Standards Project to Quantify and Raise the National Level
(preview of press release that will hit the wire tomorrow)
The National Technical Standards Project is a long-term initiative to improve the level of soccer in the United States through assessment, analysis, and player development tracking.
San Francisco, CA January 13, 2010 — iSoccer, the leader in technical assessment and online soccer training software, announces the launch of the National Technical Standards Project, a multi-year initiative to measure, analyze, and raise the technical standards of youth soccer players in the United States, ages 6 to 18.
With its team of Stanford graduates, iSoccer plans to collect 1,000,000 player assessments in 2010, which will serve as the baseline for the National Technical Standard. Scott Leber, founder and CEO of iSoccer, remarked: “If our collective goal is to produce more technical, skillful, players throughout our youth system, we need to start by determining our current technical level. Once this baseline is established, we can evaluate the effectiveness of our various training and player development efforts.”
The general consensus among US coaches is that domestic soccer players are consistently less technical than their international counterparts, putting US soccer teams at a competitive disadvantage. To level the playing field, the sport is borrowing from proven academic methodologies by implementing standardized assessment, evaluation, and development metrics.
A universal standard for technical ability allows players, coaches, and clubs to compare themselves to a global community. Standardized data also provides governing bodies with a way to measure long-term progress on a macro level such as comparing the rate of improvement of U10 boys in California with the same age group in New York.
Lars Richters, 2009 US Development Academy Coach of the Year and Head Coach of the U14 Michigan Wolves pre-Academy team recognizes the motivational benefits of such a standard. “Using the iSoccer assessment with my players really helped highlight what we needed to work on as a team and as individuals. Seeing how we compare to the national standard will help motivate the players even more to continue improving their technical ability.”
The National Technical Standards Project will officially launch at the 2010 NSCAA Convention, the largest gathering of soccer coaches anywhere in the world, in Philadelphia, Pa., January 13-17, 2010. The data collection phase of the project will conclude in December of 2010 and the findings will be shared at the 2011 NSCAA Convention.
In order to reach the goal of 1,000,000 recorded assessment scores, iSoccer invites coaches in all 50 states to assess their teams and upload their results at iSoccer.org. This free service for coaches will help them identify their teams’ strengths and weaknesses, and motivate players to train on their own. iSoccer also plans to host regional assessment events throughout the country.
To learn more about participating in the National Technical Standards Project visit www.iSoccer.org/NationalStandard or contact Abe Geiger for details.
About iSoccer:
iSoccer is a revolutionary online platform that provides players, coaches and clubs with the tools and motivation to improve their technical ability. Players, teams and clubs are able to assess their current level using the patent pending iSoccer Assessment, analyze their strengths and weaknesses using sophisticated tracking tools, target their training with a customized practice session builder and download over 500+ video clips to help raise their technical level through self-guided training.
Contact:
Abe Geiger
iSoccer LLC
(650) 544-5479
abe.geiger@iSoccer.org
US Soccer: Offline failures, Online Solutions (part 2)
Part 2: Climate
In about half of the country it is impossible to play outdoor year-round. This forces training indoor, restricts availability of facilities thereby increasing the cost of participation, and forces players and teams from northern climates to travel further for competition during winter months. iSoccer was built to be accessible in small spaces with minimal equipment or facility requirements. Nearly all of the skill training exercises are performed within a 5×5 meter grid, easily replicable in a gym, basement, indoor or outdoor field, making it possible to get concentrated, repetitive, and targeted technical training and compete virtually no matter where a player is located or what level of access they have to equipment, fields, and transportation.
The same principles discussed in part 1 with regards to geography, online vs. in person player interaction and observation, apply here as well. Competition motivates players to train and improve. When competition is able to take place without in-person interaction the benefits of the resulting motivation can be reaped without the costly and time consuming travel required to facilitate in-person competition. Of course there is no replacement for the game itself, but online technology allows us to supplement traditional training and competition by making some of the same elements available while removing the physical barriers that limit off-line interactions.
>> Part 3, Lack of Professional Infrastructure, will be coming soon, follow us on Facebook, RSS, or email and you’ll be alerted as soon as it’s posted
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