Coaching

The Coach.

For youth soccer, there is hardly anyone more pivotal. Youth teams can (and do) have good games with good sportsmanship without a referee. Though difficult, a youth league can be organized by a group of coaches without resorting to a league administrator.

In youth soccer though, the coach is virtually indispensible.

So what does it take to be a coach and, in particular, a good and effective coach?

What makes a good coach? Perhaps it's a mixture of philosophies, attitudes, dedication, drills and knowledge of the game. We will discuss these items in some detail.

Philosophies and Attitudes

The internationally accepted norm for coaching soccer is very much different from what the American spectator is accustomed to while watching baseball, basketball, hockey or American "football" at any level from youth to professional. In all of these examples, the coach is seen giving signals, sending in plays between plays, screaming at the players (remember Woody Hayes slugging a player as he ran by on the sideline?), screaming at referees or umpires, etc. Anyone who saw any of the World Cup games or any of the on-going qualification games for the next World Cup will observe the coach sitting stoically on the sideline. His only involvement is in periodically sending in a substitute player, and even then, he's limited to a maximum of 6 subs!

Let's analyze the situation. Imagine that you were sitting at your desk and your boss was running around the office shouting out instructions to each of the peple in the office. How would you feel about doing your job? Of course, soccer is a team sport, so maybe we should reserve the consideration to group meetings, project planning and status meetings. Now, consider the boss running into the meeting room every few minutes and yelling out instructions. Or maybe he stands outside the door, sending somebody in with instructions, including who to send out to be the next messenger.

These scenarios don't sound too appealing do they? Why should they be acceptable on the playing field?

Maybe you, as coach, should be doing everything you can to convey to the team your strategies and styles during the practices. When the game is afoot, you can learn both how good you were at imparting that information and also how good each of the team members was at absorbing it.

Then, of course, is the attitude and respect shown to the referee team. Several issues can be addressed here:

• In a youth soccer organization, the younger referees (and some of the adults) may be as new to the game as are the players on your team
• The referees may well be volunteers and, if you want to be sure to have referees show up to your game, then you need to show them respect and patience
• The referee, if he or she is following appropriate mechanics (see Referees), then he or she has a much better view and perspective of the play and may have seen something that you missed
• The referee may, instead of being green, have a much better understanding of the laws and/or spirit of the game than you do, and you might be wise to sit back and observe

Putting it Into Practice

Coaching involves recognizing skills and weaknesses of the players on the team and both developing existing skills and enhancing skills in the areas of weakness. The coach also needs to develop the skills of the team as a whole, exploiting individual skills and developing passing skills, defensive skills and "moving without the ball". In addition, it involves planning the rotation of the players into the games to allow each player the appropriate amount of playing time.

As noted above, the time for exercising primary influence on the team is on the practice field. Consequently, practice time must be well-planned and not an off-the-cuff, seat of the pants experience. Selecting from among the following resources should provide ideas, routines and disciplines necessary to make a successful coach, a successful team, and a fruitful experience for the players.

Helpful Resources

Books

General Coaching Resources: Beginner or Experienced

Skills Development Resources

Downloadables

Soccer Drills and Soccer Practice Plans for Kids, Youth, Competitive, Goalkeeping and Indoor Soccer. Systems of Play Explained. Download-Print-Practice!