Understanding youth soccer.

I would not coach on a club that gives the parent to much influence with the club.

The parents power should be solely with their kid.

Club should have the influence over the coach not a parent. At times the club can let that power slip away if the coach has to much power over his team.

The coach should have long ears, and should know what is going on within his team especially between players on the team. If their is a problem nip that in the bud right away.

On ability when a player first comes on a travel team from a rec team for example. He should have something that the coach thinks he can build on or he should not take that player on his team.

Once he makes that decision his job is one to pass his love of game to the player, to teach the player the techincal skills to become a better player, also make it a good experience for the player, he should have a good time doing it. if he does all that the parents will have a good time and will also catch the coaches love of the game because it is contagious.

If I took a kid on my team he will play. How much depends on him comming to practice and games, his desire to improve his game. He has that desire he is going to play.

By the end of the season he will get his fair share of playing time. Between league games and friendly games. He learns in practice, and in friendly games and some time in league games.

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All youth sports are corrupted. It is actually pretty sad. This is coming from a 20yr old.

First, I noticed it in little league baseball, all star teams were picked by who you know, ya the best players got on, but who played wasn't always the best. The coaches son always managed to play every game....

I realized this is the same for soccer, I played rec soccer then played club from u12 on up till I went off to college. You see how it is, the coahces son always plays(if he is on the team) and the coach favors players. I was a defender who towards the end played forward for 5-20mins here there to give the forward a rest. Even though our defense was sturgling, I wouldn't play, even if a kid was semi hurt and you could tell he wasn't at his best. All because of politics. It is how the game works, it sucks, it pissed me off when I realized I was driving 2hrs to games only to sit around and wonder why some kids were playing.

I remember for club soccer, one of my favorite years was my first, cause I was playing with all my friends, and we sucked. Our season highlight was scoring ONE goal against the state champs in a tournmanet on route to losing 10-1. We won maybe one game, but it was the most fun I had.

I don't know how it is for parents, but it seems like all competitive sports, I have seen it with Baseball also(watching my older brothers team).

 

You are toooooo late. It has already happened and continues.
I know a Coach that would only play HIS favorite players, even when they were injured! To the extent that one of them no longer plays due to extended use of his injured knee. This also did not help the team---they went from first in their division to LAST! Then the Coach quit---he couldn't get commitment from the players. go figure

 

Lol I remeber during one practice the whole team just boycotted the coach, he got pissed and left. This is when we were 15yrs old. But it got out point accross that we thought he was during a poor job.

 

In baseball, it's called Daddyball. Wherever a Dad is coaching, there's this kind of crap. I know baseball parents that are very up front that their child won't play Daddyball.

It actually seems worse in soccer for reasons I cannot really explain...other than the coach plays the players who's parents have their checkbooks committed.

I DO think that more than other sports, soccer is more the victim of coaches that are nursing their living off of you know who. That makes them totally useless as coaches. Soccer was a business here before it became a sport on the youth level, so there are a lot of leeches out there making a living at it.

I know a lot of parents will not say anything confrontational to a coach doing this crap, cause they don't want to make it worse.

I was once on a team, and thought I should be starting. When I didn't, I asked why, looking right in the eyes of the head coach. I was 15. I asked him to spell out what I needed to do to win the starting job. He did. In three weeks, I was starting and never lost the position.

If you manage to get them in this positioin, there is not much they can do. If they can't say why, well, then "I should be playing." If they say stupid unrealistic stuff, the reply is "those players aren't doing that, and they are playing." If they give you something to work on, well, once you do it he has a hard time not playing you, cause then you come back with "I did what you asked. Were you lying?"

That approach is not for everyone, but it might work.

 

Please don't keep your son on a team you can't stand.
That is just teaching him to be a whinny, complainer. You can help your son decide what is really a problem. And than show him that he has options. Ask one of his coaches what he needs to do to earn more playing time. But be proactive not victims. Also does your son practice on his own? Take a back seat, have your son do the talking with the coach.
Have your son list the things he does well and the things he needs to work on. Than have him take this list to his coaches and ask for advice on drills he can do to impove, and ask for imput on what they would like to see him do. I have never seen a player not get more playing time after they started to train on his/her own. Teach your son to control his destiny.

 

Generally, it's a bad idea for a coach to have a son or daughter on the team he's coaching. Nonetheless, there are always exceptions. My son has played on travel teams where the coach's son was on the team and it did not cause problems. Many times the Dad is the only one willing to take on the job. So, it is not always a "given" that the situation won't work.

 

As a parent, referee, coach & former collegiate player, I believe that the weak link in the whole system is the parents. They generally know the least about the game and have the biggest influence. As a player, you better want to play all the time, you better believe in you abilities and you better practise. All parents should want what's best for their kid and be willing to be supportive. The problem is that they would rather lobby the coach and ride the ref than spend the time to work with their kid. It's a lot easier to make a few calls or wisecracks than to get out there every day and serve up crosses or demonstrate step-overs. Fact is, most parents can't do those things, but they can make the game fun for their children. If it's fun, the kid is going to want to do it all the time and that's how they'll get to be better players.

I've never coached my own childern's teams. I teach them the skills, the games are just a chance to put those skills to work. The outcome of no game played by any child under the age of 14 matters in any way! I never speak to my kids about winning or losing, only how they played and how they acted. Nobody should play with an injury unless they are getting paid to do so.

If the kid is good enough, the coach is going to want to play them along side their own kid and the kiss asses kid because they want to win. If your child isn't at that level, be supportive, help them out and find a better situation for them. If you want them to have the opportunity to enjoy the game when they are 19, don't let anyone ruin it for them (including yourself) when they are nine.

 

Too many camps, games and teams are a problem in this country. Too much coaching and different kinds of coaching just confuse the kids and stand in the way of progress. Little kids in Brazil don't have all this stuff. All play prior to puberty should be about skills on the ball. You can teach tactics later. Passing is the least important of the ball skills. Striking the ball well will produce good passing. If you can shoot, you can pass. If I never hear "spread out and pass" again at a youth game I will be very happy. Just let them play and stop worrying about results.

 

Parents

Removing parents completely from youth sports may be a little unreasonable in today's world. When my dad played sports in the 40's the kids ran everything. The only thing the parents did was umpire, or ref. However with transportation issues, and money issues, etc., those days are gone

Granted with a parent manager you run the risk of having a coach play the manager's kids....but that is only one kid on a team of 16.

Our Club is VERY cautious about who it chooses for managers and keeps an eye on the politics. Frequently the manager is usually a parent who is very interested in soccer and who's kid is one of the better players. Our Club likes to keep managers for as long as they can so one of the their criteria for asking a parent to be a manager is: Is the kid good enough to make the team for the next five or six years? Obviously this does not always work out but generally speaking it does! My son happens to be one of the top five players on the team, trains more than any of the other, plays year round and loves the sport. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for someone on the team to question his playing time. Thus, there is no issue.

 

Agreed. Balls skills, ball skills , ball skills. Too many players rely on size and speed when they are young and don't develop good ball skills. By the time they are 15 and everyone has caught up to them physically they are no longer effective players.

I don't necessarly agree with your statement about passing.....only because I don't see the harm in talking about passing and working on it.....it is a team sport. Maybe it won't help but it certainly can not hurt. Passing has a lot to do with field vision and some of that you have to be born with; a talent more than a skill.

 

Parents

Agreed everyone has an agenda.....how is that different than anything else in the world. Just like work, a Club must have good management to insure that each and every player is developed for the good of the kids as well as the club.

I can only speak from my own experience....we just don't have these issues on our team.

 

You say that passing is important because a team that passes can beat a team that doesn't at the U11 age group. I should state again that winning at this age group is not important. Developing those dribbling skills as a U11 is more important than winning! Children are afraid to make mistakes at that age. Dribbling and losing the ball is seen as more embarrassing than sending an inaccurate pass. Passing too much will keep young players from improving their ball skills. Freddy Adu did not grow up with a lot of coaching. His ball skills are what they are because the culture of "playground soccer" is to dribble. I think it is much more important to teach young players how to shoot than to pass. Finishing is the second most obvious skill, after touch, that US players all the way up to and including the national team lack.

Being outcoached at the U11 level should mean something like providing a unpopular flavor of Kool-Aid.

You are only wasting your time if you are not having fun.

 

We could talk about this all day but I think that we agree.......ball skills and first touch are probably the most important skills to work on!

I really wish people did not use Freddy as an example of their point. My son has been on the ball 300 days a year for seven years and he will never be Freddy Adu. Freddy is not good simply because of the culture of the playground soccer....he is good because he is more gifted than any other 14 year old soccer player anywhere. If my son were a basketball player I would not compare him to LeBron James. Some people are just born with physical tools that no one else has.

I could practice every day for the next 10 years and never beat Micheal Johnson in a race.

 

Old boy, you are absolutely correct. I would reiterate what you said, winning at u11 is not important. Being able to hold the ball under pressure is vital to play at the highest levels.
Also you are wize to say parents are the problem. I am having a hard time understanding why a team would shun a great player. Or maybe the problem is in the parents eyes, do they point out so called slights to their children? On the other hand, I just don't see the benifit of pointing out how much better any one child is than the rest of his team. My successfull approach was to focus on the fun of the game and incourage practice on my childrens own. No I did not go out every day to help in their practice. That is just to much parental involvement.
I hear far more complaining from parents about youth teams, than we would ever hear from the children playing.

 

I'm not putting down the importance of passing. I'm saying that before the age of 14 it is not nearly as important as learning skills on the ball. Passing, tactics and other aspects of team play can be taught later when it's easier for a player to grasp the concepts. Touch must be learned earlier because it takes longer to be assimilated and because team play is made much easier when each of the players can control the ball.

My high school junior high aged daughters have always had good perspective on most things, wins & losses included, but my four and five year old sons would rather dine on spinach, broccoli & cauliflower than admit any kind of defeat. So now I get to parent. Now I get to teach them that the most important competition is with themselves.