The all Encompassing Soccer Youth Soccer Coaching Thread

[horn4life 3819]

Having Coached for many years my daughter's Soccer teams and helped train multiple others I thought I would put out a coaching thread. The purpose of the thread is to try to give helpful suggestions and resources to folks that are interested in coaching, or were the only parent willing to sacrifice income for volunteering their time for the kiddos.  It's thankless on the one hand and possibly one of the most rewarding things you can do on the other.  

First off let me be straightforward, I hate the "professionalization" of youth soccer coaching. This is not to say there are not very good professional soccer coaches, there certainly are.  My problem is not with elite kids paying big bucks (or scholarship if you are poor and good) for top coaching against top competition.  My problem is more with the soaking the parents for a couple years of sob par coaching for kids that are never, every likely to be even close to elite.  The reason I dislike this, is that I love Soccer!  Instead of a kid enjoying soccer for 4-5 years with their friends, the kids/parents are burned out.  Either financially or emotionally.   Instead of farting around playing City League for years after high school or college, they quit years ago... 

SO.... I volunteered to coach my kids team.  Long story short is I was very successful over time from a development and win/loss perspective, but the real reward was seeing young kids and their parents revel in the little moments of achievement beyond expectation.  So I want to try and "pay it forward" and help other folks wanting to coach get a leg up, so to speak.   For example I took two different teams from 6-7 year old recreational teams from the recreations, to DII, to Super II with my older team qualifying for DI before the team fell apart their senior year in high school.  That's a 10 year journey with my older daughter's team.  When I die, likely many of those that might attend will be the kids and parents of kids I coached.  It's cool to have a kid or parent come up and still thank me for coaching their kid years ago.  In other words, you as a youth coach can make a real impact on your life and the lives of the kids you coach.  The one main reason I am posting this is you CAN become a good, perhaps great coach, simply by learning yourself. 

First and foremost, you need to understand the mental capabilities of the age group you are trying to coach.  A young 5-6 year old, for example has about 30 seconds to a minute of attention span.  It's about as close to cat herding as you can get.  STOP the lines and drills, instead play GAMES!!!!  You can't teach strategy beyond perhaps some simple chants.  The little kids like the chanting and I used it for mental reinforcement.  the chanting was also... FUN!  I would get the kids in a circle before each practice ending scrimmage, and we would chant at first very quietly, then louder and louder... "Defense to the outside, Offense to the middle.."  The smiles on their faces got bigger as we got louder and over time.  And slowly but surely they learned! As that simple chant gradually became a strategy a season later.  

The secret is finding a way to add the skills and strategies, without black boards, and boring ass lines and repetition.  My goal once my kids got into the 9-10 year age was 1000 touches of the ball each practice.  At one point I was coaching, 3 teams and helping train a younger 4th with a new coach I was trying to keep in the fold and develop.  So I was out at the fields for about 3 hours, and having kids come up and ask, "What do you want me do coach?"  With late arrivals a given, I might have to deal with this interruption 10 or more times an evening.  So I came up with what became the foundation of my coaching, and helped my kids develop their skills and add a lot of touches.  I formulated specific ball handling warmups that the kids knew to do as soon as they came on the pitch.  I would have them do the same warmups before games and practices.  But after the warmups the kids had touched the ball a couple hundred times, and their muscles were warm to prevent potential injuries.  THIS is the single, and simplest coaching hint I can give you, because it allows you to focus on coaching and not on what to do with the late kid.  The several minutes of skills warmup gives you a second to think where to best integrate them.  The kids began to know to do their drills, and simply say hello to me.  I did not disrupt the drills underway, and perhaps changing the drills because of the addition of a player, was much easier.  Plus this was so simple!  Too bad it took me 5 years to figure it out!

So here are some bullet points reflecting my core coaching philosophy.

FUN - Make it fun!  The only way to keep a team together is to make it fun.  Winning helps too, but the winning will come, trust me. 

BALL TOUCHES  -  1000 touches of the ball each practice is the goal.  In the US we simply do not play soccer constantly.  Almost everywhere else in the world, kids have thousands and thousands of touches, simply from farting around with friends and family.  Trying to develop ball skills is about touching the ball, pure and simple. These touches are how individual ball handling skills are developed.

FITNESS - Well if you are not fit, it's dam hard to play soccer at any level with success.  But use games rather than laps or sprints!  I cannot say how important this is.  Why run a lap when you can have everyone dribble a ball with only the outside of their feet for example?  A minor change but adds maybe a couple hundred touches.

TEAM - Convincing the strongest players to be part of the team, rather than play as individuals, is one of the most important and difficult things you will do.  A good team can beat a great player or two almost every time. Convincing the strongest players that giving up the ball and moving into space will score a LOT more goals than them one on one dribbling will be a challenge almost certainly, but that is how you win even more games!

WINNING AND LOSING- Sometimes you lose by winning, and win by losing.  Judge the success of each game by the skills used, rather than the outcome.  If I just started teaching backward passes and counter attacks we might lose a couple games learning those skills.  But fast forward a few games later and all of a sudden backward passing and counter attacks have made your team leap past the same teams they lost to previously.  It's about development!!!  Or pull a kid off the field when you are up by 3 goals to make your kids work, by making it more difficult.

Anyhow thought I would start a thread on this subject.  The great news is today a LOT more parents who are volunteering to coach, actually played the game.  There are also shit tons of you tube videos, and resources that were not around a decade ago to help guide you.  I would STRONGLY suggest you become a licensed coach.  While I was a very successful coach, I learned so much from the clinics and what I learned changed the focus of how I designed my coaching plans and philosophy into the points above.  A thanks to all of you who have volunteered to be involved in coaching, you truly will impact the lives of the kid you coach!

 

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by horn4life

[HornOnTheBayou 8968]

Is this the thread where I yell at you and tell you to play my kid more? Obviously he's the best kid on the team and he should be starting! 

But seriously, thanks for the thread. I'm so thankful for all the coaches in my son's life. He's been playing soccer for 7 years now and absolutely loves it. I was never a soccer fan, but I've gotten into it because of him and the coaches that have inspired him. In fact, he and I were texting each other this afternoon about the Champions League matches when he should have been doing school work and I should have been paying attention in some meetings.

I don't have a lot to contribute to this thread, because I'm still learning soccer tactics and strategies. But I will say from my years in the classroom and coaching tennis, it sounds like your philosophy is spot on.

[horn4life 3819]

14 hours ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

Is this the thread where I yell at you and tell you to play my kid more? Obviously he's the best kid on the team and he should be starting! 

But seriously, thanks for the thread. I'm so thankful for all the coaches in my son's life. He's been playing soccer for 7 years now and absolutely loves it. I was never a soccer fan, but I've gotten into it because of him and the coaches that have inspired him. In fact, he and I were texting each other this afternoon about the Champions League matches when he should have been doing school work and I should have been paying attention in some meetings.

I don't have a lot to contribute to this thread, because I'm still learning soccer tactics and strategies. But I will say from my years in the classroom and coaching tennis, it sounds like your philosophy is spot on.

HAHA!!!! I actually had in the original title thread (or why isn't my kid starting!). 

I also realized that this particular time is probably not the best time to focus on coaching kids because of Covid.  But on the other hand soccer might be one of the great safe things we could do with our kids right now.  

I will give my single two best tiny tot coaching hints right now.  1) force them to use their weak foot as soon as possible.  I want ATTEMPTS at any new skill and I praise it profusely, especially when failure is obvious.  For a tiny tot, it is simply trying to use the weaker foot.  IF you can get them to be comfortable being uncomfortable and not always having success at an early age, they become fearless! 

2) Teach them to use the outside of their feet as soon as possible. I can come out to your kids rug rat soccer team and in two or three practices have them blowing by the opposition.  Simply as watch the best players in the world.  Almost all passing moves with possession of the ball are initiated with the outside of the foot.  That little flick with the outside of the foot is a HUGE advantage at the rug rat level.

FEARLESSNESS!!!!

What makes kids (and all of us afraid) is simply the embarrassment of failure.  If you want to truly have your team become great... embrace failure, celebrate failure, make your players understand that failure is quite simply the ONLY WAY any of us learn.  What I noticed over the years is that I could teach kids new skills and they would master them, but for most the transition to using them on the playing field took perhaps as much as a season or two before I saw those skills used on the pitch.  I knew they had the skill mastered, but they didn't want to embarrass themselves by perhaps not executing it perfectly in a real game.

So one solution I came up with was emailing the parents the skills we were trying to learn.  I also got the parents to cheer wildly at any ATTEMPT at using any of the skills we were trying to learn in a game or scrimmage.  The parents settled on yelling "ole!" on every skill attempt.  The kids were getting nearly the same level of enthusiasm, as scoring a goal. The positive reinforcement for the attempt, made the kids willing to try and fail. The negative and fear of failure were replaced by cheers.  They would fail and still have a smile on their face, because of that cheering for prior failures.  I even went to tournaments with the idea of simply trying to integrate one or two skills, or one strategy.  I did not care about winning the tournament.  I knew that if I could get my players to fearlessly take what we were trying to teach them n practice into live games, the winning would come. And it always did.

I will also say that the first team I started coaching was downright terrible.  A Dad who volunteered (God bless him) didn't know that much about soccer.  I remember the first practice standing back trying not to take over, and talking to the mother of a girl who would become my best player.  I asked how they did last season?   I will never forget her reply!  She pulled her sunglasses down to the tip of her nose so I could see her eyes. She replies, "We did score a goal last year... on ourselves..."  That was the starting point of a team that became so dominant a few years later my biggest problem was trying not to beat teams by 10 goals.  As lopsided wins honestly are not good for EITHER team, and I honestly did not know how to keep scoring down after being a doormat for so long. Remember these are kids, and a sense of fair play and sportsmanship is also something you want your players to learn.  I think it helped knowing how losing felt, in them understanding why I was pulling kids off and playing short most games.

 

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by horn4life

[BillyBadAss 189]

Great posts Horn4Life. 
I was dumped into coaching my daughter's team starting in Kindergarten and adopted a very similar philosophy as you, though not nearly as refined. Great ideas there - I wish I had that when I started. 

I can attest - ditching almost all drills and playing fun games works wonders for the younger kids. Having a ball at every kids feet for 90% of practice improved every kid and made it fun. They all wanted to come to practice every week, and every kid re-signed up over the 3 seasons I coached. We also dominated most of our games, though I had a couple of exceptionally talented kids so not sure I can take full credit there. 

Here was a regular game we played which was especially good and the kids liked:
Freeze Monster Tag: 
select 1 or 2 kids to be the "freeze monsters" and have them start away from the other kids. 
All the rest each have a ball and are boxed into half the field (can freely dribble around). 
When you release the monsters they try to steal the balls. If they get one away from a kid, that kid is frozen. 
When frozen you stand with the ball over your head and legs spread apart. If another kid kicks their ball through your legs you are unfrozen and can dribble around again. If the freeze monsters freeze everyone they win. 
Rotate so every kid has about equal time being a monster. 

Another thing I found helpful - we would close most practices with a team scrimmage. Sometimes I'd get the parents/siblings involved and have the kids play their parents/coaches/siblings. They loved that - it really brought out their competitiveness. And it also allowed them to see first-hand how effective spacing and passing can be which is really hard to teach to the younger kids. When they all charge the ball and the parent passes to a wide open other parent - they learn quick to play a little defense without having to try to drill that stuff. 

[pied 252]

some good stuff on here.

Here's something ALL of my kids' coaches (md me) have said over the years, "work on your skills/game at home"  Well that was pretty vague and the results were as well.  Finally one coach did the obvious and had a monthly homework sheet.  He'd ask to see it at practice but basically was more for he parents.  Basically was a list of skills, Cruyff turn, 10 balls volleyed from L/R foot, 10 balls off the chest, etc.  Nothing too ocmplicated, but something that a kid and PARENT could easily achieve.  

SOOOOOOO much better than just, work at home.

[TxEx84 437]

Where was this thread 15-20 years ago when I was coaching my son's team?!?!   Great suggestions for new coaches!

[horn4life 3819]

On 12/17/2020 at 12:56 PM, pied said:

some good stuff on here.

Here's something ALL of my kids' coaches (md me) have said over the years, "work on your skills/game at home"  Well that was pretty vague and the results were as well.  Finally one coach did the obvious and had a monthly homework sheet.  He'd ask to see it at practice but basically was more for he parents.  Basically was a list of skills, Cruyff turn, 10 balls volleyed from L/R foot, 10 balls off the chest, etc.  Nothing too ocmplicated, but something that a kid and PARENT could easily achieve.  

SOOOOOOO much better than just, work at home.

There used to be a a great UEFA skills site with videos that I used a lot.  I found a link to it, but it was a dead end.  It was cool because i could email it to the parents, to explain the skills we were learning, and what to cheer like crazy for attempts at.  The kids liked it because you got the skill explained by a younger coach but they got to see clips of the skills being used live, by players they knew.

The better players will always work on their skills, it's honestly the weaker players you need to bring up to build a solid team.  The reality is a lot of kids/parents won't take the time. Or can't in some cases.  At the end I usually had a fairly specific idea of what I wanted to try to teach over the course of a season.  But the real secret was to keep the practice moving, moving, moving.  In the end I wanted to make sure they got to 1000 touches a practice because I was never sure what they might do on their own.  Usually what I ended up doing was simply adding in each new skill as part of the warm up, as they got close to mastering it.  I also used a lot of "stations" rather than have the players all do the same thing.  Especially when it came to individual skills development.  You want the weak players to have a good place to start, but you also want your strong players to be able to move ahead to more advanced skills.  I would do this individually, but also in groups.  Complete one skill challenge then onto the next one.  It might be juggle the ball with 10 juggle touches using any body part at station one.  Maybe juggle with 5, 7 or 10 touches using only your feet at station two.  Station 3 might be get the ball up to a header without using your hands at all. Then station 4 might be small sided 2v2, 3v3 small games.  The kids want to PLAY at station 4, getting there more quickly becomes the incentive to practice more at home to not be stuck in the first three individual skills.

I also did a lot of crazy goofy stuff, like I brought out one of those huge exercise balls to scrimmage with one day.  It was hilarious, and fun for all.  You can't just grind them into developing, you have to make them personally want to get better, I used scrimmages/ small sided games as "carrots" a lot.  I would only go full sized scrimmage a few minutes at the end of practices toward the end.  I preferred small group work. The smaller sides in your games the more touches! Three games of 3v3 would be better than two small sided games of 5v4. Which are both better than one 9v9 for example.  The reason being that all the kids will get three times as many many touches in the 3v3 vs 9v9 activity. It's all about the touches!

 

[Coach pop a bitch 5797]

@horn4life you still coaching? 

[horn4life 3819]

Actually, I would love to coach again.  Went out to T&C to see the semis of a Lonestar tournament last weekend.  

I do not miss hearing the fucking dumb ass parents on the sidelines thinking they are assistant coaches, that is, as always, an easy observation. 

It would be really fun to take a young U9-U10 team and turn them into bad asses.  Or better yet ,help some younger coach to that, and take all the glory. 

 

THANK YOU for COACHING!!!

 

 

[alincoln 2385]

Techne Futbol app is all you need for training at home.  

[jimmyjazz 46502]

My kid plays for the same club as @BrickHorn's kids, albeit a couple of age groups older.  I remain grateful that throughout his 12 years of youth soccer, now culminating on a team playing at the national level in 2 leagues, somehow the coaches have almost always been able to field teams that are highly competitive without being dirty, and in general the parents have been pretty chill.  The shit I hear from other teams' parents is often ridiculous and sometimes shocking.  Coaches shouldn't endorse that behavior.  Way back in the NASA days, one of my son's coaches threw one of our own parents off the sideline for general dickery, and it was completely deserved.

Kudos to all of you who have taken the time and effort to coach kids.  It doesn't go unnoticed.

[NorthLoop 14304]

So I didn't really wanna start a new thread because I figure it would not get much action. But do any of you dads/middle age dudes still play? 

I've been playing in a weekly pick-up game on Saturday mornings in New Braunfels for the last 7 months or so and it's like half dads/coaches who used to play and half guys in their late 20s who like to keep us fresh. Some of these guys play in rec leagues in SA/Schertz but those games are like Thursdays at 10pm so I never can play. 

Anyways, just wondering if there's any of yall who look for pick up games. We have one in NB that goes every Sat at 8am regardless of weather if yall ever wanna make the drive. 

[horn4life 3819]

On 2/5/2022 at 9:34 PM, NorthLoop said:

So I didn't really wanna start a new thread because I figure it would not get much action. But do any of you dads/middle age dudes still play? 

I've been playing in a weekly pick-up game on Saturday mornings in New Braunfels for the last 7 months or so and it's like half dads/coaches who used to play and half guys in their late 20s who like to keep us fresh. Some of these guys play in rec leagues in SA/Schertz but those games are like Thursdays at 10pm so I never can play. 

Anyways, just wondering if there's any of yall who look for pick up games. We have one in NB that goes every Sat at 8am regardless of weather if yall ever wanna make the drive. 

When I started playing indoor in an over 40 league when I was pushing 50.  Indoor was so endurance draining that 5 minutes was enough to gas you (IF you were playing hard.). The funny thing was we had a shitload of folks on the team, but at any point in time we had a handful of injuries.  Hamstrings were very popular in our group! 

I used to also go play with some Turkish guys just 3 v 3.  But I was older again by 10+ years and was always the weakest link.  Which bothered the shit out of me, but those dominating days were long gone.  Pickup games can be awesome, but only if everyone is chill and there isn't the one A Hole who thinks it's the olympics.

[NorthLoop 14304]

12 minutes ago, horn4life said:

When I started playing indoor in an over 40 league when I was pushing 50.  Indoor was so endurance draining that 5 minutes was enough to gas you (IF you were playing hard.). The funny thing was we had a shitload of folks on the team, but at any point in time we had a handful of injuries.  Hamstrings were very popular in our group! 

I used to also go play with some Turkish guys just 3 v 3.  But I was older again by 10+ years and was always the weakest link.  Which bothered the shit out of me, but those dominating days were long gone.  Pickup games can be awesome, but only if everyone is chill and there isn't the one A Hole who thinks it's the olympics.

Oh man. We've had a few 3 on 3 games when turnout was low and those are brutal. You can't stand still for a second. I like a good 6v6 or 7v7 with medium sized goals and goalies. 5v5 with little goals and no goalie is fun too. I'm usually in the bottom half of everyone as far as skill but we also have some pretty good players. Luckily nobody is an asshole though - we even have some kids and teenagers that play with us and everyone kind of plays them differently depending on their skill level. Mostly we just like to get a good 90 minutes in and have fun. 

[horn4life 3819]

10 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

Oh man. We've had a few 3 on 3 games when turnout was low and those are brutal. You can't stand still for a second. I like a good 6v6 or 7v7 with medium sized goals and goalies. 5v5 with little goals and no goalie is fun too. I'm usually in the bottom half of everyone as far as skill but we also have some pretty good players. Luckily nobody is an asshole though - we even have some kids and teenagers that play with us and everyone kind of plays them differently depending on their skill level. Mostly we just like to get a good 90 minutes in and have fun. 

The little Pugg Goals were the shit.  Pop up in seconds and small sided game on.  Sounds like you found yourself a nice pickup game.  

I set up a casual game for whoever wanted to play at a nearby park for my girls team when they were like 11, and the more the merrier.  Parents, siblings, boys, girls, just keep making the field bigger and goals a little wider as the numbers increase. Good times.

[NorthLoop 14304]

So we had one of those overzealous young guys playing with us today who launched a rocket shot at me (I was in goal - I usually play goalie half the time as I played a ton of GK growing up and in HS, even went to camps). I blocked it... but I may have broken something in my hand. Probably the hardest shot I've ever blocked in my life. Blocked it with my palm but the back of my hand is swollen and black. Beer tonight to ease the pain, x-ray tomorrow. Looks like I'll be playing striker for a few weeks. 

[Coach pop a bitch 5797]

Put my boy in a club last season to get him familiar with the game and help him be active and social. It's been fun watching him grow. He had just turned 4 when he started so obviously he was all over the place.  This past week though felt like a little light switched turned on. I can't explain how awesome it is to see his little mind working on the pitch to get his job done. Game day and he was killing it . I know he's little but damn did it feel good to see him play 

Edited March 26, 2022 by Coach pop a bitch

[Anastasis 23514]

Competitive youth soccer is basically run like a mafia racket. Enjoy the rec and academy days, cause shit turns real stupid real quick. 

[alincoln 2385]

Sorry your kid sucks

[Anastasis 23514]

I can't imagine what that is like, but certainly can appreciate that when they don't suck some of the stupid written and unwritten rules the clubs try to enforce on them seem more like mafioso threats and tactics.  

[alincoln 2385]

Move clubs

[dogbreath 435]

Trust fund parent and 13 yo kid moved to Brazil for 6 months so kid could play futsal.  

My kid and his kid tried out for UC Davis. His kid got an offer and my kid enjoyed the hell out of San Francisco on our visit. 

[Bottlecap 1523]

19 hours ago, Anastasis said:

I can't imagine what that is like, but certainly can appreciate that when they don't suck some of the stupid written and unwritten rules the clubs try to enforce on them seem more like mafioso threats and tactics.  

Your (kid’s) club pissed they trialed w Austin FC too?

[yoladu 4170]

On 5/9/2024 at 10:44 AM, Anastasis said:

Competitive youth soccer is basically run like a mafia racket. Enjoy the rec and academy days, cause shit turns real stupid real quick. 

Select soccer with Westlake FC was mostly enjoyable with my one kid. He usually played on the top team in the age group above him. They didn't put a lot on the parents or kids. Lonestar ruthlessness always rubbed me the wrong way, but maybe i am just a pussy. Being out of it for 5 years, i am sure the whole structure has mutated 2 or 3 times.

My kid had all the ability, but none of the drive and didn't really have the fire in the belly to be fully committed starting around 9th grade and quit. Adolescence!

Personally, i enjoyed watching it less and less each year as it got more physical/cutthroat.

Edited May 10 by yoladu

[Anastasis 23514]

On 5/10/2024 at 8:56 AM, alincoln said:

Move clubs

Awesome advice. Please see also post #19 on this page. 

[HornOnTheBayou 8968]

On 5/9/2024 at 10:44 AM, Anastasis said:

Competitive youth soccer is basically run like a mafia racket. Enjoy the rec and academy days, cause shit turns real stupid real quick. 

Just remember that your precious Asyhlyn was never going to get signed by Real Madrid.

[Anastasis 23514]

2 minutes ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

Just remember that your precious Asyhlyn was never going to get signed by Real Madrid.

lol. What’s wrong with y’all’s brains?

[Napoleon 8710]

16 minutes ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

Just remember that your precious Asyhlyn was never going to get signed by Real Madrid.

Ashlyn plays tennis.

 

While Ashlyn plays the field.