Reply to Parent Coaches: Good or Bad?

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[quote=Anonymous]My DC is on one of those teams, and it is difficult. But, we didn't know anything about travel soccer at the time. The hard part is the coach and club are good and respected in the area, but as a whole, they encourage the coach to "build a team" and the parent coach almost inevitably will build it with their kid in the 10/8. It took a while to figure out, but there are multiple teams in the club with parent coaches and the coach's kid in the 10/8. When my DC first joined, I was a little concerned about the parent coach, but now we will be leaving soon even though they have a good program and the coach is knowledgable and teaches a good version of the game. My DC is growing and learning a good game, so it is not bad by any real measure. But, it's hard to watch as your DC recognizes favoritism and has to navigate that along with the mind games it takes to keep the families on board to watch the coach "build a team."  It's just hard to trust if the coaches are being as objective as possible or if they are doing what is best for their kid and then the other kids in that order. The other possibility is that they are not trained well enough in player development and they come from a high-level player perspective. Which is not bad, but maybe not the best at the younger ages without some training in young player development to make sure all players are moving forward with opportunities to learn. I will say, if you happen to land in the same club without a parent coach, it seems much better. I have seen that the team dynamic is different, but it pretty much is luck of the draw with the coach assignments.

I have a younger kid playing and if they decide to keep playing, we will make sure to pick another respected club, but no parent coaches to hopefully avoid some of the unnecessary headaches, and at least hope the kid is getting a fair shake. Not saying a parent coach at travel level is bad, but do be aware that there could be clashes and to me it seems the underlying issue will be trust in the fair development of all players.

To flip the coin a little, a non-parent coach could also have all of these issues, so it is no guarantee that it will be better. Adding to that, they may be so detached from the development of any player that they do not grow at all. There seems to be a lot of talk about that on this forum. So, that is another worry, but if the club has a development track record, then for the most part the coaches should be well trained and have a guide to use for what they are teaching the kids.

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