Coaching Travel from Rec

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The vast majority of skills needed to be a successful youth travel sports coach have nothing to do with the specific sport (i.e. soccer). It's more about relating to kids, motivation, empathy, teamwork, communication. A parent coach could have attained these skills in any number of experiences. Middle and high school teachers often make great coaches. It's not until you reach the really elite levels of a sport at higher age groups where experience with soccer tactics and techniques come into play.

Nonsense!
You may not necessarily need a soccer coach at the very younger ages, but they sure need a soccer teacher.

Cheerleading alone is for the parents.

+1. This is one reason why U.S. soccer sucks! Kids need to be taught technical skills, passing and first touch. Hard to teach and demonstrate these skills when coaches don’t know how do it and when to use it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Recently had a kid that played 3 years of little kid travel first team big club. Moved to rec because of another sport. Rec coach is a dad that played. Best communication of any coach. Has practice plans he shares with parents. Is focused on kids loving the game. Significantly better than 20 something travel coach. The parents that have coached at rec, travel and HS seem to be sooo much better.

The 20-something coaches might have been good or even great players but rarely do they know how to teach or coach or, more importantly, relate to tweens.

[Anonymous]

So here's part of the issue.

Younger coaches who are former players., e.g coaches straight out of college or even high school, tend to have the right passion and energy for the sport for the younger players and do need to get their coaching experience somewhere/how.

But as the previous posted mentioned, these young adults don't often know how to communicate, not necessarily with the players (sometimes this is accurate) but especially with the adults i.e. parents, of the team. Their "professionalism" outside of the game itself can be severely lacking, much like many other young adults.

Being a coach is a leadership position that not everyone is suited for regardless of age. I've had plenty of coaches who are great skills trainers, or SAQ trainers etc., but I would put no where near trying to coach and manage a team. Not because they don't have the ability to be a good trainer, but a youth coach has so many other expectations than that.

To be fair I've met my fair share of cocky young guys who think they are the next Pep, Jose, etc. or who still somehow think they may make it to pro, semi-pro etc. while coaching on the side and view their teams and clubs as stepping stones. Reality eventually sets in for most of them at some point and for those that don't, well some of you know who they are! ha ha!

I'll end with saying that there is generally a lack of mentoring that happens with coaches. Yes we have classes, yes many clubs offer coaching "clinics" at the beginning or end of seasons to help give an idea on their philosophy, but few clubs really take these guys under their wing and show them from top to bottom what makes a good coach. Most are left to figure it out on their own, some succeed and I would say, most fail (doesn't mean they don't still have coaching jobs though...)