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First Ohio, now Alaska, who’s next?
We’re very excited to announce our second State Association partnership. Following our successful implementation with Ohio Youth Soccer Association North, Alaska Youth Soccer has already gotten underway. Read the complete announcement below and stay tuned, more State Association and National governing bodies will be announced very soon!
Alaska Youth Soccer Association and iSoccer Partner to offer Technical Player Development Technology
San Francisco, CA and Ketchikan, AK May 26, 2010 – Alaska Youth Soccer Association (AYSA) and iSoccer LLC are excited to announce a partnership to help raise the technical level of youth soccer players throughout the state of Alaska.
Last week, AYSA began using iSoccer’s award winning technical assessment and online video training platform to improve and track the technical development of players in the state’s Olympic Development Program.
AYSA coaches will use the assessment results to build targeted technical sessions to supplement team training. This additional resource will provide players and parents guided video training instruction, carefully designed by State Director of Coaching Frank Trovato, which can be downloaded to an iPod and performed at home.
According to Trovato, “This system is a “go to” for every team and player. At all youth levels, the norms of a practice or two a week and a game (or less), simply isn’t enough time for players to internalize the skills they are being taught, regardless of the teacher or method of teaching. iSoccer allows individual players and families a guided framework to play at home, in the backyard, or a gym to increase their skills and ultimate enjoyment of the game.”
iSoccer will be included free of charge for the roughly 200 ODP players in the state. Assessment results will be used as benchmarks for setting goals and encouraging individual technical improvement, not for player selection. Players and their parents will receive emails notifying them of how to download their training sessions.
“For Alaska and its ODP, the cost-free and insightful program will always provide the motivated and talented players a long-term pathway of focus to achieve technical proficiency. We are even more pleased to see this program developed in the United States by collegiate professionals who demonstrate their understanding of player development and the geographic challenges in the US, which is unique to any country in the world.” added Trovato.
Players will also be able to create their own customized training sessions from over 500 training exercises, build a four week individual training program, set improvement goals, and view their own assessment analysis online. iSoccer is an innovative, hi-tech supplement to coaching that AYSA will utilize to help motivated players maximize their potential.
“We are thrilled to be working with Alaska Youth Soccer. It is very exciting to be able to help young players raise their level throughout the state of Alaska” said iSoccer National Coaching Director Rob Becerra.
For more information about AYSA, visit www.alaskayouthsoccer.org
For more information about iSoccer, visit www.iSoccer.org
NY Times article: Obama administration endorses National Standards…
The Obama administration has endorsed an effort to introduce a uniform set of national educational standards know as the Common Core State Standards Initiative. See excerpts from the NY Times article and download the full report below. Considering that this initiative and our own National Standards Project (NSP) follow very similar logic, we’ll go ahead and assume that the Obama administration would endorse our efforts as well if winning World Cups was on it’s agenda.
See the five steps below, pulled directly from the report issued by the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve, Inc. (Click here to download the full 52 page report).
Change a few words and presto, it starts to sound a lot like the National Technical Standards Project.
An important point of distinction between the education movement and the NSP is that we have already developed the standardized assessment protocols (the iSoccer Assessment) as well as the platform to distribute the assessment and collect assessment data (iSoccer.org). Determining which skills and training techniques should be emphasized and mastered at each level of development is the next phase of the NSP, one we look forward to undertaking with our various strategic partners. Before we do that we need to measure our baseline: to find out where we are today to better inform the way we improve in the future. Learn how you can participate at www.TheStandardsProject.org.
Read the Full Article:
“Panel Proposes Single Standard for All Schools”
by Sam Dillon, New York Times
Excerpts from the article:
A panel of educators convened by the nation’s governors and state school superintendents proposed a uniform set of academic standards on Wednesday, laying out their vision for what all the nation’s public school children should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten to high school graduation.
The new proposals could transform American education, replacing the patchwork of standards ranging from mediocre to world-class that have been written by local educators in every state.
I’d say this is one of the most important events of the last several years in American education,” said Chester E. Finn Jr., a former assistant secretary of education who has been an advocate for national standards for nearly two decades. “Now we have the possibility that for the first time, states could come together around new standards and high school graduation requirements that are ambitious and coherent. This is a big deal.
The Obama administration quickly endorsed the effort. Under the Department of Education’s Race to the Top initiative, in which states are competing for a share of $4 billion in school improvement money, states can earn 40 points of the possible 500 for participating in the common effort and adopting the new standards. Under current law, there is no penalty for states that choose not to participate.
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