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Parents – Do you know what a good coaching session looks like?
Parents – How do you identify an effective coach for your child?
Thousands of training sessions and matches take place globally every week and many parents are there to observe them. Parents, I want you to take a step back for a moment and reflect on all that you have observed Have you ever thought about what you are looking for in an effective coach for your child?
If you are new to sport and signing your children up to sport for the first time then I hope some of the tips below will help you on your sporting journey.
Without having some understanding of the behaviours and traits that you should be looking for in an effective coach, you may well without realising it, be throwing your child into a sporting experience that is far from beneficial to them.
Many coaches at grassroots level are volunteers and many have just completed basic Level I entry courses into coaching and will be learning their trade. You must be understanding of this and not expect them all to be super heroes, as many great coaches do not coach in the way they did when they first started and many of these coaches will be giving up huge amounts of time unpaid to provide the service for you and your child.
However, there are a number of qualities that need to be brought to the table by your child’s coach if your child is going to have a fun, positive experience.
1. Do they care – not just about the result at the weekend, but do you feel that your child is emotionally and physically safe with them?
Do they speak to your child before and after the sessions, do they acknowledge them and get to know something about them away from the sporting environment? Crucially, do they create an environment that allows your child to foster positive and healthy relationships with the other children and other adults connected with the group. This is vital as one of the main reasons children stay in sport is to have fun with their friends.
2. Are they reliable – do they show up for sessions and matches on a regular basis?
There is no doubting that young children in particular benefit from continuity and familiarity in what they are involved in to get the most out of it. Are your child’s coaches on time or do they often appear when it best suits them?
3. Do they engage with you and other parents? – you are a key part of the sporting experience, never forget that.
Children get the most out of their sporting experience when coach, parent and child are all aligned and working positively together in the best interests of the child. It is important that you feel part of the process as you can also help support the coach and the work that they do by reinforcing some of their messages at home. If the coaches do not engage with you and you are unsure of what is expected of your child, then there is a chance that you could deliver conflicting messages and this will only lead to confusion and frustration for your child.
4. Are they approachable and willing to answer questions? – This is vitally important if you wish to place complete trust and faith in your child’s coach.
You should feel comfortable in asking and they should be able to answer questions such as how long have you coached for? What level of qualification do you have? How much experience do you have with this age group? What are your plans for the group you are working with?
5. Do they set a good example – are they punctual, dress smartly and appropriately and use suitable language?
Coaches are role models whether they like it or not and many are often key people in your child’s life. They need to be setting a good example, children will follow suit and behave according to the environment that is set and that they are involved in. If your child’s coach sets high standards then there is a good chance that your child may take an interest in following suit.
Does their language encourage your child? Does your child feel that they have the freedom to express themselves and be creative and make mistakes without ramification?
6. Do they inspire?
Children need to be inspired, does your coach give your child that thrill? Are they passionate about what they do and able to channel that passion to have a positive impact on your child’s development?
In looking for this as a parent you should also be checking that your child’s coach does not embarrass or humiliate. There is no place for this, it is certainly not building character and the alarm bells should go off if you witness this.
7. Do they coach the person not the sport?
Most parents when questioned would often have knowledge and experience as high up on their agendas when looking at coaches for their children. However, there is more to sport than merely the sporting outcomes. Does your child’s coach help with life skills through the sport? Do they help foster good communication, good etiquette, self organisation, decision making to name just a few……..
Decision Time
Once you have reflected and are armed with this information then we hope that you are able to make really informed choices for your child if their coach is right or not for them. Of course not all coaches are perfect 100% of the time and there may be momentary blips where they are unable to fill all of the criteria above.
However, if you are not feeling assured by using the information above then you need to have a rethink? Do not take your decision lightly, but remember it can only take one really negative experience for your child with a coach and they can be put off for life, that certainly requires you to put in the time to reflect!
Source: https://www.parentsinsport.co.uk
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Using sport and working in partnership to equip children with skills for life
Thank you – the only words as a parent you should say to the coach?
Speak to any great sportsman or anyone involved in adult sport and they will always have a memory of a great coach or coaches. Somebody that made the difference!
Coaching the Thought, the Awareness, the Decision Making
If my 15 year old child were trying out for your team and was an exceptional player – great on the ball, quick to make decisions, moving off the ball to make the game simple for their teammates, hard working and focused, technically advanced – you would be thrilled. I can see you now, your eyes following them, arms crossed in front of you, a smile growing on your face, slightly nodding with excitement and approval…In your mind, you are saying “Ahhh, QUALITY.”
As a coach, you seek quality players because you know they provide part of the foundation for a successful season, a stellar developmental environment, and potentially less stress and more fun.
As a parent, I seek a quality coach.
I seek a coach who cares about my child and their personal and athletic development. I seek a coach who is hard working, focused, determined, thoughtful, inspiring, and relentless in their determination to make each player better. I seek a coach who has the ability to break the game down into the simple details, introducing my child’s mind to the beautiful game of soccer.
Just as every child should strive to be a quality player – every coach should strive to be a quality coach.
A talented 14 year-old American player I know recently travelled from the United States to Barcelona, Spain seeking a QUALITY developmental environment. He returned after 10 days at TOVO Academy with Director, Todd Beane – electrified.
I sat down with him upon his return and he pulled out his journal – filled with pages and pages of notes from his trip, beautifully drawn diagrams of practices and explanations of the finer points of the game.
Usually a relatively quiet boy – the smile never came off his face during our conversation and the words kept flowing. He’d turn the page of his journal and his voice would peak in excitement as he started in on another story, another lesson learned, another concept he was taught during his 10-day adventure.
He repeatedly said:
THE CONCEPTS ARE REALLY SIMPLE
Well – if they are simple – why hadn’t he – the product of some of the best coaching environments we have to offer in the United States – implemented these concepts into his game before?
I was, on one hand, thrilled for this young player and his personal experience – and, on the other hand, acutely aware of the glaring issues we must address in the youth soccer developmental environment.
Of course, there is more to coaching than explaining “simple concepts.” There is an art to the delivery, the words used, the tone of voice, the passion. And, of course, I know that players must be willing and developmentally ready to learn.
But, I refuse to allow justifications or misnomers or myths to permeate this discussion and provide excuses.
This is a kid who plays pick-up and Futsal every chance he gets outside of his 4 time a week practice schedule, has been invited to U.S. Soccer Training Centers, always has the TV on watching games and who plays at the highest level available for youth players in the United States.
His lack of understanding of the “simple concepts” of soccer – after playing for almost 10 years – is simply a result of the coaching environment and developmental culture he has been a part of.
It’s not the fault of a single coach, or a single team – this is a larger cultural issue.
I asked this 14 year-old player: “If you could talk to the coach of a U-8 team, after the quality soccer environment you just experienced in Spain, what would you tell them?”
His eyes lit up at the thought of impacting young kids through teaching a coach what he had learned.
“When I was growing up,” he said, “All we did was juggle, pass and work on technique at practice. Then we would just play without instruction.” He quickly chimed in with: “The club is better now than when I was younger, but” he went on to say:
“The coaches needed to stop us when we were playing and they needed to give us more instruction.”
The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities. Benjamin E. Mays
I shook my head in agreement when he said this. I was taken back to watching my own child grow up in the game. As an experienced player and coach, but not her coach – I found myself at her training sessions wanting to scream out loud as the definition of insanity played out in front of me: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
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Why would you play 4 vs. 4 at the end of every practice, for instance, and never pause play to demonstrate to a child the importance of attacking the free space (or closing it down defensively) – or not stop and show the 2nd attacker that opening up and finding a passing lane was essential to the success of the team? Instead, over and over again, the same mistakes would be made. And, when a coaching point was made, it usually dealt with technical mistakes. “Your first touch needs to be cleaner!” “Lock your ankle when you pass the ball!” “Keep the ball on the ground!”
No doubt, there are exceptional, quality coaches working with our youth players.
We need more.
Somewhere between the coaching education available and the race to keep up with the growing demand for youth coaches, a complacent coaching culture has been established, where coaches do too little or have the wrong approach, the result being players who operate below their capabilities.
This culture is demonstrated by two common statements we hear much too often in the youth soccer game:
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Kids learn through playing
Yes, of course, kids learning through playing. But in training, at least a portion of the playing – must be guided. Too often, the ball is put out and the coach relaxes, feeling as if practice is all but over.
On the contrary, this is when a coach must demonstrate their quality.
This is when a coach must stop the play at just the right time and hold the attention of the young players as they show them the beautiful game in action, guiding them to see the puzzle within the game that creates magical moments of decision-making brilliance.
It is in this special moment that a quality coach – creates quality players.
Similar to how a quality player at tryouts stands out from the others – a quality coach stands out as well.
The difference between the average and quality player is often their attention to detail, the maintenance of high standards and the thought that goes into playing – so too are these traits, the attention to detail, the maintenance of high standards, the focus – the difference between an average and a quality coach.
This young player I was talking to was referencing simple topics such as “scanning” and “playing the way I am facing.” Surely, those topics had been explained to him before. “Yes,” he said, “they had. But much more emphasis was placed on them in Spain, we were forced to do them.”
The coaches didn’t let them continually make the same mistake over and over and think “they will get it eventually as they play more.” Instead, the coaches in Spain taught them! They demanded a higher standard of awareness, thought and decision making.
A quality coach demanded a quality environment.
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Don’t teach tactics to young players.
I am not sure why this is debated in youth soccer. Of course you teach tactics to young players. It’s called decision-making.
The young player I was talking to about his time in Barcelona was thrilled with the decision-making concepts he had been taught. His notes about these subjects spanned pages and he said as he excitedly flipped through them: “It took me an entire week to understand the most basic decisions and make them a part of my game.”
The mark of a student who really learned something, he was quick to tell me himself:
“First – you perceive. To do this you must be really aware of what is happening around you. Second, you conceive. You think of all the possible actions you can take. Third – you decide. You decide what you are going to do with the ball BEFORE you receive it. If you can do that, then you can do the fourth – Deceive. This way you keep the ball – and make play unpredictable.”
Of course that’s not large-scale tactics of group defending in a man-down situation or the finer points of attacking play in a 4-3-3 when playing against a wide playing 4-4-2. But – when we think of the beautiful game and how it’s supposed to be played – these are the most basic of tactical decisions a player must make: What am I going to do with the ball so my team keeps possession when I receive it based on the players around me, the ball, and my options? Perceive – where and how can I move to possibly receive a ball so I can….conceive, decide and deceive….
I asked him “Haven’t you learned these concepts before?” Maybe using different words, of course. But hadn’t he, in his almost 10 years of playing, thought about these things, been introduced to these decisions before?
“The coach would mention them – but never made us do them,” he said.
How many times do we hear youth coaches say things like “Know where you are going before you receive the ball!” or “Get into a passing lane!” or “That was too predictable!”
It’s too easy for coaches to make the focus of a session, or of a season, or in the case of this talented young player – the focus of much of his development to this point – be on the physicality, the technical skill, the execution – instead of the thought, the awareness, the decision making.
Quality coaches focus on the thought, the awareness, the decision making.
Imagine if these items – the thought, the awareness, the decision making – were the primary, fundamental focus points for our youth development environment?
Imagine an environment where players are acutely aware of the field, of the position of the players, of the placement of the ball and how everyone is moving in tuned to each other within the flow of the game. We all know the magical feeling of watching the beautiful game being played with this flow.
Players don’t innately perceive their surroundings and conceive the decisions available to them. They are taught.
It is quality coaches who are able to ignite the flame within each young player to be struck with this awareness of the power they have to manipulate the game through their decisions about where and how to move or what to do with the ball.
It is not watching more soccer on TV that will ignite this flame of awareness.
It is not learning through playing that will ignite this flame.
It is not focusing on technique at a young age that will ignite this flame.
Those things will keep the flame burning.
The coach will be the ignition.
It is the quality coaches gifted with the ability, the desire, the determination, the focus and the attention to maintaining a quality environment based on decision making, not on technique or physicality, that will ignite this flame.
Source: https://soccerparentresourcecenter.com
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