I Got a Job - Soccer Coach (2020 Update) (1 Viewer)

[urzombiefood]

I coach U11-U12 girls Rec. Its my fix when I have no football.

So first thing is watch out for Crazy Parents..... It will happen. Just keep your cool and work the problem.

I don't preach winning I preach fundamentals. If they do the work in practice winning will take care of it self. If they lose the game but played hard...to me that's a win.

Find your weakest player, and try working with them a little more. Your team is only as good as your weakest player.

Force kids to do things out of their comfort zone. Like someone said earlier , non dominant foot drills, different positions, keeping possession. kids love to kick it away from them.

Above all else Have Fun. The biggest reward is when you see the team come together and perform something you taught them.

 

[0rion]

I coached my daughter's rec league one year. I enjoyed it but being rec league and her team being the only one without a coach going into the season left alot to be desired in the talent department. We had fun though and I still get kids coming up to me in public saying "hi coach" haha.

 

[sfidc3]

What about telling parents, “if you have any questions please email me on the team email so that I can address it in a way that everyone can see the reasons why we do so and so”?

I was going to mention parents but didn't want to harsh the mellow of this great thread!!!!!

On my oldest sons travel team we actually had 2 moms that would screen a potential additions parents. No matter how good the kid was if the parents were crazy....nope....

 

[IceHot]

Update:

2019 was obviously a unusual season. We ended with a record of 1-1-1. Our best game was the last game where we tied a power house school and might have won had we got a drag down in the box call. The best part of the game was our best player was out sick and we gave a kid from the bench a chance in the second half. He was smaller (maybe 4-8) and got tasked with playing against a talented 6-4 player. Amazingly he outplayed him.

2020 has been a very different year. Lost 6 players to JV. Only 3 players returning. We got blown out in the first two games. In one game we played against a phenom from Uganda who executed a perfect bicycle kick from the Defense directly to his center midfielder. The form was amazing and it didnt seem so bad getting blown out.

Our 3rd game was against a small school and we just switched formations. We were up by 3 in the first 5 minutes and I pulled most of better players to give the developmental kids a chance to play in meaningful minutes.

But the best game we just finished tonight. After the first two games I learned some lessons. I have to play a formation that is suited to the players I have. What we ran last year wasnt right for this crew.

I switched to a 5-1-3-1. I am Running 2 Wing Backs (I had to put one of my best players back at wing back because he was carrying too much and his tempo coming from the middle of the field wasnt matching.) I use an LCB, RCB and then Sweeper/Stopper style. I moved my son back to sweeper he doesnt dribble as well and passes ok, but he is strong at picking up loose balls, recovering when the defense breaks down, and communicating to the whole unit.

All the good teams so far have been placing their best 4 in the backfield and holding too tightly to the midfield line. We are able to exploit this better by having a single high striker. 1 guy holding 4 is amazing. I have talked to my team about exploiting the two levels of depth (MF to FB and FB to G). We look for pockets of grass to attack.

On the reverse side we have been working on making sure our Defense to MF depth is good. We are so much better at falling back and buying time for the defense to work as a cohesive unit.

Tonight's game was amazing. We were definitely outclassed on talent (they had 5 or 6 travel players). But our positional depth was amazing and our lone striker and central mid were able to put lots of sporadic pressure on their back 4 that was leaving too much space behind them. And we would alternate wingbacks jumping into the attack based on which side the play was progressing on.

The best part was our defense. They could not solve it. When they attacked on the wings our interior defenders would kick out and the wingbacks would recover and switch inside. My son did a great job of communication from the sweeper role and made some great stops. The only thing we had trouble with was keeping the line uniform to pull their attack offside in the 2nd half of the game. Our goalie had to punch a couple over the bar.

It almost looked like the Russian Federation from the 2018 World Cup. We ended up winning 1-0 when they over committed to the attack and we were able to get the CMF-WB-Striker midway through the 1st half. In the end our goalie was amazing and our defense was stifling to the point of frustration for the opposing coaches who started challenging the refs extra stoppage time (and a couple other calls).