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Useful Coaching Tips
| Posted: 04 Feb 2007, 01:47 | |
Guide Goddess Joined: 30 Jun 2006, 22:00 Posts: 2076 Location: USA |
As a coach, you not only need to teach your team fundamental skills and more advanced techniques, movement, awareness, etc., but you also need to know how to deal with some stuff behind the scenes. You need to know how to deal with unhappy parents and deal with lagging players. Quite frankly, you need to make sure everything is working, and everyone is happy. Many talented teams have been ruined because of bad coaching decisions, and that is never a good situation to have to explain.
I. Unhappy Parents There are usually parents on every team who are just never satisfied. They complain about various things such as your coaching, their child's playing time, other children/parents, and just the team overall. What you have to understand from the beginning is that these parents will never contribute to the team. They will always have a negative attitude towards you, other parents, and other children. No matter how good their child is, you must rid the team of parents like this. A sucessful team has parents who encourage everyone and are always trying to help out; they are all for the team. So if you have parents that are just the opposite, you can follow these general steps: 1. Talk to them. Let them vent on you, and keep your cool. Pretend to listen, even if you aren't really interested in what they have to say. You can't keep them bottled up, because, at some point, they will get mad. And, trust me, it's better to let it happen in a place where there are few, and hopefully no, teammates or parents within hearing range. There are many different places where this confrontation can take place: after a practice, after a team event, on the phone, and (if you no other option is possible) through email. However, the absolute worst time to talk is after a game. So you must make it clear to everyone on the team that there is a '24 hour rule'. Meaning that after any game, they can't complain for 24 hours unless it's extremely urgent. 2. Play stupid. Keep having talks where they voice their opinion, and if it really does seem that all is lost, you need to come to an agreement with the parent(s) that your team just isn't the right option for their child. Don't come at this right off the bat; have many conversations, and really do see if their opinions are valid, and if they care about the sake of the team deep down. If they really don't, then keep progressing through these steps. 3. Help them find a new team. Don't just leave them out in the cold. Really try your best to find an option that will probably work for them, and that they are satisfied with. Call up some other coaches and talk about the child's strengths, effort, and maybe some statistics if the child is in an older age group. If you really dislike the parents, and feel like skipping this step, then you should remember that their child has to go through this because of them. Do it for the child. 4. Wish the family good luck. No matter how much you dislike the parents, say that you enjoyed having their child on your team, and that you wish them good luck. Tell them that you hope things work out better for them on a different team. You don't have to say that they are out of line, as this will only lead to more arguments and heated comments from them. Just use common courtesy. If you don't, you might regret it later. II. Lagging Players Every year, you are going to have some players falling behind, and you need to know what to do in the situation, and how to do it best. Before you take any direct action, you have to ask yourself a few questions about the player. You have to really think about the possibility of them being affective for later years. Questions to Consider: Does this player always give his or her best effort? In almost all cases, you are going to want to keep a player who gives 100% every time, everywhere. Given the proper resources, these players are the one's who can excel above all. It is possible that you just need to give them the proper resources. You can give them skill coach’s numbers, some drills, diet plans, etc. Your work will most likely pay off. Does this player really want a future in football? If they do, they probably will do anything to reach their goal. Again, you just need to provide the proper resources. A motivated player will go far. However, if your player is the opposite, and don't really plan to have a future career to the next level (whether this be high school, college, pro, Olympic, etc), then you need to think of the other players on the team. What are the average goals for the players on your team? Is it just for fun, or do most of them want a future career? Does this player have camaraderie with the other players on the team? Players like this are vital to overall team success, yet so are skilled players. You have to balance out the pros and cons. You may really need to release the player if their skill is that far behind, however keeping players who provide inspiration, and have good camaraderie with the team for one extra year can prove beneficial. If they are still behind the next year, it's time to have a talk. Does this player practice on their own? If they do, and you are aware of it, they are most likely working to get better, and stay on the team. You can tell the sport really means something to them when they are practicing on their own. If they don't practice on their own, it may be because they just need the extra help starting a plan. It can be hard to start up training; don't be afraid to help them out. Is this just a stage, or have they been behind for a while? If a player has been behind for months or years, you need to take action. However, at the same time, you need to realize that players go through high points and low points of their careers, and if they are in a low point, you may not need to take action right away. You have to use your gut on this (and refer to the next question). How far are they behind, skill wise? If they are having trouble with all/most of the fundamentals when the rest of the team is natural with them, and ready to move on, you most likely need to release the player. At least tell them that they need to improve to stay on the team. To me, there are two types of players that you need to worry about, the ones that just seem to not care anymore, and those who practice, practice, and practice, but just don't have enough natural ability to make it anywhere. In all cases, give the player a chance to prove themselves and to bring up their work rate before releasing them. It is possible that they just need a little extra motivation. After talking to them, and letting them know (kindly) that you would like to see more out of them give them some time. If they still don't improve, then follow up on steps 3 and 4 of "Unhappy Parents". |
| Posted: 04 Feb 2007, 23:16 | |
Senior Member Joined: 17 Sep 2006, 08:39 Posts: 240 Location: Australia |
Great post soccer4life, I am sure many coaches would be asking themselves these questions/wanting to find answers and finding it very hard to do so. They need not worry anymore, as they have this extensive guide. This will be of great help to many coaches alike so I commend you on your efforts in the making of it.
One thing, when you talk about the parents being nasty towards the team/other player's parents etc. sometimes (not in all cases but in some) the kids can side with their parent's if their parents have team issues. -------------------- Suggestion(s): Maybe you should expand a bit on that topic/paragraph by writing about how the coach should ask the kid "do you really want to be on this team?" "What issues do you and your parent(s) have to do with the team?" (If they had issues the coach could to them to address him after game time to see if the kid was being teased, was disliked or if it was just plain childlishness etc.) "If you don't want to be on this team, then leave because we're trying to make the team a fun and enjoyable football/soccer learning experience" could be one of the coache's answers. The above paragraph would be of course if the parent's/and kids were badmouthing the team/acting in foul moods/didin't like the coach etc. etc. Well that's it from me... THE|new|GENERATION|of|FREESTYLERS|are|BORN| |
| Posted: 04 Feb 2007, 23:21 | |
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Guide Goddess Joined: 30 Jun 2006, 22:00 Posts: 2076 Location: USA |
Thanks for the comment, Mattsta. What you say is true, and I will see if I can find a way to work in into my guide.
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| Posted: 04 Feb 2007, 23:44 | |
EF Flying Dutchman Joined: 23 Jul 2006, 19:39 Posts: 2830 Location: San Francisco, CA |
Ace post, made it a sticky. If I ever become a coach I would definitely refer to this!
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| Posted: 05 Feb 2007, 00:21 | |
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Senior Member Joined: 17 Sep 2006, 08:39 Posts: 240 Location: Australia |
Np, cool, thanks soccer4life, good to see your taking people's advice and incorporating [or trying to] it in to your guide.
THE|new|GENERATION|of|FREESTYLERS|are|BORN| |
| Posted: 05 Feb 2007, 20:09 | |
English Meister Joined: 03 Mar 2006, 20:59 Posts: 4062 Location: england |
yeh mate thats the second great guide i've seen from you today and once again 5 stars for you.
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| Posted: 11 Feb 2007, 15:08 | |
EF Mountie Joined: 07 Jul 2006, 02:08 Posts: 3849 Location: Canada |
I've only just looked at this. Great job.
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