Role of the Coach

The fundamental role of the coach is to provide a safe and educational playing environment for the players. Coaches must have the best interests of the players at heart regardless of their playing ability.

The role of youth coaches is to engender an environment of fun, social interaction, and enjoyment of the game. Coaches must be aware of the physical, mental and emotional characteristics of players within different age groups.

The coach must seek to achieve is a spirit and mentality in youngsters that instills confidence in individual creative soccer expression when dribbling, passing, shooting etc. Players must play free of the fear of making a mistake, losing a game or being admonished by the coach.

Results can be the yardstick when determining effective coaching, the team won, and the coach did a good job, the team lost; the coach did a bad job. Therefore the coach needs to be involved with the “process of playing” did players make good passes, did players dribble effectively, did players compete hard throughout the game.

To achieve this, the coach must communicate openly with players and parents regarding their philosophy, goals and objectives and the process to achieve those goals and a realistic level of expectation for team success.

The coach has a physical responsibility for the safety of players, the psychological responsibility of the players to ensure that all are treated with equal respect and education and a responsibility to the game to ensure that the coach, players and parents respect the laws and the spirit of the game and maintain ethical behavior, win lose or draw.

Plan your practice

All practices should be planned in advance and should focus on a specific technique or tactic, don’t cover multiple topics in one session. Follow the attached MSC age appropriate curriculum as this will help to ensure that you are coaching your team the appropriate skills they need to develop both individually and collectively and ensure the correct level of progress.

·      Explain to your players what the topic of the day is.

·      Keep communication to a minimum with younger players due to limited attention span.

·      Limit the number of coaching points per session 3 or 4 per session.

·      Be prepared to be patient, young players do not have the mental capacity of adults so ensure that you use simple easy to understand language.

·      Demonstrate what you want, “a picture tells a thousand words”.

·      Avoid practicing same drill multiple times as players will become bored.

·      Avoid talking at the player’s; involve them in the process of guided discovery,

o   What part of the foot should you use to kick the ball

o   Could you do something different next time.

·      Conclude the session with a recap of the key areas covered, to ensure players understand the session.

Lesson Plan Structure:    One Hour Lesson Plan

Warm Up:    10 minutes

Coach should introduce topic for the lesson. Introduce coaching points 3 or 4 max per session

All players should have a ball and there should be no restrictions. Focus on players maximizing touches on the ball

Small Sided Activity: 15 minutes

Topic should be continued, coaching points readdressed. Activities should be based around playing 1v1 or 2v1.

Expanded Small Sided Activities:  15 minutes

Same topic should be continued, coaching points readdressed. Activities should be based around playing large numbers 3v3 or 4v4.

Game:            15 minutes

Play a game in the format you would do at the weekend.

For great short videos on topics from U6 activities to volleys or footwork moves, click the link below. http://www.tnsoccer.org/quick_clips/