Every sport has its lingo, and getting this terminology down is part of learning the game. Just as much as we want to teach the kids about the mechanics of passing and throw-ins and the personal values of discipline and sportsmanship, we also want to teach them the precise language of the sport. One of the challenges is that different sports use the same words to mean different things, or they use different words to mean the same things.
The most obvious example in soccer is that, everywhere else in the world, the game is called "football". Here in the US, of course, football is something completely different (and it's called "American football" everywhere else).
All of the adults involved in teaching the children the game -- the official ones like the coaches and referees, and the unofficial but still very important parents -- should all be conscious of consistently using the correct language for soccer, and of not mixing in lingo from other sports as slang.
IN SOCCER SAY THIS |
NOT THIS |
| touch lines | side lines, foul lines, base lines |
| goal area, penalty area | goal box, penalty box, batters box |
| goalkeepers, keepers | goalies (goalies wear masks) |
| offside | offsides |
| handling, handling foul | handball |
| attackers, defenders | offenders |
| halfway line | center line, 50 yd line, midfield stripe |
| penalty arc | top of the key |
| penalty kick, penalty mark | free throw, free throw line |
| 18 yard line | top of the box |
| mid-half break, substitution break | quarter break |
Think about how these sound to you:
- In football, we could have a wide catcher, while in baseball the guy crouched down behind home plate is the receiver with a receiver's mitt and receiver's mask
- We could call shooting the puck to the other end of the rink "frosting the puck"
- In baseball, we could have the passer walk out to the passer's mound, or the thrower walk out to the thrower's mound
Pretty silly ? Let's not talk silly about soccer either.
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