You must make friends before you can build skills (The myth of competitiveness.) @JOYofthePEOPLE #ThePlaychronicles   ...

A recent twitter eruption over kids at practice kicking against a wall set the internet on fire with coaches and scientific skill experts...

"Primum non nocere" (first, do no harm) --Hippocratic Oath Youth sport is broken. Too many resources thrown at a system that too often ...

In the great documentary "Get Back," George Harrison, a genius in his own right, is trying to put words on Eric Clapton's guitar playing:...

Joy of the People, a non-profit a 501 (c)(3) that promotes the idea of free play as a way to build healthy kids and communities is...

Tuesday, January 20, 2009 Joy of the people (This is my very first blog post, we had not yet decided to name our project 'Joy of the...

I have a nice DA story, I feel I helped kill it... In 2007 the USSF announced they were opening up applications for the new "Development...

Sunday, March 22, 2009 Two Stories This from 2009. Trying to Pitch our club to merge with a new elite academy, a who's who/original...

“The only people who change the world are those crazy enough to think they can” Two of the greatests products of this century were...

Soccerex, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. (adapted from a 2013 post) At the Brazil CBF booth they had a loop of film showing all the goals in...

Attack the discovery, attack the fun. “Each time one prematurely teaches a child something he could have discovered himself, that child...

(adapted from my post in 2014) The world's finest youth academy is not the best developmental system. In the summer of 2014 we brought in...

In 1969 a school bus loaded with 17 kids, a student mgr, and two coaches crammed with hockey bags, left a Minnesota town on the Canadian...

Ajax, Cruyff and Vasovic By Velibor Vasović, the first 'Total Soccer" Sweeper. Your patience will be rewarded, one of the best articles...

"Beauty comes first, victory is secondary. What matters is joy." --Sócrates Brasileiro de Oliveira We understand winning, We know how to...

The hierarchy of learning: elements of play Reprinted from a 2012 blogpost What creates a great free play environment? A friend with a...

"The environment is everything, mess with it, have fun with it, take care of it. "