Coaching Clinic Key Takeaways

 4/12/23 Key Takeaways from ATLUTD coaches clinic

We had a good turnout of coaches for the clinic, but I know all of you couldn’t make it, so here are some key takeaways for you to think about. 

Look like you are having fun and your players will too….

All of our coaches are parent volunteers. We have tried in the past to get help from HS and College students who were knowledgeable about soccer, but it rarely works out because they are either not good with the kids or don’t communicate well with the parents. I’d rather have parents who know how they would want to be treated even if their soccer experience isn’t great. 

One of the issues that crops up is that our parent volunteers have difficulty getting out of “parent mode” even when they are the coach of the team. What we saw from Leigh and Casey, the coach instructors last night, was an ability to get a little silly with the players. Their enthusiasm for the activities they were doing was infectious and the kids felt it right away and responded to it throughout the session. 

I have often said that seeing the players play and try and do goofy things brings me joy. It is a palpable sensation and it gives me the energy to go on regardless of how my day went or how tired I might be feeling. If you can show the kids that you are excited to be there and want to be working with them, they will feel that as well and respond to it in the same way. You may have had a crappy day at work, but when you get out there to work with the kids, keep that in mind and it will make that practice the best part of your day. I know it does for me. 

Get to know your kids

Coach Amy worked with us for several years and every time I saw her teams play, they were calling each other by something they liked or their favorite food. So Amy wouldn’t say their name, but their nickname like “Blueberry” or “Potato Chip” or “Butterfly.” It was part of what made it fun to be on the team was to have this secret code that only the players and coaches knew. 

The first thing that Coach Leigh did when she met the U10G Bobcats was to find out something about them, not just their name. In the first activity there were pizza and dessert related references. Throughout the session, she built rapport with the players and you could see the trust in her grow. When they went to a scrimmage, she awarded points for the best goal celebration performed not just by the goal-scorer, but by the whole team. Because they trusted her, they tried and their initial attempts were not very good, but as she focused on it, they got better. As a result, you could see the team building bonds and wanting to get better. 

Coach Casey worked with the U12B Torpedoes and through his first activities he observed their skill and their interactions. When he broke them up into two teams for the next activity, he asked them to come up with team names and some form of a celebration when their team was successful scoring goals. He also challenged them to see which team wanted to win the activity more by shouting/screaming out. Getting them hyped up helped make the activity more intense. They wanted to score so that they could do the celebration afterwards. After the activity, to change the tempo, he had a meeting with the players where he asked them questions and in turn, they could ask him questions. 

You may not use these specific techniques because it doesn’t fit your personality or because you aren’t comfortable in that kind of situation, but there are lots of ways to get to know your kids and build a team chemistry that helps the players work both together and harder and will improve them as players and people. 

Know what you are looking for in an activity

I have talked to you about this before (read “taking a snapshot”), but we also saw this last night. In Coach Leigh's activity with dribbling, she wanted the players to execute a dribbling skill, but it was clear that they didn’t exactly know how to do it. Recognizing this, she stopped the activity, added a demo and some practice and then went back to the activity.

When something that you planned isn’t working, you can complain to your kids about how they are not doing it well or you can adjust your activity. Because she established a rapport with the players earlier, adjusting the activity helped give them what they needed to be more likely to be successful. 

It makes no sense to get frustrated with the players and blame them for the failure of the activity because all it does is make them less likely to try the next thing. As I noted earlier, just as the players can tell when you want to be there and are excited about the session, they can also tell when you aren’t happy with them. 

If you are clear about what you are looking for and what you want them to do, it makes it much more likely that they will be successful. So choose to focus on a limited number of things and clearly communicate that to the players so that they can attempt to be successful. Both you and the players will be happier for it. 

Avoid LINES, LAPS and LECTURES

Coach Leigh used this phrase when talking to the coaches and I was immediately transported back to 1999 when I first heard that phrase at my National Youth License course. There was no course that was more transformative to my practice as a coach than that one and no phrase that resonated more strongly with me than avoiding the 3 L’s. 

Our goal as coaches is to get our players to fall in love with the game. When they come out, they want to play, learn and get better. If they have fun while doing it, then they are more likely to stick with it. Nothing kills joy at practice worse than the 3 L’s. 

We often see lines when waiting to take shots on goal or dribbling around cones. Lines are not an efficient use of time (players don’t touch the ball very much under pressure) and they lead to behavior problems. Bored players are tougher to manage. If you do use lines in an activity, try to keep them as short as possible. 

I’m a runner and a soccer player and I can tell you that the nature of the two is VERY different. Soccer is a sprint/recovery activity while successful runners run at a consistent pace. Sprint/recover means you go as hard as you can and then you go slow to rest up to sprint again. 

Coaches often send players out to run laps as a warm up for the session. I've seen it every season when I survey practices. What do the players do when they do laps? They run slow. They don’t touch a ball. It’s not fun. Instead, start out with a game. It’s fun. It’s intense and they get touches on the ball under pressure. Think about the player who comes into practice and sees his team already playing. He doesn’t walk to get there, he runs. He wants to play. If he knows every practice is going to start with some scrimmage, he will look forward to that. So don’t waste your players' time with laps. Give them something to look forward to at the start of every practice. 

Coaches love lectures because they want to show that they are doing something at the practice. I’ve endured hundreds of these in my time as a player. What did I remember? I was bored. I wanted the talking to stop and POSSIBLY either the first or last thing the coach said. 

If you want to have an impact on your players, keep it short. Be specific and repeat the same things over and over again. 

Narrate the play, don’t try to joystick it

Coach Leigh said that she likes to deal with the game situation by acting as a “play by play” commentator. Just like one you would see on TV or hear on the radio. I have given you numerous reasons why you shouldn’t be telling your players what to do in the game, but I like the idea of narration. Here is an example. 

“Sara receives the ball, Sally challenges her and tries to take it, Sara shields her and then dribbles past her. What a great move.” 

In this scenario, you aren’t trying to tell them what to do or second-guessing them in real time what they just did. It also allows you to focus on something you may be looking for from them to show you from the practices.

You could also have your subs doing the narration as a way to keep them involved in the game and to be looking for the things you emphasized in your practices. This would increase the likelihood that they would do it when they got into the game.

This then leads to what I’d love you to do with your players in both practice and the games, it is a mantra. Let me know what you think. 

Ask for Skill- in practices, introduce it, practice it

Look for Skill- in practices and games, try to spot it. 

Cheer Skill- when you see it, say that you saw it and be excited about it. It will bring you and the players joy.

See you on the field.