Better Soccer Coaching / Better Soccer Coaching / The Dug-Out / Need Advise coaching soccer games / Latest Posts

RE: Need Advise coaching soccer games

RobSB — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:51:27 GMT

I find myself quite reserved on the sidelines. All your hard work is done in practice. Restrict yourself to constructive 'comments' eg telling midfield to push on, suggesting a defender drops deep. If you are constantly yelling/giving advice you are missing other things happening on the field.

RE: Need Advise coaching soccer games

edlongo — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:53:45 GMT

Always a tough thing to do, but once you force yourself to limit your coaching to practice and sideline players you will find it easier. Much of the initial challenge could be in planning your field rotations out ahead of time..thinking hard about which players will be on the field with each other. I coach a U10 girls team that is very strong and very competitive. Even so, I quickly realized that I had 4 girls that stood out more on game days than others so I make sure that I always have 2 of them on the field and 2 of them on the sideline waiting for the next rotation. This gives me girls on the field that understand the flow and can cover a bit should any of the other girls get out of position.

I read a good article recently that stressed that as a coach, it is OK to provide instruction OFF THE BALL - ideally as gentle reminders of positioning, supporting the attack, supporting the defense, etc - but to refrain from directly coaching the player with the ball. This may give you something different to focus your gameday energy on until your players provide more evidence that they can think on their own.

One other key element is to really work on your defensive tactics during practices. The more you can instill a defensive game plan into their routine, the more overall success they will have on the field - and the more opportunity they will have to be creative when they do get the ball.

For what its worth - we teach our girls that job #1 on defense is the DELAY the player with the ball - stay in front of them, do not reach out for the ball, but rather slow them down and try to slide them towards the sideline. Job #2 on defense is the DENY passes to any open players near the goal box. You do this by marking those open players, stay between them and the ball or them and the goal (depends on skills of the defender). Finally, Job #3 on defense is the DESTROY the attack by aggressively pressuring the ball and regaining possession. This is how you get your forwards to come back and support the defense - they are the DESTROYERS!

As for being a vocal coach - try to realize that as easy as it looks to us on the sideline, players on the field are looking with a different perspective (they only see what is in front of them, where as we can see what is in front, behind, and beside them). We distract them by making them turn their heads around to react to our coaching advice and actually end up making the situation worse.

Need Advise coaching soccer games

Soccerdad — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:54:27 GMT

Hello Coaches,

I could use some advice coaching soccer games. I coach recreational soccer and we have only one practice each week. I pride myself in learning and loving the game and teaching it as best I can, in fact my team is probably the best in the area clubs.

The problem is I am an emotional coach and this tends to show up at game time. More times than not, I start out nervous before the game then tend to lose focus on my emotions in the excitement of the game and start yelling onto the field too much (micro-managing). I hate this about myself and desire to be a more composed coach. What can I do to be a better coach in this area? Is their a pre-game routine I can use?

Don't get me wrong I am not abusive out on the pitch. I just have a hard time shutting up and letting the kids make their own decisions.

Thanks.

Soccerdad