The Shamrock Soccer Academy Referral Program

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THE EFFECTS OF COACHING ON YOUTH PLAYERS

So, you’re looking to get your child into a soccer program so they become a better player, is this correct? Or are you looking to put your child into a soccer program that wins? Many, many parents have asked me about certain clubs and should they have their child tryout for them and I’ve always answered them the same way, “who is their trainer going to be”. Let’s think about this, I’m not concerned by which club your child plays for I’m concerned about who their trainer/coach is. The best experience any child can have is one that plays for someone who passes on the torch of the LOVE OF THE GAME!!! There should be certain effects the trainer/coach SHOULD have on any player and I’m listing them below:

1. Pass on the love of the game - If you’re doing your job right, players feed off your love and enthusiasm for the game of soccer. Players will want to do things on their own to improve because they love the game.

2. Be Consistent - Young players need consistency and I don’t mean to do the same exercises over and over again, I mean in the messaging. The SHAMROCK message is to create a confident technical player who is comfortable on the ball and is composed.

3. Mistakes happen - Youth players need to understand that mistakes happen; it’s a natural part of the game that everyone will make mistakes regardless of talent. They don’t need to be admonished because of mistakes; they need to be reminded of what we want them to do. One of my biggest messages to youth players is make mistakes doing the ‘right’ thing as opposed to making mistakes doing the ‘wrong’ thing. So, what do I mean, players have a tendency to do the ‘easy’ thing rather than the correct thing so they make a mistake but think it’s okay because no one tells them any different. Here’s an example of what I mean, in practice the ball comes to a player and they perceive there’s pressure so they get rid of the ball quickly so it doesn’t get taken away from them; however, the ball goes to the opponent anyway most of the time. We get that player to control the ball rather than kick it away and deal with the pressure that may or not be there and now we’ve accomplished the first thing we want to do with that player, which is control the ball because it’s the right thing to do. We’ll deal with the next thing, next.

4. Keep it simple - So many good players complicate the game but if you watch good players they always seem to have more time on the ball than everyone else, why is this? It’s because good players keep the game simple and don’t force things and it takes years and years to create this kind of player(s). Once players understand this, they start to grow intellectually because now they earn the opponents respect and they start to realize that they can take their time under pressure because pressure doesn’t affect them the same way anymore so they are more comfortable and composed on the ball.

5. Patience - Patience is the key to coaching youth players. When you’re patient with players they sense that and become less nervous while playing because you’re allowing them to grow regardless of what happens and it’s so important to let the player feel free when playing all the while telling them the same consistent message. The message is important to keep reminding them what we want from them but give them enough time to get where they need to be.

6. Let them play - When SHAMROCK trains our youth players, we teach them many technical things especially early on, however, players want to play so we ALWAYS have a game in training. Now the game may be conditioned to teach intelligence but there’s always a game because that’s what we all want! WE WANT TO PLAY!

7. Make them think - When SHAMROCK coaches, all it really is, is teaching. I want players to think all the time because the game is 80% mental and if you can create thoughtful players then you will create good players. So, how do you create thoughtful players, you do it by asking them questions ALL THE TIME! You do it by telling them why we do things in practice and what the purpose of the exercises and games are and then we continually ask them for feedback to see if they’ve been paying attention and if they haven’t we continue until they get it. There are very few trainer/coaches who not only coach correctly but explain to kids why things are done the way they’re done and, for me, it’s a teachable moment so they understand the reason behind the madness. For example, if we are holding a practice and I have to ‘freeze’ the game because of a mistake by a player, I don’t tell the players why I froze the game; I ask them why I froze the game. This creates thoughtful players who now have ownership in the process.