Transcript by Coach KW. Click a time to jump there.
0:00 Well, hello, coaches, welcome back. I'm coach KW, and if you're new here, I help volunteer coaches, coach teams from basically U-10, through U-14, although I dabble in a few other age ranges.
0:13 If you've landed here in this video, congrats, you've hit my video that talks about what happens when you have been "voluntold" that you are now a soccer coach.
0:22 Maybe you put your hand up a little reluctantly, maybe you didn't stick it in your pocket fast enough, but one way or another, you have found yourself
0:29 being a coach of a youth soccer team, and you're now saying, what's next?
0:33 I'm hoping the next set of videos I put out here will help you get through that transition and make you feel a little bit more comfortable because the most important thing
0:40 you've done already is say yes.
0:43 We have a desperate need for people to say yes and volunteer.
0:46 We're always struggling to find coaches in my town program.
0:48 And so if you've said yes, thank you very much, the kids thank you, because they really need this - you'll be generating memories for both them and yourself, hopefully,
0:58 for hopefully many years to come.
1:00 I have almost 80 videos on this channel talking about a wide range of topics for 7v7 and 9v9 and a little 11v11 as well as general big picture overview stuff.
1:10 Feel free to poke around if you haven't been here before.
1:12 So, let's get into talking about what it is that we're doing.
1:16 The number one thing I want people to understand is you are not coaching soccer.
1:20 You're TEACHING soccer, and that is a huge difference in semantics in both the way you should be thinking about it and what you do, because coaching usually infers that
1:30 you have players who need improvement, who know how to play the game, you have this mental image of what a coach should be on the sideline.
1:37 Maybe they're, you know, they've got the tactics and the making adjustments.
1:40 That's not what most of us are doing.
1:42 We're literally teaching something to kids that they've never done before.
1:45 And once you frame it that way, I think it makes a world a difference in what you do and how you do it going forward.
1:52 The thing is, is like what to teach, you get overwhelmed with.
1:56 There's 1,000s of drills and videos of "run this drill and this diagram" on YouTube and Facebook and Instagram.
2:03 Those are all things. The more lines you see on a Drill?
2:07 Probably the less likely it is to actually get anything done because if it takes you 20 minutes to understand the aircraft routing diagram with the arrows and the dotted arrows and
2:16 the squiggles and everything else, your kids aren't going to get it either.
2:19 So, put that aside. Let's work on, we'll work on what's simple and effective, not what's complicated and overwhelming for you and the kids.
2:28 Really important part that gets left out and a lot of coaching education or coaching videos is not what to teach, but how kids learn.
2:36 That's really important. We really, I really focus a lot in our town program.
2:40 It's about ages and stages. Kids go through stages as they get older and their ability to learn certain concepts is concrete and finite depending on the age.
2:51 That's why we don't teach calculus to a 1st grader.
2:55 Their brain isn't ready to do that.
2:57 And same with soccer. Their brains have a pathway.
3:01 They're ready to do certain things, and the things you do in practice, need to match up with where their cognitive abilities are.
3:08 Yes, I'm talking science here, to make it more effective, because there's no point in trying to teach a really complicated midfield rotation with U8 players because they basically only see the world as themselves
3:21 and the ball, and maybe one other friend.
3:24 That's it. They can't imagine, what do I do when this...
3:27 Anything beyond the number two, frankly.
3:30 So we have to be cognizant of that sort of information.
3:33 And lastly, because it's a teaching job, we have to keep in mind, our kids have never done this.
3:38 So again. We go back to the point of we're working on teaching them what to do, which means encouraging them to try things, things they've never done before, and that's really a big part of that
3:48 is making them comfortable in the environment, that they want to try to do new things, not to be afraid to make mistakes.
3:55 Some of you may have done youth sports in the past, maybe you've even played, but there's 3 warnings I want to give you here.
4:00 And the 1st thing I want to know is how you were coached in your youth is probably not a model of how to coach now.
4:07 We've learned a lot of things in the last 20, 30, 40 years about how to best transfer skills and knowledge to players, and what maybe was applied to you doesn't
4:17 necessarily mean it's a good idea.
4:19 "Oh, it was good for me."
4:20 I've heard that all the time.
4:23 Maybe you think it was good for you, but when you understand that there are better and newer ways... I mean, teachers used to smoke in the classroom, we don't do that anymore because werealized that's
4:32 maybe not the best thing for us.
4:34 It's the same with teaching methodologies across a lot of different things.
4:38 Second, where you may have learned the game.
4:42 Look outside. I would bet you that in the majority of your neighborhoods, you do not see a pack of kids outside playing together.
4:51 If you do, you're one of the few rare lucky ones.
4:54 When I grew up every year, different parts of the season.
4:57 We're playing street hockey, football, baseball, we're football, soccer, you name it, but we were doing it as a gang of probably 8 to 10 kids from ages,
5:06 you know, probably those about 8 year age gap between kids, but we were all playing outside all the time.
5:12 And so we had some physical literacy.
5:14 We knew how to run and to jump and to hop and to skip, and then play all these sports.
5:19 Where's your kid right now? Are they inside playing a video game or watching TV or are they outside with a pack of friends?
5:26 So where you may have learned the game just doesn't exist today.
5:29 And so we need to replicate that in our environments for our practices.
5:33 And then lastly, maybe you do come to the game having played the game in rec or even high school or even college.
5:41 Just because you played, that doesn't guarantee you're going to be a good coach.
5:44 So if you're looking at the parents around the sidelines, maybe you've never played and you go, oh, that parent played in high school or college, I'll bring him as
5:50 an assistant coach, there'll be a resource, but don't think that just the fact that they have a playing career means that they're actually a good coach because playing and teaching are
5:59 vastly different concepts. And a lot of times players, especially really decent players.
6:04 A lot of it came naturally.
6:05 They don't know how to teach the thing that they could just do without ever thinking about it.
6:09 And there's a big skill gap in that.
6:11 So don't think that you're playing background positive or negative will mean that it automatically means you'll be a better or worse coach.
6:19 Now, I'm not going to get into the details in this video, that will be for future videos, but his 3 things to keep in mind when we're doing practices.
6:27 And I already mentioned the 1st one.
6:29 It's being positive. Some people say 5 positives to every correction.
6:33 And the point being is, these kids are learning something new.
6:36 How would you feel at work that if every time you made a mistake doing something new?
6:40 somebody hammered you, right? You would be reluctant to try and do more because you felt like, if I make another mistake, I'm going to get yelled at.
6:48 Well, that's how the kids feel too.
6:50 So the point being is, you're looking to praise anything you can find, the effort more than the outcome most of the time.
6:57 The attempt is really what we want to see.
6:59 So we're learning something new, and they try something, and they don't get it quite right, and they perhaps even get upset with themselves.
7:07 We're not there to help them get it better by telling them what they did wrong.
7:10 Tell them that they did a good job trying, find some positive aspect of the thing they were doing so that they feel like, ooh, I got part of it right so that the next time they
7:20 try, maybe they can feel like they can get over the next little hump to be like, ooh, I got 2 parts of this thing right.
7:26 That's how you get players to grow because you want them to be willing to try something new for you, then you praise them for trying the new thing and it becomes a virtuous cycle.
7:36 I promise you, it really does work.
7:38 A common trap that coaches also get into is if they're doing some sort of skill that's opposed, attacking versus defending, they feel like they have to coach both sides of the ball.
7:47 They feel like they have to coach the attackers, but then when the defenders aren't doing things right, they switch and then coach the defenders.
7:52 Don't do that. I know it's incredibly hard not to, but coach one side of the ball, because if you're doing this right, everybody's going to be on the attacking side or on the defending side,
8:03 so you want to keep your message clear.
8:04 If you're doing some sort of attacking drill, a session, only talk about the attacking points and let the defenders do what they may, because as you switch players from
8:13 going from defending and attacking, that defending player wants to have heard all the things that they need to do when it's their turn to have the ball to try and score. Don't mix the messages as hard as
8:24 that may feel. And lastly, We say this, you hear this all the time.
8:28 Fewer lines. If a kid is standing in the line idle waiting a turn, there's probably a different way to do the thing you're doing.
8:34 The only time that lines really become effective is if it's part of the recovery process.
8:40 If the session or drill that you're doing, Requires them to maximally output their energy.
8:46 They work incredibly hard, and then they need a few moments before they go again.
8:50 That's where a line is appropriate.
8:52 But for most things, we can do things where we're just manipulating the size, the space, the time, the environment, without having kids standing in line because idle kids are
9:02 kids that then goof off, but then don't pay attention, and then you have a different problem going on.
9:07 So what will we do in this series, right?
9:09 I'll try and lay out what you should do perhaps your 1st few practices by age range.
9:14 I'll try to get from U 8 to U 14 all the way across to give you a sense of what to do 1st because that's really a
9:21 lot of people's biggest fear. I'll talk about a little bit more detail of what to say and how loud.
9:26 Hint, if you watch any online video trainings of professional teams in preseason or during training sessions, you'll hear the coaches nonstop barking, but if you listen closely, they're always being more
9:38 positive about what they're doing than the negative piece.
9:41 And if the, that works for the pros.
9:43 again, that works for the kids.
9:45 We'll talk a bit a little bit about the parent meeting because it's really important to set expectations for your parents to be honest.
9:50 I have a whole video on the parent meeting.
9:52 I'll touch a little bit upon that, but if you want to go look at that, if you feel like that's something coming up for you.
9:56 It's already out there. Go take a look at that because that's super important to have before every season so that everybody's on the same page.
10:03 I'll talk a little bit about what you should coach in this year based on the ages and stages.
10:09 I talked about that before. There's plenty of materials out there online from US Soccer and United Soccer Coaches that talk about what's appropriate for every age and
10:20 stage and really, it's really important to stick to that because what you think an 8 year old can do or hope that an 8 year old can do and what they actually can do.
10:29 If there's a big mismatch, that's disappointment for everybody, and that's what we're trying to avoid.
10:34 And then lastly, we're trying to get into what to do with, let's just say the harder kids.
10:39 Because a lot of times in recreation, the group you get goes wildly from the kid picking daisies to the kid whose dad and mom and have an older brother have played soccer for years and they walk in knowing
10:49 more, perhaps sometimes than you do about what's going on.
10:52 There are ways to use all those kids.
10:54 We'll touch upon that as well.
10:55 So again, the most important thing is you said, yes, and that's really what we want to get past is you've said, yes, that's what the kids need.
11:02 So hopefully you'll stick with me.
11:04 We'll go through all these pieces.
11:05 Hopefully I can give you enough to get you through your 1st year or your 1st season so you feel comfortable going on to the rest of it.
11:12 If you came here looking for what's the best formation to put my kid in.
11:16 I'm going to give you the bad news.
11:17 The formation doesn't make what the kids can do.
11:20 It is a structure and you can teach within that structure, but all the things I just talked about have to come 1st before you can be effective in teaching whatever structure or formation you want.
11:29 I have whole bunches of videos on all those different things, but don't put the cart before the horse.
11:35 Let's get the basics in place before you get there, because again, kids quit, not because they lose, but because they don't have fun at practice.
11:44 It's been proven by study and study and over and over again, over again.
11:47 And I need you to remember that, okay?
11:50 So I promise you, we'll get you there.
11:51 So stick with me. Glad you joined if you're new here.
11:55 If you're not new here. Thanks for watching.
11:58 We'll see you out in the fields real soon, and bye bye for now.
