Coaching Youth Soccer - Is an Elite Team Right for your Child?

By Regan McMahon
Consider how joining an elite travel team will affect your whole family.

Will the parents and siblings be separated more weekends than not? Will it limit or eliminate your ability to take a family summer vacation? How will it affect your marriage if you and your spouse are going in different directions and sleeping in different locations each weekend? How much will you and your child have to give up?

Is it worth it? Or will your child likely have a future opportunity - the high school team, a travel team when she's older - without sacrificing the early years of childhood and free play?

Will it wipe out the chance for spontaneous weekend getaways or days at the beach or in the country?

If siblings are busy with their own games, and Mom and Dad are getting around to see and support everyone somehow, great. But if younger or nonathletic siblings are being dragged to games where they are bored on the sidelines or craving their parents' attention, which is predominantly focused on the playing field, resentments and disappointment can grow and last a lifetime.

* Ask the coach not to penalize your child for attending family events.

The rule of thumb about playing time is to reward those who show up for practice and penalize those who don't. This is generally viewed as a fair system by players and coaches alike.

But when there is no accommodation for spending time with your family - to attend a wedding, a bar mitzvah or a Mother Day's brunch, or go on a family vacation when the family wants to go, even if it's not during the coach-approved two-week break in the training and tournament schedule - that tells the child that sports and the team are more important than family. Playing at the rec level, this isn't an issue.

* Keep academics a priority.

Often club volleyball tournaments in my state are scheduled to begin on Friday during the school year. That means that students, starting as early as 5th or 6th grade, miss not only Fridays but Thursdays as well, as their parents pull them out of school to travel to the out-of-town location. If you as a parent don't agree with putting sports before academics on a regular basis, and aiding and abetting the message that this sends to kids, think twice before you sign that dotted line.

* Consider not joining an elite travel team until your child is an adolescent.

Children are better prepared for intense play, practice and competition after they've gone through puberty. Travel soccer teams, for example, generally start at Under 10, which means 8- and 9-year-olds are spending weekends in motels, away from their friends and siblings, in intensely competitive play. State Cup competition starts at Under 11.

Brian Doyle, director of coaching for Michigan's elite, nationally ranked Wolves-Hawks Soccer Club, told me, "A lot of guys believe we start championships too early. Fourteen should be the first State Cup to play in. If you want to reduce stress, reduce the need to win. I personally believe the child doesn't really need to learn how to win the game until they're around 14. Before that, you're learning how to play the game."

* Check your options.

Seriously question if an elite team is what your child needs or wants. Sometimes a child wants to join a Class I team just because his friends are going to. That may be a valid reason, but alternatively, you can evaluate the situation and decide that (a) it doesn't work for our family, or (b) he's a good enough player to make the high school team without playing club or (c) it's not a great choice for our family, so we'll put it off as long as possible and let him join in 7th grade so he'll have two years of competitive training under his belt going into the high school tryouts.

One option is to do less competitive club play, such as Class III soccer, which is a step above recreational level but less demanding than Class I. They travel less and take the summer off.

Another option is remaining at or dropping down to the recreational level. There's no shame in it! If you have a good coach and good players you enjoy playing with, you can have a great time without undue pressure.

The status awarded the elite teams may be overrated in terms of the athlete's actual experience.

I know many rec players - from my kids' teams - who were extremely talented and went on to make their high school varsity teams without having given up their lives to year-round club teams in middle school.

Coaching Youth Soccer - How to Trap in Tight Spaces

As a youth soccer coach, you must teach young players to trap the soccer ball in tight spaces. To help us do this, we will create a grid that is 25 X 25 yards. Instruct each player to be inside the grid with each player having a ball. To start this drill, each player should start with the ball in their hands.

To start the drill, instruct each players to toss their ball into the air and trap it with a specific part of their body. Start with trapping with the inside, outside and sole of their feet, then advance to thigh traps, chest traps, then head traps. After the players trap the ball instruct them to make a quick 5 to 10 yard sprint with the ball at their feet, avoiding the other players within the grid.

To make this drill a bit more difficult, you should make the space tighter by reducing the size of the grid. You can also have the athletes juggle four or five times and then kick the ball up into the air and trap it as it comes down. If your athletes are proficient jugglers, be sure to use that method.

Coaches should look for proper trapping technique. To do so, make sure the soccer players are trapping the ball close to their bodies and not allowing the ball to run away from them. When trapped correctly the ball should be no farther than a yard from the soccer player's body. Another important thing to look for and emphasize to your athletes is for them to look up as they dribble through the crowd after trapping the ball. They should be moving quickly for five to ten yards and not running in to any other athletes. If they do run into another athlete, have them do 10 push ups before returning to the game.

Improving Performance by Improving the Experience

By Ian Barker

In recent years a cottage industry has sprung up around youth sports dedicated to addressing the behavior of parents and coaches and the overall "culture" of the sideline.

Youth soccer is no exception in this with scores of anecdotal observations available from all quarters in regard to the good, bad and ugly of what is happening at soccer fields during every season.

In addition, a scan of the headlines usually reveals negative stories about coach and parent action in youth sport.

Sorting through the reporting, the stories and perceptions to come out with an accurate picture of what is happening can be daunting.

Beyond that, taking steps to improve the experience for the children can seem a significant challenge for already over-taxed parents and coaches.

However, it is possible to scientifically understand the youth soccer culture, to consider the experience of all constituents, and to take practical and developmentally solid steps to do a better job.

At the same time, while educating and working to improve sideline behavior, it is possible to directly influence player performance to the good in ways more powerful than any number of training sessions.

Research conducted at Michigan State University in the 1970s has provided clarity in the reasons for children's participation in sport, the reasons for children dropping out of sport, as well as reasons why one sport is preferred to another.

The data, having been professionally collected and interpreted, points to the fact that players enjoy sport more if their experience is a "nurturing" one in which winning is important, but not at the expense of having fun, sensing improvement and feeling involved.

Indeed, winning is understood to be a likely result of the players' feeling cared about, feeling that they are improving, and feeling like their involvement is important.

If coaches and parents can understand intrinsic motivation, and how to foster it in the children, performance can and will improve.

So even the most hard-hearted coach or "involved" parent can see "gain" in the win/loss column by a balanced approach to the environment they create for the players.

When players can be encouraged to give full effort in tandem with being provided correct technical and tactical information, they will inevitably improve. Like an adult, a child will be inspired by improvement in their competence and will in turn give more effort.

Once the cycle of effort, good instruction, and identifiable improvement in skill and understanding is established, coaches and parents will see better performance.

How is intrinsic motivation fostered?

It is fostered by asking children what type of experience encourages them and then managing that environment. Short-term "success" can be achieved through extrinsic motivation, but is not sustainable if the only reason to try is based on external reward, because when the reward disappears the reason to try disappears too.

A collaborative effort between the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association and University of Notre Dame is trying to scientifically take on the challenge of identifying what youth soccer players want from their experience, what motivates them to do better -- and then to educate parents and coaches to meet the players needs.

The program, PACT (Parents and Coaches Together) asks athletes, coaches and parents about their unique experiences in youth soccer --and a baseline experience is understood.

Then coaches and parents receive a program of information that discusses player "needs," motivation and communication skills, conflict-resolution techniques, and concludes with an understanding of how to develop an adult team effort so that players' experience can be positively supported.

After the coach and parent information is delivered and a season of play has concluded, the program then asks the same questions, previously collected to establish the baseline, of athletes, coaches and parents.

This data, along with the collection and study of referee reports and red- and yellow-card numbers, is then studied to determine the efficacy of the information and the effort.

The experience in Minnesota is leading to quantifiable results that point to improved retention in player numbers for clubs, lower incidences of poor athlete and adult behavior, and improved competitive performance for clubs where the program has been delivered.

Where the program has been particularly strong is in capturing enough data to let us know how people are enjoying youth soccer. Simply put, we have found that despite the perceptions to the contrary, a vast majority of those involved are very satisfied with youth soccer.

At the same time, we know that a percentage of players believe it is acceptable to cheat to win, to injure another to win, or have felt physically threatened by an opposing parent or coach.

Formally identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the youth soccer experience has made it possible to educate adults to consciously and collectively change small details that improve how players enjoy their soccer and how they play.

We can do better, we can learn where we need to do better, and we can learn how to do better, but we have to want to.


For more on PACT (Parents and Coaches Together), go to: http://www.mnyouthsoccer.org/programs/pact.cfm

Ian Barker has been the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association's State Director of Coaching for the last decade and has been a Region II ODP coach for 15 years. He also coaches at Macalester College in St. Paul.