Now before I state said challenge- I’m here to share yes, we’re in another league that will make most coaches cringe given the kids are 6&7 years old and we’re playing 8v8 (yes with goalies). I agree- it’s all wrong but here I am.

Here’s my question- other than you all attack for positions and you two defend- and the rest come back- is there a point in teaching positions at this age? Here’s the challenge in the one kiddo- (whose mom says his last coach never taught positions)

We have a kid who runs around like a mad man, all over the field and is rabid after the ball. All he wants to do is score. And I’m happy to say I have kids on the team I’ve been with for a long time who pass and see their teammate and know to get out of the way. (I tell the kids to trust their teammate and let them have the ball).

This guy doesn’t come to practice- games only- (he’s playing basketball and practice conflicts) and yes he’s a great and powerful athlete but argh! He’s taking everyone out! I apologized to the other teams coach as I pulled the kid last night to tell him his elbows aren’t invited to our games and to not push. He did quit but he sent their players off the field many times. He’s only 7. So he’s not a diabolical monster but I want to harness this energy in a positive way and get him to calm down.

I’m learning from my years of playing and now coaching this age is about not so much taming the energy but finding a way to influence it. I struggle with him. Help!

I'm trying to figure out the best way to help my U8 team, mostly 6 year Olds transition from outdoor 4v4 to indoor winter 7v7 without any practices. I have them coming 30 mins early to the games to help support, but there is only so much talk you can do with 6 year Olds.

Any ideas?

I coach for a small town in ND. I'm looking for good free apps to help organize scrimmages and tournaments for our club. Basically I would like something we can post updates to and get a solid number of players that will be attending games. Any recommendations appreciated.

Review recording takes hours.

But the hardest part is how to show teammates something good and bad. Sometimes I just clip the game and share the raw clips with them and find it not quite useful.

Could you share some tips on how to better let players want to watch clips? Also, how do you share your findings or analysis with real game clips?

Appreciate it!

I coached my daughter’s U8 (truly all 6 year olds) team this fall and last spring. Last spring, when she was on a team with all 5 year olds, our team did respectably against other teams but this season with the older group it has been very rough. The kids and coaches on other teams take things very seriously. I played soccer for a few seasons as a kid but no more than that. I’ve read a lot, watched a lot of videos, and leaned heavily on this sub. Our kids are happy and developing but we’ve lost all of our games. I want to try to stay in another season as coach but I don’t know if I’m doing a disservice to the kids. My husband who coaches w me and I both joined rec leagues ourselves, but it’s not a substitute for having played seriously in high school, college or beyond. Thus the question - how long can/should we stay in a coaching role in a rec league?

How much does anyone track their game stats during the season? And if you do, how does it inform your coaching? I’m at the end of season and just doing some reflecting. I just tracked goals and if I was really paying attention, assists.
Am thinking to maybe ask a parent next season to do it ?
Thoughts?

Edit: this is all really awesome info. I will try to synthesize what I can. Thanks so much for your experiences!

Hello all, I (27M) interested in becoming a football coach in the US or Europe. I have played since I was a kid and played high school, travel soccer, and college and some semi pro teams as well. I have two degrees to my name but honestly I am not happy with my career now. Although it is almost late for me to keep trying to go pro, I want my next step in life to be a coach. I started last fall as an assistant coach at this local youth club where I live, and now this past fall, I went to a better, more known club, that has many levels of competition, all the way from rec to playing ENCL. Currently I have 3 teams, 2 of them on the youth leagues, and one of them on a more “competitive” league that travels through out the state. I want to keep growing from here. My ultimate goal is to work for a professional club either in the US or Europe. I have some connections or potential connections in both sides so I wanted to know what type of licenses I need or where do I start. I know the pay also varies from the type of license you hold. I’m currently in the mid $65k a year, so I know I may take a pay cut after getting one license and start my coaching career but I think I’m ok with that. My current club offers to pay for the license with the condition of me staying with them for 2 years. I want this to be my full time since football is my only true passion. I really want to get out of my current office job ASAP, like tomorrow if possible.

Any advice? Tips? Excited for this new route in life, even my wife (we recently got married) mentions how happy she sees me coaching, she says she sees the true me while doing that.

T.I.A

I got my first coaching gig. I will be coaching kids under 14 years old. Any tips y'all have? Edit: Thank you everyone for your responses. I will do my first practice session with them tomorrow.

Some context- this is my first year coaching a U11 team. The regular season just finished and we finished slightly above .500. We have a few weeks until our end of season tournament. The team played a 3-3-2 and I had my best player (1) at CM, my second best player (2) at CB and my third best player (3) mostly played another midfield role (sometimes attack also).

My question is around #1 and #3. #2 loves playing CB and he’s good at it so he is all set. #3 is the toughest one for me to figure out. He has a motor that goes 110%. He plays like a Tasmanian devil all over the place. This wins plaudits from opposing coaches who tell him he was everywhere but I tend to see as the games go on that he is out of position most of the time. He’s a fantastic dribbler but also has a tendency to try and dribble through the entire opposing team and hang onto the ball a touch too long. I’ve been thinking of switching up the formation before the tournament to maybe a 3-2-3. Do I put #1 and #3 together in midfield and hope #1 can cover any area #3 vacates when he drifts out of position? I’ve read in some other posts about having your best players in defense. Do I move #1 to RB or LB in a 3-3-2 and then have #3 as my CM since he covers a lot of ground?

Club offered my daughter a position that she doesn’t typically play for a team 2-3+ her age during open try outs.

I don’t like the idea of it, the club costs are about 2k and it makes me think they just want someone to sit on the bench and collect 2k.

I just wanted to get some actual coaches thoughts.

U13 boys, 11v11. We’ve been relying on winning the 50/50 punt from keeper a little too much. We’ve started doing pattern drilling so they understand the reasoning and positional strategy. Now I want them play some games to get them used to pressure and to use their creativity.

We usually have 11-15 players show to practice. Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks!

My friend and I just volunteered to coach because there’s a shortage of coaches for our region and my god daughter wants to play. Our problem is we have no experience and don’t even know what to do. I understand this age there is no competition and it’s more for fun but eventually I want to follow my god daughter up every new division she is apart of and would love tips. Thank you in advance!

U11 Coach Rec Team. Finished the season with the realization that I wasn’t the best coach this season, to put it lightly.

I was talking to my assistant about another player on the other team, who was really good. Like really good. And I said of we don’t have a player like that on our team, I though Ken was that player but I was wrong. He then waited a few seconds and responded quietly, hey you should be careful he’s sitting on the bench behind you. He may or may not have heard me, or understood the context but he seemed down, but he kinda act sad when we’re losing, I asked him if he’s ok, and he just said yeah just doesn’t like being on the bench.

So I messed up there.

Another situation happened towards the end of the game. My kid asked to play in goal. He’s the worst player on the team, doesn’t really try and also not athletic either. Anyways they end up score 2-3 goals on his and they all gang up on him, yell at him and say what are you doing. I lost my temper and bit and raised my voice and started naming each of there names (who were all standing at the center circle before the goal was scored) and said hey Joe, Tommy, Timmy, Mikey, it went through the 6 of you before if went in the goal, the goalkeeper is the last defender, so before it went in the net it went through you. Which is of course true, but me raising my voice was the first time I lost my cool during the season.

Then I thought to myself, is this my fault?. Like was I not positive enough and the kids picked up my potential negative or not positive news. I know that this year I did t really focus on character development like I did last year. Like last year I told the team if the other team scores, that’s ok, we just pick up the ball quickly place it in the center circle and start the play and do our best.

The last part of this is I was really frustrated and mad at my kid. Like he doesn’t try. But he still wants to play. He could be an average player if he tried. But he doesn’t. Of course I don’t say anything to him, except I love to watch you play. But I sometimes say nothing. Like honestly I hate watching him play. I love him, he’s my son, but watching him play soccer like this for the most recent 4 years has been frustrating.

Bear in mind these are my worst moments im brining up, there was plenty of moments I was good. I’m not a monster!

Anyways. I wanted to quit after the last game. But as a few days have past I also want to be better. I kinda got lost this season, I don’t know why. The kids were average or better skill wise, but not great listening / attentiveness at practice. We should have played a lot better but maybe my expectations are wrong, if the players are mentally there, we practice d once per week, then how much can a coach do anyways. The feedback my wife gave me was you don’t care about the player you just want them to play good soccer.

I also feel bad about how I felt/feel about my son. Like I love him and I shouldn’t care if he’s good or horrible. He wants to play, and he wants to play how he plays.

So how do I become a better coach? Or do I need some time off to just reflect on all the things that went wrong and improve on them

I try to call out my own players for what the other team isn't getting called on.
"Watch the pushing/Watch the shoving" is something I'll yell at my own team so the ref knows that I'm not just calling out stuff that the opponent does often.

I have large group of small kids. Roughly 15 U7 and 10 U6 - 25 total. My assistant coach is unavailable and their are no parents to help, so its just me. Half the kids always forget their shin pads, so they can't play a match or small sided game. Many of them are technically limited so they still need a lot of basic guidance. If not directed, the kids will start messing about, kicking the balls in the air or shooting in the goal at the same time (which is chaos). What activities would you suggest to make the session effective / manageable?

How many of you are using these formations for their kids? I’ve seen one coach use it with their middle school team but most of those players play on club teams and have a higher soccer IQ.

First season coaching (u14 boys)and it’s been a decent start so far with 3 wins, a draw, and a recent defeat. To be honest, I saw the defeat coming, as our team is quite lopsided with a lot of attackers. I’ve been using a 4-4-2, but we often get caught out on the break. The full-backs tend to be out of position, and while our center-backs are solid, they’re frequently left isolated. Do you have any tips to help combat this? I’m thinking of switching to a 4-3-3 ? Also, we struggle when making substitutions since the subs aren’t as skilled or quick. Where would be the best place on the pitch to use them? They are defenders but they have cost us goals when I played them there

Playoffs starting next game and I need to tweak the formation. The slower players are getting killed recently, giving up a lot of goals due to lack of speed. I've been playing with 4 in the back but it's becoming obvious that's too many, hurts us up the field... And if I go 3 in the back with some of these slower kids, it'll end badly.

I'm gonna drop our line back a bit but there are a couple kids who are serious liabilities back there. Curious what formations would work best to hide slower lesser talented players that don't cover much ground, and where to put them.

I'm a highschool goalkeeper who plays travel cjsl and I want to get private coaching. How should I find and contact coaches?

Hi all, I’m trying to plan the end of season party at a pizza place to hand out trophies and a small gift for the two u8 boys coaches. I’m wondering the etiquette on asking families for money. The cost would be $25 each to cover trophies, pizza and gift and I just don’t know how to word it. I know it’s a “thing” cause I’ve paid $25 for the same thing a few years back for my sons team.

I’m just having a hard time wording the email and don’t want to come across like I’m telling parent to pay, but also don’t want to say it’s optional cause we can’t afford to be buying the kids trophies. For reference, I’m the team mom…

Thanks in advance!

I coach a U12 boys rec team. It's the last week of the season and I just wanted to have a fun last practice without letting them just scrimmage the whole time (which is what they would choose if I let them). What are your favorite fun competitive drills? This is one we did earlier in the season that they loved. https://x.com/i/status/1832740914617290886

I’ve come across a couple of businesses that are interested in providing donations to our town’s youth soccer program. We have had almost full turnover of our board and I’m a new member myself. I am hoping that someone would be willing to share their donor structure/process. My early thoughts/research is that we have a few opportunities. One would be for field signage. We have a small modular with wall space and then chain link fencing. Here are a few questions but any insights are welcome.

• Do you have donor levels? Would you be willing to share those tiers?  I'm a bit unsure of what level of commitment we'd even be dealing with.  
• Do you offer different benefits to sponsors in each donor level or is it strictly just a title?  Ie are there more perks for your diamond sponsorship?
• What is the duration of your sponsorships?  Annual or multiyear?
• Do you assign any sponsorships to operational costs - for example, "team medals sponsored by Dave's Pizza" etc?

I volunteered to coach our rec+ girls (3rd/4th grade/10U) for a few sessions of indoor soccer this fall and winter. I've never coached indoor before (recently moved to a colder climate with shorter fall and spring seasons) and we're only playing 4x4 with no goalies. They lower curtains on either side so there's no playing off the walls, they actually throw in the ball from the sidelines and have corner and goal kicks as well.

I'm not sure if we should run a diamond formation or more a 2-2 set-up. I also don't really know what advice to give since we aren't having practices, only games. It's really just a fun scrimmage each week but I'd love to give them some good advice on the best way to get the ball in the net. Only one girl has ever played indoor before.

It doesn't help that I ended up with more girls than I anticipated so I'm constantly trying to sub in and get all 9 a decent amount of playing time. Hopefully vacations and illnesses will keep the numbers down to 8 or fewer for subsequent games.

Hi,

Recently joined a men's club as the assistant coach. One player - the captain - is somewhat okay with me one on one but a d1ck in front of others.

A couple of incidents so far:

• First training session I ran, he was deliberately outspoken and disruptive
• Shows really negative body language during my teamtalks
• I was recently covering the head coach who was suspended for a game. The game went to PKs and I had a lineup decided - he chose to say in front of the group that it wasn't my decision and was nothing to do with me

The above incidents have left me furious and considering walking as he makes the atmosphere impossible. The other players seem terrified of him and he's our top scorer so far.

I feel the longer this dynamic goes on its only going to get worse but I'm relatively new to the position so can't go muddying the waters that much. I also do want to succeed there and know the element of 'testing' that goes on with new coaches.

Help talk me off the cliff here, or give me tough truth.

Our team of boys (8 year olds) played SO hard this season. It's a rec league, and myself and another dad are coaches- me being the head coach, and he's the assistant. All volunteer. I've been a coach in the league a few years, but my assistant is former division 1 star player too- so I trust his gut. We both have a boy on the team.

Through the season, I built the lineups, managed substitutions, and studied the opposition, and he coached the kids on-field and ran practice. We played 10 reg season games, got into the playoffs, and won our first 2 in tough, contested games. We got into the final, and the drama unfolded. We played the best team, and I knew their team well.

Through every 1 hour game leading up to the final, (12 games) I had equitable playtime and position rotation for all players. ( I literally tried to keep the time of play) I gave a few kids a choice of position if they absolutely hated a position, but for the most part, we spread it quite well. Always focused on developing the skills of these kids every practice and game.

We went into the final 10 minutes - the last quarter of the last game and we were down 3-2. Up until that point, we had a good rotation several times with the kids. All kids played 2-3 rotations by that point. I made the decision in the end of the game to play the other team the exact way they play. We had seen them before. They keep their A team in the whole 4th qtr. I was prepared to do the same. I figured...last 10 min, of 1 quarter, of 1 game, let's give it a go.

Other coach is not happy. His kid isn't being subbed in. But in fairness, neither is mine. I said " I know this team, you missed the time we played them. They keep their A team in to close it out".
"Nope, no they won't , no way. nuh-uh. nope, That's not how this is played."
"Ok, i hear you, but I'm telling you how they play their games, and I will sub if they do."

They never subbed. Other coach was pissed and hit me with "we missed the sub, jesus, these are 8 year olds, this is not college or the pros, we play to develop, not to win."
I stayed firm and said "I'm ready to sub ours in once they sub." Never happened exactly as expected. I kept our best players in to:

1. match the other team
2. give our team a shot at scoring the tie goal to go into 10 more min of overtime where I was fully ready to put our other kids in right away, even if other team did not sub.

We lost 3-2.

Parent reaction: "this was an amazing season, excellent coaching, closest game, we love this team. Our kids really got better." I had texts from parents thanking me for working with their kids all season. Some of these came from kids on the bench at the end.
Asst Coach reaction: a bit quiet, subdued., not too interested in final trophy handouts..."this is about development not winning."

My brother in law was there and heard that and was this close ->| | to saying "we focused in equal development for 12 games and 3 quarters of this game, and ALL the practices. Give it a rest. 1 extra sub would have given the other kids maybe 5 extra minutes of "development" in a 1,000-1,200 minute season??"

END result: Great season but I feel terrible. I respect the other coach a LOT and this is possibly why I feel I made a horrible mistake and jeopardized the kids development even though it was literally 5 minutes of play for the whole season.

Back story, this is my first year coaching competitive soccer. * Edit. This is also a u11 team

I have 2 assistants. I have had a talk with one that I felt was trying to overstep his spot. Recent examples was him being asked to be a line judge and when I did my subs, he came all the way over to talk to the kids, while I was sitting there talking to them. I told him it made me feel like I was not a good coach for soccer. The other was cutting in front of me to talk to a ref to get all the rules for indoor soccer, and then going and telling the kids and parents. I wouldn’t mind if he asked or stated he would like to do so.

We had our first indoor soccer game, and only two assistants allowed. I had me and my other assistant for this first game. The other assistant said the three of us should rotate who is in and out. But I feel that as head coach, I should be there every game.

I also want to set more definitive roles for when we get to our spring season. I have one assistant that is really good at rotations. And that’s what he does. I coach the line, watching the game, and I have the other assistant on the bench, getting the kids watching the game and getting ready to go out. When I told him about how I felt when he came and basically coached over me, he told me that he feels he is not being utilised in a way that he could be more impactful. He tried the rotation, and that was not too good. Coaching the line, he is more of a ‘everybody is doing good’ sort of coach. He’s not praising the good and coaching the bad. All that said, I wonder how you set boundaries and expectations with your assistant.

As the title says, I've read a cool article here in the UK that suggests that in order to help all players develop and improve, and maybe focus less on what might upset them and more on their personal development, we as coaches can set them individual goals. I kinda do this already but I could definitely do it more.

For example, challenge a defender to make 6 tackles in a quarter, or a player to make 10 passes, etc.

Anyway, as an extension of this, the article suggests getting parents to focus on their child, and count the numbers for them, passes, shots, etc, as a good way to get/keep parents engaged positively, but also helps feedback to the children.

Anyway, I'm gonna try it tomorrow in a friendly, wish me luck!

Ps I'm the writer/author of "the grassroots football diary" which is available on Amazon to buy. It's a personal diary for players from age 8 to 16 years.

I had a young u10 team this season. Half of them were 8 year olds and the other half 9 years. The beginning of the season we struggled, lost the majority of the games by a goal but hung around. Second half of the season we played most of the same teams again and beat all of them. Things were going really well, parents were reaching out saying there's kids were improving more now than in other years. Everything was going great. Today we had playoffs and we lost to a team that we had just beat by 8 goals. That team had not won a game all season. Winning is never the ultimate goal but development is, tough to end out this season where it felt like they improved so much with such a tough loss. Rough day, even more so because it's rec and we won't have this team again. It ends quickly and abruptly, enjoy it while you can coaches.

We had a girl on our team whose first time touching a ball was 8 weeks ago. She arrived early to every single practice. Followed every direction and even if she was the slowest she never stopped or quit.

All the girls on the team were in the same kindergarten class except her. She was the youngest girl on the team and was a tad on the timid side on and off the field at the beginning but warmed up as the season progressed. She never missed a practice or game. The thing is … she hadn’t scored a goal all season. Going into today’s last match I told my wife there was nothing more I wanted than for her score or at the very least leave with a smile on her face.

Well, in the last game of the season it all clicked. She scored!!! Not once but twice! They were legitimate goals too. No gimmies. She had a chance to score 4 but just missed on her first two chances.

The smile on her face was my highlight as coach. All of our parents were so excited for her because we all knew what was going on.