Spring Break
The Daily OrangeSchonbrun: Soccer emerges as training tool for star athletes
By Zach Schonbrun
Posted: 10/14/08, 3:51 AM EST Section: Sports
Foti remembered NBA Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon and former Pro Bowl running back Christian Okoye - both Nigerian exports - as examples of athletes who used soccer as a base for their athletic achievements. For both, the recipe was in the footwork.
"I think the thing they all realize, and I think a lot of athletes can trace their roots back to soccer, is it's just great for developing coordination," Foti said. "It's unbelievable for your agility, your coordination, your mobility, and that type of thing. And that translates to almost any sport."
Has ballet been replaced as a football player's guilty pleasure? Seems simplicity is in as an underground sports fad. Athletes rain dough on hyperbaric chambers and 24-hour trainers to help them keep shape. Others, like Nash, reap the benefits of sport diversity.
Nash has said soccer helps him with his court vision and spacing, enabling him to hit runners and cutters the way a midfielder would. Welker and Moss attest to its helpfulness with their balance. And though Nadal is confined to a 39-by-27-foot court, it doesn't take a virtuoso to see where his greatest athletic strength lies.
"Like tennis, always trying to get to the ball, I think it would just be an easy translation once you get your soccer footwork," SU senior forward Kyle Hall said.
For the ignorant American who scoffs at European "football," there's Kobe. For the bloodthirsty NFL fan who thinks soccer's for softies, there's Moss.
On any fall Saturday morning in America, recreational parks are filled with sweat-drenched children in colored jerseys and size-6 cleats getting their first taste of competition. Soccer remains a bedrock among United States youth activities. It has its role as an establishment for many, before baseball, football and basketball can take hold.
That it gets overshadowed as a foundation for American athletics is a consequence of closed-minded fanaticism - and red-blooded consumerism. Sprite follows basketball courts, not soccer balls.
"I think the thing they all realize, and I think a lot of athletes can trace their roots back to soccer, is it's just great for developing coordination," Foti said. "It's unbelievable for your agility, your coordination, your mobility, and that type of thing. And that translates to almost any sport."
Has ballet been replaced as a football player's guilty pleasure? Seems simplicity is in as an underground sports fad. Athletes rain dough on hyperbaric chambers and 24-hour trainers to help them keep shape. Others, like Nash, reap the benefits of sport diversity.
Nash has said soccer helps him with his court vision and spacing, enabling him to hit runners and cutters the way a midfielder would. Welker and Moss attest to its helpfulness with their balance. And though Nadal is confined to a 39-by-27-foot court, it doesn't take a virtuoso to see where his greatest athletic strength lies.
"Like tennis, always trying to get to the ball, I think it would just be an easy translation once you get your soccer footwork," SU senior forward Kyle Hall said.
For the ignorant American who scoffs at European "football," there's Kobe. For the bloodthirsty NFL fan who thinks soccer's for softies, there's Moss.
On any fall Saturday morning in America, recreational parks are filled with sweat-drenched children in colored jerseys and size-6 cleats getting their first taste of competition. Soccer remains a bedrock among United States youth activities. It has its role as an establishment for many, before baseball, football and basketball can take hold.
That it gets overshadowed as a foundation for American athletics is a consequence of closed-minded fanaticism - and red-blooded consumerism. Sprite follows basketball courts, not soccer balls.
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