Travelling to Chicago

I am writing this blog on a Friday afternoon on my Mac while sitting in the “motor coach”, as the bus driver told us to call it. We just left from Notre Dame with the first men’s soccer team and we are off to Chicago were we will be playing a soccer match tomorrow against Illinois Tech University.
The ride to Chicago will be about 6 hours and this isn’t the first time we’re going to Chicago. Two weekends ago we went to Chicago as well and it was a bit of a disaster. We traveled for 7 hours to there and when we came there it was about 1 am in the night. Although we saw the skyline of Chicago in the evening as we drove by it, the hotel where we stayed at was 20 minutes away from the city. This was unfortunate as we hadn’t time to see the city of Chicago where I heard so much positive stories about.
Furthermore we lost the weather was misery all 2 days long and we lost are first match of the season which leaded to a movement from place number 11 to number 24 on the national NAIA-ranking. The next day the weather was so bad that we had to go back in order to play our second match of the tournament on the road. Happily we won this match which a smashing 5-1 as we had to make up the disgraceful 1-0 loss the day before. Also I did not played at all because of an light injury and the competitive teammates which are really good players. So it was a bit disappointing as I traveled 14 hours for it. The only though the atmosphere in the bus was really good.

This week I heard that we are going to Chicago again and I was really happy when I heard that we are staying in a beautiful Hotel next to the lake downtown Chicago. Also we’re getting some free time in the evening and in the morning to walk around in the city. I am happy with this because I love it to explore the world. I have already seen much country’s in the world like: South-Africa, Egypt, Swaziland, Sri Lanka Costa Rica, Nicaragua, America, Turkey, Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Suisse, England, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg, Belgium etcetera and I will always like to explore more big cities, cultures and country’s.

So we are two hours on the road now and I have two seats for my own, which makes it really attractive to take a nap. Therefore I will now finish my blog about traveling to Chicago, exciting to see Chicago and win our conference match tomorrow.

Travelling to Chicago

Different soccer kicks.

I am writing about different soccer kicks, this is probably my research topic too. The reason why they interest me is of course because I am playing soccer for almost 13 years. But moreover I never heard that this topic has been used for research which makes it more interesting for me.

There basically are 4 different ways to kick a soccer ball.

Firstly you have the kick with the inside of the foot. This type of kick is only used for short passes because the nose of the foot has to turn to the outside of the body whereby you can hit the ball with the inside of the foot. This makes it really hard to hit the ball strong enough for a long ball or a shot on goal. However the pass is really accurate, which makes it by far the most used kick in soccer.

Secondly you have the kick with the outside of the foot. This kick is not used very often as it is quit difficult to deliver the ball properly with this kick. Moreover this kick is , just like the first called kick used for short and sometimes long passes. 

Thirdly there exists a kick by which you hit the ball with the nose of your shoe. This is practically never used in a real match and coaches will strongly advise you not to use this kick, because it has a few big disadvantages. At first it is not accurate at all, the ball is just launched of your foot because of the great flexibility of the nose of the shoe and your toes under it. Secondly if not done properly it can result in toe injuries or even a broken toe, as you hit the ball with the front of your toes. The only advantage you can think of with using this kick is that you can kick the ball really fast with this kick and that you don't have to turn your foot or your body for the kick, which means that you can use it quickly.

At last there is the kick with the top of the foot/the shoelace which we call the "wreef" in Holland. This type of kick can be used for almost every purpose. For long passes, short passes, shots on goal, crosses etc. Most of the goals are scored by the use of this kick. The advantages of this kick are that both the power of the kick and the accuracy of the kick are really good. If you watch a soccer match and see a powerful straight lined shot, you can know for sure that it was this kick. 

Finally I hoped you learned something about soccer by reading this article. It may sound a bit hard to understand as it is really descriptive. I will provide more visual aid such as pictures in my research assignment. Thanks for reading.