New Toccer website and logo

[omnivore]

I like the logo-it fits what the game is...

(BTW can the toccer fantasy league be far behind?)

A toccer fantasy league? That'd be awesome.

Ok, here is some background on toccer.

I worked at a summer camp in Connecticut, where I was the tennis director. Tennis really wasn't the biggest activity at the camp until three years ago when I'd went there and held that position.

Anyway, I returned last summer and we got a lot of rain. Tennis was doing great and we attractive a bunch of kids to the activity, despite there being a lot more to do at camp.

Because of the rain, we found other things to do to keep the kids occupied, since playing tennis in the field house tended to get old. We used to merge all kinds of crazy games using our racquets and a tennis ball - ultimately, it just came down to us seeing how much more creative we could get.

But toccer started off as a diversion. We played it, with about two rules for about a week or so. You had to score goals, using your racquet (or kicking the ball in..though no one has done that). That's all.

Eventually, the weather got better and the focus remained on tennis. I never seriously considered that toccer would really have any more legs outside of camp. I certainly didn't intend to buy a website and start promoting a sport.

But we kept playing and eventually, I realized two things:

1) Toccer brought me kids that would never pick up a tennis racquet and a ball otherwise.

2) Those kids usually gravitated to tennis - if only to learn how to be better at toccer - after a short while.

Once I realized that it could enhance my tennis program, by bringing me more kids, we decided to do it a lot more often.

Make no mistake, a lot of the pure tennis players hated it and never wanted anything to do with it. But day after day, we kept managing to entice more people to the game.

Why? Because unlike other sports, toccer doesn't have a Michael Jordan yet. There is no standard bearer for "awesomeness" in the game and thus, kids just play it. They get out there, pick up a racquet and go after it.

Kids that weren't particularly athletic, would see us playing and decide they wanted in on the action. Even counselors, staff and others decided to get in on the act, though initially they would deride the sport as a huge waste of time. "Ron, we paid you to teach tennis. Not toccer!"

Towards the end of the summer, kids approached me about taking the sport to their hometowns, or in some cases - home countries. Camp had kids from 11 states and a about six countries. Then, I had counselors interested in taking the sport back to where they'd come from.

Make a long story short, I realized that this little game was going to be far bigger than I'd envisioned. So, we sat down and wrote rules. Probably the first sport in the US where youth had a hand in helping to develop the game. Ultimately, I felt like if people between the ages of 6-17 were playing in it en masse and from such different backgrounds, there had to be something there.

Even the foreign kids from Japan or England or Latin America, were skeptical at first. They thought "tennis soccer" was a bit weird, but I promised them if they hated it after one game, they never had to play again. All of them came back for more and wanted to keep playing it. "Tennis soccer is better than real soccer," was the refrain from some. It certainly is for me, I can't stand playing soccer. But I can't get enough of toccer.

So, I left camp. We had rules and then, a website. And the sport has traveled via word of mouth all over the place. We're still formalization operations for the Toccer Players Association and have studied lots of other "new sports," to see what they've done right - and wrong - to ensure we avoid the pitfalls or adopt strategies to help the sport grow.

But still, the skpetics could easily look at this and go, "So what."

Here's a testament to the game's widespread appeal. I moved to Wyoming (the state) in November, because I was offered a job at a prep school for delinquent youth. My first day, the kids had questions for me. Just "getting to know you" type things about what I liked to do.

I told them, "I like to play toccer." They were obviously confused at first. But the more I talked to them about it, the more they wanted to know. So, after a week, I introduced the basics of the game to them - without racquets. We just played.

Then, they were hooked. Didn't matter if they were the badasses or the ones who weren't particularly athletic. Their eyes lit up the same way those camp kids did, when playing or talking about the sport.

There was just one problem. Toccer is an outdoor sport and if you've been to Wyoming, the weather isn't always the most pleasant. They didn't want to wait to play in the spring, so we developed an indoor version of the sport. This was also necessary, since in January 2005, ToccerCanada will begin formal operations in Calgary.

The rules are now eleven pages, up from just two rules back when we got started. People routinely inquire about the sport and how they can help get things started where they are.

I'll make another post to tell you specifically how the game is played (since there is a curiosity) and it'll be a lot shorter than this post

But since it's not everyday someone goes and creates a sport, then decides to spread it, I figured some background might be helpful.

[omnivore]

Toccer is a sport with two teams of eight players. The goal is to score more points in a set, than the other team. The first team to win two sets (out of three) wins the match.

The players are Goalkeeper, Defender, Attacker, Midfielder, Rover, Enabler, Sweeper.

The ways you score are: 4 points for a goal (hitting or kicking the ball into the goal with your racquet.)

3 points for a stamp - which is basically when the rover tries to get the ball past the goalkeeper (like a touchdown, essentially).

2 points for a challenge - where a rover drops his racquet at midfield and has three seconds to attempt to throw the ball into the goal.

1 point for a throw - the enabler tries to score behind the possession area (a 9-yard area in front of the goal) by throw the ball into the goal.

The goal is 4.5'x6'

Indoor Toccer is even more fast-paced, with fewer players. In Indoor, the players are the Goalkeeper, Defender, Attacker, Omnivore and Clasper

The omnivore is an all-purpose player with possibly the coolest position name in sports.

In indoor, you can score these ways:

5 points - Longshot goal (scoring a goal behind the midline/half-court)

4 points - Goal

3 points - Stamp

3 points - Roll (a roll is when the clasper or defender rolls the ball from behind the midline and into the goal.)

2 points - Challenge

1 point - Throw

Indoors, unlike outside..only two court players have racquets, as well as both goalkeepers. The Attacker always starts the game with a racquet and one other player is designated as a racquet player at the start of the game.

If they want to pass the racquet to someone else, they do so by 'bending' or bending on one knee and then passing the racquet to the player who comes to get it. You can 't intercept a bend or anything and no, one player can't have two racquets and the goalkeeper can't bend.

Teams can pull their defender when on offense, for a player called the "ALT" or alternate attacker. The Alternate attacker can only enter the offensive zone, when the defender leaves the court and cannot cross into the defensive zone.

[omnivore]

Someone want to design a ToccerCanada logo? Email meron@toccer.com

[omnivore]

Indoor toccer madness...

There was a game tonight, so I'd share these shots. I just got a new camera, but I didn't know what I was doing, so they suck. But...at least you'll get an idea of what the action looks like - if you care...

[Mings]

Hey ron if it was a digital camera, then you set the ISO too low to capture action, for that you want around 800, just go into the settings menu to change that. For film, just use 400-800 speed film indoors for action, and have the processor fix for flourescent lighting. (The Girlfriend is a photography major lol).

[DEAD!]

Is that a carpet floor? RUGBURN!

[jr79]

Is there much confusion on-field between the attackers and rovers with respect to knowing who to stop going for a stamp?

Or is it obvious because the rover can carry when others can't?

I was going to suggest that you could overcome that problem by assigning numbers to each position (as in rugby) or like you do for the GK, putting a positional designation on the shirt rather than a number (as in netball) e.g. D, M, C, R, A... But not having played the game I don't know if its that big a problem, trying to figure it out in my head from the rules

[omnivore]

Is there much confusion on-field between the attackers and rovers with respect to knowing who to stop going for a stamp?

Or is it obvious because the rover can carry when others can't?

I was going to suggest that you could overcome that problem by assigning numbers to each position (as in rugby) or like you do for the GK, putting a positional designation on the shirt rather than a number (as in netball) e.g. D, M, C, R, A... But not having played the game I don't know if its that big a problem, trying to figure it out in my head from the rules

Hehe..you actually make a very good point about a dilemma we had in the beginning.

Indoor toccer is a weird game, in that, I didn't really want to create an indoor version of toccer, because I thought it'd cheapen the outdoor version.

But I kept getting nagged by people who thought we needed indoor rules and so I eventually had to change the indoor rules addendum to actually be functional.

Indoors then, there are only four players on the court for each team.

They are: Omnivore, Attacker, Clasper and the Goalkeeper.

According to the most recent edition of the rules, Omnivores can stamp, Attackers can challenge and Claspers, can roll. (and yes, roll the ball on the floor in an attempt to score 3 points)

But we've found that, for players who don't really understand the sport that can be problematic. So, here in Wyoming at the school I work at, we just created a house rule that lets everyone do everything, except goalkeepers, who can't leave the possession area.

As for the position numbers, I actually added that to the most recent rules draft, where certain player positions wear certain numbers (I don't recall exactly what numbers are what. I know special teams players - rover, enabler and sweeper - have higher numbers, attackers wear lower numbers and the goalkeeper wears a GK.

It's cool that other sports do that too, I didn't know that was the case in netball - having only a brief understanding of it.

[omnivore]

Is that a carpet floor? RUGBURN!

Nah, it's a weird surface that's sorta like plastic tile almost. Not hardwood - though that'd be better for rolling the ball and nothing like carpet.

[omnivore]

Hey ron if it was a digital camera, then you set the ISO too low to capture action, for that you want around 800, just go into the settings menu to change that. For film, just use 400-800 speed film indoors for action, and have the processor fix for flourescent lighting. (The Girlfriend is a photography major lol).

I'd just bought the camera right before I went last night, so I hadn't had the chance to read the manual. I think I've got it now. But we'll see next week, eh?

Thanks

[DEAD!]

Is that a carpet floor? RUGBURN! 

Nah, it's a weird surface that's sorta like plastic tile almost. Not hardwood - though that'd be better for rolling the ball and nothing like carpet.

Oh. It looked like carpet there.

[omnivore]

Football, Lacrosse and Hockey have their helmets...we, have goggles. Awesome ones. I'm excited! (They're similar to Wiley-X or other brands of sunglasses/goggle hybrids. Only, ours aren't 100 bucks a pop.)

Omnivore X-Zero Toccer Sunglasses/Goggles - Prequel

[omnivore]

Toccer Video Clips

Here are a few from a practice session the other night. It's gym toccer, but that's okay...it'll still be a modest frame of reference if you have none prior.

[NickNickNick]

It's spelled "Soccer".

[Mings]

It's spelled "Soccer".

im not commenting on that one

[DEAD!]

It's spelled "Soccer".

im not commenting on that one

I will. NickNickNick, youyouyou mightmightmight wantwantwant tototo checkcheckcheck outoutout thethethe otherotherother postspostsposts ininin thisthisthis threadthreadthread

[NickNickNick]

It's spelled "Soccer".

im not commenting on that one

I will. NickNickNick, youyouyou mightmightmight wantwantwant tototo checkcheckcheck outoutout thethethe otherotherother postspostsposts ininin thisthisthis threadthreadthread

I read the entire thread...you guys have been consistantly spelling it wrong for almost two pages worth. It's not "Toccer" - it's "Soccer."

See?....this is from the official MLS website:

[Discrim]

tennis + soccer = toccer.

[Mings]

It's spelled "Soccer".

im not commenting on that one

I will. NickNickNick, youyouyou mightmightmight wantwantwant tototo checkcheckcheck outoutout thethethe otherotherother postspostsposts ininin thisthisthis threadthreadthread

I read the entire thread...you guys have been consistantly spelling it wrong for almost two pages worth. It's not "Toccer" - it's "Soccer."

See?....this is from the official MLS website:

dude seriously go to toccer.com

[NickNickNick]

This is absolutely ridiculous.

Has anyone else on this board noticed that they're spelling Soccer wrong on this website you're all looking at too???!!!!???

Anyway, I've written the creators of the website and notified them of all the errors. In the meantime, we can all learn a lesson from this:

Keep your fingers on home row!

P.S. - what's with all the pics of guys with tennis raquets all over the show? For a site that's supposed to be on soccer, they sure are confused, hey?