Soccer Parent Meetings

One of the biggest mistakes that a lot of soccer volunteer coaches do is not establishing a good rapport with the parents of the team they are training.

What is a rapport? As per WikipediA, Rapport occurs when two or more people feel that they are in sync or on the same wavelength because they feel similar or relate well to each other.

As a coach you should, and it is a must, that you carefully consider this as I have mentioned in past posts that a youth soccer team is not only trained by a coach but by all involved with the team for which it is formed from a large part of the parent's participation. Complete transparency is the goal as it will establish an environment that will be both pleasurable, memorable and successful to you and your team.

Yes you are one of the soccer parents and in most cases this is the situation therefore, you have a vested interest in the team but as the coach of the team, you have become more than just a parent. You need to acknowledge this and act accordingly staying away from the temptation that you are building a word class soccer team and that what you say and do and how you act is the way it is and if nobody likes it, then it is to bad. Not a very good start or future if you follow this path. Having understood this you can move ahead with the following recommendation which has worked really good for me and the teams I have trained.

Once you have had the chance to plan out the season and established your goals for the team it is time to communicate this to the parents and if the young players are old enough they should be included. Plan on having at least three formal parent's meetings. One before the start of the season, one at the middle of it and one at the very end. Nothing stops you from planning more but keep in mind that in most cases parents have added the soccer sport for their children on top of other activities that have with the family and in their own lives. Also they may have other children doing other activities or on other soccer teams because of age differences among their children and other preferences.

As you prepare for the first meeting make sure you keep the following themes in mind. Think about respect, caring, being positive and supportive, encouraging and reassuring. These are but a few of the topics you can or should cover within this initial meeting. This is the time where you start that rapport with parents and young players that will be meeting you at a more personal level. It is an important initiative putting both parents and the players at ease because they will get a open understanding of what they can expect being part of the team.

The meeting can be held right before a scheduled practice depending on parent availability. It is easier to have it then because they would have already arranged their personal schedules to bring their child for practice therefore, adjusting the time to get there is easier that planing for an additional day/night to participate in the meeting. If the parent population is more flexible then you can have a more formal meeting over and above a practice session at some location where parents can take a seat while you run the encounter. Most importantly is to time box the meeting as this shows your leadership skills and keeps a good order for the meeting. It also sets the expectation for the team as a whole. I have done both types of meetings and I tend to lean towards the extra meeting session that is not before a practice session as you can really concentrate on running a good session.

I will dive into more details of what a good initial meeting should cover in another post but in the mean time this is a good start as food for thought. This topic is why I have mentioned that you will need to sharpen your communications skills because it will help you build that rapport.

What do you think about transparency? Have you experienced being involved with a team where the coach establishes a good rapport through meetings as proposed here? If you have, what do you think about the experience?

Recreational Soccer Teams

The volunteer coach that will be gearing up to train a recreational soccer team would plan differently than one that is leading an elite team.

For one thing the main theme should be the fun factor of the learning to play soccer and planing accordingly is important. Depending on the category the planning would involve skill sets that will be varied among your young players.

In most cases the soccer association that you are affiliated with will offer some kind of help if you are new to the sport or to coaching it. Although it is recommended that you learn how to coach using as many resources as you can namely the internet. In doing so you will realize that training U5, U6, U7 and U8 categories is slightly different than if you are at the U9, U10, U11 and U12 categories. And as they get older the fun factor is still important but there is the competition element that will come into play. Like in most cases when learning a discipline there are steps that build on previous steps and learning to play soccer is not different.

Most soccer associations  will have course offerings that will cover different levels of coaching. When you are beginning you will probably be offered the first level which will cover the youth level. In most cases it will apply to the the level you will be training. Find out what the club has to offer you and make it part of your learning process. Keep an open mind even if you already have athletic skills acquired from your youth. Playing a sport even one like soccer is not the same when teaching it as a coach.

Preparation comes with learning how to teach a sport skill even if you already know how to do it yourself you need to be able to teach it. You will need to be very open minded as how you teach it will heavily depend on the category you will be coaching. This should become part of you preseason preparation and needs to be part of your presentation during your initial parent meeting.

How do you gain your coaching knowledge? Do give much thought on how you will present a particular soccer skill? Do you plan a parent meeting at the beginning of the soccer season?

New Soccer Season Planning

Regardless if you are new to being a volunteer soccer coach or a veteran the following is a very positive recommendation on getting yourself organized for the soccer season ahead of you. There are differences in coaching a recreational team versus a competitive one but the organizational part is pretty much the same.

The thing to always keep in mind is that a youth soccer team needs the cooperation of all involved. In the development of the team you need the parents as much as the players to be on the same plan. For this reason it is imperative that you decide to assemble a team staff which will facilitate this goal.

Decide on recruiting two assistant coaches from the your parent pool as this will make things easier with the following aspects:

• In most situations you will have a large group of players that you will be training. Having additional trainers on the field will help better manage the players especially with the younger categories.
• We all need to take vacations and in an effort to keep continuity on the training program you planned for the season, having additional help will serve this very well.
• Managing game play behind the bench becomes a lot easier. As you direct the team on the field the one assistant can manage the player substations  The other assistant can manage keeping  order on the bench as younger players struggle with paying attention to a game even one that they are participating in. Believe me game bench management is really challenging when you are doing alone.
• One of the soccer positions that gets the least amount of training would be the goalie. You can have one of your assistants work out a goalie training program that will be used during the soccer season. This is in addition to any training for goalies offered by the soccer club your team is affiliated to.
• Note that your soccer club may not support three coaches behind the bench in which case you should still have that second assistant on the field during soccer practices regardless.

Decide on a parent team manager because there will be off field tasks that you can find a little overwhelming and hence because of time constraints you may not do very well. A team manager is a good idea as they can take care of items such as:

• Fund raiding activities if any are decided to be done by the team and the parents. They can take on the responsibility to get this organized thereby minimizing your participation with this some times much needed activity.
• The team manager can be given the task to get all the paper work done for tournaments that you plan the team to participate in. There will be registration fees to collect, travel permits to obtain from the soccer association and preparation of  the roster and game sheets that will be used within the tournament.
• You can even make use of the team manager to take care of the team registration to your soccer association so that the parents can get a full service as opposed to having to visit the soccer association individually. This will usually occur to already established soccer teams where you know the majority if not the entire team will register for the next season.
•  For the younger soccer teams the team manager can also take care of the parent snack schedule for both the practices and the games. This is a rotation of healthy snacks that are brought to the team for them to enjoy after a good training session or game.
• The team manager can also be you resource to acquire additional team equipment either from the soccer club, loans, or purchased if needed. They can take the responsibility of the team uniform gathering and distribution. In most cases this one is usually done by you, the head coach, as there will  be special playaer requests for particular jersey numbers from your players.

Getting organized should be your first step to making this experience fun and not overwhelming. Keeping your perspective is most important as it is going to be a fun and fulfilling venture for you and the people you will be leading. Sharpen up your communication skills because in the planning phase you will need to define how you will be as transparent with your parents as you can be. It goes a long way if you adapt this mind set and makes the experience a lot more enjoyable.

What do you think? Does these recommendations make sense to you? How do you handle your team management?