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John Califf
UWRT 1101
Ms. Jamie Burgess
November 21, 2014
What is Soccer? (1)
There are many different types of communities in todays world. No one person has
experienced every community possible nor have they gotten close. Hopefully this will give you
some insight into a community that you have yet to experience in your life. That community is
soccer. I have played different sports for fun and been on competitive teams before and this is
not like many others that I have participated in. Not only is the way that the game is played
different but the language is different alone. Most people know the concept of soccer but not the
language that we use. Not only did I interview people who participated in this community but I
also participated myself on different teams ever since I was four years old and have seen the
language change myself. (2)
People will say that they understand soccer but in reality they do not understand it in the
way that other players and myself do. When someone says square most people think of a liter
square with four even sides but I think of something completely different. To me square means
that someone wants the ball passed to them and they are directly to your left or right. This can
take time to get used to because there are so many different terms for how you want a pass. You
can call for a pass by saying different words like square, drop, through, cross, switch fields, weak
side, overlap, corner, header, or even eighteen.(3) These all indicate where you are when they
pass the ball or where you want them to place the ball when they pass it. If you call out drop that

means that you are behind the person with the ball and you want them to flick the ball back to
you. This is similar to overlap because when you say overlap you run past them and then they
kick the ball up in front of you where you are running to. A cross is a long ball that you want in
front of you while you are a good distance beside them. This is similar to switch the field
because when you call switch the field that means that you are on the complete opposite side of
the field as them, this is another way to say weak side too. Corner means exactly what you think,
place the ball at the corner flag. When you hear someone yell eighteen that means that they want
you to give them the ball right on the eighteen yard marker or the top of the goalie box. Lastly a
header is when you want them to give the ball in the air so that you can head the ball. (4)
There is also different terminology for different parts of soccer like how to guard
someone for instance. Some people will call out the number of the opposing teams players to
indicate that they are guarding them or that they are wide open and you need someone to step up
on them. When you and your teammate are guarding one player they call out either ball or
cover. The person who calls ball steps up to man with the ball and covers them. The player who
calls cover stands staggered to the man who called ball and will try and intercept the pass if they
were to try and pass the ball.
The refs, who are usually dressed in a yellow and black stripped shirt with black shorts or
pants, even use their own terminology like red card, yellow card, offside, and blowing their
whistle is even a way that they communicate. The refs will sometimes start out with a warning
which means that they will keep close watch over you. If you were to commit another foul (5)
they can give you a yellow card which in high school soccer means that you have to be subbed
out but you can come back in. A red card is given after a yellow card and then you are out for
the rest of that game and cannot play the next game. For committing a foul the other team can be

awarded a free kick or a penalty kick which means that you get a one on one shot against the
goalie. When a player is called for being offside that means that they were past the last opposing
player and the ball was passed to them resulting in the other team getting the ball.
The coaches also have a language that they use to communicate. One of my coaches
would use the words red light or green light. (6) This was used to decide how the team would
play. If he yelled out red light that would mean no scoring for a while and he would want us to
try and just possess the ball. When that period of time was over he would say green light which
meant that he would want us to attack when we have the ball and try and score on the opposing
team. If he were to yell out gap, only when we were playing defense, that means that there is a
hole in the middle of the field and one of the opponents was in the hole and had too much room
and no one covering him. Then someone would pick him up and the team would shift according
to whom left their position to cover them.
The way that soccer players look is also different. For football the players are all padded
up from head to toe and in baseball there is no padding. Soccer has minimal padding with only
shin guards covered by tall socks that look like the rest of your teammates socks. Wearing
identical jerseys to your teammates helps you tell the difference from one team to the other.
Some players wear short sleeve jerseys but others myself included prefer long sleeve jerseys.
The captain usually is noticeable due to the yellow band on his arm with a bold black C on the
side. The captain is supposed to treat his team the way that he would want to be treated but at
the same time he has to be loud and harsh at times. The reason that he needs to be loud or harsh
is because his responsibility is to carry the team on his back. Being loud at the right times can do
a few different things. One thing that being loud can get across is for the teammate to do his job
the right way if he is not doing it to the best of his ability. Another way that being loud can be

helpful is to get the team as a whole into a game mode. This can pump them up when the team
already has momentum going with them which can be deadly of the other team is not expecting
this. (7)
Teams tend to act and carry themselves the same way during practice and games. While
practice is to be taken seriously and is a game like manor there is more room for goofing off. At
both times for the team to complete their tasks to the best way possible they must function
together as a whole on the same channel. If one player is not feeling it that day it tends to have
an effect on the team as a whole. It is important to treat practice as an actual game because then
you will always be in game mode and know how to carry that momentum from practice over to
the next game. (8)
When you sit and watch soccer you see everything differently than when you are playing.
You can see every little detail that is missed while you are on the field playing from every little
gap to every player that is not marked. This is so because while you are playing the game, yes
you are supposed to be watching for every detail but you get caught up in the moment. When
you (9) get caught up in the moment you tend to mess up and you can forget a player to mark
which can hurt the whole team. The whole team can be hurt by this because if you dont have a
man to mark then a teammate has to pick them up which means that there will always be a man
open. The best way to avoid this is to use the key words that I have mentioned earlier in the
paper to communicate with your team. I have heard this from my coach many times and have
also experienced it myself with watching not only my old high school team play but also with
watching the mens team at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte play. While
interviewing my friend he also concluded that you miss things that happen on the field compared
to watching the game.

Different communities have different goals and aspects about them that make them
unique. Some are similar to one another while they can also be drastically different. I would
encourage people to try and get involved in as many as the possibly can because one day you
might be trying a new one and find out that you like it a lot more than you thought that you
would.

Dear John,
Youve got a really solid piece of writing here, and really showing your understanding of the
assignment: to think about the language practices of a certain community. I think the best
thing you can do for your essay is to put in some concrete examples from your observations.
Right now it all feels a little ungrounded, and I think some direct quotes, examples, and
anecdotes are just the evidence you need to really get your point across! Both your
introduction and your conclusion seem to move away from soccerdid you have a specific
purpose in doing it that way? If so, maybe you can make that clearer to the reader. If not,
maybe you want to reconsider how you write them and tie them to the rest of the essay. This
funnel effectstarting general and then getting more specificis certainly a strategy to
writing an introduction or conclusion, but Im sure there are lots and lots of other ways to
approach it, so just have a second look before the portfolio! I learned a lot from your essay and
really enjoyed reading about this community where you clearly have authority and experience.
That authority makes your writing stronger! Thank you for sharing this with me and Im really
looking forward to reading your portfolio!
Jamie
Comments:
(1) Thank you for a creative title!
(2) I like how you are bringing in your personal experience here. It helps to give you
authority as an experienced player. I am wondering if your observation gave you insight
that you hadnt thought about before as a player? When you set out to observe and
analyze, did you see the game with new eyes?
(3) Whoa! I had no idea that it was so complex! This is a really interesting way to bring in
the communicative aspect of the sport.
(4) Did you notice any of these in your observation or interview? For example, maybe
someone used the wrong term one time, or a term you didnt expect? Or maybe soccer
players just know innately and that would never happen! Im just wondering if you can

(5)

(6)
(7)
(8)

(9)

support these with some anecdote or quotation from your observation or interview
notes
Even this means something quite specific in soccer, doesnt it! A foul is a general sports
term, but I am wondering if there is a difference between this and basketball for
example!
Maybe, like the article we read from Brannick, the coaches are their own discourse
community!
Love thisyou are focusing on language and modes of discourse. Can you find an
example from your observations?
Do you think each team becomes its own discourse community or do you think soccer
teams in general form one larger community? Because it seems here like you might be
able to say that each one is its own!
In the beginning of this paragraph, you are using you as a pronoun for people in
general, but that isnt what you means and it isnt true of all peopleits only true of
soccer players. So, I think you can go two ways here: you can write with I, and speak
from experience, or you can write with soccer players and use they. Try it out and
see how you feel!