How to coach youth soccer

How to restore discipline to an undisciplined soccer team

Introduction

I was alerted to the following two articles by a post in the footy4kids soccer coaches forum.

The articles are designed to help coaches who have been with the same team for a number of years and have, perhaps, allowed discipline to slacken off to the detriment of team morale and performance.

However, I think any coach would be well advised to build the principles described below into their coaching philosophy to maintain and proactively improve three essential attributes of their teams – their attitude, morale and discipline.

How to restore discipline to an undisciplined soccer team

from BruceBownlee.com

A soccer coach writes that the team he’s had for several years isn’t showing up for training but players come to matches. Here’s the brief e-mail…

Question

Our team is anything but disciplined. For 3 yrs we have moved up with very little discipline. Is it too late, do we need discipline, or should we just try to get a happy medium? I feel our team could be so much better if the players would have discipline. The players rarely try in practice but show up for games. What do you think?

Some Ideas

In practice, the problem you are observing is the area that is most troublesome for both of us and for most other coaches of players in the transitional years, leaving U14 and heading into U15 and U16. There’s a big difference between how kids feel about soccer in elementary school and middle school, and how they feel about it during the early high school years.

Here are a few ideas about the situation and some options you could consider to try to make improvements. There’s no way to know which of these apply to your situation, so maybe you can just pick the ideas that you find relevant.

Why Discipline and Participation Problems Happen

1. Coach’s uncritical and unrealistic vision of who the players are, who owns the team, and the nature of players’ motivation.

It is easy to be overly sentimental and uncritical of a younger team of kids that you have worked with for several years. The coach may come to look on the team as his or her own team. This may seem only natural and reflect the coach’s care for each of the players and dedication to the coach’s vision of the team’s future. Unfortunately, this isn’t what the soccer team or players need to be most successful, and sets the stage for decay. First, the soccer team doesn’t belong to the coach. Instead, the players and parents have their own agendas and have different expectations about the team. In many cases, it is likely that the players and parents have less confidence in the coach or team than does the coach, and the team may not be very important to some. In any case, having a sentimental or overly optimistic view of the players and team prospects is the root cause of most of the rest of the problems listed below.

Sentimentality or a misplaced sense of ownership can lead the coach to excuse, rather than fix, poor skills and game habits, or to settle for less than the best each player can give. Lack of critical vision leads to inconsistent expectations, slack practices, low intensity, lazy practice participation, lowered morale, less effective player development, and frustratingly inconsistent match results.

The hardest thing for any coach is to realize that player’s and parents aren’t the coach’s “friends”, that the coach does not own the team, and that the coach is responsible for the technical, tactical, physical, and mental development of the team. This has to include not only setting demanding goals and creating challenging training, but also doing critical assessment of players abilities and potentials, and planning to replace players who are not committed and making good progress in developing their abilities.

Lack of critical vision and sentimentality is the most common problem for parent coaches, and the biggest differentiate between the results obtained by parent coaches and those obtained by hired trainers who have no kids on the team. This difference also gives rise to the feeling among parents that hired trainers are too cutthroat in recruiting and replacing players. Sometimes true, sometimes sour grapes, but either way, this is the greatest differentiation, much more of a factor than coaching ability and experience in many cases.

Deconstructing youth soccer

This article suggests ways to restructure entry-level and early experience youth football (soccer) programs based on the needs of the children. It does not seek to reinvent street soccer, but it does seek to offer a balance between the ideals of street play and the realities of the over-organised youth sports world in which our children find themselves.

At its core, is the belief that adults should not be partner to the “JonBenet Ramsey Phenomenon” of dressing children up to participate in miniature versions of professional sport.

Although it was written with the US soccer scene in mind, it is relevant to the increasingly competitive youth football culture in the UK.

A big thank you to the Ohio Youth Soccer Association North for their permission to reproduce this article.

Deconstructing Youth Soccer: creating the ideals of street play in an organised soccer world

by Tom Turner

Children and Play

Fascinating rules emerge in the streets and parks and sandlots and alleyways when children are left to their own devises in sport. In Shane Murphy’s excellent and insightful book, The Cheers and the Tears: A healthy alternative to the dark side of youth sport today, four basic principles were reported in describing the ways children govern their own organizations during free play. These four principles, Action, Involvement, Excitement and Friendships, are briefly described below.

Action. Games must be motivating, and children always seem to find ways to structure play into “competition” when they are left alone. Competition is fun, so long as the rules make sense! Mostly a set score determines the winner, sometimes a mealtime. Children never line up to practice a drill when play is an option; hence, “scrimmage” time is taken for granted. Older children will eagerly wait on the sidelines until a game ends for the right to play the winner and attempt to hold the field against the next challengers. Children often know intuitively what game numbers create the best balance for competition, and they will create multiple teams when space limits the option to play multiple or larger-sided games.

Personal involvement. The following question has probably been offered to thousands of children over the years: “Would you rather play on a team that may not win very often, or sit on the bench for a team that wins all the time?” The response is always the same. Children would rather play and lose than sit and win. One of the compelling features of youth sport, from the youth’s perspective, is participation. For athletes of every age, there is very little enjoyment in watching someone else play, and very little learning takes place without the opportunity to participate directly; most commonly, everyone plays! Children will often modify their rules to allow the weaker players second chances at success; more importantly, this practice also served to reduce the risk of embarrassing their weaker peers.

Excitement. Blowouts are no fun for children and characteristic of youth orchestrated play is the need for excitement and challenge. Ironically, while being the last player picked from a group can often be embarrassing, the practical outcome of this age-old tradition is relatively balanced competition. No youth sport contest begins with the two best players starting out on the same team. If the sides turn out to be uneven, either the game is concluded and new sides picked, or players trade places and new hope is given to the trailing side. Young players often modify their rules to accommodate imbalance or inequity and, particularly in lopsided contests, “next goal wins” serves to produce the required adrenaline rush in pursuit of last-minute glory.

Friendships. Young children enjoy being with their friends. They enjoy competing against them and competing with them. They also enjoy meeting new friends through sport. Social order is often created through sport, with the bigger or older kids appointing themselves as captains, picking the teams, settling the arguments and setting the rules. The first real sports heroes many of us remember were often the older, bigger or most advanced players involved in our daily games.

The Demise of the Street Soccer Culture and the Rise of Small-Sided Games

The small-sided games movement evolved worldwide in response to the steady demise of street soccer. As a part of youth culture, street soccer remains strong in only Latin America, Africa, and in some parts of the Middle and Far East.

In street soccer cultures, children as young as five can be found playing with their peers and older “friends” in ever-varying configurations of games. Two or three players are enough to start the days’ play and, on occasion, the numbers may swell to resemble small mob scenes. Goals are made from whatever is available and play is always between two goals. The ball may be nothing more than a bundle of rags, there are no scrimmage vests, no referees and no coaches. Rule disputes are settled by the players and the outcome of games is often decided by family meal times, evening curfews, the availability of light, or some agreed upon number, such as “ten halftime-twenty wins.”

The severity of the bug bites in the summer was, as I remember, reason to keep moving, not reason to quit!

During school days, arriving early meant more opportunities to play in smaller-sided games before the sleepyheads wandered in, and the lunch hour game was interrupted only long enough to gobble down food before resuming play.

Good communication – the key to success

Good communication – the key to success in youth soccer

It’s impossible to over emphasise the importance of good communication for youth soccer coaches.

It doesn’t matter how much you know about the game, how much you care about your players and how much time you put in to make it all come together…if you don’t communicate effectively with your players and their parents you’re going to have problems.

Whether it’s at half-time, at coaching sessions or at a pre-season meeting with parents, good communication skills are vital to your success.

The pre-season meeting

This is a golden opportunity to be proactive with parents that should never be missed.

By outlining your expectations and coaching methods before the season starts you’re painting a clear picture about how you plan to handle the season.

Key points

When parents hear from you that you’re committed to skill development over winning and that you intend to give equal playing time to all players, regardless of ability, you leave no room for petty squabbles over how much playing time their children receive when the season begins.

It’s just as important to discuss and agree how you expect your parents and players to behave during coaching sessions and at matches. Some clubs ask both parents and players to sign a copy of their codes of conduct. Whether you go that far is up to you but I would strongly recommend that you hand out hard copies of your discipline code. And don’t forget to include what sanctions will be taken against offenders.

An example of a pre-season meeting agenda

Introduction – tell parents who you are, what your coaching background is (if you have one), and how you got involved coaching the team. Make this brief, but remember that parents appreciate knowing a bit about who will be coaching their sons and daughters.
Your coaching philosophy – let parents know your approach to coaching, including your philosophy in terms of providing instruction, giving players equal playing time, and so on. Tell them, briefly, why this is your philosophy and how it benefits the kids. Let everyone be in no doubt that while we all want to win; it is not the main objective. The main objective is the kids having fun while developing. Thus, we teach a style of play that works long term – put the ball on the ground and using skill to work the ball into the opponents penalty box rather than just big kicks and muscle. You might also want to explain that you need your players to make their own decisions so you don’t want to hear parents shouting instructions from the sidelines.

The inherent risks – soccer has some inherent risks you need to make parents aware of. You should also let them know you have a plan in place to respond to injuries and find out from parents any medical conditions their children have, as well as how the parents can be contacted in case of an emergency.

Basic expectations – state your expectations of players and parents, in a positive fashion, and let parents know what they and their children can expect of you as a coach.

The practice schedule – include the day, date, time, and place of the first practice, and note the rest of the practice schedule, if you know it at this time.

The fixture list – if you know the fixtures, hand out copies. If not, let parents know when they can expect to receive the schedule.

Other information – tell your parents if you have some special event planned or need volunteers to help in various ways. You might also wish to discuss travel arrangements to away matches, what equipment the players need and what they need to bring to matches.

Your contact information – let parents know how and when they can contact you.

Behaviour, misbehaviour and adult involvement in youth football

These touchline tyrants should take their bawl home!

By Jim White

In six years coaching my son’s football team I have come to the following conclusion: short of excess intake of alcohol, there is nothing that alters the behaviour of adults for the worse as much as youth football.

Every weekend I stand on the touchline and watch allegedly mature adults screaming at their children, abusing match officials, carrying on as if they were eight years old and had just been denied the present of their choice by Santa. And the team coaches are among the principal offenders. In Britain, almost uniquely, youth football works like this: the dad of one of the team players becomes the coach. In the overwhelming majority of cases he does so without any training, experience or scrutiny. Sometimes, the result is little short of child abuse.

Once, in a game my lads were playing, the rather dopey opposition full back gave away a penalty through a somewhat avoidable handball. Instead of explaining what he had done wrong and advising him on how he might avoid such problems in the future, the boy’s coach chose instead to bawl profanities in his face. The attack was personal and sustained. The boy was, the coach informed him, useless, fat and stupid. After what seemed like minutes, standing there with his bottom lip quivering and his eyes filling, the boy could take no more. He ran from the pitch in tears and headed into a copse, where he climbed a tree and sat on a branch for the rest of the match. “Good riddance,” the coach shouted after him. “We’re better off without you, you useless tosser.”

It is worth adding that the game did not involve two teams from the grimy inner city. This took place in leafy Oxfordshire. And the lad concerned was seven years old.

Nor was it an isolated example. Such attitudes are everywhere, smothering our national game in an atmosphere than can be as poisonous as it is claustrophobic. For far too many, winning is all that matters. And everything that facilitates victory – cheating, bullying, poaching players from other teams – is not just tolerated, it is encouraged.

Oddly, the desperate urge for vicarious victory seems only to obtain in boys’ football. The other day I refereed a game between two sets of 12-year-old girls and suddenly I felt as if I could breathe more easily. The girls played with smiles rather than snarls. On the touchline parents laughed and encouraged, their coaches were paragons of good cheer.

In its training courses, the FA preaches an enlightened doctrine of sportsmanship and relaxation. Professional clubs enforce strict codes of parental conduct. But that is at the top of the tree. For too many small boys their experience of the beautiful game will be limited to red-faced coaches and snarling parents. No wonder once they reach adulthood, they are giving up football in droves.

Our generation should be ashamed.

first published in the Telegraph

Violence and abuse in youth soccer

Violence and abuse in youth sports generally has escalated to an alarming level. News reports like the examples below are not uncommon. From parents tackling opposing players to threatening coaches with firearms to physical fights resulting in arrests, it’s not always fun and games in the world of youth soccer:

“A 42 year-old adult man strikes the soccer referee, who happened to also be the town’s mayor, during a match between 11-year-old girls. The coach was sentenced to one year in jail (all but 45 days was suspended), required to attend anger management courses and banned form all youth sports events for a year.”

“An upset coach attacks the game referee near a concession stand following a soccer game of 12-year-olds. The coach head butts the official and breaks his nose.”

“The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) has banned one parent and two soccer coaches for life and disbanded two boys soccer teams following the worst brawl in its 35-year history. About 30 adults were involved in a post-match melee in the southern California town of San Juan Capistrano after a tournament game between the Palmdale Eagles and the Chino Chiefs. Three adults were arrested, one parent needed treatment for a bite, another suffered cuts and a swollen eye and others reported being hit on the head with umbrellas and being threatened by a man swinging a metal rod. The cause of the melee after the San Juan Capistrano game was unclear but reports from the sheriff’s department at the time said violence broke out after an assistant coach for the winning Chino team allegedly tried to pick a fight with a Palmdale player.”

“In 2006, two soccer coaches got into a fistfight at a game for 7-year-old girls. A youth football coach attacked a referee, and another went after a 13-year-old opponent. A parent allegedly pulled a .357 Magnum at a football game for 5- and 6-year-olds as he argued over playing time for his son.”

“The structure of team sports is outdated and broken,” says Scott Lancaster of Somers, N.Y., the senior director of youth football development for the National Football League and author of Fair Play, a book that aims to take the negatives out of youth sports and encourages positive parental involvement. “Preconditioning children to value only final results in sports competitions robs them from the joy of spontaneous play and learning new skills in a positive environment.”

Lancaster believes it is the way that youth sports are organized, taught and implemented that is at the very root of the problem : “Kids are forced to play adult versions of games to satisfy an ‘adult’ thirst for experiencing what they watch on television.”

Often the emphasis is on winning at all costs. Parental behaviour at youth sports events often teaches our children that confrontation and cheating is the way to resolve conflict.

In the UK, John Allpress (in charge of player development at the FA) observes:

“It’s the attitude of the people. It is certain because the facts bear it out, the statistics show that the minute adults get involved; some children get excluded from the programme. They are seen not to be effective in matches and therefore they are left out or become sub. The kids don’t get a game and there is a danger in that because what is the basis for excluding kids from the programme?

When the kids decide, everyone is involved. There is no bias; people don’t get excluded from the programme.

It is a fact that 50%+ of players at an academy are born in September through to December and less than 10% are born in May to August. Why is that? They are exactly the same as the other children only they are a bit younger, so why does that discrepancy exist? It is not just the academies; it is all the way through football and grass roots football. The minute adults are involved the bias kicks in.

The reason why the bias kicks in is because the adults have a team and they want their team to win so they pick the stronger kids. Your team got beat 4-0 so you are crap, our team won so I feel good and I can go to the tyre factory on a Monday morning and I can say my team wins every week. That is where people get their self-esteem and it is understandable and maybe even human nature but it is only there because people want to win games. When the kids decide, it’s not there and the players that could make it through are among the younger group.”

But what can we do about it?

In the UK, many senior Centre of Excellence and Academy coaches believe there is an urgent need for the English Football Association. to:-

Initiate independent research into the effect youth football currently has on the moral development of young people.

Discourage “win at all costs” mentality.
Stress the importance of individual child development
Re-define winning.
Encourage parental involvement (other than coaching) into the management/ administration/social side of non-league and grass roots youth football clubs.
Closely monitor and examine all current aspects of youth football particularly at non-league level.
Investigate the possibility of an OFSTED type inspection process for Youth Football Clubs including on going coach assessment.

There needs to be three different levels of rules, control, management and supervision of youth football, e.g :–

1. League clubs.

2. Non- league clubs.

3. Grass roots clubs.

In addition, coaches should think seriously about why they want their children to play in local leagues. Is it really in the best interests of the players if their only experience of ‘the beautiful game’ is to compete for points on Saturday mornings surrounded by over-excited adults?

Should we not make sure our players also experience the other side of the game, where adult involvement is confined to providing a ball for them to play with and something to eat and drink afterwards?

Let your players play in organised leagues by all means, but try to also let them have a bit of disorganised fun now and then!

Are you coaching? Or directing?

Introduction

We’ve all been there. The whistle goes for the match to begin and the shouting starts.

“Don’t pass it across your goal!!”…”move!”…”pass the ball”…”get wide!”….”kick it OUT!!!” Even (shudder) “GET STUCK IN!!”

I expect that you, like me, have said to yourself, “I wish he (or she) would shut up and let the kids play”.

But have you really listened to yourself recently? Are you sure you aren’t guilty of trying to control your players from the sidelines? Not even when you’re 1-0 up with five minutes to go??

The article below (first published on thePitch.org) certainly made me reflect on my own style of coaching at games. It could make you do the same!

Are you coaching or directing?

by Coach Steve Bender

Go down the line!! Spread out!!! SHOOT!!!! AUGGGHHHH!

Have you ever been to a youth soccer match and not heard cries like that? Perhaps, but only if your club was participating in Silent Saturday. It seems that every season coaches and parents are worse than the season before. The time has come that we stop and think about this question: What do the players hear? While parents and coaches are constantly yelling out instructions, correction, criticism and praise, do our young players actually hear what we are yelling at them?

Some coaches believe that every word they scream is vital to the outcome of the game and the players who pay attention to them will succeed. Others bemoan the fact that the players never seem to hear what they are saying. Still others don’t really pay much attention at all to a player’s response. Like the Energizer Bunny, they just keep yelling and yelling and yelling….

Other coaches have parents who insist on doing the same thing. They constantly give instructions to their child-and others-about how they should play. Frequently, their suggestions are completely counter to what the coach would like for them to do.

It is my opinion that “coach” isn’t the appropriate word to describe their behaviour. They are directors. It’s really no different than movies and theatre. If you saw Dustin Hoffman in Rainman, you were impressed by his ability to play the part of an autistic savant. Hoffman was so successful because he had a coach work with him one-on-one to perfect his skills. But when he walked on the set, he was under the control of the director. When the cameras roll, no one does anything except what the director wants them to do. If it doesn’t go right, they do it again. In the theatre, the same sorts of corrections take place during the rehearsal period. But when the curtain goes up, the director shuts up. At most performers off stage are given a word or two of encouragement. But those on stage are on their own. Could you imagine trying to watch a performance with the director constantly yelling to the cast to orchestrate their every move? Yet we allow sideline screamers to go on and on week after week. They are not coaches, fine tuning individual skills and teaching game tactics. Rather, they are like noisome directors, attempting to control every aspect of the game from a touchline vantage point.

At this point, I want to clarify that I am not a 100 percent supporter of Silent Saturday. I believe that it is healthy for the children to hear the spectators cheering for them when they do things right. I welcome enthusiastic and loud cheers for what has happened and what is happening. But-not for what will happen. I prefer to let the players decide how to respond to each given situation, based on how I have coached them. Off-field direction should be limited to short warnings such as “Man on!” The following monologue, taken from a videotape of a U-10 game, is the perfect example of what not to say:

Control it….good, good job! You’ve got space dribble up the line, use the puppeteerspace. Watch her, she’s attacking…go around-around her…NO!!! Not that side!! You’ll lose it! Oh, nice job getting around her. Push up, push up, Jane is open…pass to Jane, pass to…pass! Pass! PASS! You’ve got to pass sooner! Now, run back you’re on defence now-they’ve got the ball. Next time, listen to me and pass when I tell you to!

What do players hear? Young players are often so focused on the moment that they simply don’t hear the directions from the sideline. Even when they do what they are asked, they are usually just making the right choice, not doing it because the coach said so. Even were I to shout their name until they looked right at me, ask them to do something, and get their acknowledgement, I know that I would soon be watching them process my instructions like a Dis-poz-all while continuing play their own way.

But I have seen words get through and sink right into the heart. Last fall I had a 5th grader on my team who I would without question rank first among the 140 girls in the entire league, whether in goal, on defence, at midfield, or up front. She was truly a complete soccer player, and I will not be surprised to see her playing in the 2011 Women’s World Cup. She was playing sweeper and at one point attacked exactly when her keeper told her to. The ball was crossed to the weaker of the two forwards and the keeper saved a good shot.

A man I had never met, but who turned out to be her father, told her that was a stupid way to play and she ought to know better than to listen to a goalie who doesn’t know how to play the position. But it didn’t stop there. The more he rode her, the more mistakes she made. The girl was so upset by his words that she was having trouble holding back the tears, and I switched her to striker, where she scored the only goal of the day to win the match. By the way, that keeper played 4 regular season shutout halfs and was selected to play in goal at the regional all star tournament. There she allowed only one goal in the preliminary games (when the sweeper went down face first in a mud hole) and none in the championship game (including two overtime periods).

So how do we, as coaches, learn to coach, and not direct? There are several things which can help you alter the way you coach:

· Cheer a lot! Make all your statements a compliment about something they have already done, rather than something they should do next. Constant compliments may not always register, but it will keep you from saying the wrong thing.

· Coach on the bench, not from it. Give tactical instructions to the players on the bench and send them in. Take the time to explain it to them and make sure they understand. When the others come off, have a similar talk with them. If you need to get a specific change communicated without a sub, call a player over to the sideline and explain it to them there, and let them tell others.

· Teach players to make decisions for themselves. Encourage young players to make a decision without thinking about whether it is the right one. Sure, they will make wrong ones-maybe even costly ones. But they will learn faster. In practice, take the time to talk about a decision every once in a while. The more they make them on their own, the fewer wrong decisions they will make.

· Teach players to talk to each other. Unlike calls from the sideline, young players do a very good job of hearing each other most of the time. Make name calling a part of practice. They must practice letting each other know where they are so that they will do it in the game.

· Set clear rules for parents. At the beginning of the season, lay down the team rules for parents. The staff does the coaching, and parents don’t. My parents are asked at the beginning of the season to let me know if they think something is wrong with their daughter (several have asthma) or if they need a break and I’m not seeing it. I know that they will watch their own player more closely than I will. They also know that I don’t want them to tell their girl what to do. The same rule of thumb I mentioned earlier applies to them too: Talk about what has happened (keeping it positive) and not about what should happen next. This should go without saying, but it doesn’t: Parents should NEVER yell at a ref about a call.

· Find the quiet parent. Every team will have at least one parent whose personality is such that they can calmly watch anything. Put that parent to work. First, they are your accountability partner. He or she should be given the right and responsibility to come to you if you ever cross one of the lines laid out above. They should also be free to talk to other parents for you, allowing you to stay focused on the game.

· Finally, if all else fails…. Take a roll of duct tape to every game. As every man knows, duct tape can fix any problem, including this one. However, just make sure you remembered to shave before the game.

An alternative match day programme for youth soccer teams

This time of year many of us are attending league fixture meetings, submitting registration forms and generally getting involved in the usual pre-season paperwork chase.

But do you ever stop to wonder why you’re entering your team into a league?

If they’re aged 10 or over it could be because they enjoy playing against different players every week.

But if they are younger than that, do you think they really care if they play football for points or just for fun?

Could they be just as happy (or happier) if they were all fully involved playing in-house tournaments on a Saturday morning rather than standing shivering on the touchline, waiting to go on so they can be shouted at by over eager parents? Or maybe not even getting on at all (“it’s 1-0 to us with five minutes to go, I can’t risk changing the team now, sorry”).

It’s even been suggested that some youth soccer teams are only in local leagues because their coach/manager wants to win something he (or she) didn’t win for themselves when they were younger.

And some teams play in leagues simply because they don’t know that there are alternatives.

Now Paul Cooper of the National Children’s Football Alliance has produced an alternative match day programme for youth soccer clubs.

It’s worth considering – would your players like to play all the time, get lots of touches and score goals in a pressure free environment?

Or would they prefer to play for points in a traditional league and spend most of the day travelling to/from grounds, standing around and getting told to ‘get stuck in!’ ?

An alternative match day programme for youth soccer teams

by Paul Cooper

The current match day programmes have not always been working in the best interest of children, especially the younger ones.

There is at present little choice and as early as U7s, coaches are sucked into a competitive environment which makes it difficult to cope with and let all the children play as well as keeping parents happy.

So what are the needs of the children for a match day programme?

Games that are fun
Games that are both player and child centred
Every child plays for every minute (NO SUBS!)
A chance for children to put on a kit and be part of a team
Lots of touches of the ball
Lots of goals

U6/7s/8s Match Day Programme

In house/friendlies/festival fun days

This is the age group where there are most problems, as there are large numbers of children who join a club, but due to the rigid structure of the leagues many children do not get into the teams.

Also many parents are not prepared at this early stage to commit to being a coach responsible for a team, but may be interested in helping as a facilitator in an in house situation.

4v4 where possible, but most important is that every child plays for every minute, so 3v4, 4v5 also

Play round robin games
Select roughly even sides
8-10 minute games (5-6 games) on a round robin basis
Children referee themselves (with an adult pitch organiser on the side)
Different coloured kits or World Cup t-shirts
Standard Game for the U7s
Standard Game and Four Goal Game for the U8s
Keepers Optional

U9/U10s Match Day Programme

Friendly League with points awarded for fair play.

4v4, 5v5, 6v6 (variety is good for the children)

All children play every minute, so coaches let each other know how many they have in their squad e.g. Team A has 9 players & Team B has 13 players. 2 x 4v4 games and 1 x mixed 3v3 game.
The players in the 3v3 game rotate with the players on the 2 main games
10 minute games (6 games in total) this allows for players to be rotated around the teams
Children referee themselves (with an adult pitch organiser on the side)
Standard Game, Four Goal Game, Line Ball Game
Keepers optional

U11/U12s Match Day Programme

Friendly League with points awarded for fair play.

8v8 or 9v9
Sub games on the side, which players on the main games rotate from
Standard Game
Referee
3 sections of 20 minutes

U13s+ Match Day Programme

Leagues, 3 points for a win etc

11v11
Standard Game
Referee

We would also like to see more 4v4 fun days during times that club games are not being played.

We believe the above formats would be more beneficial for children in terns of fun and development. It still allows for a match day environment but one in which every child is catered for.

Paul Cooper

A strategy for youth soccer player development

The article below makes interesting reading.

It suggests that the problems facing junior soccer player development in Australia are the result of “a poor football philosophy inherited from England, which values fast play over good”.

In the article, Craig details a simple eight point strategy for improving the quality of youth soccer coaching.

For example, point 5 of the strategy is that we should…..”discourage young keepers in kicking the ball long unless there is no other option (and even here one can almost always be manufactured) and at all times have the keeper roll the ball to a team-mate so the team can begin to play immediately from the back”.

A little further on in the article, Craig suggests that “at youth levels, the only suitable training sessions should be completely with the ball, with every player….learning the game principally by playing in small games of 2 v 2, 3 v 3, 4 v 4, 5 v 5 and overload practices such as 4 v 2, 4 v 3, 5 v 2.”

This is excellent, easy to follow advice that if implemented in a consistent and wholehearted way would improve player development immeasurably.

There is also a link to a video that, in the words of a contributor to the footy4kids forums is “brilliant…..and so, so true!!! Every youth coach from u6 to u14 should be required to view this.”

Enough said!

Possess the ball – a new philosophy by Craig Foster

One of the challenges facing this country, and particularly the FFA in their quest to make improvements in the long term to Australian football, is to develop a culture of football, which is almost the complete opposite to where we are at this point in time.

A culture, which values the ball over the athlete, skill over strength, and football intelligence over graft and effort.

We will need to develop intuitive players who are adaptable during a game by instinct not input, and the natural precursor to this of course is first to develop intelligent coaches.

As Johan Cruyff once said, how can the student be better than the teacher?

So, to produce outstanding players we need excellent coaches who have an understanding at the highest technical level.

This is indeed a long-term project requiring tremendous improvement in our licences and methodology, but in the meantime one area that can be addressed is to continue to advance the understanding of the football community, particularly at the grass roots level, of what represents ‘good football’, and of the importance of a philosophy of play based on possessing the ball.

Yet when we talk about a culture of the game and particularly a philosophy of play, all those reading this with a good understanding of the game will know that all around us are signs that at present our national philosophy is deficient.

For instance, visit any junior club around the country and you will see more running than playing, and most players being encouraged to play the ball forward as soon as possible, regardless of the quality of the pass or any evaluation of the option chosen.

In other words, there is a predominance of lumping the ball forward for big, quick and usually strong kids to chase, to the detriment of players who prefer to hold the ball and build up play in a slower and more intelligent manner.

This is a by product of a poor football philosophy inherited from England, which values fast play over good, and which manifests itself in poor youth coaching.

But this is a short sighted strategy which is anti player development since, whilst this may win games for now, this style of play produces technically deficient players who will be learning nothing about how to play the game which is precisely, and only, what junior football is for!

And not only is it boring for the players, enforces results over fun and enjoyment and therefore arguably produces a larger drop out rate of youngsters in the early teens, it is in fact also ineffective once the players mature and their physical strengths converge as adults.

Every junior club in the country should be teaching their coaches to appreciate that until the very late teens, the total focus must be on producing players who understand and can play the game, that is to say they can control and manipulate the ball with great skill, maintain possession both individually and collectively, intelligently construct an attack and respond well in defence, and that teaching these principles of play fundamentally must take total precedence over results.

And we will only be starting to improve when every youth coach is judged on the quality of players he produces, not on the amount of trophies he wins.

We must all recognise that effort and running alone don’t win football matches, technique, skill, and intelligent players do. That is why Brazil and Italy have nine World Cups between them, Germany three and Argentina two. Because their football cultures, and their philosophy of play, are based on these characteristics.

If you want absolute confirmation of the need for change, this year take a look at the Under 14 or 15 National championships where tour best juniors come together, and you will see that I am right.

These championships are shockingly low on teams that are both technically (that is the individuals are capable), and tactically (the team works together, demonstrates good cohesion, and can solve problems collectively), competent at keeping the football for long periods.

Or, better still, take a look at our national teams.

Both the Joeys and Young Socceroos who failed at even the earliest Asian pre-qualifying stage could not keep the ball, clearly neither could the 17 girls. In fact the only team that played with any reasonable tactical skill was the Under 20 Young Matildas, as yet our only youth age team to qualify though Asia, who were intensely trained to do so and proved, as did the Socceroos, that when our teams are well coached they are capable of adaptation.

This inability to play to a high level is a factor of both culture and philosophy.

And it remains a fundamental problem even at the highest senior levels of our game.

In the last few weeks you might have noticed Sydney FC struggle for long periods to keep the ball against pressure, likewise Adelaide United against the Vietnamese, and the best sign of what our poor philosophy of football and no insistence on playing from defence at junior levels produces, is to see Australia struggle to play under defensive pressure against China in the second half of the recent international.

So, enough of where we are, let’s explore some key elements of a good philosophy of football.

Here is a start for any youth coaches and parents interested to know where they now stand, and in what direction they should be heading:

1. To play the ball on the ground at all times, which requires both supporting play and good technique;

2. To play short passes, which requires players to support each other in attack and defence, and is harder to defend and anticipate;

3. To play only longer balls in response to a movement by a team-mate not in the hope of one – to move and ask for the ball after which the pass is delivered;

4. To play longer passes, and particularly those in the air, predominantly only when there is no closer option and always into the feet of an attacker, never just into space for them to chase;

5. To discourage young keepers in kicking the ball long unless there is no other option (and even here one can almost always be manufactured) and at all times have the keeper roll the ball to a team-mate so the team can begin to play immediately from the back;

6. If, at any time, a youngster has no option to find a team-mate, they should be encouraged always to keep the ball. This may mean shielding it, keeping it moving to wait for a pass, or to dribble forward to attack an opponent. At no time should they be told to kick it away regardless of the position they play or where they are on the field, and if the child loses the ball they should be encouraged to try again;

7. To encourage players to express themselves through their football and recognise that everyone is not the same, and shouldn’t play so. Some play fast, others slow, some play simple, others read situations and find more complex solutions, and some have enough skill to individually dominate a game, while others can only dream of doing so, but all should be allowed to find their own game not forced to conform to a uniform way of playing;

8. And, to SLOW DOWN, or more specifically, vary the speed of play during a game, which requires a team to hold the ball. After working to recover possession, every young team should break forward only if they have an advantage in attack, otherwise they should slow the play down and possess the ball, back and across the field, resting and starting to position themselves in attack to take advantage of overloads in numbers, or weaknesses in defence. Youth coaches need to understand that the object of football is to keep the ball and to score goals through breaking down a defence with passing and skill, not by booting the ball forward hoping for a defensive mistake.

And of course a change in philosophy has ramifications for youth training.

It means that at youth levels, the only suitable training sessions should be completely with the ball, with every player touching the ball between 500 and 1000 times, refining technique and 1 v 1 skills, learning the game principally by playing in small games of 2 v 2, 3 v 3, 4 v 4, 5 v 5 and overload practices such as 4 v 2, 4 v 3, 5 v 2.

In this way good coaches can coach the key moments when in possession, the opponent in possession or the changeover, build awareness in the players to aid understanding and decision making, and allow the players to develop a fee for the game that comes only from thousands of hours playing it.

But at the same time the uneducated coach – such as the voluntary parent supervisor – can, by playing these games, give the players a structure, which aids their learning process without having to coach specific points of play.

All fairly straightforward, but a long, long way from where the bulk of our young teams are at right now.

So, how do you know where your club or coach stands from a philosophical point of view? One of the best ways is by their instructions to the players.

If the coach encourages players to slow down and relax on the ball, to take their time, to possess the ball, to support each other, to play together, to take opponents on, to take up positions at angles to each other, to circulate the ball quickly around the team, to play one and two touch football, to create triangles and diamonds in their play, to pass backwards when no forward option is rational, to use the goalkeeper to maintain possession, to read game situations and play away from pressure not into it, and to recognise and create numerical overloads, they are on the right track.

If you hear a coach telling players to ‘get rid of it’, ‘clear their lines’, ‘get it in the box’, ‘get stuck in’, ‘don’t play at the back’, ‘don’t take risks’, telling a keeper to kick the ball long or players to ‘hit the channels’, run a million miles.

Your child is in danger of becoming a boring and uninventive player, and is most unlikely either truly to discover the joy of playing the ball, or to even excel in the game against other players who have spent a decade or more possessing the ball.

And as to the physical aspect and all those coaches who want to make their young players run instead of learning to manipulate the ball and the game itself, yes, at the elite level players are very strong and often gifted physically like Thierry Henry and Kaka, but just like these two the best are footballers before athletes, and value technique over physique, because they recognise that runners don’t make it to the top any more in football.

And don’t forget that Australia has always been physically strong, but we only started to improve when Guus Hiddink finally told the players to keep the ball, to play out from the back (or in his words, ‘to start the attack from defence’), to use space more intelligently through better positional awareness, to stop hitting the ball forward in hope or desperation, to understand how to utilise the team’s spare man to keep possession, to support the ball possessor in attack, and to be patient and play in all directions in the build up phase until in a position to strike at the opponent.

These are the principles, which underline the correct philosophy of football, and the very ones every junior club and coach should be required to teach.

15 top soccer coaching tips

Coaching junior and youth soccer is a tremendous honour. Watching young players develop their soccer skills and grow into confident, young people is a very satisfying pastime. So to help you and your players get the most out of your season, here are fifteen sure fire ways that will help you succeed as a soccer coach.

Some of these are just common sense but they are still a useful reminder for anyone whose season has just started or is about to start. Use them as checklist to see whether you are doing the right things for you, your players and the supporters!

#1 Ensure that everyone enjoys themselves

Winning is important but it shouldn’t be the sole reason for playing or coaching. Striving to win is different than winning at all costs. Players need to feel like they can express and enjoy themselves; by allowing this and giving them the skills to play you will create a winning team.

#2 Hold a pre-season contracting session

Getting the season underway and ensuring that everyone, players, parents and assistants know exactly what your plans are for the season is a must. This gives you the opportunity to set out your agenda, make new players feel welcome, provide policies, rules, paperwork and codes. You should ensure that nobody leaves with any shred of doubt as to what’s your plan for the season ahead.

#3 Get your paperwork in order

Make sure that all players have completed the necessary signing on paperwork well in advance of the season starting. Get parental consent for your players to participate in training sessions and matches and also to receive emergency medial aid when they are present. It is also important to know if any of your children have an allergy (especially to bee stings) or medical conditions such as asthma. Once you have this information, don’t leave it at home on match days and when you’re training – keep it with you so you can refer to it in an emergency.

#4 Brush up your own skills

Read and educate yourself on new practices & drills, tactics, formations and strategies. Brush up on key technical elements. In the US, many clubs organize their own coaching education and you should take full advantage of this. If you’re based in the UK, I recommend that you take the Football Association Club Coach course. Its good fun, easy to do and will provide you with a lot of useful information including child protection best practice, how to give life saving emergency first aid and how to organize and run your own coaching sessions.

#5 Check over your soccer kit

What needs renewing, replenishing, mending before the season starts? Take special care to ensure that emergency aid kit is fully stocked. If you need any replacements, investigate the many different ways that you can raise the necessary funds. Get your players involved with sponsored activities, find out if parents’ employers will sponsor you or approach local firms.

#6 Set a goal for the season ahead

Can you finish top of the league? Are you going to win every game on the way? Is a good cup run sufficient? Not every player will be a shining star throughout the season and different players will have different needs, set each player specific milestones and goals that help contribute to the wider objectives and goals of the team for the soccer season ahead.

#7 Plan your training sessions well

Terrific soccer training sessions are fun, move at a quick pace, keep the players on their toes, move from drill to drill quickly and efficiently, culminate in a small sided game that specifically practices the techniques and skills learnt in the session. Progression needs to be the key, players need to be stretched as soon as a technique is learnt or mastered up the level to make it harder. Plan your sessions, this makes all of the above happen.

#8 Provide good quality demonstrations and KISS feedback

Remember a picture paints a thousand words, always use demonstrations. If you can’t do it find someone a player or assistant that can. Even if they can’t do it perfectly first time, that’s ok, provide the feedback to them on what could or should have done, players will still grasp the concept. Feedback should be specific, remember Keep It Short & Simple.

#9 Ensure all players get a fair share of the action

Parents like to see their own child on the pitch. If they turn up each week and their child is always on the side line they are going to become pretty hacked off. If this happens you’ll have some problems ahead of you. On the other hand, if you’ve followed Tip #2 and held a contracting session where you stipulate that not every child will play every week and that some players may only get bit part roles throughout the season and checked if everyone is ok with this right at the beginning of the season, then this is something that you can avoid.

Personally, I always try to provide equal playing time for all players, regardless of their ability. This sometimes leads to losing games that I could have won if I’d kept the weaker children on the bench but my main coaching objective isn’t winning games, it’s making sure all my players have fun and develop their potential. But again, this needs to be explained to your players and their parents at the beginning of the season if you want to avoid problems later on.

#10 Maintain a match log

Starting players, substitutes, minutes played, positions played in, goals scored, yellow or red cards earned all of these stat’s will come in useful during the season. Whether its to give players some feedback, assess needs or back up with hard fact any points that you need to make with disgruntled parents.

By keeping a log it’s also really easy preparing your end of season speech for the Presentation night!

#11 Keep open lines of communication with players and parents throughout the season

This isn’t just to make sure that everyone is happy and comfortable with the team, it’s about taking an interest in players too! Make time to speak to players about their development, tactics, sportsmanship, skills, position etc. By taking an interest it shows that you care and this will lift any young soccer player’s performance.

Also, give parents plenty of opportunity to have airtime too. If they do come to you with any gripes or complaints let them speak. Resist jumping in and defending yourself immediately, don’t react. Allow them to get everything off their chest, listen, demonstrate that your listening, then construct your answer so that they get your full explanation in a calm and considered manner. It might not be that they are going to necessarily agree or disagree with your points but give them airtime.

#12 Appoint a parent representative

A good parent representative can be worth their weight in gold. For me a training session should be exactly that a training session, where you put your players through their paces and develop their soccer skills. However, we see too many sessions taken over by parents wanting to discuss issues that could be dealt with by a parent rep. Instead of you getting many queries all on the same topic by different parents, have your parent rep deal with them, or co-ordinate the issues so that you only deal with them once, after the training session.

#13 Lead by example

Show respect for officials, opponents, players and parents. Develop a sound sense of sportsmanship with you players.

#14 Offer plenty of praise!

Be an uplifting coach, one that the players look up to and respect. You can do this easily by offering plenty of praise, catch your players doing things well and tell them. Yes they will need feedback when things aren’t going so well but this can still be done in a positive manner by using the praise – criticize – praise technique.

#15 Don’t over coach

Try not to over coach from the side lines during the game; give too much feedback at half time or a major run down of the game at full time. Win, lose or draw have a quick summing up after the game and then plan your next coaching session from what you’ve seen.