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.
What are clubs looking for in a coach?
- Thread starter Deadpoolscores!
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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.
Confusing? “Your DD needs to work on her first touch, dribbling, passing, passing accurate passing, using her shoulder to tackle, etc.” This is confusing?
You might want to take a look at SoCal Academy based in San Marino.
younothat
PREMIER
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
bababooey
GOLD
Great post! That last paragraph is amazing, especially the "affluent parents" sentence.
Eusebio, great perspective! sign-me up, where do train?
Mystery Train
GOLD
Nailed it.
genesis
SILVER ELITE
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.
genesis
SILVER ELITE
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.
genesis
SILVER ELITE
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.