Here’s a really simple way to remember some of the key soccer coaching factors that are required in determining your team philosophy and run with it. We can apply this philosophy to our youth team very easily as it is easier than we can imagine.
There are 6 factors; parents, coaches, excitement, selection, time and success windows which are required for an effective youth coaching philosophy.
Communicating with Parents regularly: Parental influence is the key factor for soccer training which is essential in the mental and physical growth of your players, particularly on the day of the match. “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.
Developing soccer coaches: Training of soccer coaches should be an integral part of your philosophy instead of targeting the players. Assess and see if you can turn one of your kid’s parents into a soccer coach? They are the ideal candidates, not necessarily to start immediately, but may be in the future.
Selection: The greatest reason for players with great soccer skills to lose interest is 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 you define the start times and finish times clearly, it helps you deliver the session effectively.
Excitement: Is it a must that each soccer coaching session is interesting? Yes, try to make every session enjoyable for the kids but also understand that it may not be possible every time. As such, adopt excitement as an alternate.
When you train the kids, it is perfectly natural that coaches have problems coming up with different ideas on how to make sessions fun. 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, keep increasing the level of difficulty for the player’s to grow. 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: Try and include a success window for the season as a vital part of your training sessions. This needs you to determine a lower limit and an upper limit of time with a view to measure the level of success that needs to be achieved.
To take an example, time frame of minimum four and maximum eight weeks. This can be done for both team as well as individual team members.
Favor yourself 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.
Tags: soccer coaching, soccer drills, soccer skills, soccer training