High School Versus Club Soccer

There have been many articles posted about whether club soccer players should also play high school soccer. There are pros and cons to players that do play both. As someone who has coached both high school and club soccer, I can offer some opinions on this subject. I don't know that I necessarily promote one over the other, but rather share some of my experiences.

In club soccer, you can pick your players no matter where they live. If a player has limited skills, or even a poor attitude, you don't have to select them for your team. In high school, you generally only get the players in your district unless you're an organization like a private school with no boundaries. If kids have limited skills or poor attitudes, you don't have a lot of options other than to take them. Most schools don't have enough players participating, so cutting players isn't always an option. The one thing that we always struggled with at the high school level is that you get a lot of kids that play who are not as serious about improving their game as those playing at the club level. This makes it very difficult to develop a training program that pushes the players that play at the club level, but is not overwhelming for the non-elite players. When you have players on your high school roster that don't have good basic skills, training that benefits all players becomes a real challenge. We struggled with this even on the varsity team where you have your top players in the high school.

In club soccer, we generally have two or three intense training sessions a week, along with high quality games over the weekend. The high quality games are the result of being grouped with teams at roughly the same competitive level. At the high school level, you have moderate training sessions two or three times a week with games of mixed quality the other two days of the week. As I said above, each high school is generally restricted to the players within your district, so a team is only as good as the number of quality players in a given district. The level of competition can vary from year to year and/or district to district depending on what players live in which districts. The difference in the training regimen and quality of competition can be a concern for club coaches.

At the high school level, training and playing five days in a row for anywhere between eight and sixteen weeks is a lot for any player, especially if the quality of the training is not as high as it can be. Even if a player is playing club soccer year round, the training is not as frequent, the quality of the training is quite high, and coaches are often well trained in methods for conducting training that will reduce a player's risk for injuries. Therefore, the risk of injury during a high school season can be high for these reasons and others I will mention below.

My biggest complaint has to do with the physicalilty of the high school game versus club games. At the high school level, the play was a lot more physical and the refereeing was generally of a lower quality. So, the high school game was a lot more physical than a club game at any level. We lost several of our elite players during the high school season because they were the victim of continuous rough fouls in a high school game that are generally not allowed in a club game. Most of these injuries were knee and ankle injuries caused by tackles from behind or other sorts of rough play. Also, many of the non-elite players that only played high school never learned to properly control their bodies in a game, so they would often run through players accidentally and cause injury. We had a varsity player in high school, who's primary sport was ice hockey. He had a tough time when it came to accidentally fouling and sometimes injuring players. In hockey, it's ok to check the opposing player. In soccer, it is not. One year, we lost a player to a patella tendon injury that may have jeopardized his college career as a player. It's hard to say if the injury was the result of high school soccer, but he was often the recipient of hard fouls.

The high school experience does give the elite players a chance to step up as leaders on their high school team even if they are not a leader on their elite team. Learning to help your teammates raise the level of their game is a difficult challenge I think all players should experience at some point. Many elite players can't handle the challenge. In Oregon, at the high school, we had some elite players that were very good at this and others that never really understood how to motivate teammates. This, even though some of those players played varsity soccer for four years. The players that understood the importance of good leadership and helping teammates had a valuable learning experience.

Being part of the high school program does help players connect with their fellow classmates, which can help them in the overall high school experience. Also, there are many rules for high school players when it comes to classroom conduct and grades. Players can have their ability to play high school soccer suspended or revoked for any violation of rules. All schools are bound by the same rules, so they are equally applied to all high school programs. It helps the players understand that being a soccer star doesn't mean that you can slack off on the other parts of your life. In club, there are very few rules about personal conduct or performance in school that have an impact on a player's ability to play soccer. It's up to the parents and coach to determine the best course of action. However, there is no central body to enforce a standard set of rules across all of the clubs.

The bottom line is that we had several club coaches that didn't want their players playing at the high school level. Being on both sides of things, I could see both sides of the argument. I do like the standards that high schools must follow in order for players to be able to participate in high school soccer. However, I am concerned about the physicality of the high school game, and the risk it can have with player safety.

Selflessness

For Christmas, I received a book written by John Wooden as a gift. As with most books by Coach Wooden, it was fantastic with a lot of examples, nuggets of knowledge, and suggestions. I don’t have the book in front of me as it’s been leant to a fellow coach, so I don’t recall the title. However, the theme of the book revolves around role models, what it takes to be a good role model, and why. While I’ve read a lot of books written by different coaches, they were mostly about seasons they’ve had, coaching situations, etc. However, this one was quite a bit more inspirational for me as it went beyond coaching. Coach Wooden has not only been inspired by his own coaches and teachers as he was growing up, but he was also inspired by some of the players he has coached, and even non-basketball people like his wife and Mother Teresa. It was absolutely fascinating to read about the reasons as to why he selected the individuals, along with the traits that he admires about each person. I would highly recommend reading the book if you get a chance….sorry about the title…

One of the things that struck me about the people he selected was a trait I called “selflessness”. While all of these people had a different impact on his life in different ways, they all exhibited a trait of placing the needs of others in front of their own desires. That’s definitely not an easy thing to do, and frankly, it’s not the way a lot of our society is designed to work today. There is a lot of “me before we” behavior in today’s society, and I think it far too often carries over into sports when it comes to playing and coaching. Professional sports is probably the worst example of this type of behavior, and I think it’s most noticeable in the NBA. You look at the emphasis on star players, individual statistics, individual highlights, and when you dig down deep into your soul, I think you have to question whether this type of behavior belongs in team sports. Unfortunately, I believe it corrupts the way players approach how they play, and it corrupts how coaches make decisions.

For a long time, I have been a very team oriented coach. I haven’t always had the most talented individuals, but I’ve still had very successful teams. The secret behind it is actually quite simple. I’ve developed a system and style of coaching where each player knows their role and what I as the coach and the other members of their team can expect from them. A form of "selflessness" if you will. Is it a difficult way to coach? Absolutely! Today’s “win at any cost” view of the world puts a lot of pressure on coaches to take shortcuts to victory. However, I will also tell you that this style of coaching is one of the most rewarding aspects of coaching for me. At the end of the day, if you’ve helped young athletes learn how to fit into a group bigger than themselves and understand and accept their role in the group, you’ve set them up for success in life. As I talk to former players, we rarely discuss wins and losses or championships. We often talk about what they experienced with their teammates, and what a great group of people they belonged to while our team was together. You know, deep down, that you’ve made a difference in their life.

As I was reading John Wooden’s book, it came to me that I have been trying to teach “selflessness” in the players that I coach. I can’t say that this style of coaching has contributed to my climbing the ladder of coaching as far as coaching positions go. However, I can also say that it really doesn’t bother me either. Maybe it’s my age…maybe its insanity. Who knows? I don’t care. However, I thought I would take some time to write about some things I find helpful in coaching “selflessness”.

I think the hardest part of this style of coaching happens when you have a very diverse level of talent on a team. I can say from my experience as an assistant coach for high school boys, this age group (15-18) is where it is most difficult. You get players that have played on state championship teams at the competitive level all the way down to players who have enjoyed recreation soccer for most of their life. It’s very difficult to have the talented players to accept the limitations of their teammates, while at the same time, it’s difficult to get the less talented players to not feel overwhelmed by the expectations. The easiest thing to do is to focus on the very talented players, and hope that they can cover for the less talented players when it comes to practice and games.

However, this is also the fastest way to destroy the team. The very talented players are never forced to accept their lesser talented teammates, and their lesser talented teammates are find it hard to be accepted as part of the team. If you focus too much on one group or the other, or worse yet separate the players based on talent level, you set yourself up for disaster. The key is to have an appropriate blend of talented and less talented players working together when it comes to practice and scrimmages. It’s important to emphasize to the talented players that the success of the team depends on their ability to help their lesser talented teammates get better. It also helps the lesser talented teammates to push themselves to get better. The worst thing I’ve seen coaches do is to always have the lesser talented players sitting off to the side during practice drills and scrimmages. They never get the chance to get better, and the gap between them and the talented players grows wider. Eventually, this erodes the team, and things fall apart.

I have long been a believer of the phrase “hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard”. Give me a player that wants to work hard, and I can make them a better player. Nothing is more frustrating than a player that is talented, and is well aware of their talent. This gets even worse when that player’s parents have spend their entire playing career telling them how great they are compared to everyone else on the team. It’s very difficult to motivate this type of player because they’re already better than the rest of the team and they fail to see why they have to practice or work hard. In these situations, a reduction in playing time will sometimes do the trick. In some cases it works, in some cases it does not. However, what it does is send a message to the rest of the team of what you’re willing to sacrifice in order to build the kind of team you are trying to build. If the talented player, also known as egomaniac, never gets it, that’s their problem.

With the mix in talent levels of the team, it’s very important that each player clearly understand their role on the team. In some cases, this is very difficult because in competitive situations, you’re going to have players that do not play very much. However, it’s important for those players to feel that they are an essential part of the team’s success in the way that they practice, and push the starting players or players that play significant minutes. It is often said that the team is only as good as your weakest player. This is absolutely the case. You need your weakest players to be able to push their teammates as hard as they can. This only happens when they feel as much part of the team as the players who play a lot of minutes during the game.

Along with understanding roles, I think it’s important to emphasize that every position on the field is critical in one way or another. In a game like soccer, almost all youth players that play the game expect that they should play forward. The reason is that the forward scores the goals, which is the most noticeable aspect of soccer for people that have a tough time understanding the complexity of the game. Unfortunately, this mentality can be very difficult to correct because a lot of parents offer rewards to their kids for scoring goals. With teams of younger players, this is especially difficult. This past fall, I was coaching a team where I was having tremendous difficulty getting players to play defense. I finally asked them how many of their parents “bribed” them to score goals. Eight of the ten players on the team raised their hand. I was certain that I already knew the answer, and their response confirmed my belief. It can be quite a struggle given the situation with the parents, but you have to continue to emphasize the importance of all positions. One of the ways to take care of this is in the pre-season meeting by emphasizing with the parents to try not to “bribe” their kids to play better. If I, as a coach, am doing my job, they will play better provided they want to play and want to work hard at their game.

One of the most important aspects of coaching to encourage teamwork has to do with a concept I call “standardized discipline”. It’s critical that the rules be enforced equally for all members of the team. The hardest part of coaching is to have to discipline one of your most talented players by benching them for a critical game. However, nothing will destroy a team faster than “skipping” the discipline for the talented player in order to win the game. You have to be able to accept the result, as painful as it might be, knowing that in the long run it will be better for the player and the team. Some players will test you by violating team rules a second or third time to see if you’ll hold to your policies and punishment. In many cases, it’s more important to punish the second or third offense as it is to punish the first offense. You have to be consistent regardless of the player’s role on the team, or the number of times that they’ve violated the team rules.

As a coach, there is something that you can do that will quickly undermine everything else you are working on. It’s a dirty word called “recruiting”. In college, recruiting is part of the system, but this covers the pre-college ages. You’ve worked hard with your team all season, and have seen good results in teamwork and improvement in the players. At the end of the season you’ve, hopefully, set expectations for the upcoming year for returning players. Now, just before the new season, you find a player that you want to be on the team because it helps your chances of winning. While you may not think about it this way as a coach, what you’ve basically done is sent a message to the team that “they’re not good enough” so you have to go out and find better talent. Immediately, this creates a rift between the players that are already on the team, and the new player you’ve been recruiting. Whether you like it or not, you’ve just drawn a line between the existing team and the new player. Once that happens, it’s VERY difficult to recover from it.

Typically, when you recruit, you’re doing so to get better so that you can win more games. However, often in the heat of recruiting, you may overlook how that new player will fit in with your existing team. You’re setting yourself up for failure. In principle, I do not recruit players. If players express an interest in playing for the team, I will encourage them to tryout for the team. However, I will not approach a player that has not first shown interest in playing on the team. It just sends a subliminal message to the team that you’ll eventually have to deal with. This can be a very difficult situation from a coach’s perspective because any parent that wants to win badly enough is going to try and convince you to recruit new and better players. The key is if you can resist the temptation to sacrifice the team in order to win. For me, the choice is easy. Don’t recruit and save yourself a lot of headaches.

I think John Wooden has lead by example in this area. Even in college, he did not recruit players. He would talk to and visit players after they had expressed interest in UCLA. However, even then, he made no promises regarding playing time or anything like that. He focused on the opportunities the recruit would have both in basketball and academically. Even though he didn’t recruit, John Wooden still had a tremendous track record both with number of players that graduated, and with his team’s success on the basketball court. When you read his books, even though he may have a talented player that chose to play for him, he was always looking for ways to mix that player in with other combinations of players to get his most effective squad on the floor. As he openly tells you, he didn’t always play his best players, but he played the players that fit well together.

With that, I’ll finish off this blog entry. Even though there was a focus on the concept of “selflessness”, I think it’s very important to look at that in the context of how you manage and operate your team. Just like other aspects of coaching, there is no “one size fits all” answer. You have to do the best with each situation you have to deal with. However, hopefully this gives you a framework to start putting some of these things into practice.

Mental Preparation

As a coach, you will find a lot of material that helps give you information on improving the physical and tactical aspects of soccer. There are literally hundreds of drills that you can use to make each player and group of players better. However, there is very little information that deals with proper mental preparation for practices and games. In my view, a player's mental approach to practices and games will make a huge difference in their physical performance. I have heard a quote in this area, but can't remember where I heard it. "The difference between a good soccer player and a great soccer player is their mental approach to the game". I try to have a good balance between physical and mental aspects of the game of soccer for the players and teams that I coach, and I think it makes a big difference.

Often, when I watch or work with players and teams, I can pretty quickly determine the ones that need a better mental approach to their game. What I have found is that players that don't have the best physical skills are often the players that have the best mental approach to the game. When a player has limited physical skills, they compensate for that by being focused and trying to do everything you ask with accuracy and precision. Players that are more physically gifted have an easier time being able to do what you ask, so their concentration level and mental approach are often not at the level that they need to be.

Probably the quickest way to determine the mental state of the players you are coaching is to start a practice or warmup for the game with very simple exercises. I will often start off with simple two touch passing (receive and pass). This may be the simplest exercise, but can tell you the most. I am adamant with all of my players about two things when I'm starting off with basic skills. All skills (passing, trapping, volleys, etc.) are done with the inside of the foot. And, everything is two touch. I even emphasize those things during games. If players are not mentally prepared, they will often make mistakes during this simple drill. For example, you have players that touch the ball with the outside of their foot because it's easier than doing it the way I want. You will also find players that do one touch passing instead of two touch. Usually, this is accompanied with inacurate passing, and soccer balls going everywhere but where they were intended to go. As soon as I see this, I stop the exercise, and talk to the players about getting mentally focused. If it continues, I will then start counting bad passes, and then make them do a fitness exercise for every 5 bad passes that I count. After a couple of times that they do the excercise, it starts to click that with a little bit of mental focus, their skills improve dramatically.

When it comes to games, many players believe that you can just show up, go through the motions of warming up, and then step onto the field and have a good game. Players these days have very busy schedules, and so they often arrive at the field rushed and with other things on their mind. Plus, they often have never been taught how to mentally prepare for a game. This is especially true for players coming out of rec soccer into competitive soccer. In rec soccer, there is more of a focus on having fun, so showing up for a practice or a game without the proper mental focus is ok. So, when they use the same approach when they first start playing competitive soccer where the competition is a lot harder, they don't know why they can't accomplish the same things on the field using the same techniques to get ready for the game.

At the beginning of the season, I will often talk to both the parents and the players about both the physical and mental expectations for the players for practices and games. Usually, the physical aspects are pretty well known. However, I am continually amazed at how many players and parents are unaware of the importance of mental preparation. Once we talk about mental preparation, it's pretty obvious to everyone why I talk about it. However, if you don't explicitly talk about it, most people won't think about it.

As far as what you, as a coach, can do to help your players and teams in this area, here are some suggestions that I have as far as things I have done that seem to have worked.

1. Allocate the first fifteen minutes of each practice and warm up for the game as "social time" where the players can catch up with each other on the day and things that are going on. This is especially important for girls teams. Yes, you give up fifteen minutes, but it will often be worth it as there is more focus in the rest of the practice or warmup.

2. Have the players sit in a circle, and they each have to take a turn to say either what they plan to do to help the team, or what they think the team needs to improve on or focus on. Use a soccer ball where the player holding the ball is the only one talking and everyone else has to listen.

3. In tournament situation, where you have multiple games in a day, it can often be helpful to have the players sit in a circle, pick a non-soccer related topic, and each of them has to talk about that topic. This can help with team building as much as get them all thinking the same way.

4. Before the game starts, get them together in a group, have them close their eyes, and then you (the coach) tell them to think about what they have to do in a game, and how they have to work with their teammates to be successful.

5. In special situations like tournament championships, an inspirational story can help. I will sometimes talk about a movie like Remember the Titans or Miracle where players that were supposed to have inferior talent triumph because of superior attitude. I also have worked with an assistant that tells personal stories about people in difficult situations that overcome the odds because of superior attitude.

There are many other similar things you can try. Sometimes I will try new things that don't work, and that's ok. You have to try things and evolve what works for each team you coach. Each one is going to be different and have different ways to be motivated, so what works for one may not work for another.

As far as individual players go, you can often tell a player that is struggling mentally because they just aren't performing well as normal. Quite often, this will be because of something that happened in another aspect of their life. As a coach, when you see them a bit "off", I usually pull them to the side and ask them if there's anything going on. Don't pressure them to share anything other than acknowledge that something is wrong if that's the case. Often, they will tell you what's going on, and simply by saying it, it puts their mind at ease for the game. It doesn't always work, and each player is different, so you have to adapt based on that.

Finally, here is one suggestion that is specific to girls teams. There will be games when the entire team seems to be having a bad game. For some reason I have yet to figure out, there are games when all of them are a bit "off" even though there is not a common reason for that to happen. In those situations, all of the motivational techniques and discussions in the world won't help the situation. Putting more pressure on them will only make it worse. The best you can do is encourage them and hope that the game clock goes fast. This doesn't happen very often, but know that it's bound to happen once in a while.

You can read a lot of different books that are biographies of coaches where they share their personal experiences with the players and teams they have coached. You can sometimes use the same techniques or a variation of those techniques with your own teams. Again, all of the suggestions are not going to work for every player and team you coach, but you can use the information to fill out your arsenal of techniques to help players and teams have a better mental approach to the game.

There is not magic or secret to this. You just have to keep working at it. Know that you will make mistakes and not everything you try will work. That's ok. Keep trying.

The Role of The Parent

Today's post has to do with the role of the parents during games.  As I coached several different games today, I became more aware of the sideline behavior of parents.  Even the parents with quite a bit of experience as a parent of a soccer player continue to struggle with their role in a game.  This is a topic that I'm old school about, again, so keep that in mind.

When watching a game, quite often, parents want to shout instructions to their player in order to help them play better or avoid making mistakes.  However, this often works against what we as coaches are trying to do.  As a coach, you want your players taking chances and making mistakes as this is the best way for the players to learn and become better players.  Like a parent, it can be painful for a coach to watch the player make a mistake, but it's the best thing for them.  Every situation in soccer is an opportunity for learning, especially when it comes to making mistakes.  Your natural instincts, as a parent, are to try and help your child avoid mistakes in their life when you can.  So, when I say that we as coaches want the players to make mistakes, it works counter to what the parent's natural instincts are.  This can cause conflict between the coach and the parents.  Hopefully, I can explain the coaches perspective in all of this to help parents gain a better understanding.

First and foremost, all players should receive instructions from their coaches.  Even parents that have had prior playing and coaching experience aren't fully aware of what the coach is doing or trying to accomplish with the team.  So, when the parent starts shouting instructions to their players during the game, the instructions can be counter to what the coach wants the player to be doing, which also impacts the team as the player is not doing what the rest of the team is expecting.  Coaches can't expect every player to do things exactly as they want the player to do, but if the player is trying to do what the coach asks within the framework of the team, the player's teammates are better able to compensate for a mistake as they are aware of what the player was trying to do.

Second, and this is a very difficult discussion, has to do with parents being aware of what they say during a game and how they say it.  I often hear parents not only yelling instructions, but doing so in a tone that will cause their player to feel bad about what they are doing.  While I feel parents should be able to express disappointment in something their child does, soccer is not the place for the parent to do that.  Players will often come off the field feeling bad about what they've done or a mistake that they've made because their parent expressed disappointment.  For the most part, kids don't want to disappoint their parents, so you can get into a situation where the player stops trying as a way to prevent their parent from being disappointed in them.  This not only creates friction during the game, but that friction can often carry over to the ride home or while the family is together at home.  In my view, participation in a sport should be the last thing that causes a child to feel that they have disappointed their parent.  There are far too many other more important things to worry about and focus on.  Unfortunately, in some extreme situations, soccer causes the player to develop a real tension with their parent, and this can grow and become a real problem.  In worst case scenarios, players can walk away from the game emotionally scarred.  That's an extreme case, but it can happen, and I have seen it.

Third, many parents feel that it is their right to yell instructions to their play because it is their child, after all.  We, as coaches, are assigned to coach the players during practices and games, and we should be the sole voice the players look to during a game.  This can be very difficult for some parents.  However, this is often what is best for the player.  When we had a parent meeting for the high school soccer team this year, the athletic director talked about a speaker who talked about parents "releasing" their player to the coach and program.  What is meant by that is that the parent places full trust in the coach and program, and lets their child deal with the coach, team, practices, and games.  That's not to say that there aren't times and situations where it's appropriate for the parent to be involved.  However, there have been many examples, including former players, that will tell you that when they were "released" to the coach and program, their playing experience was exceptional.  There was even one situation where the speaker talked about "releasing" kids to the sport and experience, and afterwards, players that attended the speech walked up and thanked the speaker because once their parents "released" them, the whole environment surrounding the game was much more pleasant for both the players and the parents.

Last, but certainly not least, when the parents allow the coach to be the sole source of instruction to the players, the parents are showing a level of trust and confidence in the coach.  Every coach will tell you that they make mistakes, and the really good coaches are willing to admit those mistakes to players and parents in an appropriate manner.  As coaches, we all try to get the parents to place their trust in what we're trying to do.  And, in some situations, when parents are repeatedly yelling instructions to the players on the field, the coach views that in a way that the parents don't trust the coach to do their job.  That's probably not the message parents are trying to send, but that's how it's received by the coaches in some cases.

Soccer is a sport, and is played for enjoyment.  It should not be a source of conflict or discourse in the family.  If that's the case, it may be time to re-evaluate why the child is playing the sport, and what they are trying to accomplish by playing the sport.  At the end of the day, it's about young athletes making mistakes, which help them grow both as a person and a player. 

There Is No "I" in TEAM

The key to any team sport is teamwork and cooperation.  However, in almost any sport you read or hear about these days, there  is a focus on individual talent and achievement.  I think a lot of it is driven by professional sports and the amount of money that gets thrown around to individual players.  While I'll admit that I go to sporting events and support professional athletes indirectly by attending games, I find the amount of money the athletes make completely insane for their relative importance in society.  At the end of the day, it's a game.  That's it.  Too many times, we lose perspective on that.  I digress...

I was reminded of what makes sports great when I watched the Trailblazers play the Lakers last night.  When talking about the Lakers, the announcers talked about how Kobe had to take over the game to bring the Lakers back from a huge deficit.  However, the same was not mentioned about the Trailblazers.  There was more of a focus on what the team needed to do, not individual players.  Rudy Fernandez was injured by a flagrant foul late in the game, and all of the Trailblazers came to his defense to protect their teammate.  After the game, they interviewed Joel Pryzbilla, who had a fantastic game.  When they asked him about his effort, he always deferred to the team and how his teammates helped him, and he was just trying to contribute.  Then, this evening, while reading the sports section of the newspaper, there was an article on the game where there was a discussion about how team oriented the Trailblazers are along with quotes from different players about how committed they are to each other.  While you could argue that Brandon Roy is the star player, every player on the team knows and accepts their role, and does what's in the best interest of the team.  This is what teamwork is all about.  I'll take the entire Trailblazer team over Kobe Bryant any day.

Enough about basketball.  However, I had to review that as it's relevant to today's topic.

When I played sports, I experience both good and bad teams.  It was especially evident in high school sports where star players were given special treatment over the rest of the team.  Anything to win. Everyone on the team knew there was a pecking order, and it really caused a lot of friction to the point where true teamwork was close to impossible to achieve.  I did have one experience playing high school baseball where we were immensely successful all 4 years.  While we had some star players, the coach treated everyone the same, and placed just as much importance on the last player on the bench as he did his best player.  Respect was given to all players, and no individual player got special treatment.  We all had roles, we understood them, and we worked within our individual roles to make the team better.  Even though baseball was not my primary sport, it's the background I draw from the most in my coaching philosophy.

I think one of the most difficult things to do for most coaches is to enforce the rules when they are broken by a star or key player on the team.  With the pressure and emphasis our society places on winning, it's tough not to give into the pressure.  However, I have much more respect for coaches that enforce the rules evenly, even though it may cost the team a much needed victory in a key situation.  Coaches that give into the pressure are the norm today, and that's a sad fact.  It doesn't teach our players the valuable lessons they will need later on in life.

I'm very honest that I've made my mistakes in this area.  I haven't always made the right choice, and I chose to ignore things I shouldn't have ignored.  However, I have learned some lessons along the way, and have become much more comfortable making the tough decisions.  Maybe it's from experience or maybe it's just that I'm old enough to understand that winning at any cost just isn't as important as building responsible young people, which is ultimately what coaching should be about.  I would like to share some stories that help to emphasize the point.

The first situation was when I coached a young boys team, and was one of my bigger mistakes as a coach, and my best learning experience.  On this team, I had a pretty interesting demographic mix.  I had "richer" kids from one town mixed with kids from "working class" families from another town.  There was constant conflict on the team, and a lot of it centered around the economic differences.  At one point, one of the boys from one of the "working class" families made it a habit of picking on one of the kids from one of the "richer" families.  It really got out of hand, and I finally approached the kid who was picking on the other.  It lead to a discussion with his parents, and eventually an apology to me.  However, I should have done better.  I never asked him to apologize to the other kid, and I never took any disciplinary action as far as playing time, etc.  It was a huge mistake as even though I had "taken care of" the incident, nothing was settled between the players, and there continued to be a division in the team.  We did end up winning President's Cup.  How, I don't know.  We managed to put our differences aside on the field when we needed to.  However, to this day, I always look at that situation as one that I should have done better.  As a result, I handled things differently, and better in two other situations.

A couple of years later, I had a similar situation that I had to deal with.  The team had a more diverse group of family situations, but I had two players that were not getting along.  They were both defenders, which is a pretty key area to have two players not getting along.  For some reason, one player felt the need to constantly tease the other player.  I was determined to handle this situation much differently.  To complicate matters, the player doing the teasing was the daughter of one of the board members of the soccer club.  I started out with warnings to the whole team, along with a discussion with the parents to re-enforce.  I made it very clear at our first team meeting that I didn't have many rules, and that the one thing I would come down hard on was dissent between players.  They didn't have to like each other, but when we were together, they would treat each other with respect.  Unfortunately, the teasing and behavior continued.  After the warning, I contacted the parents to let them know what was going on, and what I planned about doing on it.  Response from a parent in that situation is not very predictable these days, so I set my expectations low, but I made it clear that whether they liked it or not, I was going to do what needed to be done.  To their credit, the parents supported my decision and actions.  It was a huge relief for me that helped me deal with the situation much more easily.

What happened, you ask?  After talking to the parents, and informing them what would happen and when, I talked to the player doing the teasing.  I reminded her of the rules of the team, and the prior warnings.  To her credit, while she was very upset about the situation, she acknowledged her actions, and accepted her punishment.  Her punishment was to sit out the first half of the next game, and she knew if the behavior continued, there would be additional suspension of playing time, possibly through the end of the season.  What made this situation difficult is that she was one of my key central defenders, and we were playing an important game that would help determine our standing for the playoff tournament, and we were playing the game with no subs and players playing out of position.  We did manage to win the game, and I found that the rest of their teammates rallied around the two players, and they all worked together to find a way to get along and maintain a high level of teamwork.  It also sent a message to the rest of the team that no one player was greater than the health of the team.  It was a difficult week for me, personally, but was a great success for the team.

Similar situations happened with a high school boys team this past year that I was an assistant coach at.  I agreed to help another coach I have worked with in the past with the high school team.  I agreed because we work well together, and we have the same philosophy when it comes to work ethic, teamwork, etc.  The prior coach of this team had some pretty lax rules, there was a clear pecking order within the team, and players felt they could do what they wanted when they wanted.  The team did have quite a bit of talent, but it took quite a bit of effort and headaches to turn things around.

We had some players that were quite talented, and were used to being treated like royalty.  We had several situations where we had to discipline players for behavior detrimental to the team, including players that had been playing on the varsity soccer team since their freshman year in high school.  This was a tough group, but we did manage to pull things together to make it to the playoffs, and lost in the second round in double overtime to the eventual state runner up.  Here are some of the things we handled and how we handled them.  Did we do everything right and catch everything that happened?  No.  Did we turn things around? Yes.  Did we set the tone for years to come?  Yes.

There was one player that decided he could openly question our coaching decisions in front of the rest of the team, and in the process, insult his teammates.  At the time, we were playing in a small series of scrimmages throughout the day.  After the incident, we benched him for the remainder of the day.  He was a key player, but everyone had to understand that no one was above the rules.  There was quite a bit of shock amongst his teammates when we not only talked about the rules, but enforced them.  We did have another incident with the same player later in the season, and had to bench him for a league game, which could have had a huge impact on making the playoffs.  The team managed to rally to a tie during a difficult game, and we had no further incidents with this player.  Over time, he came to understand what we expected, and began to make an effort to improve his communication with his teammates.  It's still a work in progress, but it's headed in the right direction.

We had another player that had a serious attitude and work ethic problem.  He had been a varsity starter since his freshman year, and clearly felt he was above everyone else.  We had heard from many different coaches that this player was hostile towards and argumentative with  coaches.  We made several attempts to reach this player by explaining what we needed from him, and what was expected.  His behavior continued regardless of what we tried.  We eventually dropped him to the JV team, which would have been a first.  In his first game on the JV team, the JV team was playing on a field next to the varsity team.  When the other team scored a goal on us, he cheered for the opposing team.  He was reprimanded by the JV coach, and never returned to the program.  The interesting thing is that he will be a senior next year, and whether he understands it or not, we remember what happened last year.  While we will give him a chance to redeem himself, his behavior must improve.  Neither the head coach nor I will accept anything less than good attitude and behavior.  He could be a valuable contributor to the team, but will not unless he adheres to the rules and standards we set.

The last situation was one involving one of our seniors.  He had played varsity soccer since his freshman year, and had three years under the previous coach.  I would say it's difficult for both the coach and player in this situation.  After three years of one coach, and then comes another coaching staff his final year where things are changed.  It's not easy for anyone involved.  Anyway, one of the habits that members of the team had from the previous years was having "injuries" when they didn't feel like practicing.  First, we set the rules where if you didn't practice the day before a game, you didn't play.  However, the players would take advantage of the situation when there were more than one practice between games.  

In the situation in question, we had just finished a tough game against our rival school where we pulled out a victory.  It was a rough and physical game.  The senior came to practice the next day and said bluntly that he was too sore from the game to practice.  He had obviously thought about this in advance as he didn't even have his clothes for practice.  The head coach sent him home, made him get soccer clothes, and when he returned to practice, he spent the entire practice running while the rest of the team practiced.  It was a difficult situation, but it sent a good message to both the player and the team.  The player was upset and didn't talk to us for a while after that.  But, we also didn't have any more mysterious injury problems for the remainder of the season.

As usual, this has been a long entry, but I think the examples help to re-enforce the point.  When the individuals become more important than the team, the team fails.  It takes a lot of courage and determination for the coach to consistently enforce rules and policies, but when it's all said and done, those are life lessons that the players will remember long after the wins and losses are forgotten.

Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Fails To Work Hard

As a coach, I would consider myself pretty old school. When I say old school, what I mean is an environment where the player shows up for practices and games with a proper attitude and prepared to work hard. This includes respecting coaches decisions, and not talking back to the coach. When there is a dissagreement between a player and a coach, there should be a discussion. However, all players need to respect that the coach's decision is final whether they agree with it or not. Even more frustrating is when players use their parents to try and put pressure on the coach to change the coach's decision.

I played multiple sports in my youth, and had a lot of good coaches and coaches that were not as good. When I played sports, it was an environment where coaches ruled with an iron fist, and when there was a disagreement, the parent sided with the coach. I will be the first to admit that this wasn't always the healthiest environment. In some cases, my coaches were verbally or physically abusive, and I was always told by my parents that I was on the team, and basically had to put up with it. This was wrong. First, the coaches should have never been allowed to behave that way, and by today's standards, things are much better. Second, it was wrong for the parents to side with a coach in that situation. However, there was never a situation where a player yelled at a coach, intentionally stopped working hard during practice, or other behavior like that.

In my view, we've swung the other way too far in the pendelum.

There has been so much emphasis on raising kids with a healthy self-esteem through proper parenting, and coaching. Overall, that's the right direction. However, this has been carried way too far. As a coach, I run into kids that have a healthy self-esteem, but have developed an attitude that they can do what they want when they want. They haven't developed a sense of respect for adults and respect for authority. Parents have spent more time trying to be the friend of their child rather than having the child develop a healthy respect for the parent-child relationship. Everyone wants to be liked by their kids, but when this is carried to far, kids develop a sense of entitlement and privilege, and does not serve them well later in life.

I do coach and have coached some great kids, but there are always some challenges. You have kids that know the proper meaning of working hard at everything you do, and they show up with the proper attitude and respect at each practice and game. You also have some that will try to push the limits, but can be managed in a way that they will participate in practices and games the way that you would expect. Unfortunately, you also have the kids that are convinced they can do what they want, and while you can get them to work hard some of the time, the amount of effort you put into getting them to do the right thing isn't the same as what you get from them in a practice or game.

As a coach, I find far too many players in the second and third category where you spend just as much time motivating them to be at practices and games to work hard as you do actually trying to make them better soccer players. There is an emphasis on having fun, but no one has taught these kids how to have fun while working hard at their game. To them, having fun is going to practices or games where they can be with their friends. Participating in a sport they enjoy is secondary. Don't get me wrong. Players should not only enjoy the sport, but they should also enjoy the players they are playing with. However, when enjoying being with the friends is more important than playing the sport, it's time to reconsider why they're participating.

Some of my best players were not the ones that were most talented at their game, but rather the ones that came to practice, and worked hard at everything we asked them to do. At one point, I coached a girls team that was the third team at our age group. We had some players with talent that didn't know how to work hard at their game, and we had others that didn't have as much talent, but did everything you asked as best as they possibly could. I worked with some of these players anywhere from 1-3 years (new teams are selected each year). However, I am happy to report that quite a few of those players actually made varsity or the first JV team as freshmen at their high school. Even better was that through the conditioning program that I ran, one of the players made the varsity cross country team at her high school and found her niche in running. What was the key?

Probably the first thing I had to do as a coach was to create a definition for them of what it meant to work hard at their game. They were willing to do what needed to be done to get better, but they just didn't know how to go about it. One of the keys was to help each player set individual goals. We sat down and they shared what they thought they needed to work on, I shared what I thought they needed to work on, and then based on that, created goals for them to achieve. The goals were not long term goals, but rather goals with weekly targets where they could see their achievement. I think that was the biggest key. There were regular progress reports as I kept stats on everything I asked them to do. Also, I made sure that each player only compared their progress to their own goals. They were not to compare themself to each other. It would be unrealistic to believe that the players would not compare themselves to one another. That happened, and I didn't stop it. However, I always emphasized where they should focus, which was on their own goals.

Here are some examples of the goals I established with this group.

1. Juggling - goals for each foot, each thigh, headers, and everyrthing
2. Ball Taps - Within a two minute window, how many times could the touch the top of the ball with each foot
3. Side to side - Within a two minute window, how many times could the touch the ball with each foot between their legs.
4. Distance running - How far could they run within 12 minutes with a goal of running 2 miles
5. Distance kicking accuracy - From 18 yards out, how often could they hit the cross bar or each post of the goal

There are many others that you can establish, but the key is that it always has to be measurable. Also, we allocated time at the beginning of each practice that they worked on specific goals. From there, we could evolve into working on other parts of the game. By doing this at the beginning, we started to establish a work ethic from the time they arrived at practice, which would usually carry through to the end. We did not start with goals at the beginning of warmups for the game, but after establishing a work ethic for practices, we found that it carried over to games.

One natural consequence is that each player got better individually, which made us a stronger team overall. Also, the work ethic that we established was consistent for each player on the team, so each player knew what they could expect from their teammate. That's not to say that there weren't talent gaps between individual players, but each one knew what they would get from others on the team. I believe that also facilitated bonding between members of the team. We still had our problems between players here and there, but I feel those problems were easier to deal with as a result of the standards that we had set.

Above, I talked about the tactical aspects of working hard at their game. However, the other key component was developing a proper attitude. I often tell players that the difference between a good player and a great player was their attitude towards how they played the game. Players with bad attitudes would be good, but they would never get better because their attitude prevented it. Players with good attitudes and good ability had the chance to become great. For players with good attitude, motivating them was easy. Players with a mix of good and bad attitude could be motivated, but you usually have to pay close attention to them to figure out what causes a change in their attitude. Players with a bad attitude, as expected, are the most difficult. In some cases, there is a personal or family situation that caused the attitude problem. In other cases, there wasn't anything in particular causing the attitude problem. I found that one of the keys to helping a player to develop a proper attitude was to get them to forget everything else in their life when they stepped on the field. Soccer could be their outlet, the one place that they could get away from everything else. That also seemed to work pretty consistently. However, I would be lieing if I told you that there were some players I just couldn't reach. As much as I wish I could have, it just wasn't going to happen. That doesn't mean that you write the player off. You still try, but you can't look at it as a failure if you can't reach them.

To wrap up this blog entry, there are a couple of key things to remember. Most kids these days don't know what it means to work hard at their game. They understand the words, but have trouble translating that to actions at practices and games. You have to teach them what it means through actions and what they can do. That involves things for both the physical AND mental aspects of the game to maximize what the player can achieve. The key is to start from the very first day of practice. Trying to start later on is much more difficult as you have to break habits rather than establishing habits from the start.

More later...

The Pre-Competitive Program

Probably one of the hardest transitions for any parent of a youth soccer player is the switch from recreational soccer to competitive soccer. Many soccer clubs, like the one I coach for have what are called pre-competitive or player development programs (PDP) that are geared towards players that are currently playing recreational soccer, but are interested in more advanced training and competition.

The following paragraphs represent sample communication that we use to introduce parents to the PDP program. The key to any coaching situation is making sure that the parents understand what both they and their child are getting into along with expectations. Coaches and parents may or may not agree with what is being said, but the key is that you've at least set the standard for how things will work.

Recreational soccer is a great program, but it’s often difficult to provide more advanced coaching and training for players that are interested in playing soccer at a higher level. PDP programs are designed for youth soccer players, usually 8 to 10 years old, who want to take their game to that next level. Training sessions are designed to help the young soccer player build stronger physical and mental skills that will help them become better soccer players.

As part of the advanced training, the players are introduced to a new set of coaches with deeper background and training in coaching the game of soccer. The player development program coaches all have a wide range of playing and coaching experience. Playing experience ranges from playing at the high school, regional, national, or collegiate level. Coaching experience ranges from coaching at the club (classic), high school, or collegiate level. Additionally, coaches have coaching licenses that range from the “National E” to the “National A” (US national team coaches, for example). In many cases, coaches also have specific areas of expertise in different aspects of the game, such as: position specific training, fitness, diet, mental approach, etc. In PDP, the objective is for the players to get experience with as many coaches and coaching styles as possible to enhance their growth as a player.

The PDP program consists of training programs (practices) specifically designed for the PDP player, and the players also have the option to participate on a PDP team in games where they can utilize their skills against players of similar ability from other clubs in the area. Generally, the training sessions are not team specific practices, but rather sessions to focus on individual and small group drills and games. The team games are held weekly, and provide the player the opportunity to experience soccer in a more competitive situation.

Keeping all of this background information in mind, you will now receive information on the observation sessions that will be conducted within the next couple of weeks. The observation sessions are designed for the coaches to be able to assess players, and place them on teams best suited for their ability and developmental needs. The goal of PDP is to form as many teams as possible to give every player that wants the opportunity to play on a team.

Typically, the observation sessions are the first opportunity where players and their families are exposed to a try out-like process. It can be a bit stressful for everyone involved. All of the PDP coaches work very hard to minimize the stress and encourage the players to just go out and have fun. As a parent, please do your best to minimize the stress associated with the process and encourage your player to just go out and have fun. It will make the process easier for everyone involved.

A couple of days after the tryout process, players will be notified of the team that they are placed on. As with any process similar to this one, their may be some disappointment associated with the placement. It’s very important that parents remember that the coaches are doing their best to group the players based on ability, and that no matter what team their child is placed, the player will receive excellent coaching, training and game experience. The process may cause some players to be separated from their close friends, and that can be somewhat difficult. However, it does give them the opportunity to build new friends, and develop their skills at the same level as players with similar ability. Sometimes, parents feel that their player was singled out. However, we can assure you that this is NEVER a consideration by any of the coaches.

We, as coaches of the PDP program, ask that the parents do their best to accept where their child has been placed, and continue to encourage their child to work hard. There are often situations where teams are short on players, much like during the Futsal season, and players may have the chance to play on another team to help out. Also, coaches may periodically move players from one team to another. The movement of players strictly depends on the development needs of each player.

Each player develops at their own pace, and it’s important to keep that in mind, not only through the PDP program, but also through the classic (competitive) program should they choose to participate in that program. Here’s a good example. A couple of years ago, Coach Larry, coached a group of girls, who were on the third team at their age group. All of the girls worked hard at their game, and some of them were able to move up to the second and first team over time. Additionally, when that group reached high school (they are currently sophomores in high school), 4 of them made varsity as freshman, and the remaining players made the top JV team. Going into next year, almost all of them will be playing key roles on their varsity soccer team. While this is not something every player can expect to achieve, they all have this opportunity if they continue to work hard at their game. As stated above, all players develop at a different pace, and this group of girls is a good example of that.

Probably the last three pieces of important information have to do with expectations during the games.

During recreational soccer, you will often hear parents not only cheering for their player, but also tell them what to do. During PDP, parents are encouraged to cheer for their player, and are discouraged from offering instruction. Players should take all instructions from the coaches during games. Quite often, when a parent is yelling instructions to their player, the player gets confused between what the coach is saying and what their parent is telling them. Please minimize this confusion by relying on the coaches to provide instruction and feedback.
Please refrain from encouraging your player to play certain positions. The best example is when parents provide incentive (i.e. ice cream) for their player to score goals. This often works against the objective as the team as it is difficult to get players to play positions other than forward. All positions on the field are important, and the coaches will have players playing a variety of positions.

After each game, the players will jog across the field and give their parent a high five or hug. We are discouraging parents from doing any sort of post game “celebration”, such as tunnels, lines, etc. While we want the players to be recognized after the game, regardless of the end result, we also want them to do it in a way that is respectful to themselves and their opponent.

Overall, the PDP program is designed to be a way for players to take the step to the next level in their soccer playing. While we, as coaches, will continue to emphasize playing the game for enjoyment, we will also be instilling additional skills and disciplines that will help each player develop to the best of their ability.

We appreciate the opportunity to work with your children, and appreciate the support you provide to the program. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact one of the coaches via email or phone.