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Last Updated 11/6/00

So, how is it that Tiger can seem to pull those amazing tricks out of a hat? Sure, he's got great skills: averaging 300 yard drives, and awesome putting. So do other pro golfers - Tiger just seems to do it more often.

I believe that his greatest skill is his mental toughness and ability to focus, never wavering in his concentration on the task at hand. The margin for error is very small, and what sets him apart from the pack is his ability to focus. Did you notice he took a double bogey on the third hole (two over par). That would have rattled most pros. Not Tiger. He had the exact same situation two holes later, but hit an impossible shot to within 5 feet and sunk the putt for a par. The man has ice cubes in his veins.

He did not focus on what his competitors were doing. Although he was in the lead after Friday, he was the first one on the practice tee at 5:30 AM Saturday. He didn't get off the course until 8:00 PM that night (fifteen hours later!). Through it all he focused on his goal. After he won the tournament and virtually shattered 100 year old records, he was interviewed and simply said: "I came here to win."

In the highest echelons of every competitive sport, the differences between the those that consistently win and those that don't isn't their physical ability. It's mental fitness. Do you go out and stay focused: in practice? in the game? in school? Have you ever seen Tiger Woods bowling or swing a baseball bat? Maybe he can, but he doesn't. If you want be a champion in life you need to learn to focus and not be distracted. Don't compare your performance to how your competition is doing. Set personal goals, write them on a piece of paper and paste them to your bathroom mirror so it's the first thing you see when you go to bed and the first thing you see when you wake up.

You can accomplish the same type of victory in soccer that Tiger has accomplished in golf if you stay focused. Is your goal is to become a member of a national championship team? By reaching that goal, many of your dreams will come true. You will stand in that winners' circle some day by staying mentally tough and staying focused, not only in the game, but in every aspect of practice and physical conditioning.


Why the offside rule came about?

Originally, soccer was a game without tactics or coaches.   Players improvised, trying this and that, and re-using what worked.  Dribbling naturally became a singular source of improvisation and was considered the preferred way to move the ball--as opposed to lateral, back, or worst of all, forward passes.   In 1863, the rules committees completely banned the forward pass to encourage more dribbling and because it was thought that the forward pass tempted players into lurking around the goal mouth, where they could turn a quick upfield pass into a goal.  This was considered a cheap way of scoring because, in a sense, the goal was not really earned; that is, the offense didn't really have to overcome any resistance from the defense in order to score.  So under the new rule, any player who ran ahead of the lead dribbler to receive a pass was considered "out of play" (as it was then called) or offside, and possession of the ball was given to the defense. 

In 1866, however, the rules committee changed course somewhat and revised the rule so that a player could receive a forward pass as long as there were at least three opponents between him and the goal line.  Over time, this change did reduce the the number of cheap goals.  In fact, it was so effective that attacking teams rarely scored and the game began to bog down into many 0-0 ties.  The rule was subsequently relaxed to allow forward passes as long as there were at least two opponents between the lead attacker and the goal line, as it is today.  Although the number of defenders required for the play to be onside was reduced, allowing for a reasonable amount of scoring, the spirit of the rule has remained intact.  The offense must still earn the goal by defeating at least two defenders (counting the goalie as one defender), not by taking advantage of over-the-top passes to unmarked attackers hanging around the goal.  

Offside calls are the most controversial in soccer, but sometimes, when a call doesn't go one's way, it is helpful to remember that the rule is in place to make sure goals are truly earned, and thereby to preserve the integrity of the competition and the game.

Source: The Simplest Game, Paul Gardner; various texts

Soccer Was Sometimes Spelled Socker?

Soccer and Rugby were originally the same game, and "hacking" or deliberate kicking of the opponent's leg, was permitted, in addition to the use of the hands.  The game was originally played without field boundaries, often in the streets of towns, with any number of players.  The play grew so rough that various attempts were made to outlaw the game, including a royal ban in the 15th century, but none succeeded. 

In the mid-nineteen hundreds, Matthew Arnold, famed for reforming and humanizing the often brutal English public school system, organized the street game into two distinct categories, each to be played on a field--rugby, which continued to allow use of the hands by all players; and association football or soccer, which limited players to use of the feet, except for the goalie.  Arnold also outlawed hacking in soccer--which is why tackles in modern soccer must involve contact with the ball.  These changes were first introduced by Arnold at Eaton, and through the association, all participating schools were eventually to adopt these rules when playing "football" (soccer) and "rugby" (introduced at the Rugby public school).  The kicking game came to be known as the "association" game, soon shortened to "soccer," and sometimes spelled "socker."

And now you know!

When the First Recorded Soccer Game Was Played?

The first recorded soccer game probably took place on a Shrove Tuesday in Derby, England, as part of a festival to celebrate the victory of English soldiers over a contingent of Roman troops (A.D. 217). By 1175 the annual Shrove Tuesday soccer game was a regular event. The sport remained popular for many centuries in England under the name football.  It is important to remember, however, that during the Roman occupation of Britain, as part of their campaign to retain control of the Anglo-Saxons, Roman soliders often played soccer using the skulls of their enemies as balls.  Such are the vicissitudes of soccer.

A Charming Short History of the Game

The kicking of inflated bladders on public greens in towns and villages was a popular diversion for youths of the lower classes in Great Britain as early as the 16th century, but was generally unpopular among mature persons of whatever class because of the shouting and hallooing attendant upon it.  Despite this disapproval, the sport continued to exist wherever specific ordinances were not enacted prohibiting it.   Many such ordinances were passed, but the sport always reappeared after the laws against it had been forgotten or allowed to lapse.  Up to the beginning of the 19th century, middle- and upper-class youths generally disdained the kicking sport and kept to their rods, their guns, their horses and their swords, but with the development of the British public schools conditions were changed.  By the turn of the 19th century, such youths, who would have been permitted, two or three centuries earlier, to roam their ancestral fields at will and grow up virtually unlettered, found themselves cooped up together in the constantly growing public schools.  Their youthful energy was not diminished by their changed estate, and outlets became a vital need.  The boys found it themselves--in the "rowdy" game which had been played on British greens for centuries.  University undergraduates continued to look on the kicking sport as boisterous and undignified and totally unsuited to young gentlemen headed toward scholarly lives.  For this attitude, instructors and professors gave silent thanks. 

After the game became popular in the public schools, in October 1863, football enthusiasts at Cambridge finally agreed upon a set of uniform rules and had them published, with a prohibition against carrying the ball, on December 1, 1863, following a meeting at Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen street, London.  Blackheath, the club that had led the fight for running with the ball, promptly withdrew from the conference and went its independent way.  The two great divisions of British football had thus been definitely delineated.  The "kicking" group published the first uniform set of rules, entitled "Rules of the London Football Association."   And from that grew the modern sport of association football or soccer.

Source: "Football," Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1946.