A question like how to coach soccer needs an answer as simple as the questions itself but we must make efforts to find a precise one. After all, youth soccer coaching is a dynamic and a difficult job and it is not easy to keep the players motivated to deliver under extreme pressure.
I wish to give to you 5 easy yet effective tips that have the potential to better your team’s performance with time.
1. Always plan comprehensively: Your planning should be careful and detailed for you to succeed in coaching young players. Plan meetings with the players before you finalize the team goals and objectives, and take their viewpoints also into consideration. The team’s progress is affected when the timelines are not met and desired results are not realized.
After finalizing the plan, do not deviate from it except for making a few changes, if needed. Even the best plans need modifications due to unanticipated situations.
2. Practice sessions should be a whole lot of fun: Boring and repetitive training drills are bound to bring down the enthusiasm of young players when performed regularly. It is possible to incorporate this in many ways. For example: encourage players to participate in games and activities for some time after practice so as to develop a feeling of team spirit in them.
3. Both freedom and discipline should complement one another: A coach should always give priority to discipline in the team. But, what is important to understand is that freedom is also as important for the kids to feel strongly towards discipline. In teaching soccer, freedom and relaxation are extremely valuable.
Allow time to players in between drills to do their own things, simply relax, or share stuff among them. When it comes to how to coach soccer, it may also be a good idea to take them out on a picnic.
4. Be Supportive and tolerant: Always inspire the team to experiment on new things and when they make mistakes, be tolerant. Keep scrutinizing their activities. If you must intervene to correct a potential blunder or a silly mistake, do it without reprimanding them.
Remember that punishment inculcates in players, a feeling of rejection while being compassionate and encouraging generates great ideas and performances.
5. Maintain balance: A practice session is where the kids get to know their talent and soccer skills. It is well known that when we talk of a team, there are bound to be players of different calibers; the good, bad, and worst. It is a part of your job to make sure that the best players take it upon themselves to improve the performance of the poor ones.
Buddy your best players with the weak ones so that they play together and share tips even after the drills. It is also vital that they players do not feel that a comparison is being drawn between them.
Your objective now is to make sure that you use these tips to improve your approach about how to coach soccer.
You can also join our youth soccer coaching community to learn more and dramatically improve your coaching skills.
Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Youth Soccer Training.