2019 Coaching Thread

There's a chance I might be only assistant for my son's u15 team. It is a club team, 3rd of 3 teams, the pro coach is coaching 2 teams, and there are likely some conflicts with his schedule so if the club doesn't provide us a coach for certain weekends it might be me calling the shots. up until now, I've just coached rec and small sided.

What would be recommended course for me to take to be prepared and certified well enough?

I'm already cleared through all the basics (lindsey law, abuse prevention, concussion cert) just wondering how to be 'more qualified' if it does fall on me.

I might decide to do some coaching when the kids become adults, as I've invested a lot of time in this hobby already.

 

I'd recommend the USSF Grassroots pathway through the National D if you can, but the in-person 11v11 could be great if you don't have the time or financial bandwidth to continue onto the D.

Alternatively, USC pre-National (on through National if you have the resources) might be something to check out.

 

So you'd just be running games?

I don't think the ussf grassroots courses teach you how to coach in game, just how to run practices.

What are the goals? It's a 3rd team, are you trying to get everyone equal time, are you still expected to win to try and move up for next season...

 

Grassroots Courses touch on coaching games as one of the 6 Tasks.

 

Cool, good toknow. Can he get that from the online version or only the in-person?

 

In-person touches on it practically. To be fair, it's not in-depth.

 

For covering a match for another coach, I would suggest
1. Reviewing the LOTG and competition rules including LOTG modifications.
2. Reviewing Club and league policies.
3. Coordinating with the coach to find out his objectives and his policies as well as what you need to bring to the match. In my state we have to have an annual background check.
4. The coach may have a written warm up plan, lineup, and sub plan he could share. I assume you are already familiar with the system he uses for this team.

 

It is contrary to the science on speed training, technical training, and warmups. That is why I criticize it for use during the ages when you are primarily doing technical training. It isn't so much of a concern with older athletes when the training is periodized. The SAQ and technical training can be covered in separate sessions.

At the grass roots courses I attended both times the instructors demonstrated p-p-p using tactical sessions, not technical.

At the youngest ages like U6, you aren't doing technical sessions so even play-play-play is fine.

The session should suit the training plan. One size does not fit all. That is my complaint about p-p-p.

 

Are we starting a 2020 thread?

I had an amazing time at the convention. I completed the United Soccer Coaches Urban Soccer Diploma and did a bunch of super cool sessions. The Awards Gala last night was super cool and I had neat conversation with Carlos Cordeiero (sp?). We didn't fix youth soccer but he now knows my name

 

Wow. Sounds fantastic.

That diploma is on my list. I want to get involved getting stuff going with at-risk youth on my area.

 

I've really been critical of the grassroots courses until very recently.

Yesterday, we made the decision after long contemplation to pull my son off of his P2P basketball team. 4th grade B team and the parent coaches were just in it for their own kids, so we got to watch the coach's kid dribble off his foot attempting to drive 5v1 every time, while the 4 other players looked on helplessly. Coaches were always talking about winning games (which they really didn't do), and never about developing players. Non-equitable playing time, not including players in the huddle during timeouts, keeping players on sideline for over 15 minutes at a time during practice, telling players not to shoot the ball. We went to the club earlier - and got lip service about mentoring them, they are volunteers etc. Nothing changed and our son's confidence decreased while bad habits were increasing. Since the club/team wasn't following thru on their commitment to our son, we decided to quit wasting our time and his. Haven't slept as well in 2 months as I did last night.

This experience emphasized how badly needed self-reflection and strong self-awareness are as a coach, which is really the whole purpose of the grassroots courses. It's also certainly made me more self-conscious about how I'm treating players and parents and what I'm showing my values to be on the sideline.

 

I completely agree with Stphnsn. My oldest quit basketball after 3rd grade because he never got the ball becuase half his team was told they were better than the other half. (its partially true but not by a lot). Those 5 who were told they were better didn't intentionally decide not to pass to the lesser kids but more subconciously. (Find David vs Andrew, etc). Two parent coaches both came up to me when my son and 1 other didn't show to practice earlier this year wondering why. I was frank and honest with the first as I trusted him. Then the story telephoned back to me that I thought my kid was too good for the program not hearing what I had said. Should have known hat is how shit happens when you can't take a critical eye to what you do. The worst coaches are completely blind to their behavior.

I've taken the last 8 weeks off soccer and we start again next week. It was good to be off and clear my mind. My teams are rec and we are not great but we really were making strides toward the end of the season. Its been 3 years of coaching and only now am I really finding my voice/my vision. I'm excited. I've kind of created my own cheap GoPro + painting pole + tripod which I plan to take video of the kids at practice and then spend the first 5 minutes of each practice showing stuff from the prior week. (At the end of the last season I asked how many kids have watched a game - only 3 had. Kids don't get the big picture because they've never seen it). My oldest was having trouble driving the ball so I took video and showed it to him and then we went back out. He loved it so I'm hoping it works at a team level.

Im also on my clubs board and we've turned over almost the entire board which was good but now some of the new need to step up. I've decided that I'd rather coach than be on the board so I'll serve out my term (18 months left) and then move on.
We've cleaned up our coaches and I have to say we really have some quality coaches. Our club really punches above its weight at the older ages as we have some coaches who really are quite good for a real small program. But part of that is we have little development for the littles/young ages, especially for new coaches. We are trying to build a methodology/vision and its really, really hard. We all want different things. One coach thinks littles practice should be 100% technical and no game model. I'm off the idea of a mix of SSG and technical and we have another who is 100% SSG and the technical will come. I'm hoping we can get some agreement and that we actualy follow it but I think the others will just sign-off on a plan and go to their own way which defeats the purpose.

 

Some suggestions. Consider doing it in stages. Youngest age - all ball at feet activities. Next appropriate age group, introduce SSG on top of it. And so forth.
Also, instead of one coach to one team practice, run stations where teams move from station to station each running a specific activity by a coach. You need one main coach to train the others and ensure quality. Coaches run a different station each practice, etc. You train your inexperienced coaches along the lines of your club methodology.

 

Right, not easy and it would take time to grow. I would start with the youngest age group only. Instead of looiking for volunteer "coachs", look for volunteer "helpers" (people who want to help but dont feel confident about coaching). So you start this pipeline of trained volunteers who may want to step in as a coach in year 2 or 3, etc.

 

The problem with a rigid methodology is that what is best depends on the players. One size doesn't fit all. If everyone does exactly the same training without variation, then some of the players will leave the others behind. The more advanced the athlete, the more individualized the training program needs to be to be most efficient. Remember grouping the kids by birth year is not grouping them by soccer age, i.e., where they are developmentally.