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Handling discipline problems: a dilemma for youth soccer coaches

By Dave Simeone, NTSSA Director of Coaching, National Staff Coach – U.S. Soccer

My thanks to T&C Optimist Soccer Association for allowing reproduction of this article

Handling discipline problems presents a distinct challenge for youth soccer coaches. Many coaches are inexperienced in dealing with discipline or even identifying real problems versus child’s play. Many coaches mistake immature behaviour, which would be appropriate for youngsters, for behavioural problems.

A few factors influence the typical inexperienced parent /coach:

FALSE EXPECTATIONS: inexperienced youth soccer coaches begin with personal expectations of what goes on during games or practices. These expectations are, sometimes, inaccurate; these parent / coaches lack perspective. They forget that soccer is a child’s game. It is “play”. These coaches encounter reality in their first session with youngsters. They find out very quickly that working with youngsters does not meet their expectations of “coaching”. This, in turn, causes feelings of fear and anxiety. These inexperienced coaches may, at times, react abruptly and may not successfully handle these situations.
PERSONAL CONCERNS: New and inexperienced youth soccer coaches become concerned with “controlling” situations. They also are over – occupied with being well-liked. Many coaches see these two interests working in opposite directions: “If youngsters like me…I can’t control them,” or “l can control them, but they won’t like me.” Coaches either become over- ambitious to please players, or harsh.

Both of these approaches have grim consequences.

Coaches may feel betrayed if they are overly friendly and feel taken advantage of, while being too harsh causes youngsters to feel resentful or bitter. In the end, problems are unresolved and both the coach and youngster are angry or disappointed.

LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY: Many times, inexperienced coaches have difficulty coming to grips with their inability to “manage” these situations. These coaches tend to blame players, solely, for problems.

Some, on the other hand, allow serious problems to occur, repeatedly, but lack the insight which would allow them to prevent such situations from happening time and again.

After several experiences in attempting to “discipline” youngsters, coaches become increasingly frustrated. This results in the coach perceiving themselves poorly. For this reason, some youth coaches leave our ranks early. It is through coaching education programs that we should address their needs for appropriate player management.

These coaches must be empowered to help themselves overcome these “problems” and feel effective.

Real discipline problems are best described as conflicts of interest between the youngster and the coach. Are some of these interests predicated on the differences between the needs of young players and the role adults perceive youth sport to take? The answer is yes!

One of the real predicaments is to deal with behaviour in a non- judgmental manner. Many times adults reprimand youngsters and embarrass them. The challenge for coaches is to address what is happening and modify their behaviour without being threatening. An adult’s actions should imply that they are dealing with the behaviour and not making the behaviour into a personal issue. This might be caused if children are compared against one another.

Undoubtedly, dealing with behaviour can be frustrating for rigid adults. It’s best to recognize that you, as the coach, are frustrated. There is a decided difference between anger and frustration. Adults need to differentiate between the two.

Again, differentiate between the behaviour that is disturbing and the individual child: the behaviour is what’s disturbing you.

You must also acknowledge that young players have feelings.

In fact, while we would like to see them develop and improve they must learn to enjoy the game. They have a genuine need for attention and inappropriate behaviour is their way of soliciting attention. If, in fact, you as an adult have difficulty acknowledging your own anger or frustration, how can you recognize and acknowledge these feelings in others? Most adults use methods that deal with behaviour and discipline that are reactive versus proactive. This causes coaches to sometimes overlook how a youngster feels about their comments on the youngster’s behaviour.

In identifying behavioural problems, parcelling out “punishment” is risky. Consequences must be meaningful to young players, but cannot be confused with punishment. The difference is the factor of respect for young players versus making them feel demeaned.

The real gift exhibited by competent youth coaches is to manage people / players effectively. There are several factors associated with effective management of players relating to behaviour:

Management of Time
Management of Environment
Effective Communication

The availability of time is limited when working with young players. Practices are usually scheduled twice weekly, anywhere from 50 minutes to an hour and a half in duration.

This places a high priority on effective teaching / coaching.

The time youngsters spend with the youth coach is minuscule in comparison with the time they spend away from soccer, with family, in school or in other activities.

The environment for youth players is a key ingredient.

Creating the appropriate games, activities and conditions directly influence management of players and acceptable behaviour. Typically, youth coaches attempt to arrange and manage players by over-organizing them. They place them in lines, with unrealistic absolutes, that do not allow them to move and play. It’s great for adults since it resembles the adult perspective of discipline and order. Soccer is a dynamic game; one that exhibits and includes movement of the ball and players. The organization of “play” has direct bearing on boredom versus stimulation as well as interest and learning.

It’s simple: there are no lines in “the game”, let there be no lines at practice. The advertisement for the Sega computerized game product which emulates NFL football says it best: if it’s in “the game” (The NFL), then it’s in “the game” (Sega). In one sense, those coaches who insist on over-organizing the environment are contributing to their own woes!

Effective communication has everything to do with all avenues to offer information. This includes body language, facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice, eye contact and quality of content. Very simply, is the information useable in improving the player’s enjoyment, development or performance? Emotional outbursts, yelling and screaming either at parents, referees opposing coaches or PLAYERS is really unacceptable. It’s a tremendous sign of intolerance and a great indication of a lack of the necessary qualities to be an effective coach. The game, at all levels, must be the teacher and meet the needs of players. Youngsters learn more from their experiences in the game than from the coach. That’s why the role of the coach is to create the appropriate conditions and let youngsters play!

What youth coaches must ascertain is the distinction between a discipline problem, or poor behaviour as a result of unsuitable management. The nature of youngsters is to run, jump, be inattentive (from an adult’s perspective!), change their focus at a moments notice or gaze expertly off into the sky at a far away plane. If they are uninterested in the activities, it may be a problem of management. They come to soccer to be challenged and invigorated as well as to play, make mistakes and learn. A phenomenal aspect of “play” is that the problems, challenges disappointments or rewards resemble and parallel life experiences. Learning for youngsters between the ages of 5 and 12 is a leisure activity that is accomplished through play. Remember…PLAY is a key part of PLAYER DEVELOPMENT!

Gender issues in soccer coaching

by Steve Watson

Women’s football (soccer) is not new. In England the ‘fairer sex’ have been playing the ‘beautiful game’ since the nineteenth century and on Boxing Day, 1920 the premier women’s football team of the day (Dick, Kerr Ladies) played another Lancashire team, St. Helen’s Ladies, before a capacity crowd of 53,000 at Goodison Park with another 10 to 15,000 fans locked out. In the same year the Dick, Kerr Ladies toured the USA where they played eight games against male opposition, winning three and scoring 35 goals.

The Dick, Kerr’s Ladies Team which toured the United States in 1920. They outscored their male opponents 35-34, and left with a 3-3-2 record.

However, female participation in football in England was actively discouraged by the Football Association until quite recently (the FA banned women from using it’s grounds for fifty years between 1920 and 1970), and is still widely considered as a ‘man’s game’ in which women are seen as marginal, both as players and even as spectators.

Yet by 2002 football had become the number one female participation sport in England. Today it is the country’s fastest growing sport and the coverage of the England women’s football team competing in Euro 2005 on prime time terrestrial television will surely result in more and more girls wanting to emulate their new-found sporting role models.

The scale and speed of this explosion of interest in English female football is demonstrated by the facts: in 1993 there just 80 girls teams. In England today there are more than 7,000 teams and over 100,000 registered players.

Female interest in playing football is not limited to the birthplace of the ‘beautiful game’. In the USA the game really took off after 90,185 fans watched the women’s national team beat China in the final of the 1999 World Cup. Today, an estimated 6 million American girls play soccer regularly and in many other countries there are large and growing numbers of girls and women playing the game.

The fact that female soccer is so popular today inevitably means that many coaches (especially in the younger age groups) will suddenly have girls in their squads for the first time. Other coaches will be switching from coaching all boys teams to coaching all girls teams. This will, understandably, result in some anxiety for soccer coaches who will wonder if girls should be coached in the same way as boys. They won’t know if the coaching techniques they have used with boys in the past are transferable to girls and male coaches may worry about how they should treat girl players who get injured. Female coaches may have similar concerns. These worries are perfectly understandable but not often expressed.

The fact that football coaches (who are, of course, predominantly male), are so reluctant to voice their concerns about coaching girls might be because they interpret ‘equal opportunities’ as meaning that all the children in their charge must be treated exactly the same. They may believe that to consider treating one group of children differently to the others is inappropriate, old fashioned and even reactionary.

However, this ignores the fact that boys and girls have been shown to differ in their approach to sport, soccer and coaching in several, possibly significant, ways. These differences need to be understood by soccer coaches if they are to coach boys and girls as effectively as possible.

Before we look at why the gender of the children you are coaching might influence your coaching style, it is worthwhile stressing that boys and girls are more similar than they are different. For example, the reasons why girls and boys want to play soccer are virtually the same:

	Girls	Boys
have fun	99%	94%
improve at my sport	98%	94%
learn new skills	95%	89%
be competitive	94%	94%
be in shape	92%	88%
be with friends	92%	87%
keep busy	73%	63%

Source: Mary Healy Jonas, Do Boys and Girls View Competition in Different Ways?

Also, both sexes respond better to positive reinforcement than negative criticism, boys and girls can both kick a ball just as far (good technique, not strength is the key to distance) both can pass accurately and so on. Also, both boys and girls like their coaches to be assertive, cooperative, determined, respected (and respectable), willing to help, dedicated, ‘cool’ and energetic.¹

Research into gender differences applicable to soccer coaches is pretty thin on the ground. However, The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Report on Physical Activity & Sport in the Lives of Girls (1997), concluded that females, in general, are more internally motivated by self improvement and goals related to team success and appear more motivated by a cooperative, caring, and sharing team environment. The authors cited Garcia (1994) that some female athletes actually can be ‘turned off’ by coaches who over emphasize winning.²

However, my own experience as a soccer coach who has switched from coaching boys to coaching girls teams supports the findings of Dr Stewart and others that:

Girls tend to be more analytical than boys. This means girls will not take generalities at face value. They will want to know why they should do something a particular way more than boys will.
Team unity is more important to girls than boys.
Girls may place more emphasis on ‘fair play’ than boys who are more likely to bend the rules.
Boys are more likely than girls to blame other people (the referee, the weather, the coach) if they lose. Girls have a tendency to blame themselves for a poor performance.
For girls, winning is not as important as making sure every player gets an equal amount of playing time.
Males appear to be more ‘self’ or ‘ego’ oriented and tend to be more ‘win at any cost’ in their approach to sport.

The reason for these differences is not certain. Certainly, they could be highly influenced by social or cultural expectations (Gill, 1994) so presumably could be ‘unlearned’ if the conditions were right.³

Gender differences relevant to soccer coaches have also been identified by Mary Healy Jonas’ study, Do Boys and Girls View Competition in Different Ways? She considered the differences between girls’ and boys’ responses to three statements:

“I would do almost anything to win”

	Almost never	Occasionally	Sometimes	Frequently	Almost always	Frequently + Almost Always
Female	20%	23%	27%	15%	14%	29%
Male	11%	15%	26%	20%	29%	49%

“It is more important for key players to play in order to win than for everyone to get equal playing time”

	Almost never	Occasionally	Sometimes	Frequently	Almost always	Frequently + Almost Always
Female	25%	21%	30%	14%	10%	24%
Male	11%	12%	36%	21%	21%	42%

“I get very upset when my team loses”

	Almost never	Occasionally	Sometimes	Frequently	Almost always	Frequently + Almost Always
Female	21%	28%	33%	10%	8%	18%
Male	10%	23%	26%	21%	21%	42%

Conclusion

Boys and girls should always be offered the same opportunities and given the same consideration during your coaching sessions. Don’t, for example, cancel a training session for girls because of inclement weather if you wouldn’t cancel it for a boy’s session. And if you coach mixed groups, don’t try to ‘protect’ the girls. Treat them equally but understand the differences.

It’s not insulting to females to consider if they need to be coached differently. It is, rather, an indication of your desire to coach them as effectively as you can.

To quote Dr Stewart:

“If differences exist, coaches need to be aware of them. That awareness could assist coaches in varying coaching styles to meet the individual needs of the gender being coached. If individualization is achieved, coaches would be assisting both the team, and the individual player, in achieving the highest performance possible. It could also reduce the frustration experienced by coaches who switch between teams of different genders.”⁴

References

1, 2, 3, 4: Dr Craig Stewart, Should boys & girls be coached the same way?

Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research, Fact Sheet 5: Women and Football

The FA Annual Review, 2004-5

Soccerhall.org, The Dick Kerr Ladies Football Tour 1922

Mary Healy Jonas, Do boys and girls view competition in different ways?

Mentalhelp.net, Gender differences in values, purpose, self-esteem, and orientation

Four main moments in soccer games

Current thinking in soccer divides games into four main moments; own team in possession, losing possession, opponents in possession and regaining possession.

This should not be confused with attack, defence and transition. It is larger than that. Thinking in the latter leads to isolated responsibilities and positions. Players become attackers or defenders in mind and action. This results in back players that do not support effectively when their midfield is in possession and top players that don’t contribute when the opponents have the ball. This limited view opens the way for a disconnect within the lines of the team.

From a practical point of view the majority of youth coaches will be concerned with own team in possession and opponents in possession while training. This results in most small sided games restarting with one team in possession and the other without. This offers a very clear picture for both teams and the coach to start from.

Thinking in terms of the main moments can help to bring structure for the player and the coach. For the player, they need to understand what their primary task is in each moment. Understanding their task leads to better positioning which helps technique. But possession in youth soccer changes rapidly, so rapidly that many young players cannot keep up with the game either physically or mentally. They either can’t get to the correct position or have no idea where it is. This creates a stressful situation for the player and is a major reason why team play breaks down.

Simplifying observations provides structure for the coach. So many things go wrong that a list of errors and mistakes would be endless. Too much information is as bad as not enough. When the focus is kept in one moment a clearer picture of a real problem will emerge. Since you cannot cover everything in a session, concentrate on the biggest problem you can find. This starts with defining which main moment contains the biggest problem.

After settling on the main moment comes the smaller moments. Example, own team in possession, our goalkeeper has the ball. Where should the outside backs be? How deep should the centre forward be? Or, the opponents have possession and their central midfielder has the ball. When does our central defender have to step up and assume responsibility? At what point can he stop conceding space and must commit to the ball? Seeing “moments” can aid in a better understanding of soccer situations and problems. A soccer game is an event, it is not a a thing. Events exist in time, things exist in space. Viewing soccer as a thing leaves out the very important temporal element. Opportunities and situations in soccer appear and vanish in a fraction of a second. Coaches need to consider this when reading the game and setting up their practices.

Football rules, OK?

In 1857, former pupils of the Sheffield Collegiate School established the Sheffield Football Club at Bramall Lane and published their own set of rules for football. Players were allowed to push opponents off the ball with their hands. It was also within the rules to shoulder charge players, with or without the ball. If a goalkeeper caught the ball, he could be barged over the line.

In 1862 a new set of rules were established at Cambridge University. These specified 11-a-side, an umpire from each side plus a neutral referee, goals 12ft across and up to 20ft high. An offside rule was added. A man could play a ball passed to him from behind, so long as there were three opponents between him and the goal. It was also decided that each game should only last one hour and a quarter. The first game under these rules took place between the Old Etonians and Old Harrovians in November, 1862.

Also In 1862, one of the teachers at Uppingham School, John Charles Thring, published his own set of football rules:

1. A goal is scored whenever the ball is forced through the goal and under the bar, except it be thrown by hand.

2. Hands may be used only to stop a ball and place it on the ground before the feet.

3. Kicks must be aimed only at the ball.

4. A player may not kick the ball whilst in the air.

5. No tripping up or heel kicking allowed.

6. Whenever a ball is kicked beyond the side flags, it must be returned by the player who kicked it, from the spot it passed the flag line, in a straight line towards the middle of the ground.

7. When a ball is kicked behind the line of goal, it shall be kicked off from that line by one of the side whose goal it is.

8. No player may stand within six paces of the kicker when he is kicking off.

9. A player is ‘out of play’ immediately he is in front of the ball and must return behind the ball as soon as possible. If the ball is kicked by his own side past a player, he may not touch or kick it, or advance, until one of the other side has first kicked it, or one of his own side has been able to kick it on a level with, or in front of him.

10. No charging allowed when a player is ‘out of play’; that is, immediately the ball is behind him.

Thring published his rules under the title, The Simplest Game. Some teachers liked this non-violent approach and several schools adopted Thring’s rules.

The Football Association was established in October, 1863 with the aim of establishing one, unifying set of football rules.

Percy Young has pointed out that the FA was a group of men from the upper echelons of British society: “Men of prejudice, seeing themselves as patricians, heirs to the doctrine of leadership and so law-givers by at least semi-divine right.”

Ebenezer Cobb Morley was elected as the secretary of the FA. At a meeting on 24th November, 1863, Morley presented a draft set of 23 rules. These were based on an amalgamation of rules played by public schools, universities and football clubs. This included provision for running with the ball in the hands if a catch had been taken “on the full” or on the first bounce. Players were allowed to “hack the front of the leg” of the opponent when they were running with the ball. Two of the proposed rules caused heated debate:

IX. A player shall be entitled to run with the ball towards his adversaries’ goal if he makes a fair catch, or catches the ball on the first bound; but in case of a fair catch, if he makes his mark (to take a free kick) he shall not run.

X. If any player shall run with the ball towards his adversaries’ goal, any player on the opposite side shall be at liberty to charge, hold, trip or hack him, or to wrest the ball from him, but no player shall be held and hacked at the same time.

Some members objected to these two rules as they considered them to be “uncivilised”. Others believed that charging, hacking and tripping were important ingredients of the game. One supporter of hacking argued that without it “you will do away with the courage and pluck of the game, and it will be bound to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week’s practice.” The main defender of hacking was F. W. Campbell, the representative from Blackheath, who considered this aspect of the game was vital in developing “masculine toughness”. Campbell added that “hacking is the true football” and he resigned from the FA when the vote went against him (13-4). He later helped to form the rival Rugby Football Union. On 8th December, 1863, the FA published the Laws of Football.

1. The maximum length of the ground shall be 200 yards, the maximum breadth shall be 100 yards, the length and breadth shall be marked off with flags; and the goal shall be defined by two upright posts, eight yards apart, without any tape or bar across them.

2. A toss for goals shall take place, and the game shall be commenced by a place kick from the centre of the ground by the side losing the toss for goals; the other side shall not approach within 10 yards of the ball until it is kicked off.

3. After a goal is won, the losing side shall be entitled to kick off, and the two sides shall change goals after each goal is won.

4. A goal shall be won when the ball passes between the goal-posts or over the space between the goal-posts (at whatever height), not being thrown, knocked on, or carried.

5. When the ball is in touch, the first player who touches it shall throw it from the point on the boundary line where it left the ground in a direction at right angles with the boundary line, and the ball shall not be in play until it has touched the ground.

6. When a player has kicked the ball, any one of the same side who is nearer to the opponent’s goal line is out of play, and may not touch the ball himself, nor in any way whatever prevent any other player from doing so, until he is in play; but no player is out of play when the ball is kicked off from behind the goal line.

7. In case the ball goes behind the goal line, if a player on the side to whom the goal belongs first touches the ball, one of his side shall he entitled to a free kick from the goal line at the point opposite the place where the ball shall be touched. If a player of the opposite side first touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick at the goal only from a point 15 yards outside the goal line, opposite the place where the ball is touched, the opposing side standing within their goal line until he has had his kick.

8. If a player makes a fair catch, he shall be entitled to a free kick, providing he claims it by making a mark with his heel at once; and in order to take such kick he may go back as far as he pleases, and no player on the opposite side shall advance beyond his mark until he has kicked.

9. No player shall run with the ball.

10. Neither tripping nor hacking shall be allowed, and no player shall use his hands to hold or push his adversary.

11. A player shall not be allowed to throw the ball or pass it to another with his hands.

12. No player shall be allowed to take the ball from the ground with his hands under any pretence whatever while it is in play.

13. No player shall be allowed to wear projecting nails, iron plates, or gutta-percha on the soles or heels of his boots.

In 1866 the offside rule was altered to allow a player to be onside when three of opposing team are nearer their own goal-line. Three years later the kick-out rule was altered and goal-kicks were introduced.

Football (soccer) poetry

by Simon Icke footballpoets.org

Touchline Shouting

Touchline shouting, that’s all I ever hear,

I’m so confused and filled with fear.

I’m only ten years old and football should be fun,

But with all this noise I don’t know which way to run.

“Get back in defence!” my manager shouts.

Dad shouts, “Get up front and deal with these louts!”

Loud mouth supporter, who knows all the rules.

(He takes the rest of us for fools)

Shouts, “What are you doing lad? Your head’s in a spin!”

Is it any surprise, with all this din?

I am only a boy, so why do you all try to destroy, what I’d love to enjoy?

FOOTBALL SHOULD BE FUN!

This poem is dedicated to all old grumps in every road, avenue and street who has forgotten that they were once a child and played in the street.

Imagine in the old days before ‘Football Schools of Excellence’ etc existed…..How would the likes of Denis Law, Bobby Charlton , Stanley Matthews and George Best of learned their skills if they had been banned from kicking a ball in the street?

THE SOUND OF CHILDREN’S FEET

Down our street it’s ever so neat,

You rarely hear the sound of children’s feet.

Tidy gardens and pretty flowers,

No factory chimneys or towers.

Commuters who come home in their company cars,

That look at us as though we’re from mars.

We are supposed to be seen and not heard,

Dare we not say a word?

They don’t want us to be normal kids playing skating
and

Football in the road.

Maybe it’s because they are getting old?

Have they forgotten what it’s like to be a child?

Expecting us to be so meek and mild.

Did they ever kick a ball in the street or

Make the sound of childrens feet?

This poem was first published in Nov 98 in Aston Clinton School’s anthology of Football Poems…’Poetry in Motion..Football! Football! Football! Priced £2.99 plus postage. All profits to the school. Published by Simon Icke ISBN 0 9534562 0 X

Folk football (soccer)

The first football in Britain was played by huge numbers of people on vast ‘pitches’ with very few rules.

Villages were divided into two sides, often based on where they lived. The games were usually linked to special dates in the calendar and some of these traditions have survived today. For instance, on January 1 in Kirkwall, Orkney, street football breaks out at 10.00am each year. There is a Hocktide (first Sunday after Easter) game at Workington, Cumbria, and July sees ‘Reivers Week’ at Duns, Borders, where the ‘ba’ game’ is between the married and single men of the town. But the biggest day of the year for folk football in Britain is Shrove Tuesday.

“When the pancakes are sated,
Come to the ring and you’ll be mated,
There this ball will be upcast,
May this game be better than the last.”

Old English Sports, 1891:
“…..but the great game for Shrove Tuesday was our time-honoured football, which has survived so many of the ancient pastimes of our land, and may be considered the oldest of all our English national sports. The play might not be quite so scientific as that played by our modern athletes, but, from the descriptions that have come down to us, it was no less vigorous. “After dinner” (says an old writer) “all the youths go into the fields to play at the ball. The ancient and worthy men of the city come forth on horseback to see the sport of the young men, and to take part of the pleasure in beholding their agility.”

There are some exciting descriptions of old football matches; and we read of some very fierce contests at Derby, which was renowned for the game. In the seventeenth century it was played in the streets of London, much to the annoyance of the inhabitants, who had to protect their windows with hurdles and bushes. At Bromfield, in Cumberland, the annual contest on Shrove Tuesday was keenly fought. Sides having been chosen, the football was thrown down in the churchyard, and the house of the captain of each side was the goal. Sometimes the distance was two or three miles, and each step was keenly disputed. He was a proud man at Bromfield who succeeded in reaching the goal with the ball, which he received as his guerdon. How the villagers used to talk over the exploits of the day, and recount their triumphs of former years with quite as much satisfaction as their ancestors enjoyed in relating their feats in the border wars!

The Scots were famous formerly, as they now are, for prowess in the game, and the account of the Shrove Tuesday match between the married and single men at Scone, in Perthshire, reads very like a description of a modern Rugby contest. At Inverness the women also played, the married against the unmarried, when the former were always victorious. King James I., who was a great patron of sports, did not approve of his son Henry being a football player. He wrote that a young man ought to have a “moderate practice of running, leaping, wrestling, fencing, dancing, and playing at the caitch, or tennis, bowls, archery, pall-mall, and riding; and in foul or stormy weather, cards and backgammon, dice, chess, and billiards,” but football was too rough a game for his Majesty, and “meeter for laming than making able.” Stubbs also speaks of it as a “bloody and murthering practice, rather than a fellowly sport or pastime.” From the descriptions of the old games, it seems to have been very painful work for the shins, and there were no rules to prevent hacking and tripping in those days.

Football has never been the spoilt child of English pastimes, but has lived on in spite of royal proclamations and the protests of peace-loving citizens who objected to the noise, rough play, and other vagaries of the early votaries of the game. Edward II. and succeeding monarchs regarded it as a “useless and idle sport,” which interfered with the practice of archery, and therefore ought to be shunned by all loyal subjects. The violence displayed at the matches is evident from the records which have come down to us, and from the opinions of several writers who condemn it severely. Free fights, broken limbs, and deaths often resulted from old football encounters; and when the games took place in the streets, lines of broken windows marked the progress of the players. “A bloody and murdering practice,” “a devilish pastime,” involving “beastly fury and extreme violence,” the breaking of necks, arms, legs and backs—these were some of the descriptions of the football of olden times. The Puritans set their faces against it, and the sport languished for a long period as a general pastime. In some places it was still practised with unwonted vigour, but it was not until the second half of the present century that any revival took place. But football players have quickly made up for lost time; few villages do not possess their club, and our young men are ready to “Try it out at football by the shins,” with quite as much readiness as the players in the good old days, although the play is generally less violent, and more scientific.”

Successful youth soccer coaching

“Kids’ football (soccer) is all about the individual loving the game: dribbling and shooting, playing games and scoring goals, experimenting and copying. It is very simple and lots of fun.

Adult football is all about the team and results. It is physical, tactical, complicated and very serious.”

Tom Statham of Manchester United Academy

Perhaps the most important ‘key’ to successful youth soccer coaching is this:

Always aim to make the training sessions fun for everyone – including you!

But…you can only do this with the aid of careful planning. Always think about what you want your team to achieve in the long term as well as today. Have a plan.

It is important that your training sessions take the ages and capabilities of your children into account but most soccer coaching sessions follow this pattern:

a warm up to raise the heart rate of your children, stretch their muscles and get them focused on the session;
a quick and simple demonstration of the skill/technique that you want them to learn**

**Don’t forget to ASK them what they think is the best way to pass or shoot or keep the ball etc. rather than TELL them why you think they should do it that way.

some fun games that will allow them to practice what you’ve just shown them. Play lots of SSGs – small sided games are better than 6 or 7 a side;
a small sided game (scrimmage) with no intervention from you to finish the session.

Don’t be tempted to adopt a ‘P.E’ style of coaching – while it’s important to plan your sessions be careful not to make them too rigid. Be prepared to adapt according to what you see and hear on the practice field. Above all, don’t be afraid to let your children play!

Don’t try to pack too much in – remember to allow time for discussion, setting up, drinks, arguments etc!

Don’t persevere with a plan that obviously isn’t working. Have a couple of tried and tested alternatives up your sleeve and work out what went wrong afterwards.

Don’t use drills that involve children standing in lines for more than a few seconds – they’ll soon get bored and bored children are trouble!

Don’t train children on your own. Always have at least one assistant, even if all they do is tie laces and fetch balls. There is also an important health and safety consideration here: who will look after your children if you have to take one of them to hospital?

Do treat your players with respect. They like you to listen and take notice of their feelings and opinions. Find out what they want from you and agree some clear ground rules. If you still have have trouble with discipline issues, read this.

Also, you must consider child protection issues, especially if you’re training a mixed group of boys and girls. I always have a female assistant if I’m training girls.

Do we want Robinhos or robots?

The little boy dribbled and kept dribbling. He had taken the ball away from the midfield pack and zoomed toward his own goal. This surprised the other children and allowed him to keep the ball to himself for much longer than any player had managed during this U-8 game.

Having put some 15 yards between himself and the other players, he slowed down and seemed to marvel at all the territory he now had to himself. He started making a wide U-turn and flashed a big smile.

He moved down the sideline and back into the other team’s half, then put his foot on the ball and stopped. When a couple of his little opponents approached, he accelerated toward their goal and took a shot that nearly scored.

What creativity, improvisation and savvy! And in his smile was the joy of soccer.

So how did his coach react?

First with red-faced screams of ”You’re going the wrong way! You’re going the wrong way!” Then furious shouts of ”Pass it! Pass it!” — a chant that several parents took up — followed by head-shaking in frustration.

Of course, the coach was shouting instructions to all his players throughout the game. That’s the norm in youth soccer, in which misguided coaches — and the other adults on the sideline — believe they’re helping children become better soccer players by telling them where to run and when to pass.

But what really irked the coach about the clever boy’s manoeuvre was it was risky. A misstep and he could have provided a scoring chance for the other team.

And, absurd as it is, there are adults — lots and lots of them — who place great importance on whether their 7-year-olds beat another team of youngsters.

Youth coaches who want to rack up wins discourage their players from taking risks, such as dribbling the ball out of the back, by ordering them to boot it up-field or out of bounds. ”Clear it!” they shout.

”The emphasis on winning is a detriment to young players because it prevents us from developing technically proficient players,” says U.S. U-17 national team coach John Hackworth. ”And we’re not giving them the ability to make decisions. You can’t find a youth soccer game where the coaches aren’t screaming the whole time, telling kids what they should do and how they should do it.”

If players aren’t allowed to make mistakes and take chances when they’re exploring the sport — if they’re constantly being told what to do — how can we expect them to develop the soccer instincts they’ll need to make the split-second decisions that are so much a part of the game?

”They hear ‘Clear it … Get rid of it … Pass it … Kick it up line’ so often that by the time they’re 13 or 14, when they get the ball and they don’t hear the instructions, they don’t know what to do,” says Tab Ramos, the great U.S. midfielder who is now a New Jersey youth coach.

Telling young players what to do with the ball, bossing them around to stay in certain positions on the field and taking strategic advantage of the bigger, stronger kids are ways of increasing a team’s chances of winning.
But at what cost?

”If you want your 8-year-olds to win tomorrow, you’re going to address that group differently than if you say, ‘I want my 8-year-old to win when he’s 18 years old,”’ says Bob Jenkins, U.S. Soccer’s Director of Coaching Education.

It’s not just that the coaches are obsessed with winning — there are the parents. A coach of a U-9 team told me that if his team compiled a 12-1 win-loss record, his parents would want to move their children to the team that went 13-0.

Ramos encourages his younger players, the 9- and 10-year-olds, not to kick the ball out of bounds when they’re under pressure in their own half.

”We want him to find a way out of it,” Ramos says. ”Half the time, he’s not going to come out of it and very often he’s going make a mistake that’s going to cost a goal. But this is when players should be allowed to take the risk so they develop their skills.”

Too few coaches are willing to provide such learning experiences because they can lead to losses.
”A lot of parents are living through their children,” Ramos says, ”and for them it becomes a matter of them beating the other coach because that’s the guy who beat them three years ago when their older child played.”
Hackworth, who doesn’t believe in assigning positions to players under age 10, proposes eliminating the ”ultra-competitive premier flight” until at least U-12. And even then coaches should still resist becoming results oriented.

”We want competition,” he says. ”They’ll always be competition and it’s not bad. The bad part is the emphasis on winning.”

That emphasis often results in coaches putting the physically advanced kids in particular spots. For example, a big guy in back who’s instructed to boot the ball to the speedy guy up front. This denies smaller players opportunities to play significant roles while bigger players can rely on their athleticism instead of developing their skills.

Aime Jacquet, who coached France to the 1998 World Cup title and has also been in charge of France’s renowned youth development program, said he investigates youth teams with winning records and if he discovers they won by relying on big players, he fires them.

If a coach isn’t obsessed with results, he’s more likely, when they’re at the age level in which assigning positions is appropriate, to expose players to different roles. Keeping a player in the same position all the time won’t help him adjust to new challenges when he moves to higher levels.

”Worrying too much about winning and losing gets in the way of development,” says Manfred Schellscheidt, head of U.S. Soccer’s U-14 program. ”There are always shortcuts that you can find to win the next game. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be winning five, six years from now.

”The kids all try to win anyhow, so I don’t think we need to add to this.

No kid ever steps on the field and says, ‘Today I’m going to lose.’ They’re naturally competitive. We should be concerned about the players’ performance, not the final score.”

Coaching soccer really isn’t that complicated. When children first become involved in organized soccer, the coach’s job is simply to create an environment that gives the children a chance to enjoy the sport. It’s such a wonderful sport that setting up goals and letting them play usually does the trick.

It should also be an environment that allows them to be creative, to express themselves and to bring their own personalities to the sport.

No doubt, the USA has produced legions of good players. But how many great players have come out of our youth ranks?

How many excellent American dribblers are there? How many American players can dazzle fans? How many defenders do we have who can play their way out of trouble, who can consistently contribute to the attack? How many American players can dictate the rhythm of a game?

Far, far too few.

And one wonders how many players with the capacity to bring individual brilliance to the field have had that hammered out of them by their screaming coaches.