Six tips for junior and youth football coaches
You may be a veteran youth coach, a prior or current professional coach or just starting to coach your son or daughter’s club or school team. Here are some tips to help make the experience easier and enjoyable not only for you, but for the people that matter most, your future stars.
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Keep it Fun
Football is only a game, it's not life. We as coaches must not be caught up in the result, to chase a win or destroy our opponent, so we must not forget this important principle.
You can judge your success as a coach if you've made the game so fun that kids want to play it again next year. This may mean rotating your team and giving the “weaker kids” like little Bobby a run in the team when it might mean the team is weaker on the left side while you are hoping the ball doesn’t find its way there very often.
Sometimes it feels like winning is more fun than losing, but winning is not the most important thing, having fun and making a positive experience is. There are also life lessons we can help teach along the way.
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Keep it safe
It is our responsibility as coaches to provide an environment that is for learning, for fun but very importantly that is safe. This means that the playing field is checked for any unsafe materials beforehand, the trainings are prepared to ensure the kids of equal sizes are paired up and the kids are not placed in harm’s way in any way.
Remember to make your training age relevant. Do kids under the age of 11 or 12 years need to be practicing heading the ball? No, they do not as they would infrequently be at the level that can pick a pass in the air. The lesson is to choose exercises that are safe for the age group you are coaching.
Also remember that when falls occur that you are nearby and can quickly get the little players to their feet quickly. It is a contact sport so reinforcing they are ok to continue will give them confidence.
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Teach the basics of the game
Even the best football players such as Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo learned the basics of the game many years ago. This is a fundamental aspect of our role as a junior or youth football coach and our role is to educate the game, make it simple and teach along the way. A rule book or fact book on football will not teach them everything you can in the short amount of time you have with them.
As they get older they will learn more, and the game will have more complicated aspects such as positions, movement, offside and more. Help them learn the basics such as passing, receiving and dribbling as well as some basic body positioning. The foundations you help put down will set them up for future success.
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Teach good values
Playing football is a sport but the life lessons that players learn today and the way they interact with others, they will carry with them for life. It is important that some values are in place such as respect, teamwork and effort.
This will help them become not only good players, but good people. It will help them act as people in their interaction with life and people in a manner that will keep them in good stead when they are older.
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Teach Good Sportsmanship
Our role in the shaping some young people is one of privilege and responsibility. Our kids should be the ones leading by example with their grades, effort, and enthusiasm. On the park, they should be the ones breaking up quarrels or ensuring when accidents such clashes that result in players falling or getting hurt, they then lift the opponent to their feet and say “sorry”. We must expect them to lead by example, and it is our responsibility that if we see opportunities to show this behaviour, then we encourage or teach it.
We can encourage good sportsmanship and good effort and physical intensity at the same time. We love to see players trying their best and going at it hard, but at the same time after the play or whistle, helping each other up, and then going back to do it all over again.
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Build long lasting relationships
Even now many of us will recall our junior or youth football coach from club or school teams when we talk about who has made a big impact on our lives. It is not only about playing the season and winning every game. There are parents, uncles and aunties, grandparents, other family and friends all involved (no matter what the score). There is an obligation to respect everyone and even give them a role or a task and make them feel included.
At the end it's about relationships and connections or networking that can prove to be opportunities down the track. Help become a positive impact. You may even become the reason or role model that inspires the next champion.