TrueNorth Soccer Camps

11/28/2024

I enjoy the long reads, but usually when its arrival is on a long weekend! This one hits the spot as I juggle between eliminating weeds to create my domestic mono-culture and trying to find better plants that will actually grow well in our weird, clay-based soil

The long read: Across the globe, vast swathes of land are being left to be reclaimed by nature. To see what could be coming, look to Bulgaria

11/28/2024

It is hard to shake the slight feeling of guilt about enjoying a cruise (e.g. ours to Alaska) when you know how bad it can be for the environment

In a booming sector where the biggest ships have doubled in size since 2000, pressure is growing to make cruising a greener, more sustainable way to travel

11/28/2024

One of the most satisfying football days to be a Liverpool fan

The young Liverpool full-back produced a brilliant tackle to deny the Real Madrid star in the night’s defining image

11/28/2024

Centrist politics is , unfortunately, near fatal in the modern environment

The party must return to its progressive roots. A new economy is needed with new rules and new roles

12/14/2023

Coaching carousel: Jeff Thomas leaving North girls soccer
Jim Gordillo
The Herald-Times

Growing up in New Zealand, a then 23-year-old Jeff Thomas had a chance to participate in a three-month outing in his home country that was sponsored by the Raleigh International.

In 1992, Operation Raleigh became Raleigh International Trust, a charity that works to "create sustainable change on a wide range of projects around climate change, water and sanitation, sustainable enterprise and social accountability," the website says.

Today, it uses past participants as adult leaders and that's where Thomas comes in 40 years later, with Raleigh now sponsoring trips to Costa Rica and South Africa, which is where Thomas will find himself this summer. As a result, he is stepping down after a four-year run as the head girls' soccer coach at Bloomington North.

"It's a chance for me to give back," Thomas said.

He'll be living in Kruger National Park in June, July and August, running logistics for the base camp. He'll be helping guide young adults through various projects that include community development (building a school or painting a building), the environment (building a garden or making an improvement to the park), and then an adventure component, such as a long hike.

No soccer is involved.

"When I did it 40 years ago, I spent a month living on a rock off the west coast of New Zealand, doing wildlife projects," Thomas said. "It's a chance to give back and it's something that will not come around again."

A break from soccer
Thomas said he'll likely continue to coach travel and club teams when he returns to the States but his high school coaching days are over, for now.

North was 7-9-2 last season, following two 7-8 campaigns. A big freshman class is coming in.

"I was happy to have the freedom to build what you might call a development program," Thomas said. "I was able to see more of the incoming freshmen before they get there, so I was able to streamline the experience between high school and travel ball.

"There were some good ones and close losses and a couple of heavy defeats every year. But you've got to be resilient."

10/06/2023

Form in sport rises and dips…often on a whim. When you’re ‘on it’, it feels like form will partner with us forever. And when you’ve lost it, it feels like form will never accompany our game again.

With just under 400 bones in a body and a nervous system awash with competing hormones it’s unsurprising absolute consistency of performance is unobtainable. It’s understandable that timing of movement is obstructed and rhythm of motion is inhibited.

Perhaps less obvious is how to deal with drops in form and how to invite back high performance. Less obvious because, at least in my experience, the more a sporting competitor tries to capture form the more elusive it can tend to be.

You cannot force form. You cannot simply make it happen!

If anything, experience has taught me that competitors engulfed in low performance and low confidence would be best served cultivating patience and immersing themselves in process.

Patience and process…patience and process:

“I can’t force my performance…so relax, calm, keep doing the same good things daily, keep doing the same good things weekly…”

Patience and process…patience and process.

Perhaps trying to force things brings with it a muscular tightness and a mind so anxious that concentration and body fluidity becomes more distant than proximal. Or perhaps attempting to make form happen invites in such urgency that awareness atrophies and decision-making flusters.

Whatever the reason, when it comes to regaining form in sport the opposite of the intuitive appears true…

“Calm, relax, patience…process. I got this. Keep doing the same good things daily. I got this. I got this…”

03/08/2023

Not every athlete on a youth sports team will be the star of the game but parents should focus on raising team players instead of standout athletes.

02/08/2023

Footballers, coaches and scientists give their views on whether lethal strikers are born or bred

07/26/2022

07/13/2022

QUOTE SOURCE: Cruyff Football

You will see potential if you focus on ability. You will begin to see the player when you focus on decision making. There is just one problem: most people see it the other way around!