Grassroots Soccer. Coaching less ... not easy, but rewarding

I wrote an article in September about being "not so loud" when coaching.

Last night we started our Fall U8-U12 Wizard Academy at the Welland Soccer Club.  We run two programs in the fall and winter for players U6-U7 and U8-U12.  Rob Lalama, our Technical Director, has done a fabulous job engaging the grassroots through various initiatives.

Our session had 56 players, 5 coaches and 5 stations.  I will not get into the stations and organization as I've done that before.

I enjoy doing stations for a number of reasons.   The most important being that it keeps the kids in smaller group and busier.  LOTS OF SOCCER.  But my other side alternative is coaching development.

Even if a coach is experienced, I give them the plan for the station and coaching points.  And my initial message to them is to give the kids their problem to solve and let them solve it.  Fight the urge to coach too much.

I know how difficult it is to not over-coach.  As a person who has faith in humanity, I have to believe
that people who over coach do so in hopes of helping the kids.  In the middle of being a quieter coach with various programs, I was WAY over-coaching my 1999 boys (I could never figure out why I felt I had to).  We all fall off the wagon sometimes, I guess.  Overall, I know I started making the transition to less coaching roughly 12 years ago.  There are many times that I slip, many times, but I work to let the kids play.  I write it in my plans to remind me.

Reflecting back, I could remember the transition and what I was feeling:

1. If the kids succeed with little coaching, they may not need me.
2. If parents don't hear me coach they may think I am not interested.
3. They will not learn if I didn't talk.
4. They came here looking for information from me.
5. With no instruction, it's not a real session.
6. I am qualified, so I can talk as much as I want.

Looking back now, I have answers to all of those feelings.

1. If we develop players who can be creative solve problems, we are doing a good job and developing smart players.
2. Very few parents are listening to you.  And the ones who do are just as happy hearing you praise your players, who are their children.
3. Just setting the stage for development and enjoyment presents a better learning environment.
4. They came to play soccer :)
5. With the proper setup, progressions and ability to express themselves, the session is very real.
6. My experience and qualifications oblige me to trust my knowing that the players can and will learn more by having the right situations presented to them in the right environment.

It wasn't that easy.  Letting go was difficult, uncomfortable and unsettling.  Over-coaching is not consistent with my personality, but over-coaching was the order of the day and images presented to us of good coaches all had them over-bearing, all knowing, wise and crusty people.

Don't misinterpret what I am saying.  Coaching less doesn't mean offering less.  It's about letting kids play, picking your coaching moments and making them meaningful.  Each situation requires a different level of interaction and different teaching method.  When I am teaching a new technique, I step in a lot more than when I am coaching in a Small Sided Game.

Back to our session.

• Coach Anthony, Coach Eric and Coach Brian had small sided games with simple conditions.
• Coach Steve has a 1v1 station, 5 lanes, everybody playing.
• I had a keep-away station.

My hope was to not have a station but a coach was detained (not by the cops, just derailed in his plans that night).  I've worked with all of these coaches before so I knew we had a decent bunch.  Three of them were in a Learn to Train Course that I delivered last year.  We reviewed plans and exchanged the usual pleasantries, but all the plans had written down "Let them play" and/or "do not over coach" and/or "applaud creativity".

I can't tell you how happy I was while listening to them.  They stayed consistent with what I wanted the evening to look like, and they heaped praise on the players.  The kids were all allowed to play.  I wanted the evening to be more diagnostic than anything else because it was our first night.  By letting the kids play we were able to get a good feeling for the level they were at.

It helped the other coaches a lot that they had enough experience to be confident with the players.  I offered them the opportunity to let me know if there was a conditioned game or technical station that they wanted to try out.

With LTPD, there seems to be the occasional person who is harsh towards loud, controlling coaches.  My opinion is education, diplomacy and good examples are the way to go.  Judging someone's coaching methods is neither productive nor appropriate.

I am hoping we will keep the evenings looking consistent in organization and delivery, but varying in content.


These are reflections from similar sessions in terms of organization:

http://www.coachingsoccer.ca/2013/07/u8-boys-grassroots-wizard-academy-week-3.html

http://www.coachingsoccer.ca/2013/08/u8-grassroots-soccer-wizard-academy.html

http://www.coachingsoccer.ca/2013/07/u8-grassroots-soccer-wizard-academy.html

http://www.coachingsoccer.ca/2013/08/u8-grassroots-soccer-program-wrapped-up.html