Keys to Positive Soccer Coaching (Part 1)

From my pre-pandemic observations of youth soccer coaches both in practice and clinic situations; I would like to pinpoint some of the common errors that they made. The more you know about them, the more prepared you will be to spot them and correct them in your ‘new-normal’ coaching.

Poor Coaching Position… You can only coach what you can see. If you stand in the middle of a practice, you will see only half of it. To see as much of the practice situation as possible, you should set yourself up on the edge of the practice or game area.

Always look at the big picture before telescoping in to coach. Get the mini-picture right and then return to the big picture again. Think of a mosaic composed of 1,000 tiles. You stand back and view the whole mosaic. You see that one of the tiles is dirty. So you telescope in and clean that tile. Once done, you stand back and look at the big picture again.

Drill and Rote Based. Too many coaching situations are organizational masterpiece with players standing in a perfect line. The drill becomes more important than the learning. Results: great drillers and rotten players.

Games and players go together, soccer is an open-skill sport, which means that the players have to be able to problem-solve every few seconds. By reproducing game-like activities, the players learn to read the game pictures. And the more that youngster’s play in mini-game environments like 1 vs. 1; 4 vs. 4, the faster they can read and the more aware they become.

Children always invent games. They know how to connect fun and learning through games. They are the experts.

Fan Coaching… Many inexperienced coaches act like the fans in the stands: They react to everything that moves. Their continual chatter tends to become annoying to the players who are trying to concentrate. The good advice is lost in the avalanche of words.

Too much information confuses youngsters. Keep your coaching points concise and specific – simple and to the point. Remember, one dime’s worth of coaching is equivalent to one dollar’s worth of practice.

Coach knowledge, not information. Knowledge is about discipline, understanding, and awareness. It’s positive problem solving – stopping the action, correcting an error, and then continuing.

Spewing out information, on the other hand, has no discipline. It’s just throwing verbal Band-Aids on every error. The whole session becomes a blur of unrelated incidents. The focus is lost and the practice loses its meaning and direction.

Coaching the game and not the players… This partly ties into the “fan coach” mentality. Making big statements such as “make space” and “don’t bunch” may be true observations, but a good coach will stop, correct, and individualize his instruction to a specific player.

Good coaches are like good doctors. They treat each individual’s specific problem. You never see them walk into their waiting room and start throwing aspirins at everyone, every patient. They recognize each patient as a different specific problem. They will diagnose the problem and then make it right. Just the way a coach would do with a soccer player.

By Graham Ramsay, Emeritus Director of Training, Maryland Youth Soccer Assoc. You can reach Graham at: [email protected]

Koach Karl’s Notes: Thank You Graham for sharing your insights with FUNdamental SOCCER!

 I am hoping that others will join this discussion and am positive that sharing of insights/suggestions like Coach Ramsay’s will help some youth coaches improve …Priceless..!

Finally, I pray that everyone will take care of themselves and their loved ones!

 Your FUNdamental, Koach Karl (Karl Dewazien)

• Emeritus State DoC of California Youth Soccer Assoc. 1979-2012
• Author - FUNdamental SOCCER Books Series
• Producer - ‘FUNdamental SOCCER -Practice’ DVD.
• Clinician at: www.fundamentalsoccer.com