New to soccer - advice for a kid and coach?

[Anonymous]

1) Have fun
2) Practice proper touch on the ball (dribbling, passing). YouTube techniques.
3) When your team has the ball everyone is on offense and when your team does not have the ball everyone is on defense. No one “just” plays one or the other.
4) Lots and lots of keep away drills emphasizing the kids without the ball trying to get open for a pass and scoring a point every time a pass is completed (offense) or stolen (defense).

Finally, save the snacks for after the game. No puking at the start of the second half please. 😀

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would appreciate your willingness to pitch in, but I can't help but say that you're really not helping any but trying to lead something you have no knowledge about. I would almost say the kids would be better off having scrimmages and the parents being more coordinators than coaches.

I think you may get more out of this experience than the kids you're coaching.

Nonsense. Most of the kids will have little knowledge of the game. The coach will learn a lot, but the kids will too.

The kids will learn a lot if they have someone that can show them or teach them. A well meaning volunteer that doesn't know soccer won't be able to teach much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would appreciate your willingness to pitch in, but I can't help but say that you're really not helping any but trying to lead something you have no knowledge about. I would almost say the kids would be better off having scrimmages and the parents being more coordinators than coaches.

I think you may get more out of this experience than the kids you're coaching.

Love this arrogant and lazy response. Just love it …

Ok, so I know next to nothing about baseball, but if I were to decide to coach baseball because a volunteer was needed, I would see it as a learning experience for me and that kids i coach as good volunteers.

I hate to bash on volunteers, but there are plenty of soccer dad's and moms out there that have no clue and still coach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would appreciate your willingness to pitch in, but I can't help but say that you're really not helping any but trying to lead something you have no knowledge about. I would almost say the kids would be better off having scrimmages and the parents being more coordinators than coaches.

I think you may get more out of this experience than the kids you're coaching.

Nonsense. Most of the kids will have little knowledge of the game. The coach will learn a lot, but the kids will too.

The kids will learn a lot if they have someone that can show them or teach them. A well meaning volunteer that doesn't know soccer won't be able to teach much.

Sure they will. These are little kids! OP said their kid was 6. So these are either 5/6 year olds or 6/7 year olds. This isn’t a tryout situation or getting into serious soccer when you’d want a paid, professional coach. Also, the way these little kid rec leagues work, if there’s not enough parent coach volunteers, some kids won’t get to play because they can’t get matched to a team. So the more people who volunteer, the better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make sure to have the entire team clap for the kid who shows up late/last.

Terrible idea.

It's not a terrible idea, but I agree it's not a great one. It's too easy for the late kid to get confused. It's better if you have the entire team physically beat up the kid who shows up last because that way the kid definitely understands the message.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would appreciate your willingness to pitch in, but I can't help but say that you're really not helping any but trying to lead something you have no knowledge about. I would almost say the kids would be better off having scrimmages and the parents being more coordinators than coaches.

I think you may get more out of this experience than the kids you're coaching.

Nonsense. Most of the kids will have little knowledge of the game. The coach will learn a lot, but the kids will too.

The kids will learn a lot if they have someone that can show them or teach them. A well meaning volunteer that doesn't know soccer won't be able to teach much.

Rubbish. A well meaning parent who spends an hour or two reading a book and/or web-sites (and there are many such resources) will actually be able to teach more than a parent who knows a lot about soccer but doesn't do the reading. Teaching u-littles soccer does NOT require a great deal of soccer knowledge. It requires a tiny amount of soccer knowledge + knowledge of how to organize little kids + a few soccer drills/games which have been proven to work well. It is only at a much later stage that soccer knowledge is really required.

[Anonymous]

If I was running a u-littles program with volunteers I would much prefer parents who know they don't know soccer and are willing learn over parents who think they know what they're doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
If I was running a u-littles program with volunteers I would much prefer parents who know they don't know soccer and are willing learn over parents who think they know what they're doing.

I have heard this so many times, and I don't buy it. I would argue the clubs can take a proactive approach and attempt to train and develop minimally some of their volunteer coaches.

What I hear everyone saying is a a person that is self-aware enough to know that they do not know enough will read a coaching soccer book. That is rubbish! They will wing it at best, and other volunteer coaches will think they are doing enough by just volunteering and not attempt to learn anything new at all.

Most kids aren't interested in travel soccer and parents overpay because the dont want to play the lottery and be matched with a volunteer soccer coach that doesn't know.