The start of a New Year is a great chance to reflect on our coaching and a perfect opportunity to improve our soccer coaching practice. Here are 10 top tips for making this year your best year of soccer coaching yet.
1) Specify And Write Down Your Soccer Coaching Philosophy – your philosophy helps you in every aspect of your coaching; from planning sessions to dealing with parents to your conduct on the sideline. Writing your ideas down will help you to crystallise your thoughts, identify inconsistencies and be more specific.
2) Create A Long-Term Plan For Your Coaching Sessions – A long-term plan helps you to cover all areas and ensure that you’re not focusing too heavily on one topic. For information about effective long-term planning and maximising your player’s development take a look at The Echo Method… How To Triple Your Player’s Understanding And Make Your Coaching Stick
3) Take A Step Back – Consider the Number 1 reason why you started coaching a youth soccer team and identify at least one way you can improve in that area. For example, if you started so that your kids got to play – can you give every player more match-time or can you allocate more training time to games?
4) Keep A Coaching Logbook – Get into the habit of writing down ‘What You Do’ (and Why) for future reference. Even if you already do this when planning, also evaluate ‘What Works Well’ and ‘How You Would Improve Next Time’ at the end of your session.
5) Teach Your Players A Warm-Up And Use It – You can see the elements of the ‘Perfect Soccer Warm-Up’ in this post. A warm-up reduces injuries, improves intensity and leads to much better focus and it only requires 8-10 minutes at the start of your session. Teach your players how to perform a warm-up and develop the habit of performing it before every match and training session.
6) Base Training On Small-Sided Games – If you are still using line-drills and static practices to develop player’s basic techniques, change it up and start using small-sided games instead. At least visit our Soccer Drills and Small-Sided Games section to get some new ideas.
7) Get Your Players Involved In Their Learning – Engage your players in your sessions by setting them problems and allowing them to create as many different solutions as they can. If you want to prompt your players, ask a leading question and then leave them to discuss the answer in small groups. Set your player’s simple homework tasks (call them ‘challenges’ to avoid negative connotations) such as “Learn a new trick you can demonstrate next week” or “Create a unique set-piece routine using three or more players” – encourage your team to practice ball control and think about the game outside of your limited time with them.
8) Develop Your Knowledge – Ask Your Club To Fund / Invest In A Coaching Course. If you’re a Level 1 coach, ask for Level 2. If you’re a Level 2 coach, get on a UEFA ‘B’ course or enrol on an age-appropriate coaching course. (For US-based coaches visit http://www.nscaa.com for equivalent courses)
9) Become A Better Player – Players have more respect for coaches who are able to effectively demonstrate soccer skills. If you are not a natural footballer, find somewhere to play the game – whether this is in a recreational league or in a kickabout with your kids – you will get to practice you technique, develop your game understanding, and see the game as your players see it. This is in addition to the obvious fitness and social rewards.
10) Have More Fun – Remember that football is a game that we play and that’s all. Don’t be afraid to mess around, laugh at yourself or drop all plans and let the kid’s play every now and again. Make 2010 your most fun year yet!
