Coaching Kids Soccer
Coaching kid’s soccer is an enjoyable and rewarding experience. As a kid’s soccer coach you should fully realize the role you will play in the emotional, mental and physical development of a child. Coaching kid’s soccer teaches the game but can also serve as a vehicle to promote many positive behaviors and teach young players lessons important to success both on and off the field.
Positive Experiences
When coaching kid’s soccer you should focus on creating positive experiences for your players and making sure they enjoy the game of soccer and look forward to practice. Creating pressure to succeed and fear of failure in kid’s soccer defeats the object of developing players and will lead to players simply quitting and looking for enjoyment elsewhere. Keep a fun emphasis on practices and add competition. Whether competing against themselves for a personal best score in a drill, or competing in teams against their peers competition adds enjoyment to soccer practice for kids. Try and praise and give feedback to each individual player every session and value them as individuals. Talk to players using their name.
Life Lessons
Many positive life lessons can be taught to your players using your kid’s soccer team as a vehicle. Punctuality and discipline are two of the primary lessons a soccer team can be used as a vehicle to teach. Punctuality is important and players who show up 5 minutes early ready to go are getting into good habits for all aspects of life. If you have a punctuality problem with a player talk to the parents first.
Remember the parents drive and will often have a big say in the punctuality of their child. If the
parents agree that it is a problem sit a child for 5 or 10 minutes to begin a game if they are late for practice. This process can teach them to value time more.
Discipline is multi-faceted but a soccer team can easily teach respect for one’s self, for teammates and for the coach. Respecting an authority figure such as a soccer coach can translate later in life to positive relationships with a teacher, professor or boss at work. Do not permit players to complain at teammates after errors or show a selfish attitude. Pay close attention to how your players talk to each other, one player who consistently uses a nasty tome with teammates can become a problem that spreads through the team.
Mentality
Adopt an upbeat and patient mentality when coaching kid’s soccer. Do not judge success purely on how many games you win or lose. Innate talent in players is the primary factor on who wins at the younger age group. The success of a kid’s soccer coach should be measured in terms of the journey of your players as individuals and as a group. “Run the race against yourself” is a term used by New York Giants football coach Tom Coughlin and it is a good attitude to adopt. Are your players improving as individuals? In what areas? Is your team progressing? Constantly monitoring this and planning ahead is an important facet of kid’s soccer coaching.
Explain Why
Kid’s soccer players are more likely to be motivated to do something if they know why they are doing it. Relate your coaching points to how they will use it in an actual game. Explain why they must do things such as recover on defense. Walk through a game situation and show them the scenario of their teammate being outnumbered if they do not recover quickly enough. Consistent communication is an important part of coaching young players. You must adopt a more intelligent leadership approach than “do this because I say so”.
Click here to take the quizACTION PLAN
- Plan your sessions in advance and stick to one coaching topic per session.
- Try and teach 3 or 4 basic points to players in one session. Rather than teaching as many things as possible, it is more important to get the basics across and ensure the players enjoy their session.
- Adopt a patient approach, some players learn quicker than others and mistakes will happen.
- Explain things thoroughly to players and encourage them to raise their hand and ask questions for clarity.
