Live The Pitch

As the recreational fall soccer season approaches, coaches both new and experienced will face tough challenges ahead.  Here we are going to give you advice on how to overcome situations that may arise as you go through the season.  There are ways to treat players to get the respect you deserve for your time that you give to develop our youth. Both on and off the pitch.

For new coaches coaching youth soccer can be a terrifying experience.  Usually players under the age of 10 play in local recreational leagues across the country.  Most coaches in these age groups are voluntary positions usually held by a parent of a child on the team.

At first it may seem like an easy task to handle.  Most parents take this responsibly with absolutely no idea of what’s ahead.  The main thing to coaching at this level is that you treat all players and parents equally.

The issue that coaches at this level fall into is that they will rely heavily on one or two “star” players to lead the team to glory.  Parent coaches will get too worried about results and not the development of players and teamwork.  All players should receive the same amount of playing time and the same amount of attention as all other players.  If you stray from this motto, big problems are right around the corner.

Even at a young age if you treat your best player like they are better than everyone else it could stick with them for the rest of their lives.  I have personally witnessed this with numerous players who would dominate at the younger age groups, but never actually learned the team aspect of the game.  The team aspect is the most important thing to teach at this age.  A good theory to live by is, “we win as a team, we lose as a team.”