Tips For Rec Coaches (and parents, too!)

Below are several tips or suggestions to make things run more smoothly and give the kids a good time during the practices and games. And don't forget to have a look at our For First Time Coaches page. In particular, note on that page that you must register with MSYSA to be covered by the accident and liability insurance plan.

During practices and games, the most important thing to keep in mind, always, is to make the players' youth soccer experience a positive one. When they are 12, 13 and 14 years old and making their own decisions about what extra-curricular activities to pursue, what will be their memories of youth soccer? We want those memories to be ones that will make them want to continue playing. That's the job of the adults.

At Practice

1. Enjoy the practice! Resist the urge to actually play on the field with the kids, but convey your enjoyment with enthusiasm and humor.
2. If you have uneven numbers when you scrimmage, you can deal with this by having one player be "neutral" so they always play on the attacking team. The coach doesn't need to play on the field.
3. For every correction you make, try first to find more than one good thing that a player has done. And as John Dingle says "catch them doing good" and let them know!
4. Make sure that at every practice, you give them a sizeable block of time where they just play the game with no coaching. "Let them Play!".
5. Don't let the team boundaries get too rigid during the season; mix the kids up during practice and encourage them to play with all players in their age group. It's also a good idea to play the boys and girls together from time to time.
6. The practice plans you receive will conform to US Youth Soccer recommendation. If you have questions about how to lead an activity, ask questions before practice when you discuss with your fellow coaches and the master trainer. A few things to keep in mind:
   1. The youngest players (U6-U8) do not want to share their "toy" so don't expect them to want to pass the ball. Most of the activities will focus on individual ball skills. Let them be ball hogs if they have the skills to do so. Do you think Messi passed the ball a lot when he was 6 years old?
   2. At U10, players are more ready to pass and work in groups of 3. Still most of the practice time should be spent working on individual ball skills. Very limited tactical considerations can be introduced now (pressure and support)
   3. At U12, the game starts to look more like real soccer, the offside rule comes into effect, and you can talk about various tactical considerations such as cover, width, depth, etc.
7. If you're having trouble with discipline at practices, it's ok to take away game time for difficult players. You can require that players arrive on time and be focused during practice to earn their full 50% minimum game playing time. Come up with a system that works for you and communicate to the players and parents. It can really help make things run smoothly at practice.

At Games

1. Discuss the rules before the game (1st/2nd and 3rd/4th) with the coach of the other team
   1. In the 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th age groups, the coaches serve as the referees for the games with a coach from one team or the other on the field at a time. So take a couple minutes to discuss the rules of your age division with the opposing coach before the game. The other coach may not have read them and you can avoid disagreements during the game by knowing the rules. You can find the PGSI rules here.
2. Let them play "beehive soccer". Kids want to go for the ball and we do not want to discourage this fundamental urge. In the youngest players particularly, this can result in all the players being clumped around the ball. It's natural and happens like this all over the world. So don't fight it by trying to make your players stay in their positions. Let them go for the ball. Until they have the skills to pass and receive over distance, trying to get them to play positions makes no sense to them and can seem like a penalty when what they want to do is run toward the ball and be involved. Let them go for the ball!
3. Don't forget the "blow out" rule. This is definitely a rule to discuss before the games. If one team gets ahead by 4 goals, the other team can add a player to the field. The additional player may stay on the field until the goal difference gets to 1 (which usually doesn't happen).
4. Encourage your parents (and you to) to "Cheer but not Steer". Think of the practices as opportunities for the players to learn new skills or refine old ones and the game as the experiment to see what they know. They need the chance to play the game their own way, make mistakes and try to figure things out on their own. Resist the urge to tell them what to do - they really don't want to hear it when they are trying to win a game (what kid wants to be told how to play?). Save up the mistakes you notice (there will be many) and discuss the 2 or 3  most important ones with the team at your next practice.
5. There is no goalie in the K and 1st/2nd grade divisions. We want all players to go for the ball. Don't let a player hang back outside of the restriction area and wait for the play to come to her/him. Encourage them to go up and be an attacker.
6. Ask you parents to arrive early to help set up goals (if you have the first game of the day) and stay late to help break them down (if you have the last game). It really helps the league!
7. If two of our teams play each other, mix the teams as in a scrimmage. We don't want to build rivalries within our own organization.
8. Make sure you have snacks for the kids! No matter how the game went, not having a snack when the kids are expecting it makes for a bad game. It's a good idea for the coach to carry some emergency snacks in case your parent doesn't come through.