Let me show you a neat way to remember a few vital soccer coaching factors that are instrumental in ascertaining your team’s philosophy and fulfilling it. We can apply this philosophy to our youth team very easily as it is easier than we can imagine.
The 6 essential factors which are required for an effective youth coaching philosophy are; parents, coaches, excitement, selection, time, and success windows.
Consistent Parental Support: When we talk about soccer training the influence of parents is vital in the mental and physical development of your players, most importantly on the day the match is taking place. A brochure of the “parental responsibilities” at the beginning of the season is not enough. An effective strategy would be is to have regular meetings with them to remind them the essential points and share problems.
Developing soccer coaches: Training of soccer coaches should be an integral part of your philosophy instead of targeting the players. Assess and see if you can turn one of your kid’s parents into a soccer coach? They are the ideal candidates, not necessarily to start immediately, but may be in the future.
Selection: One of the biggest reasons why players with great soccer skills drop out is non-selection. Studies show that players would rather get selected for a bad team out of the fear of getting rejected for a good team. Thus a logical system which provides the players equal game time should be used.
Time: The session should be started on time and the parents should also be told to be on time. Clearly established start times and finish times allow you to plan and deliver the session effectively.
Excitement: Is it necessary that every soccer coaching session should be fun? Yes, try to make every session enjoyable for the kids but also understand that it may not be possible every time. As such, adopt excitement as an alternate.
At the time of training the kids, it is valid that coaches face problems with ideas on how to make training interesting. Hence, the biggest challenge is to be so good with your thinking that you can come up with several great ideas to make drills fun for kids.
In soccer drills, it makes sense to keep escalating the difficulty aspect so that kids get skilled. The best way of doing this is to get started with a game, look for a problem, and then rectify it with a drill.
Success windows: Try and include a success window for the season as a vital part of your training sessions. This means that you must determine a lower limit and an upper limit of time with a view to measure the level of success that needs to be achieved.
To take an example, time frame of minimum four and maximum eight weeks. This can be achieved for both the team members and the individual members.
In your interest, embrace a soccer coaching philosophy like this become a part of the development phase of your kid’s training once the basics have been covered. In order to be more resourceful, full of knowledge, and gain tips and techniques, enroll for our youth soccer coaching community.
Andre Botelho is the author of “The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide” and he’s a recognized expert in the subject of youth soccer coaching. Learn how to explode your players’ skills and make coaching sessions fun in less than 29 days! Download your free pdf guide at: Soccer Coaching Drills.