Youth soccer training tips, development insights, and updates from the FlickTec team.
The entry-level referee license has a minimum age of 13, no fitness test and no playing requirement. Here is what the grassroots course involves, what your state charges, and what youth games actually pay.
Shin splints are diffuse pain along the inner shinbone — and the moment that pain shrinks to a single point, it stops being shin splints. What the research says about causes, recovery time, and the sign that means stop resting and get it looked at.
In one study of 1,003 academy players, 45% came from the oldest quarter of the age band and under 10% from the youngest — yet testing showed the early-born players were no bigger or faster. What a late birthday really costs, and what the new August cutoff changes.
Runny nose, no fever, kickoff in an hour — the most common health decision in youth soccer, and the one with the least guidance attached to it. Here is what the "neck check" is, why a fever is the one firm line, and how to come back after a week off.
The soccer clock runs while nothing is happening and keeps running while everything is. Here's how referees actually keep time, why added time is always a minimum, and why your child's game follows different rules than the one on TV.
The back-pass rule is the most misunderstood law on any youth touchline: it looks like handball, it isn't, and it turns entirely on whether the ball was kicked. Here is what Law 12 actually says.
The "58% more injuries on turf" figure comes from the weakest study in the literature — while the most rigorous review finds modern turf broadly comparable to grass, with one exception. What the research actually supports, and why the footwear matters more than the field.
Soccer IQ is not a personality trait. Researchers have measured it, and it comes down largely to head movement — what elite players see before the ball reaches them, and how a young player learns to do the same.
A traditional soccer ball has 32 panels — 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons — but no rule requires it, and recent World Cup balls have had as few as four. Here's what actually decides how a ball flies.
Soccer requires just five items — but the rules on earrings, casts, glasses, base layers and smartwatches are where families get caught out, and club, high school and college rulebooks all disagree. Here is what each one actually says.
