Wanting to start coaching

On your acls you may be a person who is prone to hyperextension or maybe not.

After you recover give yourself this test. The knee test is simple: sit on the floor with your leg straight, and pull up on your foot. If you can lift your foot off the floor WITH the back of your knee still touching the ground, you've reached hyper-extension. This is good if you're a swimmer, but not good if you want to play soccer and avoid knee surgery.

People who can hyper-extend their joints must pay special attention to quad-hamstring strengthening exercises, as well as abductor-adductor exercises for lateral stability. Go to the weight room.

Also, don't neglect training like jogging and step-climbing: some research has shown that low-level impact training can strengthen connective tissues like tendons and ligaments.

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On coaching examine first why you want to coach kids. You love the game, and besides the skills of the game you want to pass on that love of game to these kids that is important. You should feel you have something that you can pass on to the player and make their game better.

Think in terms more of putting out good players, and helping them become better people.

If you feel these things you should coach because players need guys like you.

Never hurt a player just to get a win. You can win and turn out good people and players and it does not have to ever hurt a player you are coaching remember that.

You should start as an assitant to a good coach and a good good guy in general. A good coach would like having a player who does not have a kid on the team to help him. Watch youth games and find some one like that to learn from. My advice is to do a boys team first.

You could start with a rec team, then move to travel later.

If you decide to go with travel, and can't find a club. Just call the USSF and ask them for clubs in your area. Then call the club.

The club may do a back ground ckeck on you to make sure your not a hit man. A lot of clubs do that background checks now.

Any way enjoy your coaching experience. You might find yourself coaching even after you start to play again because it is habit forming.

Enjoy the experience, and make sure everyone around you also enjoys the experience even the parents.

Good luck

Richie

 

"I live in San Diego "

They have AYSO's all over the west coast. American Youth Soccer Organization they also have a toll free telephone number I believe. Give it a call I am pretty sure they can help you find a region relatively close to where you live.

Look in your local yellowpages under soccer. Might even call the USSF, AYSO has a connection to them now.

Good Luck

Richie

 

Not trying to hijack this thread, but I've taken a strong interest in coaching soccer since I had my son. I have not played since I was 12 (I am 29 now). I played from 6 - 12...

Anyway, I am worried that most people will think I should not consider it, because only long term players for life should coach, or players who are clearly some of the better players among their peers should do it. I, right now, would not fall under either category.

I have been doing some reading, and I fully understand the building up of skills, having a good experience, and turning out quality people is more important than wins or losses. I have no problem with that. My interest would only be in taking the kids that come into my team and doing everything I can to make them better people (and better skilled players, hopefully) when they leave. I think I have the right philosophical outlook, but should I even consider it when I have been out of the game as a player for a long time?

By the way, I have poured over Amazon.com for a while, adding coaching books to my wish list (and reading all of the summaries and especially reviews) to make sure I would have a wealth of resources for games and drills to make practices fun and rewarding, as well as giving them a chance to have fun in "games." (Another thing, do you think most 'rec leagues' run the 11-a-side, and keep score, formats? I know the challenges that brings from the fun, challenging and rewarding side of things. Every year I played from 6-12 it was 11-a-side and they kept score, even having playoffs and a championship. We also 'stayed in our positions' on the field all the time, and I definitely would not wish that upon any kids).

 

A couple of notes...

First, I don't know of too many people who feel that youth coaches should be "long term players for life." Perhaps at the competitive level of upper age brackets, but most youth programs look for the qualities you have mentioned: willingness to learn, interest in facilitating learning among players, caring about your team/players.

The other stuff--if it is important--comes later.

Second, it's not clear if your son is already playing and you want to coach him or if this has just awakened a desire to coach. Either way, I'm sure that your local league or club is always looking for someone who can teach the fundamentals of the game to young players.

Third, don't sell yourself short. You do have playing experience and you have a desire to learn. These are important and shouldn't be underestimated.

Finally, there is a thread on this board entitled "First-year coaching experience." You might want to breeze through some of the early pages as there was considerable discussion about what to do to get started coaching.

Best of luck.

jgw

 

Here you go:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=5102

 

Thanks for the followup.

My son is only nearing 2 1/2, so it is more that it has awakened a desire to coach soccer in general. I know I would have to start small, but maybe one day I could move up, or could at least take pride in being able to successfully move players into higher skill/play levels. I've a strong desire to coach hockey, too, which was my winter sport during the same years I played soccer.

I've taken a read through that thread and it was very interesting. A lot of it I had some previous initial exposure to, since I've been doing some research on the Internet over the last year. One thing I am wanting to tackle right now is getting myself back into shape. I've only added to the extra weight I gained during my wife's pregnancy...and can't do things I used to do. I have a desire to try and get into playing adult soccer and hockey, but don't know when/if that will work out.

 

Just wanted to throw in my two cents regarding coaching. In regards to the guy looking for a team in San Diego, my suggestion would be to look for a Catholic school league out there. After I graduated from Saint Louis U and decided to stay in St. Louis , I decided I wanted to coach but I had no idea where to start since I had grown up in Tennessee. I called the local soccer complex and they pointed me toward the Catholic Youth Council league. I called teh CYC and they fwded my name on to a guy they said was looking for some help. Well that guy called me a couple days later and four years later, two district titles with two different teams later, I'm still coaching for this local school and with this guy. Just look around, call around and you should be able to find something.

In regards to someone saying a new coach should start with boys instead of girls, four years ago I would have said the same thing. I started out with a fifth grade girls team. It was odd for me because my household had been me and my three younger brothers, so it took some adjustment to my coaching technique to find a way to motivate girls. With boys, you can yell at them to a degree and they'll respond; girls shrug it off or cry. But coaching girls is exactly what I needed for my first coaching experience because it helped me get in tune with the aspects of coaching I needed to work on: less yelling, more teaching; more encouragement, less criticizing. Now girls can be a handful. I've learned that the art of manipulating a male starts at an early age and they learn quickly. Its been fun and the girls I have coached have come together as a team rather well. We have select and non-select on the team but each girl has made progress with their skills.

To the guy who's worried about coaching a team but doesn't think he has the soccer skills to be a good coach.
I have played soccer all throughout my life (competively only through high school) and I coach players that do things I can't do. And they're 11! So swallow your pride first. Kids will respond to your enthusiasm and your encouragement more than your skills. Skills help and foster's a little respect by players, but its not a must. If you can't do a particular skill, use a player that can to demonstrate.

Finally, coach because you want to pass on knowledge and you enjoy the game of soccer. Don't get out there and give up after some frustration. These are kids that have a million things going on and their attention may not be focused on becoming the next Ronaldo. They are out there to have fun and be with their friends. Its playtime. Remember playtime? That 2-3 hours after school where you could just enjoy being a kid? That's the mentality of these kids you'll take on. Have fun. Teach. Discipline where needed and as needed. Tell the parents to shut their mouths unless they want to put in the 2-3 hours coaching. Be prepared for each practice and enjoy being a coach.

 

Much more than two cents here. Good advice, Kami.

 

Ah. That makes me think of something else I had been concerned about. I would not be interested in winning a championship, or anything like that. I won't even worry about the scores. All I want is for the kids to become better players. How do you deal with parents who don't understand that? Parents who yell to kick the ball downfield, even to the point that they kick it straight to the opposition? I would think that I need to tell the parents up front that it is not about winning or losing, that it is about increasing skills as individuals, and learning to work together as a team. Have any of you had real clashes with parents that just don't seem to get it? I know they were always around when I played...

 

I have one parent who is notorious for his obnoxiousness at games. He's a good guy and puts lot of time inot his kids, but can be very vocal on the sideline in a way that distracts players. During one game in particular, I could hear him across the field. Personally I couldn't take it, so I walked over there during the middle of the game and basically said "Hey, I can hear you across the field and it has to stop. Thanks." I ran back to the other side of the field and didn't hear anything from him. After the game, he came up to me and apologized and said he was just getting frustrated. I told him that's fine but keep the thoughts inside the head during the game. I'm the coach and I want them to listen to me not the parents.

What's funny is that this same guy is coaching a team next year and he wants me to come to some practices and help train the team. So he's a good guy who's mouth gets ahead of him sometimes. Personally, I think it should be a cooperative effort on the part of other parents to control vocal parents. While its a distraction to players to have parents yelling, its also a distraction to coaches adn we shouldn't have to keep telling adults to keep their yelling to encouragement and not direction.