How are youth soccer coaches selected/placed?

[Anonymous]

The only thing I know about this is that, at least at our club, ”time in service” definitely is a driving factor. Is a coach’s personal availability the main factor otherwise (since these are mainly part-time jobs)? Is there anything we can deduce from coach movements year-to-year, like if someone was coaching the top team last year but got switched to the bottom team this year, or top team but different age group, etc. What about someone who was a head coach last year but was only assistant this year, would that imply something about their performance, assuming personal availability wasn’t an issue? Are the older age groups more “coveted” than the younger ones, or does that mainly depend on personal preference?

Just wondering how all that works. TIA!

[Anonymous]

https://www.soccerwire.com/tryout-camp/coaches-needed/

[Anonymous]

No one should be getting switched from top team to bottom team thata a huge red flaf

[Anonymous]

It is a lot of politics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.soccerwire.com/tryout-camp/coaches-needed/

I don’t see anything here that answers the question, did you mean to post something else

[Anonymous]

Some clubs will switch coaches around every few years. It allows the players to learn from different coaches and learn different playing styles. It helps player development if they have different coaches every few years.

[Anonymous]

Not with any serious system, process or considerations unfortunately

[Anonymous]

Politics and laziness. Are you bringing over players from another club? Here, get a top team. Are you a nuisance to the leadership? Enjoy these teams at the bottom! Have you been kissing the TDs behind all year? Congrats on getting more teams. Do we play in a club v club league? Guess you're getting 3 top teams to make scheduling easier.

No club does it right consistently. For some clubs it may matter less as the curriculum is more set, but in the end, you're not guaranteed a better coach by being on the better team.

[Anonymous]

Also, some coaches work as contractors and only sign on to work 1 specific team. They should not change as that is a job requirement. Most coaches work for the club as part time employees and are placed where they are needed. New coaches working in getting their basic licenses get the younger kids bottom level teams. New coaches with t experience to the club can often get younger kids, but become the top team coach.

Also note that at this time of year, the coaching slate for next fall is fluid and things won't be set in stone until about August 15th rolls around. (Last year, our U11 group had 3 coaching changes from spring tryouts until the team was registered for the fall season.)

[Anonymous]

USYS should set Minimum Standards for youth coaches at Travel level

A meaningful baseline

[Anonymous]

Are you bringing over players from another club? Here, get a top team.

So that *is* used as a bargaining chip when clubs are negotiating with coaches….

[Anonymous]

At our club, coaches seem to have preferences. Some like the youngest players and do a great job helping them transition from U8 rec to travel. Some like older players, or a specific gender. Obviously license and experience are going to matter at any club; nobody is giving the best team in the club to a 21 year old with no experience. A lot of the time the youngest coaches are put with the youngest players, but those age groups have very experienced coaches leading the entire group as well.
Their availability may factor in too. Sometimes they drop to a team with less intense travel requirements because of family situations. Sometimes it could be work related.
In my experience having a young and less experienced coach is not a terrible thing. Yes, they are learning too (and every great coach was once a newbie, even someone like Pep Guardiola) but in order to have experienced coaches developing in the pipeline, you have to give them a starting point. Young coaches have energy and enthusiasm and the players can relate to them, too.

[Anonymous]

I think coaching a top vs bottom team matters a lot more at older ages vs younger.

Younger ages the skill levels are all over the board. Higher level players will often wind up getting moved down at older ages, and lower level players get moved up. On a lower level uLittle team, you’ll have some terrible players who are amazing athletes (so you have a lot to work with and development can come fast), and vice versa.

At high school ages, I don’t see as much movement or change. It still happens, but not like when they were 10 years old. So you may be a little limited in what you can get out of the kids or team.

[Anonymous]

^ I completely agree here. When you are looking at a hundred 8 year olds, some will surely stand out but over the course of the year others may completely shock you. At older ages you don't usually see the dramatic improvement you can see in a U-Little player.