Soccer-Gym

A NEW SPIRIT POINT SYSTEM IS IN TOWN. At the Sport and Social Club, ‘improvement’ is the name of the game. We are constantly seeking feedback from our players because our Club wouldn’t be our Club without you. Over the past several months, our team has been working on a full overhaul of our Spirit Point System to better match what our players value most, and to make our processes for managing sportsmanship issues at league nights cleaner and faster. This past Winter 2023 season, several divisions were selected to trial the new system and provide their feedback. Their feedback?

FIFA Law #8: The Start and Restart of Play: Kick-off occurs at the start of each half, and after each goal scored, and is taken at the center of the halfway line.

In the past, all kick-offs required the ball to move forward, into the other team’s half, before allowing the team in possession to pass back. This often required two teammates standing at half, with one tapping the ball forward and then passing the ball back to the rest of the team. However, as of 2017, FIFA adapted this rule to allow the ball to be played in any direction on a kick-off!

While having variety is the ‘spice of life’, we understand that having multiple Soccer formats to choose from can be intimidating when registering, or a little confusing when playing in different formats night to night. This can especially be the case when there are slight rule variances among said options. In order to help you and your team navigate through the different Soccer offerings, we have put together a chart to show which rules apply to which formats to help simplify the differences. 


We have all experienced those players on our team, you know, the one who only shows up to about 40% of your league games. Their excuses are always (somewhat) valid – “I’m swamped at work,” “My car got stuck in the snow,” “I had to feed Mr. Meowington” – but they usually pay their league fees in full and they’re always up for a post-game beer, so we put up with them anyway.

You don’t want to play short (again) so you need to find a sub. This can sometimes be a tedious task, so here are a few tips to help simplify your quest:

WHO TO ASK

The last third of the court in Gym Soccer is where most of the excitement happens, from amazing one-two plays leading to goals being scored, to strong defensive plays that turn into great counterattacks! Although there is a lot of excitement and action there are two areas in the last third of the court that cause a lot of confusion and grief for players: Corners and Creases! 

In Gym Soccer the ball is often played into the corner, and in the heat of the game both players fly after it forgetting everything they should be doing when a corner ball happens. 

Ahhh the good ol’ advantage rule. It’s designed to avoid unnecessary stoppages and in turn, improve the flow of the game! Here’s the official rule from our rulebook:

The Advantage Rule refers to an instance when a foul occurs and the result is that the team fouled against is not disadvantaged by the play and therefore there are no consequences and the play continues. 

Let’s break it down, shall we?

If you play in our Indoor Soccer leagues, you know there’s a whole new element of strategy and tactics to the game with regard to the walls of the facility. Most players don’t know how to use the walls effectively, so by learning how to do so, you can get a huge advantage over them and become a vastly better player.

The first important thing to note is what angle the wall is at. On the sides of the field, the wall is probably straight. However, in the corners, the walls are often curved instead of being at right angles. I’ll help you out with each of these three cases.

Whether you are a veteran ESSCer or are new to the Club, you know that all of our leagues are self-officiated. Yes, we run our leagues this way on purpose, and no, it’s not because we don’t want to deal with the added cost of a referee.

The ESSC is above all a fun-first league that focuses on “play”; namely, “adult play.” We always position ourselves in this way and we truly believe in our fun-first, winning-second philosophy. We also believe that most adults can regulate themselves appropriately in play, so why give someone a babysitter when they don’t need it?