The Parent Soccer Coach

So you find yourself accepting to be a soccer head coach for the the very first time. There may have been many reasons that you decided to accept this role and the main one could be that there wasn't anybody else stepping up to the challenge. In an effort to support the need and not have the soccer league abolish the team your child is part of you decide to help.

These are all very good reasons and you are definitely doing a good service for a much needed community activity. There are some perspectives that you need to consider along with some tips that will allow you to ease into this new role.

From my years of coaching first my children’s teams then other teams where my children were not a part of there were realizations that I would like to share with a new head coach.

First it is the acknowledgement that a coach is a role model not just to the young players that you will be training but to the parents that you will be interacting with. This maybe hard to do at first but you need to keep your perspective and realize that the team along with the associated parents, will be looking to you to be a leader in all aspects. The way you act and how you communicate will become very important. It will be a factor in how well the team will gel and the fun that will be experienced by not just the young players but their parents.

The other factor that is most important concerns your child. I have come across many parents that live through their children when it comes to sports. You must separate this feeling right from the start and understand that your time has passed and now it is your child’s time. Each child learns at their own pace and they perfect their talents in due time. Your attitude and actions play a big part in this development and your patience needs to be at its peak.

And lastly the realization that you will be leading a team of players should be fully understood. I have seen soccer coach parents that place their child on a pedestal and put undue pressures on them to be the best on the team. Such a parent coach fails to understand that they are leading a team as a whole and rightfully so you need to train and teach each player equally allowing and helping each player to play and develop to their full potential. This means that your child needs to be treated equally just like the rest of the players on the team.

At the younger categories it is a lot about teaching the skills needed to play the game. As the team evolves and advances to higher categories the rules of the game become a large factor till eventually you are delving into the tactics and strategies ofsoccer. This is a learning progression for both the parent coach and the team they lead.

Therefore, as you ponder if you should have accepted being a head coach and acknowledge that it is a big responsibly there are things that will facilitate your experience. These are tips that I have used during my years of coaching and have yielded great results. I will cover these in another blog but for now the points I have listed here are a good starter as food for thought.

Being the best soccer parent coach you can be is a rewarding experience for both you and the people you will be interacting with. It is a learning experience in not only the soccer sport but in people management and learning to do it well will create lasting lessons to the team you lead. After all you will be a role model and if you do it to the best of your abilities you will be teaching life lessons to the youth under your charge. Along the way you maybe also influencing some of the parents within your team.

Noun: Role Model

Definition(s):

• A person regarded by others, especially younger people, as a good example to follow.
• A person who serves as a model in a particular behavioral or social role for another person to emulate.

Definition obtained fromThe Free Dictionary by Farlex