Your kid is not going to play for Barcelona. Neither is mine • Your kids' happiness is far more important than the level of play they play at • If you identify the ten best U9 players at your club, chances are that only half of them will be among the top ten by U11/12. Similar for the best at U11/12 when you re-visit at U14 • Most people, youth coaches included, really don't fully understand offside • Parents need to apply the same rules around social media to themselves that they give to their kids as it relates to sports. That goes for Insta and Whatsapp groups. Many more these days are losing objectivity and getting swept up in questionable views • We are being totally negligent with girls development by not insisting they are properly schooled in basic techniques related to controlling the ball and striking the ball • No kid knows what a realistic goal is for them in terms of soccer when they are 10 years old. Unfortunately, most parents don't either • You, as a parent, are fully entitled to ask a lot of questions about the quality of the coaching your child will receive when you are considering elite levels of play. To do that, you need to understand what makes a good coach, what is age and level appropriate training and that running teams is not about providing instant gratification to players and parents (ie. winning most of your games at early ages) • Its important parents and players understand what constitutes an elite level of play and where their level of play sits in the pyramid of play where you live • Kids who regularly watch games on TV, good quality games, benefit from it • Coaches who take a bottom division team through all the way to U18 deserve a medal. Not going for a cheap laugh here. Parents on those teams should be going out of their way to give heartfelt thanks to those coaches • If you have an end goal for your child when you start divisional soccer that is anything other than ensuring they are enjoying the game and in a positive environment that facilitates their development, drop that goal and go with the one I just mentioned • Besides playing for Canada and UBC, the soccer memories I cherish most are the trips I've been on with teams • If you're a parent coach of a team that trains once a week: get five bullet-proof training sessions that work for your team. Run them 3 or 4 times per season and sprinkle in small-sided games nights. It helps the players and it helps you as a coach • Once a year, in January or February, when the weather is particularly shitty at one of your training sessions, cancel practice once you get there, walk over to a Starbucks (where possible) with them and buy the players who came out despite the weather a hot chocolate and have some laughs • Take pictures of your team at practices and games. You'll be glad you did when it's all over • It is far better to be the stronger player at a lower level of play than the overwhelmed, last picked player at a higher level no matter how much nicer the tracksuits are • Reasons kids quit soccer when they're in House league: bad weather, adults forming teams that set up them to lose all their games while other teams win all theirs, coaches that don't engage them, parents that don't actively support their participation • Reason kids quit soccer when they're older: coaches that betray the trust players need, playing on teams at levels they shouldn't be playing at, parents living vicariously through their kids soccer • Many of the people I look forward to seeing these days are people that I played soccer with over 35 years ago • What Barcelona and others have shown is that technical excellence doesn't just mitigate physical superiority in terms of height, strength and even speed, it obliterates it • At U14 and above, winning is important. It builds confidence and engagement. Linking success (winning) to effort, commitment and teamwork is the most sustainable method of helping your team to win. Also, teaching kids to win graciously is important and having them experience losing is a great tool to facilitate that • Kids don't need boots that cost over $300. No boot makes you a better player. Comfort, a suitable stud type for the surface you'll be using and a snug fit are what really matter. Use the FIFA 11+ warm up, every training session and game, especially if you're working with teenage girls • Asking players questions while they're training is a much more effective development tool than yelling instructions at them in games • There is no one development pathway that is perfect or even suitable for all players but the right coach at the right time can really do a ton of good for your kid • I coached kids for 22 years. I always brought a written plan for my practices. I never winged it • I've never seen a player's future limited by not playing up a year • I've seen many players not enjoy playing up a year • I didn't pick captains for my teams. They're kids. They don't need artificial divisions that segregate them. Runs contrary to team-building and seeing their peers as equals • My youngest son’s team won the league title four of six seasons, same with my daughter’s. I never ran a fitness session with either. Not once. Totally unnecessary and a waste of precious training time. Build fitness into exercises with the ball. • Unstructured play is really important. Not so much for technical development but for players to learn agency and autonomy as in “Am I playing because my parents sign me up or am I playing because I enjoy it?” To organize and participate playing the game with peers affirms the latter. I know a club that builds in player-led sessions once or twice a season and they get complaints from parents “We’re paying for staff coaches to run sessions not the kids!” • The more you coach or watch your kids play the more opinionated about the game you are likely to become. Try to guard against that.
Writing about coaching is maybe not the best antidote for that :)
A song you may not know but must surely like once you have. The Rural Alberta Advanatage - Lifetime . (Apple Music) (Spotify)(YouTube)
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