A director of coaching at a youth club said to me last week, in a stressed way, that one of his coaches was running late. Since this was the week of tryouts, this was a more stressful and frustrating situation than usual. While expressing his disappointment and worry in the coach’s tardiness, he mentioned that “tryouts are the most important week of my life!” This was in a “how can you be doing this to me?!” kind of way. Many directors of coaching and leaders at youth soccer

Among the hundreds of coaches I have worked with over the years, one of the most popular coaching points that I hear people make in training sessions and in games is that players need to communicate more with each other. I hear this all. the. time. Coaches are constantly reminding players to “talk” and “communicate with each other,” making it their key point and learning outcome in halftime talks, postgame talks, and training sessions. Although it is true that a team communic

Despite the fact that many clubs claim on their websites that they’re focused on long-term development of their players, many of them actually fall short. Way short. Although many of these clubs are well-intentioned, many clubs – and many coaches within these clubs – seem to struggle with the true meaning of “long-term development.” The Meaning When it comes to what we coach and teach on the field, long-term development means: teaching things that will provide success forever

This post is a guest contribution, specially written for Switching the Field by Evie Cerys In the world of youth soccer, there are lots of potential opportunities for a child’s personal growth. The best coaches, after all, are leaders who not only train kids to be better players, but also to be future leaders on and off the field as well. Playing sports can give children a certain independence and bring out the best in them. In a previous post, it was discussed that, “Wheneve

Consider the following circumstance: You are in your car, steadily driving down the road, following the flow of traffic. You pass a couple lights, maybe take a turn or two heading toward your destination. Then suddenly, a car ferociously speeds up and gets right behind you until they finally get a chance to swerve around and speed off. In moments like this, many of us react angrily. Some of us might even yell at the driver and question their driving abilities. We act as thoug