Balls, cones and kids

the soccer coaching newsletter

Issue 9 - September 2005

Street soccer or P.E lesson?

Footy4kids is designed to be a one-stop-shop for beginning youth soccer coaches, (who are often 'roped-in' parents), so it’s not surprising that I get many e-mails asking for advice.

Most people ask “what games shall I play?” and “how shall I teach the children?” These concerns are understandable and I am always pleased to offer any help I can, including advice about how to structure and organise a coaching session. I usually suggest that there should be elements of individual or fundamental tuition to begin with, followed by opportunities to practice the desired skill or technique in small group situations.

However, it is important that soccer coaches do not structure their practice sessions too rigidly. The temptation to have a set of fixed objectives (“this week we’re going to learn how to dribble”) is hard for a new soccer coach to resist.  It is, after all, easier to run coaching sessions according to a script rather than guide young players as they explore the game and discover their own natural abilities. Inexperienced coaches may also feel that they have to have crystal clear objectives if they want to be (and, just as importantly, look like) a ‘real’ soccer coach. There is also an element of fear – even some experienced coaches are frightened to let go of the reins and let their players learn by simply playing the ‘beautiful game’. 

The article below - The First Season - comes from the excellent bettersoccermorefun site. It discusses how new soccer coaches can get the best out of their first few practice sessions. It also offers a holistic alternative to the rigid, menu driven ‘P.E lesson’ style of soccer coaching. Communication, responsibility and team work are the key words. Small sided games replace drills as the main vehicle for learning.  

I recommend that you read it then take a moment or two to re-assess your coaching style.

Ask yourself:  “is what I do in the best interests of the children? Or is what I do designed to make me look and feel in control?"

The First Season

For the parent coach that's new to the game and coaching, the first two questions they usually ask are "What am I supposed to do and how will I do it?" This article offers information and direction on these questions. It also contains links to other pages so that even novice coaches can get a basic understanding of how to use small sided games and why they are such an effective learning tool.

How Do I Do This? Choosing a Model

Becoming a coach means adopting a set of behaviours on how to do a job. It amounts to assuming a role when dealing with the players, parents, opponents and officials. This can be seen as a coaching style which is based on a set of expectations of what a coach is and does. But choosing a model for this behaviour is limited by experience. For the new parent coach this experience might only be the memory of a Physical Education class from long ago. What's important is that it will form the framework for how the coach sees the game, the children, learning and themselves. It will be an unconscious, internalized starting point for every decision.

The Physical Education Teacher - The Physical Education model is the most dominate model in the game today. It divides the game into separate, distinct areas: technique, rules and basic strategy. This model sees the game as isolated components that can be learned separately in practices and reassembled later on in the game. It usually employs three different parts in a practice. A warm-up, the lesson and finally a scrimmage. This is an outline for the standard PE class lesson.

read the complete article

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