Essential Concepts

First ask yourself Why Do You Coach?

Mission as a Youth Coach

The Youth Soccer Coach

Positive Coaching

•Create Your Own Philosophy (should reflect fun and development)
•“Winning isn’t Everything, nor is it the only thing”
•Failure is not the same thing as losing.
•Success is not equivalent to winning. •Effort is a controllable variable-Outcome is not. •“Catch Them Being Good” then when you do-----TELL THEM IMMEDIATELY!

Sportsmanship

“Leader Is As Leader Does”

“Young players play with
great deal of fairness and
sportsmanship. Once
they learn how important
the game is to the adults,
they’ll learn how to cheat.”
Dr. Ron Quinn

“Once we give the children access to the forbidden fruit of adult information (competition) we expel them from the garden of childhood” From “Developing Youth Players” Horst Wein

“They’re only kids. It’s only a game.”

Soccer can teach life long skills, building character, self esteem and awareness of others. It is vital as both a coach and a parent that good sportsmanship is exhibited throughout practices and games.
• Young people learn by example (Leader is as leader does).
• Cheer for both teams and ask them if they had fun and tried their best.
• Have end of the game rituals such as the line handshakes, the world cup style applauding, shaking the referees hands and saying “thanks”.

Team Management

Philosophy

Parent-Coach Meeting

At the beginning of every season, you should take a moment to meet the parents of the children that you are coaching. In this meeting the following should be done:

• Explain your philosophy

• Player Information
o Medical Information
o Previous experience of children
o Family situations, such as custody that may affect rides to and from practice.

• Parent Information
o Emergency Phone Number
o Rides-who is taking player to and from practice
o Obtain Work Phone Numbers and Emails
o Proper behavior on sideline (no coaching or screaming )
o Hand out Do’s & Don’ts and Guidelines For Parents from our website under Parents Corner.

• Responsibilities of Players, Parents, and Coaches
o Players-proper gear be worn including shin guards, ball and water
o Parents-Notify coach that they are taking child(ren) home
o Coaches-Plan for training (Fail to Prepare-Prepare to Fail)
o Coaches-Arrive early-End on time
o Coaches-Provide proper training equipment (cones, vests, balls, air pump)
o Coaches should all have a first aid kit
o Coaches and Parents-Provide for a “Safe” Environment-Be Positive!

Children and Play

Fascinating rules emerge in the streets and parks and sandlots and alleyways when children are left to their own devises in sport. In Shane Murphy’s excellent and insightful book, The Cheers and the Tears: A healthy alternative to the dark side of youth sport today, four basic principles were reported in describing the ways children govern their own organizations during free play. These four principles, Action, Involvement, Excitement and Friendships, are briefly described below.

Action. Games must be motivating, and children always seem to find ways to structure play into “competition” when they are left alone. Competition is fun, so long as the rules make sense! Mostly a set score determines the winner, sometimes a mealtime. Children never line up to practice a drill when play is an option; hence, “scrimmage” time is taken for granted. Older children will eagerly wait on the sidelines until a game ends for the right to play the winner and attempt to hold the field against the next challengers. Children often know intuitively what game numbers create the best balance for competition, and they will create multiple teams when space limits the option to play multiple or larger-sided games.

Personal involvement. The following question has probably been offered to thousands of children over the years: “Would you rather play on a team that may not win very often, or sit on the bench for a team that wins all the time?” The response is always the same. Children would rather play and lose than sit and win. One of the compelling features of youth sport, from the youth’s perspective, is participation. For athletes of every age, there is very little enjoyment in watching someone else play, and very little learning takes place without the opportunity to participate directly; most commonly, everyone plays! Children will often modify their rules to allow the weaker players second chances at success; more importantly, this practice also served to reduce the risk of embarrassing their weaker peers.

Excitement. Blowouts are no fun for children and characteristic of youth orchestrated play is the need for excitement and challenge. Ironically, while being the last player picked from a group can often be embarrassing, the practical outcome of this age-old tradition is relatively balanced competition. No youth sport contest begins with the two best players starting out on the same team. If the sides turn out to be uneven, either the game is concluded and new sides picked, or players’ trade places or new hope is given to the trailing side. Young players often modify their rules to accommodate imbalance or inequity and, particularly in lopsided contests, “next goal wins” serves to produce the required adrenaline rush in pursuit of last-minute glory.

Friendships. Young children enjoy being with their friends. They enjoy competing against them and competing with them. They also enjoy meeting new friends through sport. Social order is often created through sport, with the bigger or older kids appointing themselves as captains, picking the teams, settling the arguments and setting the rules. The first real sports heroes many of us remember were often the older, bigger or most advanced players involved in our daily games.

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