In any sport, a foul is a violation of that sport’s code of conduct, and each sport punishes foul play in its own unique way. Soccer defines a foul as an unfair action a player commits against an opposing player or the opposing team during the course of a match. The punishment varies depending upon the nature of the infraction, but will be either a direct or indirect free kick. To be a foul, the act must occur on the field, while the ball is in play. Otherwise, it may constitute a misconduct, and may even warrant a caution or send-off, but it will not be a foul.

For some minor infractions the punishment is an indirect kick. This means that at least two players must touch the ball before the kicking team can score. These fouls are often called “technical fouls” because most are not the direct result of foul play, but are violations of some procedural rules designed to keep play flowing or prevent more serious fouls from happening. One such “technical foul” is the offense of impeding an opponent–commonly known as “obstructing.”

Impeding an opponent

Soccer players often get in each other’s way during the normal run of play. Sometimes, though, players will intentionally block their opponents from running after the ball or moving into tactically important space on the field. The offense of “impeding an opponent” involves the deliberate use of the body to interfere with the other player’s movement in order to delay his progress, and is punished with an indirect kick. This foul often occurs when a player senses that a speeding opponent will beat him to the ball, or anticipates a potentially troublesome pass into open space. By stepping in front of the opponent and blocking his progress, the player hopes to slow his opponent down so that a teammate can collect the ball. If this action causes more than incidental physical contact with the blocked player, it may constitute a “charging” or “holding” foul, rather than “impeding.”

A player within “playing distance” of the ball may legally block his opponent’s pathway to it without being guilty of a foul. This is known as “shielding,” and involves the use of the body to keep possession. Playing distance will vary depending on the speed of the players and the ball, and ultimately rests with the referee’s judgment, but the shielding player does not actually have to touch the ball to shield it legally from the other side. Shepherding the ball out of bounds or towards the keeper is a recognized and quite legitimate tactic, as long as the player guarding the ball stays within playing distance.

The purpose of this article is to encourage recreational youth soccer leagues to ban slide tackling. The reasons are that there is too great a chance a player will get seriously hurt, young referees don’t know how to correctly interpret the rules regarding slide tackling, and players aren’t taught how to properly slide tackle.

Here are 2 examples of how dangerous it can be:

1. Years ago when I coached U12 recreational soccer a player slid straight into my son who was dribbling, went through the ball (contacted it but went on through it) and with cleats up hit my son in the shin guards and flipped him forward. It bruised his leg even through the shin guards and he could have been seriously hurt. The young ref thought it was OK because the tackler contacted the ball first. However, the FIFA rules say careless, reckless or dangerous play is a foul and “excessive force” is a Red Card.

2. I was watching a semi-pro game about 15 years ago and a defender tried a slide tackle, the dribbler jumped into the air and came down on his leg and broke both bones. The game was delayed for 30 minutes while we watched the player in agony and listened to him moaning in pain. Can you imagine how traumatic that would be for kids to see? Fortunately, my son wasn’t with me.

Honestly, I would have real concerns about allowing my child to play in a recreational soccer league that allows it. I will bet you that the adult recreational soccer leagues around your area don’t allow it, for obvious reasons. If a youth soccer league allowed it, I would talk to the opposing coach and ask if he would agree to tell his players not to slide tackle. If he wouldn’t agree, then I would tell him that I will have to tell my players to be watching for it and to jump into the air and don’t worry about coming down on the sliding player – the point being that if his players get hurt it is their coaches fault, because I have asked him to not allow it. I would also tell him that if there are any dangerous slide tackles I will pull my team off the field. I would print the page from the FIFA rules about “careless, reckless and dangerous play” and show it to the Referee and discuss what the Ref’s interpretation of the rules is. Specifically, a tackle can be “careless, reckless and dangerous” even if the ball is contacted – if the tackle is dangerous it should be a foul or even a Red Card if there is “excessive force”.

If your league needs another reason to not allow it, here are two:

1. Kids aren’t learning to play soccer when they are on the ground.

2. Can you imagine what would happen if a kid was seriously injured in a situation where the league allowed it knowing it could be dangerous (which we all know it can be) and didn’t require players to be taught how to properly slide tackle and how to avoid being injured? The lawsuit would be huge.

As a parent I would not allow my child to play in a recreational league that allowed slide tackling. Anybody who thinks it is a good idea needs to go out and be slide tackled a few times (once would probably be enough). Slide tackling is OK for great athletes, select soccer teams and professional soccer players, but not for recreational soccer players.

There are times during the season when it’s nice to change up the practice routine, put away the traditional drills, and have some fun while still working on some key skills. In this article, I will describe a great activity that combines soccer with golf.

Soccer Golf

Soccer golf is a great drill that will help players improve passing accuracy, touch, and leg strength.

To get started, you first want to select several objects to use as “holes” on your golf course. Objects can include things such as goal posts, trash cans, cones, light poles, trees, fences, and so on. You don’t need to limit yourself to the soccer field.

After you have determined your targets, you want to set up a course. You want to create holes of varying length and difficulty. Use your imagination and creativity. For example, I’ve made par 5 “doglegs” where players needed to chip the ball over a fence and navigate around a tree before reaching the target. I’ve had par 3 holes where players had to lob the ball over an imaginary lake before reaching the hole.

Now that you have the course set up, give the players a walk-through of each hole, explaining how they should proceed. You can also establish a par for each hole at this time depending on its length and difficulty. Pars in golf usually range from 3 to 5 strokes but your holes can be as long or as short as you want.

Once the players are familiar with the holes, have them proceed through the course. You can either have each player go individually or you can send them off in pairs, having them take turns on each shot. Each touch of the ball is worth a stroke and the players should keep track of their own scores.

This is a great activity that your players will really enjoy. My teams actually create their own score cards and players now have an active role in developing new holes and courses.

Soccer Golf is an activity that can be used at any point of a practice, but I find it works particularly well as a cool-down activity towards the end.

There are seven soccer secrets that any player can do that will increase their speed and agility and help them get stronger too. These Secrets should be learned by all soccer coaches. Speed kills on the soccer field and these seven secrets will help you race past your opponent.

In order to put fear into a defense a player and a team needs to be fast. In order to be fast, there are two factors that can help increase speed for any player. The first factor is stride frequency. The faster a player moves his arms the faster his feet will move. The second factor is stride length. When running, a player should have her knee lift almost to belly button height.

Here a player is working on changing direction quickly. A player should be able to move in any direction and be able to do that at any speed…slow or fast. Important lateral movements include shuffles and side runs.

Many soccer players stop too upright putting a lot of stress on the knee plus when they do this they are not in a good position to explode into a new direction. Stopping quickly and safely requires players to drop their hips, bend their knees and take smaller steps as they attempt to stop.

Getting stronger in their lower body will help all soccer players get faster and increase their speed through strength training. Lower body strength training should include strengthening a soccer players lower back, glutes, hamstrings and calf muscles.

Training soccer players to be anaerobically fit will enhance many aspects of your teams soccer speed and skill performance. To train anaerobically, soccer players should work on many explosive 15-25 yards burst. In addition, these movements should include both linear (north/south) movements and lateral (east/west) movements.

The more flexible a soccer player is the less likely that they could get injured plus flexibility enhances speed and agility.

For soccer players to run fast and be explosive, they need to be properly fueled and hydrated. Helping your players with their nutrition will pay excellent dividends for you players.

I have found that these seven secrets of soccer speed and agility help make all soccer players more athletic and thus more dangerous on the soccer field.

Have a great day!

Soccer is a game played by thousands and loved by millions. Every soccer professional chooses their cleats according to their requirement and condition of the ground. If proper cleats are not worn by the player it may prove to be a big disadvantage on his side because cleats provide proper grip and adhesion towards the ground. Soccer cleats are chosen on the basis of various factors, some of them are as follows-

1. ACCORDING TO THE PLAYGROUND SURFACE– If the condition of a ground is rough and not too soft then the player should use firm ground cleats with 12 to 15 studs in other to maintain friction and allow flexibility. Studs come in different shapes like conical, blade-shaped, etc. But if the ground surface is wet and muddy, then the player should go for soft surface cleats, so that the stickiness of ground does not restrict friction and provides sufficient traction. However, in soft surface cleats, the number of studs is 6-7, structured ideally. And, for hard and rocky ground surface the cleats having flat studs are preferred as they provide maximum grip to maintain balance on the hard surface.

2. ACCORDING TO THE MATERIAL– Soccer cleats are made from various types of materials like from kangaroo leather, goat leather, synthetic material, mesh, etc. Each one has its own advantage and disadvantage. The cleats made from kangaroo leather are usually preferred as they provide great comfort to your feet and are quite durable. But they are very heavy and expensive so you can also opt for goat leather cleats as they are less expensive and provide the same comfort, but are as heavy as the former one. Cleats made from synthetic material is used widely because they are light weighing and cheap, but they are not suitable for all the weather and are not durable as kangaroo leather cleats. Many companies have started manufacturing artificial leather cleats having water resistant quality and durability.

3. ACCORDING TO THE COMFORT– Selecting right cleat could be a challenging task as the main priority is the comfort. Cleats should not be too small or too wide. They should fit properly and not hurt your toes resulting in blisters. Choose the cleats that can balance your back and forth movements. Your cleats must have a large strike zone so can easily kick the ball. The insoles in cleats should be soft and bouncy enough.

4. ACCORDING TO THE BUDGET– The price of cleats differs from company to the company offering different types of quality and material. The quality of cleats is classified as top-tier cleats, mid-tier cleats, and low-tier cleats. The professional soccer player chose top-tier cleats as they are manufactured to cater the demands of the player. They are very expensive and cost around 100$-500$ depending on the manufacturing company. The mid-tier cleats are in great demand as they are available at reasonable prices and are as durable as top-tier cleats. The low-tier cleats are for the beginner. They are cheap and of inferior quality.

Although it may be impossible to accurately state when and where the game of soccer originated, history has shown us glimpses of a game similar to our present day version being played for over 3000 years.

Around the 2nd or 3rd Century BC, it was documented that the Chinese military during the Han Dynasty played a game involving kicking a ball into a small net.

A game similar to soccer was played by the ancient Greeks and Romans but their game could include up to 27 players on a side compared to the modern day game of 11 players to a side.

Soccer became one of the most popular sports of the masses due to its popularity as a war game. A game of “football” which the British called it, was played in the east of England during the 8th Century where the head of a defeated Danish Prince was used as the ball.

During medieval times, villages and towns were pitted against each other in game battles that could take all day. There were no structured rules to abide by and kicking, biting, gouging and punching turned the game into a virtual battle of survival. These matches became so violent that the English authorities made many attempts to have soccer banned.

King Edward III from England passed laws in 1331 to abolish the game and Queen Elizabeth I had a law passed that provided a one week jail sentence for anyone caught playing soccer.

Despite these efforts, the game of soccer became so popular in England over the next few centuries that it evolved as the most popular sport of its time.

At this point, the only shortcoming of the sport was its lack of rules or standards. In 1815, Eton College, a famous English school, established a set of rules to be implemented by other schools, colleges and universities.

A standardized version of these rules were later adopted in 1848 by most of England’s colleges and universities that were known as the Cambridge Rules.

Unfortunately, at this point, there were still two different sets of rules being used. Some colleges favored the Rugby Rules which allowed carrying the ball with your hands, tripping and kicking to the shins. which were contrary to the Cambridge Rules.

In 1863, The Football Association was created by eleven English soccer clubs and schools to establish a single set of rules to be enforced when they played against each other.

The supporters of the Rugby School rules objected to the changes and the two groups split apart. The Football Association later changed the rules in 1869 where they forbade the use of hands, except by the goalie, which led us to the game of soccer as we know it today.

The English still called it a game of “football” because the ball was played primarily with the feet but in the late 18th Century, the word, “soccer”, was first used by a student of Oxford University by the name of Charles Wreford Brown. The students at Oxford were known for using slang where they added “er” to the end of words that they intentionally shortened. The game of Rugby was called “rugger”. Brown shortened the word “association” and added “er” and the term “soccer” was born.

Since the 19th Century the game has evolved to where it is today. It is the World’s Game that is played by more people than any other sport and is universally recognized as the most popular game in sports history.

The World Cup which is held every four years to crown a World Champion draws millions of spectators to the 32 games played and is watched by billions of fans from around the globe thanks to modern day satellite television technology.

The popularity of soccer continues to grow as organized youth soccer programs are getting a young fan base involved at an early age which will fuel its growth for years to come.

As almost every professional bettor will tell you, backing heavy favourites is a sure fire way to the poorhouse. That’s common knowledge, right? Perhaps, but there’s one problem with that type of thinking: it’s dead wrong.

The received wisdom is the linesmakers skew their odds on heavy favourites because the public love betting on the best teams. The bookies no doubt see a flurry of parlays involving clubs like Chelsea, Barcelona and Juventus every weekend. Surely there’s value in taking the underdog in these situations, isn’t there?

In fact, numerous studies have shown that blindly backing long shots is a losing proposition in the long term. To see why that is the case, we have to understand how a bookmaker operates. Since the bookies take most of their action on short-priced favourites, it’s often assumed they are exposed to big liabilities if all the hot teams win. While this is sometimes the case, and many bookmakers suffer months of huge losses, there are several ways a bookie can protect himself.

It’s important to remember that most heavy favourites are combined in parlays involving at least three teams. A bookmaker only needs one loser to take his customer’s money. As a result, there’s little need to lower the odds on a “public” team. Many sportsbooks will even inflate the odds of a hot favourite to attract new customers, safe in the knowledge that parlay players won’t hurt their bottom line.

If the favourite’s odds are an accurate reflection of it’s true probability of winning, the bookmaker must make adjustments elsewhere. That usually means offering worse odds on the underdog and the draw. Understanding the concept of theoretical hold can make this clearer.

When creating lines, a sportsbook will offer odds on each team that give it a slight edge, ensuring a profit no matter how the game turns out. This is called the Theoretical Hold and is expressed as a percentage. It represents the combined amount of customers’ bets that the bookmaker expects to keep.

It’s called theoretical because in reality a bookmaker rarely has balanced action on all sides. If a bookie takes the bulk of his bets on a heavy favourite, he can offer it at a more generous price and accept a smaller profit margin. Short-priced favourites generally have small margins, but high volumes. Bigger odds mean bigger margins. There’s little incentive for a bookie to offer competitive odds on a big underdog if he doesn’t expect much betting interest in that team.

For evidence of this, look no further than the betting exchanges. At Betfair, for example, the theoretical hold on a soccer money line is usually 1-2%, compared with around 11% at traditional bookmakers. Because the hold is so low and the percent market is close to 100%, the exchanges represent an almost perfect market. They can give us a closer indication of the true probability of an event happening. The following table shows the odds available at several bookmakers for an upcoming match between Qatar and Argentina:

Bookmaker Qatar Draw Argentina Theoretical Hold

Betfair +1800 +660 -500 1.72%

Nordicbet +1100 +445 -500 9.10%

Bet365 +1000 +400 -500 11.05%

Interwetten +900 +400 -667 14.5%

Admiral +850 +365 -455 12.28%

Two things are immediately striking. An exchange like Betfair has significantly better odds on Qatar and the draw, which are the less probable outcomes of this game. But Betfair’s odds on Argentina, the heavy favourite, are in line with the prices offered by traditional bookmakers. In fact, even though Betfair’s market has razor thin margins, it can’t beat the odds on Argentina offered by Admiral, a bookie with a theoretical hold over 12%!

What can we learn from this? If the exchanges are a nearly perfect market, they prove that heavy favourites are fairly priced at the traditional bookmakers, but underdogs are massively underpriced and poor value. Some research has shown that backing all short priced favourites (at -500 or greater) is a profitable proposition in the long term. Now we can understand why. As a general rule, only bet on long shots at the exchanges; if you like to play favourites, stick with the traditional bookies.

Eight Tips to Coaching Youth Soccer

This is a crash course in coaching a youth soccer team. Follow these eight tips to help your team to a winning season. The most important thing for kids is to have fun, but it’s always easier to have fun when your team wins. You’ll learn how to start and end each practice, and how to utilize the stick and wedge formation to generate a defensive-minded team resulting in wins instead of losses. This article will be especially helpful for those who want to know how to coach u8 or 810 soccer, but it applies to all age levels.

Here are the tips to coaching a winning team:

1- Team Run

Have your players line up along the goalie box. Have them hold hands and run to the opposite side of the field and back. Tell them they need to jog as fast as the slowest player. This simple drill builds unity and a sense of purpose.

2- Find a Goalie

Line up your team at midfield and have them run to the penalty line and back to help you identify the faster players from the slower. Have them line up and punt the ball. Ask the top two or three children who can punt the ball the farthest if they would be goalie. If not, ask if they would be a reserve.

If you don’t find a player interested in the position, ask if the top candidates if they would just play for goalie for one half and striker the next. Most kids want to play the forward/striker position and score goals, so offering to rotate two players as a goalie one half and striker the next makes the goalie position more appealing.

3- Stick Defense

Make defense a priority. Use a “stick” defense where you stack five kids in front of the goalie. The stick rotates around the goalie like a hand on a clock, pointing toward the opposing ball handler attacking your goal. It can stretch to the midfield line as the ball moves into the opposing penalty box.

Generally, there is a fifty-percent chance of the other team having a star player who can dribble down the field and score. Traditional teams have three or four forwards and three or four halfbacks. These alignments leave three players to defend the goal (and a chasing halfback or two). Five defenders are better. If you are playing less than 11 due to illness or vacation, you can shorten the stick to three or four players. Even with nine players, there are still three defenders.

Players in the stick are numbered one through five, with one being the closest to the goal. You want your slower and less-skilled players to play in the stick. It is important to have one older, quicker player in the two spot to control the stick. When the ball is on the other side of the field, the #2 directs the others to move up and stretch the stick. The least-skilled player should be in the #3 spot where the two can direct the player as they defend the goal.

4- Wedge Halfbacks

The halfback or Midfielder positions forms a three-person “wedge”. The wedge is dispatched to stop the opposing offense and deflect the ball into the opposing territory. The center position is flanked by a player on the left and right who are five feet behind and ten feet sideways from the center. They travel together, seeking out the opposition’s attacker. They do not cross midfield, and act as a protective “cap” to the stick. The center, as all “first” defenders, must shadow the attacker to force them to stop or slow down. The center maintains a five to ten foot cushion from the attacker, retreating as needed. The attacker must go left or right, but will likely slow as the left or right wedge player presses closer to the center. Attacking the formation is frustrating. Trying to get by seven players as opposed to weaving through a few is difficult.

If the attacking player passes to their left or to the formation’s right side, the right wedge player becomes the center and shadows the ball-handler while the center drops behind and takes the right side. The wedge re-forms as the left wedge player slides over and maintains the left side of the wedge.

5- Two Strikers

The two remaining players are flexible positions. One should play center striker, playing as far up as possible. The center forward plays as far as they can without being offside. The other forward plays outside striker, and moves left or right, following the ball when it’s on defense. The outside striker hangs out near midfield, and needs to receive the ball to either push down the sideline or pass to the center striker.

6- First Half is All Defense

This formation appears sluggish as it is not attack-oriented. The strategy of the stick and wedge formation is to physically wear out the opposition in the first half, allowing the formation to press forward to the opposition’s goal later in the second half.

Starting with a strong defense and adjusting to more offense is always the right move in youth soccer. A strong offense does little when your team is trailing 0-2 five minutes into the game. The stick and wedge formation draws more opposing players on offense to match your defensive player count, weakening their defense as the game progresses.

7- Every Team’s Weakness

The weakness of almost every formation is when an opposing team moves the ball quickly down the sideline and into your penalty box. You can take an extra player to mark their star player, resulting in one fewer on the stick. The stick should not extend sideways outside of the penalty box. Let their strikers tire out between the penalty box and sideline. When they center the ball, you’ll have plenty of defenders to contest their attack

8- PK’s are OK

There is nothing wrong with a tie. Prepare your team for penalty kicks. It’s fun to end your practices with penalty kick drills. A great drill is to put an assistant coach in the goal with your goalie and another player. Have the three spread out, each defending a third of the goal. Have your players line up in an arc around the goal and have them launch balls into the net at once. It’s great practice, and it makes a real pk easier as there will only be one goalie and not three.

Teach your kids to “pass” the ball into the net with the inside of their foot rather than trying to launch it with their inside toe. This is a more accurate shot from a short distance, and nearly as powerful.

This stick and wedge works and provides a formation with the most defense. Start strong on defense and add more offense as needed later in the game. Find a goalie first, and fill in the rest of your team. There’s nothing wrong with a tie. You now have the knowledge to put your team in a position to win and have a successful season!

Have you ever guessed how the deficiency of soccer coaching and playing experience relate to the proficiency and confidence of a coach? Following are some aspects that are required in a coach or may also be considered the qualities of a coach.

Personality: Experience is very good but nothing works better than the personality. A coach’s success is generally the result of his personality, whether the end-result is a fun game without any physical and mental pressures or the creation of a consistently strong team.

Knowledge of the game: It’s imperative for a coach to be ready to learn new strategies and latest techniques in soccer. Making yourself familiar with the game’s rules, strategies, and tactics is essential to winning the respect.

Enthusiasm and interest: In the middle of soccer training program, be a salesperson. Once interest in the session is developed, motivating players becomes fairly easy. It’s also crucial to be open to a player’s needs with respect to the aims of the team, irrespective of their age. If you encourage questions, they are certain to enjoy the game.

Persistence and Patience: It is bad to ignore the inability of the player to perform soccer drills. When a player cannot perform well, he or she does not show the inclination for lessons. Setting goals that are unreal leads to frustration in players. So, show patience and be persistent in developing player’s motivation from one practice session to another.

Ability to manage priorities: Develop a step-by-step technique of learning using which the players can learn and move forward. At the time of soccer coaching, the players should have adequate time to practice what they have learnt in the sessions. Only when each player has become an expert in a certain skill, teach the new one.

Single-mindedness: A coach must genuinely be interested in the skills and social and moral behavior of each player. If you remain sensitive to their needs and aspirations, you will surely win them over. In order to be a great player, strength of character in victory as well as in defeat builds the foundation for a player’s success.

Understand the learning process: A superior understanding of the learning process results in overall development of the team. Inspire the players to go all out in doing exercises that make a difference to their thinking and acting.

Stimulate the players to learn soccer skills through participation, demonstration, and guidance. The learning process ends only when the kids do what they have been taught. Learning needs active experience and not only teaching.

Imagination: Develop situations that challenge the player’s imaginations, bring them pleasure in performing tasks, and serve important game drills. Inspire the players to make their sessions enjoyable and interesting.

In your own interest, use these soccer coaching attributes and you will see yourself rise to the heights of soccer coaching. If you would like to enhance your knowledge on soccer coaching for kids, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that has a huge amount of information in form of articles, newsletters and videos.

Modern day soccer can generally trace it's beginning to England in the 1800's although many countries and cultures can lay claim to forms of soccer dating back centuries. Who knows ancient man likely kicked around rocks in prehistoric forms of soccer.

Among popular stories about the origin of soccer is from the 8th century when a Prince from Denmark was beheaded. The story is told that his head was kicked around on the ground and used like ball. King Edward III had to pass laws attempting to stop people from playing the game as it's origins are claimed to have resulted in injury and death.

But generally modern soccer can be traced to England in the 1800's played by the upper classes, the Aristocracy. It was long before soccer was played by the common classes and that's where it's popular ultimately took hold. Soccer is a simple and inexpensive sport and was easily adopted throughout the world. Many countries live and die by their beloved soccer clubs and teams.

Founded in 1863 the London Football Association formalized the games rules throughout Europe. Soon professional teams were formed and soccer heros were born.

Soccer spread quickly and was first played in the Olympics in 1900 at the turn of the Century. In 1904 the Federation Internationale de Football Association known as FIFA was created and the first World Cup competitions were held in 1930. Every four years the 24 best teams from around the world compete for the World Cup.

In the United States the United States Soccer Federation was formed in 1913, but soccer has never gained the widespread popularity that soccer enjoys in the rest of the world.

In America to call soccer "football" is unacceptable. Football in America is a completely different sport. Soccer has found widespread popularity in schools and soccer clubs throughout the US since the mid seventies and American soccer teams have done well in international play.

Major League Soccer (MLS), founded in 1993, consisted of 10 teams when it began it's first season of competition in 1996. An estimated 3 million fans watched the playoffs that year. Today in 2010 MLS consists of 16 teams and will expand to 18 teams on 2011.

As the sport of soccer evolved so did the soccer ball. Possibly the very first ball was a human head, or human skulls. Heads and skulls not being acceptable today, the evolution of the soccer ball through the years has consisted of sewn-up wads of cloth, even animal bladders, to finally the introduction of a leather ball.

Later the invention of rubber led to Charles Goodyear creating a rubberized soccer ball in 1855. After FIFA was formed standardization of the soccer ball was included in the formal rules that were adopted. Today inflatable soccer balls are used that are not only suitable for kicking but can be "headed" without knocking out the player due to the heavy leather initially used.

Soccer shows no signs of slowing down throughout the world, it's growth in terms of both professional teams and recreational plays promise to continue and prosper.