When Your Soccer Team has Fun, Everybody Wins!

by: Nicholas Spiller. http://www.soccerclassroom.com

Player development is very important in youth soccer, and many coaches will stress dedication and hard work so that their players develop into professional stars, but such an ethic must be taken with a grain of salt.  Especially in youth leagues below the U-10 level, soccer needs to be primarily focused on fun.  Yes, everyone wants to score goals and win games, but if it is all taken too seriously, the children won’t enjoy the game and won’t feel inspired to keep playing soccer at all.

Fun soccer begins with the atmosphere brought on by the coach.  You need to maintain a positive and harmonious attitude regardless of what happens on the field.  Young soccer players need to be nourished and taught to enjoy the sport.  This way, regardless of how far they progress as serious players, they can still enjoy the game, maybe become lifelong soccer fans, and still enjoy playing soccer recreationally for the rest of their lives.

Coaches that berate their players will not only alienate and annoy them, but will also probably see a downward spiral of players’ dedication and will often see heavy losses on the year, in addition to the losses of players who quit the sport altogether.  A sour coach can totally deflate someone’s passion for soccer, so be sure to do the opposite and instill a love for the game by praising good work and having fun while coaching the team.

Your goal as a youth soccer coach shouldn’t be to go undefeated on the year, but it should be to help foster a love of soccer within each of your players, regardless of their skills.  Chances are that none of the kids will go on to professional soccer, but with a happy atmosphere you can help promote love for the game, and you can watch many players progress to high school or even college ranks of soccer.

A great coach also goes beyond simply just being a coach, by being nice to the kids and becoming a respectable role model.  Also, take the team out for a treat after a game for ice cream or pizza as a way to help foster friendships amongst the players.  When something becomes all business and no fun, people rarely enjoy themselves.  Remember, youth soccer is as much about keeping the kids enjoying the game as it is in their development on the field.

The great difficulty with this mantra is when your team is enduring a rough stretch of 5 straight losses.  Obviously when a team cannot shake off a bad run, times are tough and players get frustrated.  As the coach, you need to keep them uplifted and help them out of their funk.  Don’t be critical.  Instead, focus on some of the positives of the game.  Let them know that just because they lose a game, doesn’t mean that they aren’t good players.  Focus your postgame speeches on signs of improvement or things that your team did well even in the face of defeat.  If you can put losses behind you and keep on with a smile, your team will surely improve with happier and positive energy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nicholas Spiller resides in LA where he dreams of musical super-stardom on his bass guitar. He also writes for Sportspiller.com and is an avid Arsenal fan!

 

...another nice article with more thoughts on coaching:

 

The most important coaching tool ever...

by Mike Woitalla, http://www.socceramerica.com/article/59569/the-most-important-coaching-tool-ever.html, July 24th, 2014 8:31PM

 

I've said various things to the opposing coach during the postgame handshake: 

The standard “Good game” … “We got lucky” … “Your team played great.” … Or sometimes just a handshake and no words. 

When I ref I usually just say “You’re welcome” when coaches thank me during the postgame ritual. 

But at times I’ve wanted to ask these questions: 

“Do you even like soccer? … Do you enjoy coaching? … Do you like being around children?” 

I want to know because for an hour I’ve watched them prowl the sidelines, screaming, chagrining, huffing and puffing.

They’d probably sincerely answer "yes" to my questions. Perhaps they simply don’t know what they look like out there or they actually believe that’s how a coach should act. 

I get that it’s difficult to control one’s emotions around sports, and that we have an innate urge to advise and correct children. But we also know how counterproductive it is to coach in such fashion. If yelling at kids -- when to pass, where to run, when to shoot, when not to dribble -- was the recipe for developing talent, American youth soccer would be producing superstars by the thousands. 

And while I think that overall youth coaching has improved significantly over the years, far too many children -- while they're supposed to be enjoying the game and trying to figure out how to master it -- are being interrupted by the screaming, prowling, gesticulating coach.

“Part of that comes from the models of coaching they see live on TV, usually other sports but also soccer,” says Sam Snow, U.S. Youth Soccer Coaching Director. “The camera pans on coaches when they’re animated.” 

Says Ian Barker, the NSCAA Director of Coaching Education, “Watch the game so that you can help the players with the game. If you’re very animated, you’re probably not watching the game critically, you’re just joy-sticking. … The coach should open up the folding chair and sit.” 

Before his 2010-13 stint as U.S. Soccer’s Youth Technical Director, Claudio Reyna traveled the world to observe the most successful youth programs: “At the best places, the youth coaches are sitting down. And if they get up to give instructions, they sit right back down again. 

"When the game is going on, all the coaches should just sit down. I think if you ask any player at the youth level, if the coach is on the sidelines standing, it brings tension. You can sense it." 

So here’s the most important coaching tool to bring to the field: (a folding chair)

*Mike Woitalla, the executive editor of Soccer America

 

 

Go Team! - (Photo: Jroller.com)