Let me present a real simple way to keep in mind some of the important soccer coaching factors that are needed in building the team philosophy and getting along with it. This philosophy can be applied to your youth team with relative ease as it is easier than you think.
There are 6 factors; parents, coaches, excitement, selection, time and success windows which are required for an effective youth coaching philosophy.
Consistent Parental Support: When we talk about soccer training the influence of parents is vital in the mental and physical development of your players, most importantly on the day the match is taking place. “Parental responsibilities”, the brochure supplied when the term starts is not sufficient. An effective strategy would be is to have regular meetings with them to remind them the essential points and share problems.
New soccer coaches: An important part of the philosophy is that you should not only concentrate on development of the players, but also the coaches. You may try if one of your kid’s parents can become a soccer coach? They are the ideal candidates, not necessarily to start immediately, but may be in the future.
Selection: The drop out of players with great soccer skills is mostly because of non-selection. According to studies, players say they would rather get selected for a bad team than not getting selected for a good team. Therefore, with the help of a rational selection system all the player could be given equal game time.
Time: Observe punctuality and tell the parents to be punctual as well. When the start times and finish times are clearly defined, you can execute the session very well.
Excitement: Is it necessary that every soccer coaching session should be fun? You must definitely try to make each session a delight for the kids but then, its not possible all the time. Hence, choose enthusiasm as a substitute.
When training the kids, it is certain that the coach will have problems with ideas on how to make practice drills interesting. So, the biggest challenge in teaching soccer is to be creative enough and keep introducing new and innovative ideas so that the kid’s remain interested in the game.
In soccer drills, it makes sense to keep escalating the difficulty aspect so that kids get skilled. A way of doing this is to begin a game, take note of a problem, and then remove it with the help of a soccer drill.
Success windows: Make success windows a part of a season for every training session. This means that you must determine a lower limit and an upper limit of time with a view to measure the level of success that needs to be achieved.
As an example, time frame of minimum four and maximum eight weeks. This can be done for both team as well as individual team members.
Do yourself a favor and have a soccer coaching philosophy like this become a part of the development phase of your kid’s training once the basics have been covered. For more information, join our youth coaching community which has a collection of relevant material and resources on youth soccer.
Andre Botelho is the author of “The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide” and he’s a recognized expert in the subject of youth soccer coaching. Learn how to explode your players’ skills and make coaching sessions fun in less than 29 days! Download your free pdf guide at: Soccer Coaching Drills.