# What are clubs looking for in a coach?



## Deadpoolscores! (Oct 1, 2016)

I have wondered and observed how some coaches are selected or hired into different clubs.
Why is it that for some clubs they except any coach as long as they bring in a team with them. Others are more selective and look for the best that they can recruit. Yet there are clubs that have a mix of both good and not so great coaches. These clubs I have wonder the most as to how do they select both? I've seen good coaches not given the opportunity to join these clubs but they hire young coaches that it's obvious they don't know what  they are doing but at the end the one that gets robbed at the end are the parents. So this question is towards the senior coaches what are you thoughts on how they select coaches? Parents what would you rather have or do you get wowed with the routine drills they do? Why are some clubs just have flat rate price but the quality of the coach is not at high standard as the A team?


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## God (Oct 1, 2016)

Game, you gotta have game!


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## genesis (Oct 1, 2016)

God said:


> Game, you gotta have game!


Haha coaches are just like the rest of us.


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## timbuck (Oct 2, 2016)

I've heard lots of stories of lawsuits betweeen club and coach.  
Coach sues club because of wages held back.


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## Desert619 (Oct 2, 2016)

great question! We all know clubs don't charge less when parents get stuck with the new shitty inexperienced coach.


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## God (Oct 2, 2016)

Desert619 said:


> great question! We all know clubs don't charge less when parents get stuck with the new shitty inexperienced coach.


Colder than a hooker's heart.


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## Deadpoolscores! (Oct 3, 2016)

timbuck said:


> I've heard lots of stories of lawsuits betweeen club and coach.
> Coach sues club because of wages held back.


I seen that happen with those little clubs that people never heard about so good luck to those coaches when they go to small claims court.


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## Deadpoolscores! (Oct 3, 2016)

God said:


> Colder than a hooker's heart.


That's when I personally feel that the parents should be compensated, or asked before the split up the girls who will be there coach and what is there back ground. Also all these coaches that say they played Pro, does not mean they are a great coach. Who here can say that the Men's U.S. team 15 to 25 years ago was  the boom? So why would any parent think that just because they played pro...keep in mind it was American type of training would know how to develop kids? I would question if  the coaches have ever taking training in Europe or other Latin countries. A lot of  the well developed clubs will have a few of them but those are the coaches I would want my DD to learn from and not just do routine drills. It's the routines and sometimes coaches that don't look at the details...I'm sure everyone has seen an over lap drill. If you look at all the players, do they all actually see where the player is running to and is the player that is doing the run is actually looking for the passer? Most of the times they don't which is one of the reasons why either the pass the ball behind the player, too fast, too slow or there is no adjustment. I see it as a lack of soccer IQ making the right decision vs being a robot doing the routine. Oh am I crazy? The coaches that emphasize the little details during practice,  is one of the huge differences I have seen between the young vs old coaches or the coaches that care about developing the team and player. Or am I just crazy like my wife says I am LOL.


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## younothat (Oct 3, 2016)

License level, pay grade, experience, reputation.....but sometimes comes down to connections...former players or associations position themselves for opportunities

Seems every year there are last minute changes...better offers or positions open up and coaches jump ship pretty easily.

On the flip side how long should a coach be given if they are not getting the job done,  IE...Bob Bradley takes over EPL's Swansea City

Youth soccer is not the EPL but should a coach be given the whole season to develop a team or if they are underperforming midway or something should a change be considered?


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## Deadpoolscores! (Oct 3, 2016)

younothat said:


> License level, pay grade, experience, reputation.....but sometimes comes down to connections...former players or associations position themselves for opportunities
> 
> Seems every year there are last minute changes...better offers or positions open up and coaches jump ship pretty easily.
> 
> ...


I completely agree..back in the days with Arsenal if the team was not performing they would send a evaluator to see what is truly going on. At the end it was typically the coach that was not performing. Who do you blame the teacher or the student? If the students are trying there best but still don't understand who's to blame? If the players don't care or not putting effort who's to blame? I see this way, it's the responsibility for the coach teach them and if the players still can execute, then the coach needs to step back and regroup. If the kids don't seem like they want to put the effort, the coach needs to figure how to boost moral and see what's going on to fix it. I know a lot of coaches would disagree with me on these statements...I look at it also from a parents point of view..."So why are we paying so much money and my child is not truly learning?"


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## Eagle33 (Oct 3, 2016)

Deadpoolscores! said:


> I completely agree..back in the days with Arsenal if the team was not performing they would send a evaluator to see what is truly going on. At the end it was typically the coach that was not performing. Who do you blame the teacher or the student? If the students are trying there best but still don't understand who's to blame? If the players don't care or not putting effort who's to blame? I see this way, it's the responsibility for the coach teach them and if the players still can execute, then the coach needs to step back and regroup. If the kids don't seem like they want to put the effort, the coach needs to figure how to boost moral and see what's going on to fix it. I know a lot of coaches would disagree with me on these statements...I look at it also from a parents point of view..."So why are we paying so much money and my child is not truly learning?"


Coach can only do so much to give players tools and knowledge to succeed in games. The rest is up to players. They are the one who needs to play and perform. Players develop and learn at different pace, some get it today and some never will, just like in school, some smart and some not so much. You can't expect any coach to make a superstar out of your kid overnight just because you paid money. If it's all about money for you - pull you kid from soccer and start saving now, by the time college comes, you should have enough saved.


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## Mystery Train (Oct 3, 2016)

I generally have a pretty skeptical view of club directors, but I have sympathy with them when it comes to hiring coaches.  What a nightmare that must be!  Hiring quality employees is a difficult job for any business.   So much dead weight to sift through to get to good people.  Gotta be worse than the average for part time soccer coaches.  The vast majority of coaches fall into the category of someone who loves soccer more than they know it.  These are often parents of players, parents who used to play a little at some level, and got sick of crappy coaches and volunteer coaches and decided to take matters into their own hands.  They went out, got their license, were connected to all the local soccer parents so they had lots of recruits, and then went to it.  You can win games if you are good recruiter.  You don't have to be a great coach.  The number of truly "professional" level coaches is really low.  The pay sucks, the commute sucks, and the schedule sucks.  So if you are a really intelligent, well organized individual who relates well to other people and have great communication skills (good coaching qualities), you probably have way better career opportunities elsewhere.  The best coaches I know do something else for a living and just coach one club team "for fun," because they love the sport.   If your employee is just there for fun and doesn't "need" the job, he/she will walk if the BS gets too deep (I'm looking at you soccer parents), so even the good ones often don't hang around long.   Also, for big clubs with multiple teams in every age group, it must be really hard to evaluate every single coach closely.  For the small clubs, they're usually just happy to have a coach bring them a new team, so they probably aren't really tough in the interview process.  Then, if you run a club that is trying very hard to do background checks, interview, qualify, and hold new coaching candidates to a high standard, you have to put up with every other local club trying to steal away the good ones with promises of more money, higher positions, and the flaky nature of the market.  I think the main thing is just simply a lack of good candidates and an overabundance of crappy ones.


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## jrcaesar (Oct 3, 2016)

Mystery Train said:


> I think the main thing is just simply a lack of good candidates and an overabundance of crappy ones.


For sure. And there's a large, uneducated parent audience out there entering the club scene who don't recognize this. Parents who think since Johnny made All-Stars (or didn't!) that they should move to club ... *and* their child hasn't yet had a coach who's really played the game ... *and* they are certain the big clubs will provide a better training experience than what Johnny is getting now ... *and* they see their friends posting on Facebook about driving to games a 6 AM and think their kids should be doing that, too.

So what happens? They join a club with one of those overabundant, crappy coaches, or maybe he's even a "good enough" coach. And maybe the first year they kickball their way to a nice record and win a medal or two, and then they stay another year and think all is going well. Meanwhile these clubs playing "competitive soccer" keep Flight 3 programs and tournaments alive when those kids and families should really be playing rec soccer and saving their coaching and travel money.


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## Deadpoolscores! (Oct 3, 2016)

jrcaesar said:


> For sure. And there's a large, uneducated parent audience out there entering the club scene who don't recognize this. Parents who think since Johnny made All-Stars (or didn't!) that they should move to club ... *and* their child hasn't yet had a coach who's really played the game ... *and* they are certain the big clubs will provide a better training experience than what Johnny is getting now ... *and* they see their friends posting on Facebook about driving to games a 6 AM and think their kids should be doing that, too.
> 
> So what happens? They join a club with one of those overabundant, crappy coaches, or maybe he's even a "good enough" coach. And maybe the first year they kickball their way to a nice record and win a medal or two, and then they stay another year and think all is going well. Meanwhile these clubs playing "competitive soccer" keep Flight 3 programs and tournaments alive when those kids and families should really be playing rec soccer and saving their coaching and travel money.


Jr and Train I have to agree with you guys...and you both bring up good points.


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## sandshark (Oct 4, 2016)

What they look for is a coach capable and willing to recruit along with end of the year player retention. First and foremost it is about the number of players a coach can contribute to a club. Of course they want the basic coaching qualities with a fluffed resume to attract the families. ( A NOTE OF WARNING just because your coach played at a high level or is from another country has NOTHING to do with him or her having the social skills and understanding of youth athletes to be a good coach) But again this is all to build the #'$$$$. 
I'm not bashing this business model as long as we are all under the same understanding this is all a business and we are customers. We need to keep things in perspective WE are being SOLD a product.


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## tam53 (Oct 4, 2016)

Eagle33 said:


> Coach can only do so much to give players tools and knowledge to succeed in games. The rest is up to players. They are the one who needs to play and perform. Players develop and learn at different pace, some get it today and some never will, just like in school, some smart and some not so much. You can't expect any coach to make a superstar out of your kid overnight just because you paid money. If it's all about money for you - pull you kid from soccer and start saving now, by the time college comes, you should have enough saved.


I do agree that ultimately is up to a player to develop and succeed.  A yes, save your money now for college and don’t count on soccer to help pay for it. However, a good coach can certainly play a significant role in a player’s development. Unfortunately, most of my DD coaches over the last five years have been average or below average, focus on winning, and more importantly, lack communication skills.  I believe a coach should be transparent to the players and parents and communicate regularly with parents/players about performance and expectations.  Clubs are so focus on quantity rather than quality. And for those players that need to improve on certain skills, I would expect a good coach to tell the parents what he/she will do to help improve those skills and what he/she expects from the player (including may be the need for separate private training if necessary).  I know players have different strengths and weakness, yet the same approach or training is regularly used for everyone.  I understand that there is not enough time in every practice to focus on an individual player, but there are plenty of opportunities during training that do not take a lot of time to provide the needed guidance.   

Anyway, we’ll be moving to the San Gabriel valley next spring and will be looking for a new team for my DD (2004) so if you know a good coach in the area, let me know. I appreciate your feedback.


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## genesis (Oct 4, 2016)

The more soccer information given to parents by a knowledgeable coach the more they will be confused.


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## Deadpoolscores! (Oct 4, 2016)

genesis said:


> The more soccer information given to parents by a knowledgeable coach the more they will be confused.


Some get confused some don't...all depending on the person.


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## genesis (Oct 4, 2016)

Deadpoolscores! said:


> Some get confused some don't...all depending on the person.


Of course but more often than not explaining process to parents falls on deaf ears as their primary concern is winning and playing time; not the process of individual and team growth.


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## Deadpoolscores! (Oct 4, 2016)

genesis said:


> Of course but more often than not explaining process to parents falls on deaf ears as their primary concern is winning and playing time; not the process of individual and team growth.


Isn't that the American way of thinking? LOL


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## tam53 (Oct 5, 2016)

genesis said:


> Of course but more often than not explaining process to parents falls on deaf ears as their primary concern is winning and playing time; not the process of individual and team growth.


I disagree. Soccer is not that complicated or confusing. I'm not talking to explain soccer strategies to a parent. Explaining to a player (and parent) why she/he is not getting as much playing time as other players is not fun but it is easy. A parent or player might not agree with a coach's comments but that is ok, as long as it is communicated. Also, explaining to a player/parent what the coach will do to help the player is not difficult but a coach might not like it because he/she will now be accountable. I do still think it is ultimately a player's responsible to get develop.


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## Sizzle10 (Oct 6, 2016)

genesis said:


> The more soccer information given to parents by a knowledgeable coach the more they will be confused.


Confusing? “Your DD needs to work on her first touch, dribbling, passing, passing accurate passing, using her shoulder to tackle, etc.” This is confusing?


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## Sizzle10 (Oct 6, 2016)

tam53 said:


> I do agree that ultimately is up to a player to develop and succeed.  A yes, save your money now for college and don’t count on soccer to help pay for it. However, a good coach can certainly play a significant role in a player’s development. Unfortunately, most of my DD coaches over the last five years have been average or below average, focus on winning, and more importantly, lack communication skills.  I believe a coach should be transparent to the players and parents and communicate regularly with parents/players about performance and expectations.  Clubs are so focus on quantity rather than quality. And for those players that need to improve on certain skills, I would expect a good coach to tell the parents what he/she will do to help improve those skills and what he/she expects from the player (including may be the need for separate private training if necessary).  I know players have different strengths and weakness, yet the same approach or training is regularly used for everyone.  I understand that there is not enough time in every practice to focus on an individual player, but there are plenty of opportunities during training that do not take a lot of time to provide the needed guidance.
> 
> Anyway, we’ll be moving to the San Gabriel valley next spring and will be looking for a new team for my DD (2004) so if you know a good coach in the area, let me know. I appreciate your feedback.


You might want to take a look at SoCal Academy based in San Marino.


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## younothat (Oct 6, 2016)

The player and coaches should be talking to each other about whatever needs to be  addressed rather than the parent(s) in most cases

Unless you player is too young or doesn't communicate due to a language barrier or something else a good rule of thumb/habit is let your player do all the talking, requests, etc for themselves to coaches.

One area that some clubs & coaches could work on is better communications and regular written evals, progress reports about players, standards they are looking for, suggestions.etc

At school we as parents get regular progress reports,  report cards every quarter, can look on-line in most cases about their progress this week or not, etc.

Youth soccer could use more of these types of feedback but sometimes I think coaches or clubs are too reluctant to rock the boat for paying customers.


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## Eusebio (Oct 7, 2016)

I spoke about this in the old forum, but another problem is that even on a single team there is a wide variety of goals from parents/players. You have:
- Some parents want their kids to improve enough to get a college scholarship one-day
- Some players have aspirations to play professional or on the national team one-day
- Some players/parents see soccer as just another activity like baseball/football, and just want to have a winning season and show-off medals on facebook etc
- Some players just want to have fun and play with their friends

You can have all these different interests/goals just on a single 16-18 player roster. I'm a very good individual/small group trainer and I've had numerous people ask me to coach a full team, but I've always declined. In the American club system, there just isn't a clear vision or common goal, so I don't think I would be effective with my coaching style. I would either get frustrated trying to herd the cat-like behavior of parents or I would get fired by the club for not producing immediate results.

Yes supposedly at the higher elite levels, the team focus is supposedly more narrow. But you still have some kids who are aiming for a college scholarship, a few with pro ambitions, and others playing for fun and for the last time before they pursue their real careers. From a coaching standpoint, it makes it difficult to have a common vision/goal that everyone on the team can buy into and have the proper commitment level. I think the boys side is more fractured than on the girl's side.

It's why I primarily focus on just training my own kids and occasionally a select few who have a long-term commitment to become good soccer players. The truth is if you want to train someone to play at the highest levels, you have to be able to make small subtle adjustments. For example if a kid shanks the ball way over the goal in practice repeatedly, you have to say more than "Stop hitting the ball over! Get over the ball more!". You actually have to look at how they're planting their support foot, is their ankle locked, are they maintaining their form into their follow-through. How is their balance and etc.   Once you see the problem, you quickly pull them aside and give them an area in the technique to focus on. And if necessary give them a little homework assignment (ie. wall taps) that re-enforces the technique. Overseas any serious player would appreciate these type of corrections/instructions from their coach or trainer, and work to improve on it in their own time. But here, even many supposed competitive and academy players, have little patience for those type of instructions.  And even many parents don't fully grasp that soccer is a heavily technical sport, it's not like football or basketball where tenacity, pure athleticism and size/height play a huge part. With soccer it's agility, fitness, pace, game IQ (we have no timeouts) and high technical ability that matter.

I'm not saying I'm a great coach, but to answer the original topic question, our youth system is just not setup to attract quality coaches in large quantities. You'd think the Academy system would provide an environment for good coaches, but clubs just recycle the same coaches and curriculum. US Soccer is still a bit muddled on what it means to join a DA academy. Is it for a D1 college scholarship? A youth national team spot? A MLS homegrown contract? A gateway into USL? In Europe, if you join an academy whether it's Manchester United, BVB, or some smaller club, make no mistake, every single rostered kid on that academy is going for a professional contract. There's no ambiguity. Their clear focus attracts the best coaches and produces the best results.

In Southern California, the Director positions might be the only coaching position that clubs put any long-term thought into and there's still a high turnover with those positions. The smaller clubs pretty much take anyone who can pass a criminal background check. The larger clubs will take anyone who looks presentable to affluent parents (ie. foreign accent and shaved recently) and can juggle a bunch of lower tier teams. A few good coaches will occasionally pass through the system, but it's more incidental rather than due to strategic hiring practices or well-thought out plan.


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## bababooey (Oct 7, 2016)

Eusebio said:


> I spoke about this in the old forum, but another problem is that even on a single team there is a wide variety of goals from parents/players. You have:
> - Some parents want their kids to improve enough to get a college scholarship one-day
> - Some players have aspirations to play professional or on the national team one-day
> - Some players/parents see soccer as just another activity like baseball/football, and just want to have a winning season and show-off medals on facebook etc
> ...


Great post! That last paragraph is amazing, especially the "affluent parents" sentence.


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## Sizzle10 (Oct 7, 2016)

Eusebio said:


> I spoke about this in the old forum, but another problem is that even on a single team there is a wide variety of goals from parents/players. You have:
> - Some parents want their kids to improve enough to get a college scholarship one-day
> - Some players have aspirations to play professional or on the national team one-day
> - Some players/parents see soccer as just another activity like baseball/football, and just want to have a winning season and show-off medals on facebook etc
> ...


Eusebio, great perspective! sign-me up, where do train?


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## Mystery Train (Oct 7, 2016)

Eusebio said:


> I spoke about this in the old forum, but another problem is that even on a single team there is a wide variety of goals from parents/players. You have:
> - Some parents want their kids to improve enough to get a college scholarship one-day
> - Some players have aspirations to play professional or on the national team one-day
> - Some players/parents see soccer as just another activity like baseball/football, and just want to have a winning season and show-off medals on facebook etc
> ...


Nailed it.


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## genesis (Oct 9, 2016)

tam53 said:


> I disagree. Soccer is not that complicated or confusing. I'm not talking to explain soccer strategies to a parent. Explaining to a player (and parent) why she/he is not getting as much playing time as other players is not fun but it is easy. A parent or player might not agree with a coach's comments but that is ok, as long as it is communicated. Also, explaining to a player/parent what the coach will do to help the player is not difficult but a coach might not like it because he/she will now be accountable. I do still think it is ultimately a player's responsible to get develop.


Ok so the coach tells you your kid has slowed down and is no longer able to play forward effectively, you maintain that a parent is going to accept that?  No they will go to running clinics and say that their kid won the race in the school track meet.  Come on get real, we parents want to hear what we want to hear and ignore or disagree when we don't like what we are told.


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## genesis (Oct 9, 2016)

Sizzle10 said:


> Confusing? “Your DD needs to work on her first touch, dribbling, passing, passing accurate passing, using her shoulder to tackle, etc.” This is confusing?


Yes confusing because evaluations are subjective.  What coaches feel does not jibe with what parents feel.  Example: yes my kid loses the ball but so does Mary, how come you don't give her less playing time? Emotion is not logic and I have yet to meet a parent on our sideline that is not emotionally blind to their kid's shortcomings. Coach tells me my kid stinks for whatever reason, well we will go where the coach appreciates us.  See it all the time.
When the coach tells you your kid should play flight two what parent is going to say yeah you are right.


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## timbuck (Oct 9, 2016)

Maybe it's  a nice of way of the coach saying "hey look, your kid is a sweetheart.  We love her and your family is great.  But she probably isn't going to be asked back to our team next year unless I see a lot of improvement in these areas in a short period of time. "


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## genesis (Oct 9, 2016)

timbuck said:


> Maybe it's a nice of way of the coach saying "hey look, your kid is a sweetheart. We love her and your family is great. But she probably isn't going to be asked back to our team next year unless I see a lot of improvement in these areas in a short period of time. "


Ok well we will pay our trainer double. We pay to play not to sit.  Come on coach develop my kid so she can stay on the team.


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## Deadpoolscores! (Oct 9, 2016)

genesis said:


> Ok well we will pay our trainer double. We pay to play not to sit.  Come on coach develop my kid so she can stay on the team.


You can pay the trainers all the money you want but the reality is that your DD can learn a lot of skill s (basically nothing but drills that are a routines) but when it comes down to it will your DD know how to apply it in a game. Ask yourself these question when you see the trainer training your dd: Is he teaching which are the most effective skills when she plays her position from the center, left or right wing? Is he/she showing them and correcting them when they go up against another player or players? Showing her what she is doing right and wrong step by step. Is the trainer, training her in a group so she can learn real scenarios on how effective the training she is getting works? A lot of these things is what a true developing should be teaching aside from your typical repetition drills, repetitive pattern passes. Yet good is all this repetition if they are not under mental and physical pressures? This goes back to another thread about trainers do they go out of there way to go see your DD to see what are the root problems?
I hate to say this but the reality about a lot of coaches are:
1) They have there favorites
2) They want the best team out on the filed to win especially if they are the top flight team...they need to make the club look good to attract more talent
3) Most coaches expect your DD to know how to play (soccer IQ) and have the skills set to play on the field at a high level ...They will not set the time aside to train your daughter and slow down the rest of the practice for her. 
4) Coaches will take the criticism personally and may take it on your DD
5) Most coaches that don't know how to adjust the team in a game, build up their defense, offense, mid play etc. Those are the ones that never continue to learn and believe there methods are flawless.


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