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Soccer coaching articles
How to coach a youth soccer team
One of the delights of youth football coaching is taking on a team of youngsters and watching them develop during a number of years.
It’s great to see how children, who were as timid or didn’t know where to kick the ball, grow in confidence and learn new skills.
But staying with the same team for any length of time has its drawbacks too. You will get to know your players quite well and while we all try not to have favourite players there will always be some children who try harder than others and some who have a better attitude. As a result, it may become difficult to make objective decisions about these individuals.
Training routines can also become stale over time. It is easy for a coach to stick to the same format and even play the same games week in, week out. This rather lazy approach to coaching can be justified by saying: “My players like doing it this way and they like these games”, but beware – you might be boring the pants off them.
Boredom at coaching sessions manifests itself by misbehaviour and, eventually, absenteeism. If your players are getting harder to control and some are not turning up regularly without good reason, it’s time for a spring clean!
Very young children
Four to six year olds have relatively short attention spans at the best of times. If they find a task interesting and are enjoying some success at it, you can expect a young child to stay focused on it for up to 10 minutes.
On the other hand, a four year old who finds an activity uninteresting or difficult will stay “on task” for as little as 30 seconds before looking for something more satisfying to do. Picking daisies or playing with mud, for example.
So if you have team of four to six year olds you should plan to change activities every 10 minutes at most. This means having lots of different, fun and easy to explain coaching games in your “back pocket”.
Older children
As I mentioned above, the first sign that your coaching sessions are getting stale and uninteresting is an ever increasing amount of “undesirable” behaviour among your players.
Squabbles, continual chatting and players “not trying” are clear indicators that you need to take a close look at your coaching sessions. Are they designed to be child friendly? Do you spend too much time on technical training and not enough time playing the game?
The quickest way to find out what you need to do to get your sessions back on track is to ask your customers – the players.
Simply sit them down, explain that you are concerned about their lack of focus and ask them if they are bored. If they are, ask them which activities they find boring (and why) and which activities they enjoy (and why).
I can almost guarantee that they will tell you that they want to spend more time on scrimmages and less time practising techniques. If so, you need to consider your priorities and decide if the interests of your players would be best served by doing what they want to do. Or do you know best? Only you can answer that one.
Regardless of what your players tell you, there are a couple of simple ways to blow the cobwebs from your coaching sessions.
1. Invite other coaches to take some of your sessions.
Asking a colleague to take one or more of your sessions is a great way to see how your players react to a different approach.
You may be surprised to see how compliant your most “difficult” players become when they’re in front of a coach who doesn’t know them and you’ll probably pick up some useful tips and tricks, especially if the guest coach is more experienced than you.
2. Hand over the reins.
It’s good to let your players plan and run their own practice session at least once or twice every season.
The week before you want them to do the hard work for you, ask your players what you think they need to be better at and seek one or two volunteers to plan a session to address their shortcomings. This could be a good job for your captain and vice-captain.
If nothing else, the experience will show your players that coaching football is not simply a case of turning up at the field with a bag of balls, some cones and an empty mind.
While you’re in the mood for spring cleaning, make sure that your sessions tick all the right boxes:
3. Make sure your coaching sessions are progressive and challenging.
Boredom will soon set in if you don’t challenge your players to improve so don’t spend lots of time practicing skills that were first introduced weeks or months ago.
You also need to be realistic in your expectations. For example, most seven year olds lack the physical ability to lock their ankle so don’t expect them to be able to be able to kick a ball from one end of the pitch to the other.
To get an understanding of what children between the ages of five and 10 should be able to do on a football field, click here. And to find out where your players are in terms of their mental development, click here.
4. Use games, not drills.
Children come to coaching sessions to play football, not to stand around waiting. It’s a youth football golden rule that you shouldn’t use drills that involve children standing in lines. However, many coaches still think that static drills are the best way to practise basic techniques. They’re not.
Children can and should practise passing, receiving, shooting, shielding the ball, tackling etc. within the context of a small-sided football match and not just in a drill.
5. Competition is the key.
Your coaching sessions should reflect the fact that football, whether we like it or not, is about winning and losing.
Coaching games for children over the age of five or six should have clear winners and (can I say this word without offending someone?) losers.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t reward effort too. Make a fuss of players who strive to succeed but don’t quite cross the line first.
Mix up teams regularly so that everyone gets a chance to be on the winning team. Stress the importance of winning and losing gracefully. But always try to satisfy the natural competitive instinct of your players. If you don’t, they will compete among themselves in ways that you might find inappropriate.
Finally, don’t be afraid to be unconventional in your approach. A good spring clean might simply involve a change to the way you order your coaching activities. Try having the traditional end-of-session scrimmage at the beginning of the session instead. Or try a “sandwich” session: scrimmage, technical, scrimmage.
Freshening up your coaching once a year is like spring cleaning your home – the thought of having to do it is a bit depressing but when it’s done… boy, do you feel good!
Visualisation
What is visualisation?
Visualisation is an established psychological technique. It has been used for many years to help people achieve their goals in life, overcome fears and reduce anxiety and stress.
Seeing yourself achieving your goal makes your brain believe that attaining that goal is possible, regardless of how difficult it may be.
Visualisation will not give a player technical skills that he or she didn’t have before but it will make them believe that they can play well, impress their team-mates, score the winning goal or make a great last-minute tackle. And if they believe they can do these things, then the chances of them actually doing them are greatly increased.
How can I use this technique with my players?
Children are experts at visualisation. They spend a lot of time in an imaginary world where they explore the possible consequences of their worst fears and brightest hopes. So all we have to do as soccer coaches is to guide our players to imagine (visualise) what they can achieve instead of what they fear might happen.
There are three ways to do this. We can either use internal visualisation (where a player imagines doing something themselves), external visualisation (where a player watches themselves do something as though they were standing on the touchline) or we can mix the two.
An example:
Before a match, in the changing rooms or a quiet corner of the field, I tell my players to spread out a little and make themselves comfortable.
First, I calm their minds. They close their eyes, take a deep breath and hold it for ten seconds before exhaling. We count together.
Then I ask them to remember the best game they ever played as a team. To help, I remind them when it was. Note: it doesn’t have to be a game that the team won, although it helps if they did.
I ask them to visualise (imagine) how they felt that day, how much effort they put in and how they played.
After a few seconds I ask each player to share something that they remembered about the game. A defender might remember a great tackle, an attacker the goal they scored, a midfielder a good pass or run.
They might remember how it felt to be congratulated by their parents on the way home or even what they had for tea that day!
Sharing these thoughts is an important step. It helps the team bond well and builds trust between your players.
Next, I ask them to visualise playing today’s game in the same way and with the same outcomes.
I give them a few seconds to do this then ask each player to tell the team what they are going to do to help the team today.
Again, sharing is important. If a player just keeps this thought in their heads it is easy to ‘forget’ the part they are going to play if the going gets tough. Vocalising makes the players more accountable.
The whole process takes five or ten minutes.
Summary
Visualisation can help your players overcome match day nerves. It can reduce fear, boost self confidence and will make soccer more fun for your players.
If your team consistently performs better in training sessions than in matches, loses to weaker opponents or has a problem with negative self image (‘we always lose to this team!’) visualising success will help them.
Five indoor coaching games
Indoor soccer coaching brings challenges.
Obviously there’s less room, so some of the soccer games and drills you use outdoors simply won’t work.
On the other hand, there are benefits to be gained from training indoors.
One of them is the surface underfoot. It’s good for soccer skill development to practise on a nice, smooth floor rather a bumpy and sometimes muddy field.
Use these soccer coaching tips to maximise the benefits and minimise the problems associated with indoor coaching.
To get you started, this article suggests some simple games that always work well in a gym.
Warm up with the Wall Game
Place your kids in the centre of the gym. Identify the four walls as North, South, East and West (with very young children you could use colours or place different objects at each wall).
Tell them “I will call out a name of a wall and you have to run to it, touch it and run back”. You could make anyone who runs to the wrong wall perform a penalty, such as press-ups, but please don’t make the last one back perform a penalty – it’s not fair on the slower kids.
Variations
- Ask the kids to skip, sideways run, etc (but not run backwards – falling over on a hard floor hurts!)
- Give the walls numbers rather than names.
- Point to wall; call a different one (always works!!)
- Tell them to run to the opposite wall (you call ‘North’, they have to run to the ‘South’ wall).
- Dribble a football to the wall and back.
Shuttle races and relays
Until the age of 13 or 14 you can adequately stretch kids’ muscles with basic soccer drills using shuttle races or relays. If you make sure the drills include elements that involve turning, bending, acceleration and stopping they will also improve aerobic fitness.
A big plus is that kids love the competitive element.
Start without a ball and then get your kids to do the runs with a ball at their feet.
Spiders and bugs
Divide your children into two equal teams. Each team should stand alongside the centre line, about two yards apart and facing towards the ends of the gym. Name one team Spiders and one team Bugs (or anything else).
When you call ‘Spiders’! or ‘Bugs’! that team has to sprint for the end line nearest them. The other team tries to tag them. Anyone who is tagged joins the other team. Continue until there are only a couple of children left who haven’t been tagged. Don’t carry on the soccer drill until they are all exhausted!).
Basketball/netball
This is great for encouraging support play and communication. Just make sure the kids play to the rules.
3v1 Keepaway
When the three make a mistake or get to a certain number of passes, bring in the next set of three players.
Make this soccer drill competitive by seeing how many passes each team can string together.
Differentiating
It’s always difficult catering for players of widely differing abilities.
One solution if you’re coaching a group with some children who have been playing for a few years and others who have only played football for a short while, is to separate the players into groups and get an assistant coach to work on the basics with the inexperienced girls or boys.
But if you don’t have the luxury of having assistants you might have to run extra ‘catch up’ sessions for the new youngsters.
There is, however, no reason why a mixed ability group shouldn’t work on the basics together. They all need to improve, even the children who have been playing for years.
For example: I work on first touch with simple games, such as Pass through the gate.
In this game (and others like it) pair up players so that the more experienced girls are playing with the less experienced. Then make the games competitive; who can play the longest without making a mistake?
It helps in this situation with a mixed ability group to take a more games-based approach to training. All your players will enjoy playing SSGs (small sided games) like the 1-0 Game.
Regarding tactics, all players can learn to defend, how to attack and the way different formations work. It shouldn’t matter how skilled they are.
Ten ways to boost your players’ self esteem
1. Greet every player by name as they arrive for football training sessions and matches – it’s the easiest way to make them feel wanted.
2. Take an interest in your players – find out what they like doing when they’re not playing soccer.
3. Make sure every player starts matches – don’t start with the same line-up every week.
4. Acknowledge effort – you want your players to give 100% so say ‘Well done!’ when they do.
5. Give your players responsibility – you don’t have to run every training session, let them choose what to do sometimes.
6. Be kind – never criticise a player in front of their team mates.
7. Encourage risk taking – don’t stifle creativity. If a player wants to dribble the ball out of defence, praise them. They will learn by the results.
8. Give players individual, achievable targets, for instance, for a player who doesn’t like to tackle you can set them the target of making two tackles in a match. That way all your players can be winners.
9. Make every player a key member of the team – there’s something special about every one of your players. Tell them what it is.
10. Rotate your team captain – all young soccer players like to be captain for a day.
Let the game be the teacher!
To make your coaching effective with a team of youngsters (U10s), my advice is, ‘Let the game be the teacher’.
We have to keep reminding ourselves that young players come to football training sessions to play football, not to be coached. So we should let them play.
That doesn’t mean you can’t coach them – it just means you have to be bit clever about it.
A few do’s and dont’s:
Don’t play boring, static drills – play SSGs (small-sided games) instead. Games like the 1-0 game are brilliant for teaching possession, ball control and communication in a fun way.
Don’t spend more than 30 seconds explaining a game – if it takes longer than that, it’s not a good game!
Once in a while ask your players want they want to do and let them run a football training session while you watch.
Do what you feel is right for the kids, not what you think you ought to do.
Remember, football coaching sessions are meant to be fun for the players AND the coach! If you’re not having fun then they won’t be.
So relax. Enjoy it. Your players won’t be U10s forever (thank goodness!)
Half time team talks (part 2)
The half-time period at matches is an important time for you and your players and you must use it wisely.
And, as with everything in youth soccer, preparation is a key soccer coaching tip.
During the first half of the match you should be making mental or written notes of what you want to say when the whistle blows.
Bear in mind that your half-time comments should always be 90% positive so – regardless of the match situation – your focus of your notes should be about what the team is doing well rather than what is not going so well.
Save the problems for the next training session!
Find somewhere sheltered and out of earshot of the opposition and parents for your half-time team talk. Make sure everyone has a drink and get them sat down (if the ground is not wet) facing you and check that there are no distractions behind you.
Important: never forget you are a role model for your players so don’t criticise the match officials at half-time or at any other time. Even if they’ve clearly made a mistake that has cost you a goal or two!
Once your players are settled, the first thing to do is to check for injuries. Is everyone OK?
Then it’s time for some ‘well dones’. But be truthful. Your players will know if you are giving them false praise and if you are going to pick out individuals make sure you mention everyone, not just your star players!
If you feel you can correct any simple errors with a short comment then do so. But don’t try to introduce any new concepts or embark on a lengthy lecture.
Limit all your comments to two or three points for nine year olds and older and just one point for younger children. Any more than that and you will run out of time or they will stop listening to you.
Tip: Don’t ask for players’ opinions. All you’ll get is a time wasting chorus of comments and complaints.
Now it’s time to announce the starting line up for the second half. If you’re not sure which players to take off then don’t make any changes until the second half is a few minutes old. But if you do that, make sure your subs know they are going to get on soon.
Finally, some more words of encouragement and send your team out for the second half.
Tip: Count the players on the field before the whistle goes. I’ve often tried to start with one player more or less than the rules allow!!
After the game
Make sure your team shake their opponents by the hand and you congratulate your opposite number.
Thank the referee.
If you won the game, celebrate quietly. If you let your players celebrate loudly it’s not only poor sportsmanship but it will make your opponents even more determined to beat you in the return match.
If you lost, don’t analyse the reasons or let your players blame each other. Praise them for what they did well and save the corrections for your next soccer coaching session.
Finally, make sure your players and parents help you put the goals and other equipment away!