Well some probably are (the stupid part), but that's a whole other matter. No, I was discussing the fact if "during the game" you are yelling instructions as to where to play and how to play the ball to 15-17 yr olds, I find that ridiculus. But maybe that is just me. Certainly they can be taught many things. But that is what practice is for. Maybe I can see giving instructions like that to small kids but not at that age. At that age, you should be giving tactical info. i.e. changing marking assignments, switching positions of players, etc.
I don't yell. It's kind of pointless anyhow, they either can't hear, ignore you, or misunderstand you. I do coach from the sidelines, though. And since most of the team is guilty of the above, I pick on my outside midfielder. I constantly am telling the player to move outside, make a run, do a quick throw-in, etc. Luckily for them, they are only subjected to one half of my coaching.
I think I would be called a yeller but what I yell is to help them learn. In my opinion, the game is where the kids can learn so much, either good or bad habits. I yell for the kids to hear me over the parents, wind, other players on the field and all other background noise. I coach U10's right now. These boys, obviously, still have a ton to learn. The game, IMO, is a great place to learn. For instance, a player passes a ball to another and doesn't say a word to him. I would say, in a volume that can be heard, did you give him any information or did you tell him he has time or man on? I am trying to get them to learn good habits. To me, at U10, games are really just a dressed up practice. For every correction I vocalize, I will also complement everything down to the fine details of a child communicating on the field or positioning himself well, even if he didn't get the ball, etc. I don't tell the kids what to do with the ball, I agree they need to figure that out and experiment on their own. Every once in a while I will ask them during a game, what other choices did they have, to see if they are looking for the right things. I think my bad habit is I will say to the boys, to try and get them to dig deeper, that "it's not good enough" or "we need to play quicker". Thats the extent of my negativity. Too many of those and I hear it from my wife. Once I'm into the game, it's hard to calm down. As you may see, I'm not completely sold on being completely quiet on a sideline at the young ages. I see too many coaches that seem to show a disinterest in the individual players progress. The older they get though, I 100percent agree, the more quiet a coach should be on game day. Looking at the title, I don't yell at players, I yell for them. I think some people are taking this no yelling too far and are now including no correcting or helping. You need to see American Football coaches if you want to see what is considered abusive. Sports are supposed to be fun but it's a different fun than a bounce house type fun. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm not saying I'm 100 percent right, all I'm saying is this is my philosophy right now. I am always willing to learn more and become better though.
So I coach U10 and I agree that the boys still have a lot to learn. But when do they get to have fun playing the game? What if this is the last year they are going to play? Or that they only play in the Fall because their true passion is baseball. I know my son hates it when I yell at him. I know yelling at him can get him mad and make him lose focus. I know he can hear me. Knowing all that, why should I make a fun game seem like a job? Also, look at when you get to coach. You get 2 90 minute practices and a 30 minute pregame warmup. Is it too much to ask that they get 50 minutes to play the game the way you coached them? I had silent dugouts in baseball. I even tried to stop assistant coaches talking to their own kids. Why? Ever see a kid in a batting slump get worse with all the additional information being shoved down his throat? It has taken me longer to get a silent sideline. And I like it. I love hearing my son as a goalkeeper order a wall to be formed. I love seeing all of my players make decisions. They may not be the decisions I would make, but so what? Let them learn by doing.
Coaches who are are yelling during the games are not doing their job at practice. Though, I'll admit, I had a very, very inexperienced high school team (3 soph, 7 frosh, 5 middle schoolers; few with any real soccer training), and did find myself giving direction way beyond what I like to do.
I'll just say this, my dad coached my team when I was going throught the traveling stages from U-10 to U-14. There were two teams that in my grade, the team my dad coached, and anotehr team that had the more atletic kids and played 2 divisions higher than us. The coach on the other team was very strict and was well-known for his strictness and for kicking players off the team (and we're takling traveling team here). Some of the players on the team I was on were kicked off the other team because of the coach. My dad on the other hand is very knowledgeable when it comes to the sport (he is italian) and although we were a very unatletic team, we had so much fun and a couple of seasons, we almost won our division (we finsihed second both times). Now, we fast forward to last season in high school. It was my senior year, and although the players that were on my team when i was younger no longer played (these were the kids that played soccer because their parents signed them up to have them do something active) the majority of the varsity team was made up of players that my dad coach. In fact, our coach for my senior year was the coach of the other team and out of the 11 starters, 2 came from the team he coached. 7 came from the team my dad coached (the other 2 had moved later on). Also, this year a good friend of mine who had been kicked off the team by the now varsity coach was thinking of quitting soccer because he despises the coach. But, he stayed and played sweeper as the coach now was begging him to stay on the team and offered him the captaincy.
I'm assuming you guys who never give instructions during games coach travel teams, because that just isn't practical for recreational players. Practice is only 2 hours per week (less, actually, because the parents don't get the kids there on time). You never have the whole team there at once, and you rarely have the opportunity to do a real game-like scrimmage. Oh yeah, you aren't supposed to use the area in front of the goals because it kills the grass. The game is 1/3 of your time for teaching the kids, and there are some things you just can't teach in practice under the conditions above. Obviously you don't accomplish much by yelling non-stop, but given these circumstances it doesn't seem unreasonable to give some instruction during the games.
OK. This is an easy subject. Coaches: players will listen to you and follow your orders a lot more if you don't flip your sh!t at them every time they make a mistake. It is a lot more effective if you talk to them calmly and instruct them on what you want them to do and how to do it. Yelling at players just puts more pressure on them, and why would you want to pile pressure on a player unnecessarily?? Just keep your cool and be patient. Players require time to perfect their skills, especially players in the high school age group.
...and why? Some of the best coaches in the world coach from the sidelines. It isn't about doing it or not doing it, it is about what is right and helpful and what isn't. Just because someone who "can't coach period" yells from the sidelines like a buffoon means that it "shouldn't be done by anyone".
I completely disagree with you. I coach a U6 team. You think they don't have a tremendous amount to learn about the game? Of course they do but, the games are their opportunity to show me what they know. I make notes and then I know what to work on in practice. As a coach, I really don't think I teach my players much. My role is to facilitate their learning. I put them in situations that allows the game to teach them. The game is the teacher, not me. Even for technical skills, I show them how to do things but it is the repititions of the technique that count.
Well, that's the thing, you're coaching U6. A U6 coach doesn't need to talk at a game. But what about a U16 elite coach? A team with tactical considerations may need to be moitored and adjusted during the action. Of course, it is all in how you approach it.
My problem is coaches who "coach" as if calling play by play. Problem is the kids will eventually tune it out, it also prevents the players from communicating and learning to solve the issues on the field by themselves. A coach who sits back quietly, then shouts out something specific to correct, is much more effective in terms of being heard. The players learn that if they are hearing the coach, its something worth hearing, well probably.
I agree, at a higher level, there is room for the occasional tactical adjustment but even then, it should be kept to a minimum. The post I responded to specifically mentioned rec teams.
I basically disagree. An elite U16 team ought to be able to function without coaching from the sideline. On field leadership should be supplied by the captain and, if the captain is not a defender, whoever is organizing the defense. I don't consider sending in a substitution or changing the system of play to be coaching from the sideline. But an elite U16 team should be learning how to adjust play during a game. For instance if they are up two goals, the coach shouldn't have to tell the team to play more conservative or slow the game down. They need to learn to think for themselves. What I find objectionble is the coach doing the thinking for the players. Its not a video game. But I agree its a matter of degree, not all one way or the other.
I had a discussion today, with someone who coaches for a regional YSA program, does clinics, runs an elite club, coaches ODP, etc. etc. We basically agreed that coaching from the sidelines is applicable and more so at the higher levels. The dogma of "not yelling from the sidelines" is instituted by governing bodies to eliminate rec-house coaches doing more harm than good for the players. There are no abstracts in soccer, and the current trends of "no interference" or "hands-off", "letting the game teach" are good but need to be tempered with common sense. If your 15yo's are completely self-sufficient, they aren't being challenged enough by the games they are playing. No one is talking about telling the kid, where to dribble, where to pass, where to run. That is assinine. What we are telling the kids to do is: hold a higher or deeper defensive line, change the tempo/pace of play, change angle of attack, etc. And this is stuff past the 12yo age, at a very high competition level. Which is mighty different than U6, U8, U10, U12-Travel, House, etc. etc.
When you quoted me you left off the last line: "But I agree that its a matter of degree, not all one way or the other." You comment about tempering "no interference" with common sense appears to agree with my post rather than contradict it.
I coach 2 girls teams, one U16, on U13. With the U16's I'm very quiet, I'll call out to a player for a tactical switch occasionally, unless it is one of those games where they're just not into it (seems to be 1 or 2 every season) then I'll ride them a bit to give them a sense of urgency, but even then if they're not responding by a few minutes after halftime it's a lost 'cause and I can just shut up. As for the U13's (same as when the other team was younger) I'll admit to being a yeller, usually encouragment/reminders of the basics...a lot of "win it!" when there's an open ball as far as advising; I yell "switch!" a lot and "get up!" to my defense, and the ever present "shield!" but once they show that they are thinking about these things then I'll stop. Hopefully soon. If you can't say it in 1 or 2 words it's not worth opening your mouth. But also it it is something you can say in 1 or 2 words it is a concept they understand and is just meant to reinforce the point, not bring in a new concept during the game. IMO, anyone who says they don't coach from the sidelines either has a team not being challenged enough or is able to coax extraordinarily intense practices because in my experience when players are challenged in a game they resort to what is comfortable/what they've always done and so need some type of cue to get them to think about new concepts/moves/tactics.
Two seasons ago, we had an end of season game that was meaningless tot he standings. WE were going to finish 2nd and the team we were playing was going to finish first. WE had a huge rain the day before and the game was switched at the last moment. No referee was available. I was an assistant coach and with the approval of everyone, I did the centering (I am a card carrying official). It was an eye opening experience. First, the girls communicated way more than I thought as a coach. They were constantly telling each other things about the game, positioning, man-on's etc. But the biggest thing was you couldn't hear a thing the coaches or the parents were actually saying!!!! Since I knew everyone involved, I knew the style of the comments. And the kids absorbed NONE of it. I know this may sound crazy but the only thing I yell now is for the defenders to get out! Rog
I agree. Although girls can need it less at times. I've seen girls teams work out soccer problems better between themselves and opponents. The '1 or 2 words idea' is really valuable advice. It almost has to be like call-response. In that you're referencing something you've already drilled at them more than once. I've seen guys coach "in paragraph statements" and I cringe. But, I like to help out young defenders with: where to hold a line [pull up/fall back], marking [goal-side, ball-side, tighter, no turn].
Why are girls different? If we are talking rec teams, my answer would be because in my experience the girls teams have better coaches than boys teams. I have seen plenty of fathers coaching their son's team who had no clue. I have never seen a girls team with a coach who had not played. I am not saying that its impossible to be a good coach without having been a player, but it sure helps. The best coach any of my sons had was a woman. That's true of my daughter too. And those coaches were not yellers.
Number one, nobody said anything about yelling. You can pack that argument away for the summer. I'm also not talking about rec. I've really been studying the u10 boys and girls at our club this year. It's still early, but I always see that the boys are competition-oriented and the girls are cooperation-oriented. This isn't a rule, but it has held true so far. I'm more interested to see how this plays out over the course of the year. The U10 boys are always looking to beat the opponent by themselves, where the U10 girls are looking to work together to solve the problem.
That continues for some time in my experience. In fact, comparing the O-30 women I coach and the O-30/40 men I ref, I'd say it may go into adulthood. I never hear my women criticising each other and they are generally trying to help each other out in training sessions. At the teenage level, I've seen girls teams tend to play as a team earlier than boys teams. Not an absolute, but as a generalisation I think it bears some truth. It's certainly something that would be worth observing within your club, especially if other variables (coaching, parent-pressure etc) can be allowed for.
This, here, could be key. The parent-pressure for the U10 girls is waaaay down [thank goodness]. I do notice that one or two girls with active fathers [i.e. - "superfans"] seem to be under more pressure and at least one of those girls is "less cooperative" and "more competitive". Getting back to topic [i.e. yelling]. It is startling to see how much an of an affect it can have on players' morale at the U10 age. Some of the kids are immediately putting their heads down at practice when corrected [even in the most positive and harmless way]. You start to flag off those parents and watch the relationship before and after practice. At 15 onward, I think it would benefit all kids to at least have _to deal_ with someone who can be strict w/ high expectations and little room for failure. Aloof can be as effective/harmful as angry. It's all in the way it's represented. I think non-confrontational sarcastic a-holes are as bad as straightforward, in-your-face a-holes. So the act of "yelling" isn't always an issue. Also, the OP was having a respect issue with his kids from the off. If he has to let out his frustration to show the kids he isn't a pushover. So be it. It's not like he is planning out a strategy to systematically breakdown the children over an extended period of time through demoralising comments and tone of voice. HS kids can be dicks. Nothing wrong with letting them know you aren't going to take any shit.
We are playing in a U10 Academy league now. Our first 3 games are against U10 girls. The first two games, I know the teams had been together for some time. (Ours has at least 4 players new to the team.) They have the teamwork down all of the time. In the last game, the 3 forwards moved as a line towards the goal. We stay competitive with them because of our athleticism. If we could get a couple of players to be more cooperative, it would be a better game. And of course, we have some players who need to solve the problem themselves instead of passing the ball to someone 2 feet away.