Coaching Soccer For Dummies Page 9
Having a handy guide at their disposal greatly enhances each parent’s understanding and enjoyment of the game. This guide doesn’t have to be one of those research papers you dreaded writing in high school or college. Just put together a couple of pages on some of the basics of the game. Include a rough sketch of the field, and indicate where each player is positioned; throw in a page on some basic terms that are used often during the season and what they mean; and include a page of the officials’ hand signals and what they mean (we include one in Chapter 3).
Special rules: Be sure to include a page noting any special rules in effect in the league. Maybe the league has instructed officials not to call offside on the kids to keep the game moving. Perhaps throw-ins aren’t utilized at this level, and when the ball goes out of bounds, the official simply tosses it back into the field of play. Briefly alerting parents to any special modifications of the rules during your parents meeting — and detailing them again in this packet — greatly reduces confusion at games and allows parents to fully understand what’s taking place on the field.
Team roster and contact information: A sheet with all the kids’ names, their parents’ names, and their telephone numbers can be a pretty handy tool for parents. In the “Defining supporting roles” section, later in this chapter, we suggest that you have the parents form a “phone tree” to quickly spread last-minute weather and scheduling updates for practices and games. And at some point during the season, parents may need to get in touch with another parent to arrange a ride to practice for their child.
Assembling Your Parent Posse
Coaching youth soccer is an enormous undertaking, but you can make the job less stressful and time consuming by recruiting some parents to lend a hand. They invest a lot of time and energy in making their child’s soccer experience a rewarding one, and you’ll find that they’re usually more than willing to pitch in to help make the season run smoothly. Sure, occasionally parents drop their children off and use you as a baby-sitting service for an hour or so, and some parents are more comfortable staying in the background, watching practices or games from the car. But for the most part, if you let parents know that you want them to be actively involved — and provide them with areas where they can lend a helping hand — they’ll gladly do so.
Choosing assistant coaches
To help ease your coaching workload, choose a couple of parents to serve as assistant coaches. With all those kids on the field, a few extra sets of eyes and ears to help direct the action are extremely beneficial to you and your squad. At practice, assistant coaches can
Run drills, which maximizes your time on the field by allowing the kids to get extra repetitions and additional instruction
Serve as goalies during shooting drills or defenders during attacking drills
Perform a variety of helpful tasks, such as chasing down loose balls during drills to keep practices moving, which is vital to keeping your sessions fun and productive
Your assistant coaches can also be invaluable resources on game day. They can help
Monitor your substitution rotation to ensure that all youngsters receive an equal amount of playing time
Oversee warm-ups to make sure that each child stretches properly
Orchestrate the pre-game exercises while you’re meeting with the opposing coach and officials
Alert you to any unsportsmanlike behavior being displayed that you may not catch while fulfilling your other responsibilities during the course of the game
Gather your players and speak to them in a calm, relaxed tone when you’re tending to an injured child
Choosing your assistant coaches is one of the most important decisions you make during the season, so do your homework before filling these key positions. You want to select parents who are best suited to support your philosophy and emphasize the fun and learning you want to stress.
If you don’t know most of the parents very well, proceed carefully before asking who’s interested in filling coaching positions. You may want to take a little time to get to know the parents as the first few practices of the season unfold. You don’t want to make the mistake, for example, of choosing an apparently laid-back dad at your preseason parents meeting who turns out to be a yeller with a poor disposition when he arrives at the field. Pay close attention to see how parents interact with their children at practices and maybe even the first game of the season, and gauge their interest in and enthusiasm for the sport.
Also, try to find a balance when seeking assistant coaches. Some overzealous parents may try to take over your practice and impose their own ideals, techniques, and philosophies on the youngsters. Meanwhile, others may require so much mentoring and assistance that it may actually detract from your valuable practice time, which negatively impacts the children.
Defining supporting roles
Some parents may not feel comfortable being on the soccer field providing instruction, but that doesn’t mean they can’t help in a number of other areas. Many parents want to be involved in their child’s experience, and they can fill a number of roles to ease your stress and add to everyone’s enjoyment of the season.
During your parents meeting, you can circulate a list of jobs and responsibilities, which we cover in the following pages, and have parents jot down their names next to those duties they’re comfortable helping with. If five parents express an interest in being the team parent, do your best not to turn down their help and make them feel that you really don’t need them after all. In this instance, have them all work together as a committee, or if no one signs up to be the fundraising coordinator, mention to them that you appreciate their willingness to help out, and see if anyone is willing to fill that role instead.
Team parent
A great way to wrap up a practice session or game is to gather the troops for a refreshing beverage or tasty snack. Choosing a team parent allows you to keep your focus on teaching and skill development. The team parent can put together a schedule to let parents know which game or practice to bring snacks to. This role can also include organizing an end-of-season pizza party or making arrangements to take the entire team to watch a local high school, college, or professional soccer game.
Telephone-tree coordinator
When it rains all day, and an hour before your practice the sun pops out, parents are going to wonder whether practice is still on. If you decide to cancel practice, it can be extremely time consuming to call every parent. A telephone- tree coordinator is the parent in charge of putting together the phone list for such situations. In this scenario, you let your telephone-tree coordinator know that you’ve canceled practice and when you’ve rescheduled it for. The telephone-tree coordinator calls two parents on the phone list, those two parents each call two parents, and so on. In a matter of minutes, everyone knows that the practice has been postponed.
Concession-stand worker
Many leagues require each team to provide a parent or two to work the league’s concession stand a couple of times a season. Check with the league director to find out what dates you need to fill, and see which of your parents are willing to help out on those days.
Photo coordinator
Team photos are great keepsakes for the children, who years from now will get — excuse the pun — a real kick out of seeing themselves and their friends all decked out in their colorful uniforms. Often, the league works directly with a local photography company; other times, team photos are left up to the discretion of the coach. In either case, having a parent fulfill the photo- coordinator position can be extremely helpful. Besides working with you to select a convenient time for the team photo, the photo coordinator can look into the possibility of having the photographer come out for a game or two to take action shots of the kids. At the end of the season, providing each child a shot of himself or herself during a game is a great touch. (We go into greater detail on fun ways to conclude the season in Chapter 22.)
Fundraising coordinator
Depending on the age an
d skill level of the kids on your team, opportunities may exist to participate in local tournaments that may or may not be a part of the league. These tournaments typically have registration fees. Team fundraisers can offset these additional costs. Fundraisers can include the usual car washes, candy sales, magazine subscriptions, spaghetti dinners, or other fun activities that the coordinator comes up with.
Team trainer
During the course of the season, children get bumps and bruises and get knocked down on occasion. Having a parent who’s properly trained in first aid and has experience dealing with these sorts of problems is a big benefit for your team. Although all coaches need to be trained in CPR and familiar with basic first aid, having parents who are skilled in these important areas is a real comfort not only to you, but also to the other parents.
Trophy coordinator
Some leagues present trophies to the first-place team; some hand out participation trophies or certificates to every child; and others may not have the financial resources to do anything. Depending upon what type of league you’re coaching in, you may want to consider assigning a trophy coordinator, who can arrange to have small trophies or plaques to present to each child at the end of the season for their participation. (We explain this idea in greater detail in Chapter 22.)
Game officials
Some starter leagues rely on parents to fill roles as officials. Often, each team is required to provide one parent to serve as a goal judge or simply to monitor a part of the field for any type of major infraction. If this requirement applies in your league (see Chapter 2), be sure to mention it during your meeting. Find out which parents are willing to fill these positions, if needed. Having these names jotted down eliminates one worry on game day. You don’t want to be scrambling around minutes before your game looking for a parent volunteer when you could be spending the time getting your team ready.
Travel coordinator
The travel-coordinator position is appropriate only for an older and more experienced team that may be participating in a lot of weekend tournaments or All-Star events throughout the state or region. The person handling this position is involved in locating the most cost-effective and convenient hotels for the team to stay in and arranging a team bus or coordinating car pools for the actual road trip itself. Occasionally, a parent may fill this position at the younger levels if the team advances through several rounds of a local or regional tournament and qualifies to compete against other teams in a statewide tournament.
Going Over Equipment
Injuries are as much a part of soccer as grass-stained uniforms and post-game treats, and no matter the age or skill level, every player who steps on the field is at risk of getting hurt. Although eliminating the threat of injury is impossible, you can minimize the number of injuries that occur — and their severity — by making sure that each child wears the proper equipment.
Don’t let a child on the field unless he has the following equipment:
Shin guards: These guards significantly reduce the risk of injury to the child’s lower leg, which is the third-most-common area of the body injured in soccer, after the ankle and the knee. Encourage parents to purchase shin guards with padding that extends to cover the ankle bone, as well as socks long enough to cover the shin guards.
Mouth guards: Soccer is the second-leading cause of facial and dental injuries in sports. Collisions with other players are quite common, and the risk of a player getting hit in the face with a ball always exists. Furthermore, youngsters with braces face an even greater risk of suffering injuries to the mouth. Although mouth guards can be difficult for youngsters to get used to wearing, they’re vital to protect the teeth and mouth. Fortunately, wonderful advancements have been made, so the guards aren’t as uncomfortable as you may remember from your playing days.
You can make a mouth guard a fun piece of equipment by encouraging everyone to wear the same color, because the guards now come in a variety of styles and colors that are appealing to children. Besides promoting team unity, you promote safety.
Water bottles: One of your team rules may be that all children bring their own water bottles to practice and games; otherwise, they don’t get to play. Keeping kids hydrated is extremely important; not doing so can lead to serious health consequences and place the kids in unnecessary danger. Keep a large cooler of water on hand at all times so that the kids can refill their bottles. Remind parents to write their child’s name on the bottle, too.
Sunscreen: Encourage parents to apply sunscreen to their children before they arrive for practices and games. Let them know that you’ll do your best to avoid practicing between the peak sun hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to minimize the team’s exposure to the sun.
Sports bras and protective cups: Although you may not be entirely comfortable discussing these areas, they do need to be covered. Younger children don’t need sports bras and protective cups, but as children mature, they should be strongly encouraged to wear them. Have parents check with a reputable local sporting-goods retailer for additional information on proper fitting.
In addition to the must-have equipment players take to the field, other pieces of equipment you should briefly review with the parents are
Uniforms: Some leagues provide uniforms, but the parents are responsible for keeping them clean and in good condition before turning them in at the end of the season. In other leagues, parents are required to purchase the uniforms. If your team has to purchase its own uniforms, try to get some sample sizes ahead of time from the company to help parents determine what best fits their young players.
Cleats: If your league allows cleats, make sure the children wear regular shoes to the game and switch into the cleats after they get to the field. Parking lots and sidewalks can quickly wear down the cleats. Most leagues have restrictions on what types of cleats children can wear during games. Make sure you know what the league outlaws (see Chapter 2 on league policies) so you can pass this information on to the parents before they go out and spend a big chunk of money on cleats that aren’t allowed on the field. Children just starting out in the sport are fine wearing a pair of comfortable tennis shoes.
To keep participation costs down, you can gain big bonus points with your parents by suggesting that their children wear regular sneakers to practices and games. Mentioning this suggestion now may save problems later when one child shows up in fancy, top-of-the-line cleats and the rest of the team is wearing regular shoes. The shoes can make that child feel uncomfortable because he stands out, and the other team members may suddenly feel that they’re missing out on something.
Soccer balls: Many leagues distribute only a couple of balls to each team for practices, so you can ask the parents to have their child bring a ball to practice if they have one. Have the children put their names or initials on the balls so you can figure out who owns the balls at the end of practice.
Meeting Players’ Special Needs
You may wonder whether you have what it takes to coach a child who has special needs. The answer is most certainly yes! Think about it. Every child on your team is remarkably different, and you’ll be adapting in all sorts of ways and making countless adjustments to meet their needs. It’s certainly no different when it comes to a child who may have a vision or hearing problem; who may have attention deficit disorder; or who may suffer from asthma, diabetes, or epilepsy. We discuss some of the conditions that your players may have in greater detail in Chapter 5.
During your parents meeting, make sure to find out whether any of the children under your care this season have a medical condition that you need to be aware of, as well as whether you need to make any special accommodations. Often, a parent may not feel comfortable divulging that type of personal information in front of all the other parents, which is why setting aside time at the end of the meeting for 1-on-1 discussions is always a good idea.
Answering Parents’ Questions
During the course of your meeting, the parents are probably going to ask you a variety
of questions — and that’s a good sign. You want active participation and interest throughout your meeting. Fielding questions throughout your discussion is a great indicator that the parents are deeply concerned about their children’s well-being and genuinely enthusiastic about helping them enjoy a rewarding season.
Be sure to set aside time at the end of the meeting to address any additional questions or concerns. Perhaps parents have questions that they’re more comfortable asking 1-on-1 after the meeting concludes, so let them know that you’re available to chat with them after the meeting or by phone at a time that’s convenient for both of you. Also, if any parents ask questions that you can’t answer during your presentation, be sure to make a note of them, and let the parents know that you’ll find out that information as soon as possible and get back to them with the answers.
Chapter 5
Getting to Know Your Team
In This Chapter
Identifying strengths and weaknesses
Finding a position for each player
Getting to know the different kinds of children who make up your team
Successful business leaders understand the strengths and weaknesses of their employees and utilize their employees’ talents for the betterment of the companies they run. The same type of approach applies to coaching a youth soccer team. True, your youth soccer coaching experience isn’t like the cutthroat world of big business, but understanding the talent level of your squad and molding and cultivating it to the best of your ability helps define what type of coach you are and how much success your team enjoys this season. Understanding what areas of the game your kids excel in, and in which areas they can really use your helping hand, makes the difference in whether your season is punctuated by kids progressing at dazzling rates or struggling to find their niche on the team.