Congratulations – So you volunteered your time this fall to coach youth soccer.
You are about to enter a season as a youth soccer coach that will fill you full of pride, laughter and sometimes so much frustration you want to scream! The following are some helpful tips as a new coach or an experienced coach that will help reduce those frustrations and hopefully lead to a successful soccer season.
The first thing is get that list of players and their contacts. Some of the larger youth soccer organizations now have web sites, that as the coach you can just sign on and see all the information for your team already provided. If your not so lucky, then you will need to get that player contact list organized, it will be your lifeline for the next few months.
Get on the phone asap, and get that first practice setup. Be sure to speak to a parent, not a child and you can leave a message but be sure you get confirmation they received it through a call back or give them another call. At that first practice you will want to spend about 15 minutes before your soccer training taking with the parents and kids. This is perhaps the most important 15 minutes you’ll spend all season, spend this time setting the tone for the season for parents and players. This includes you expectations of both the youth soccer parents and youth soccer players!
This meeting is a great time to cover and hand out the following information or forms:
- List of all players/parents/ contact numbers
- Practice & Game Schedules – explain cancellation procedure if a game or practice is cancelled how everyone will be notified.
- Coach/Parent/Player Contract – This doesn’t have to be overdone, just something in writing to explain expectations for everyone. For instance if a players instigates a fight in practice, what will happen? Or if a parent becomes verbally abusive from the sideline, how will that be handled? By confronting these issues now in writing, it will help solve many issues facing you as the Youth soccer coach during the season. Ask that every player and parent sign and it gets returned to you.
- 24 HR Rule – This is how you will handle any youth player or parent concern after a game. Basically stating that if there is an issue with playing time/coaching/any game issue please wait till at least 24 hrs before contacting the coach. This will help lessen all emotions and give everyone involved some time to clearly think back on the situation.
Coaching youth soccer can be fun and exciting, especially when coaching your own son or daughter. By following and using the above information, I feel it will help lessen many of the common problems youth coaches face during the season, and will allow you more time to do what you wanted to do, coaching your youth soccer team.