What follows is a simplistic way of bearing in mind the essential soccer coaching factors ate determine the team philosophy and moving along with it. This philosophy can be applied to your youth team with relative ease as it is easier than you think.
There are 6 factors; parents, coaches, excitement, selection, time and success windows which are required for an effective youth coaching philosophy.
Communicating with Parents regularly: Parental influence is the key factor for soccer training which is essential in the mental and physical growth of your players, particularly on the day of the match. A brochure of the “parental responsibilities” at the beginning of the season is not enough. Arrange for regular meetings with them so that the key points can be repeated and concerns shared.
New soccer coaches: An important part of the philosophy is that you should not only concentrate on development of the players, but also the coaches. You may try if one of your kid’s parents can become a soccer coach? They would be most suitable and a great option for the future.
Selection: One of the biggest reasons why players with great soccer skills drop out is non-selection. According to the research, players go in bad teams saying that they are fearful of not getting selected in a good team. Hence, a fair selection system should be used so that all the players are given equal game time.
Time: Be particular in starting the session on time and also the timely arrival of the parents. The start and finish times that are clearly defined make for an effective session.
Excitement: Is it imperative that every soccer coaching session has to be enjoyable? Try to make every session an enjoyable one but also remember that you cannot do it all the time. Hence, choose enthusiasm as a substitute.
While training the kids, it is natural for every coach to run out of ideas on how to make practice drills exciting and enjoyable. 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 incorporate a “success window” for the season as a significant element in your training sessions. This necessitates for you to determine a lower limit and an upper limit of time with a view to measure the level of success that needs to be achieved.
For instance, time frame of minimum four and maximum eight weeks. This can be achieved for both the team and 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. If you would like more such knowledge and resources, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community.
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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.
