Preseason Meeting Topics

As I was perusing some Web sources on the topic of soccer volunteering I came across another blog 10 Things Soccer Parents Should Know' (check it out and let me know what you think)
that lists a good set of things that a coach has experienced with parents in his 22 years of coaching. This is a good read that works well with my blog's theme that a coach needs to understand his role goes beyond training a team of young players.

Now for the topic at hand, the contents of what we should prepare in an initial soccer parent meeting. I have mentioned that you should plan for at least three parent meetings throughout the soccer season. Preseason, mid-season and post season.

In general the contents for the preseason meeting is somewhat similar within the different level of categories but there are some differences as your goals with a younger category will be different from those of and older one. The essence remains the same where a young player should be learning the sport and striving at improving their skill sets with you help. Lets get into the thick of the preseason meeting topics.

As a note blogger doesn't support hosting of downloadable documents therefore I have managed to make use of another third party that allows file hosting and sharing so that you can access some of the documents I have created and used in my training career. A template of a sample agenda has been posted and is available to you for download under the 'Document & Template Download' section of this blog. Let me know if you experience problems gaining access to this section and the documents posted.

The following topics should make up the list of items you will want to cover during this meeting.

1. Meeting Preview
2. Team Staff Introductions
3. Coach's Goals & Expectations
4. Parent's/Relative's Conduct & Commitment
5. Player Conduct & Commitment
6. Practices & Games
7. Player's Playing Time
8. Open Door Policy
9. Questions & Adjournment

The first and last topics speak for themselves where you use the first topic to adjourn the meeting and distribute hard copies of the agenda for those attendees that didn't bring in a printed copy. There will be those who regardless if  you sent out the agenda way in advance will show up without a copy because they either sent a relative in their place or just forgot to do so. Quickly reviewing the topics to be presented and discussed is a good start and helps put you at ease with the session.

If you decided to hold the meeting during a scheduled practice session I recommend that you have additional help from you club to start and run the practice on time while you meet with the parents. Your time box will be tighter in this situation therefore I do recommend that you make this a separate one from a scheduled practice. I have come across a neat free site that help you schedule a meeting of a large group of people at Doodle.

Lets get into the meat and potatoes of the topics at hand and I will point out the ones that would more likely apply to specific category of young players.

Team Staff Introductions

At this point you would have had time to recruit additional help as I had mentioned that it makes it a lot easier to train a team if you have added help. Hopefully you have managed to engage two assistant trainers and a team manager. This would be a good time to have them introduce themselves during the meeting and have them give details of what roles they will be playing with the team. This structure may not be readily needed at the U5,U6,U7 categories but U8 and up it is a good staffing level to have.

The team manager will lift from you the tasks of handling tournament administration, collecting fees, fund raising, equipment administration, general communication, team profile and vacation schedule. Basically all tasks that take you away from concentrating on a sound training program suitable for the category you are training.

You can further explain that your assistants will help you in running and maintaining team structure, discipline,  soccer skills and for the older categories tactical skills.

If you have not been able to get the additional help then now would be the time to canvas the parents for these roles. You need to make this happen otherwise you will find yourself overwhelmed and it will impact your success.

Coach's Goals & Expectations

You will need to define what goals and expectations you have set for the team. Be open minded on this one because you will need to be aligned with any programs being promoted by your soccer club. Do not and I repeat do not loose perspective here as the team you are leading doesn't belong to you. You have been given the privilege to train them on behalf of the club regardless if you found yourself in the coach position because there was a lack of trainers within the club.

Some of the topics I cover in this section are my desire to demonstrate the building blocks to learn the skills to play the game. To contribute in self esteem and confidence building so that the young player develops positively. Players need to be respectful first to themselves and then to those around them such as other players, trainers, club officials, other teams and game referees. The other topic I touch on is teaching team play, like the old saying goes, there is no 'I' in team. And lastly to have fun in the process.

Parent's/Relative's Conduct & Commitment

This topic is a good one to cover with parents and their relatives. It may be a little intimidating but must be discussed as this is your opportunity to be transparent about what your expectations will be in this area. Believe me when I say you will be revisiting this topic in other parent meetings you will have.

Concerning the players you need to be clear that you are the coach along with your assistants. There should be zero tolerance on parents coaching from the sideline either at practice or at games. Express that comments like shoot, pass, boot it or any other playing instructions should not be a conduct adapted by them. If they can't help it then suggest that they sign up to coach. What they should adapt are encouraging remarks like nice run, great job, good hustle. Additionally suggest to the parent to help improve their child's soccer skills which will lead you to an important topic. Reiterate that they should not live through their children as their time has passed. Let their child be themselves and help them develop at their own pace.

Concerning the topic of referees, this is another most important subject to touch upon. Express that most referees are young and in most cases learning the sport and all the rules that go with it. Needless to mention that they are in a position to make judgement calls that may not be favorable. Parents need to keep their perspective and acknowledge this. Express that the coaches nor the players will never argue with a referees and the parent should extend this same respect and courtesy. Remember that teaching is also by example and hence arguing with referees teaches young players the wrong conduct.

 Player's Conduct & Commitment

This topic should be relevant to the category you are training. For the younger categories, U5 to U8, you will want to express that you will be enforcing and teaching players to concentrate and pay full attention for the length of practices and.or games. This one is challenging but this is one of the reasons you have the assistants. Also with the aid of the parents you will encourage that they continue to learn outside of practices and games.

For the older categories U9 to U12 enforce that their full attention during practices and games will be expected. That their will be some kind of sanctions for disorderly conduct keeping in mind that parents are paying for their child to form part of the team, therefore you need to work out what sanctions you will want to define with this in mind. And here also there will be an expectation for the player to continue to learn outside of practices and games.

Practices & Games

In this topic there is a lot of flexibility as you practices maybe dependent on the policies of your club. You will want to express that you will want players to be at practices on time and ready to start on schedule therefore, being a little earlier would be expected. Set you rules for pre-arrival times at games and tournament games. Discus the frequency of practices after having addressed the topic with your club. As you prepare an elite team the frequency will be higher versus a recreational team were it would be less intensive.

Player's Playing Time

This topic will be an on going one especially when training an elite team. If your a parent coach you can certainly relate as you will have the tendency to have you child play as often as possible. In an elite team there will be the tendency to play the better players more than the other weaker players. There are many opinions on this subject but I will express how I have handle this subject. And believe me that this is in no any way promotes any satisfaction among the parents. So be weary on this topic when you choose to define your policy and expressing it to the parents.

What I have used in the past and somewhat altered depending on the reaction received by the parents is the following; Elite team players form part of a team that is under pressure to attain top standings. Hence parents need to understand that even good players will have bad games and therefore, are subject to see less playing time when this happens. For a recreational team then equal play time will be used to the best of your ability and through the help of your assistants. A recreational team being primed for elite category you will still want to promote equal play and I point this out because it is during game play that players really learn to use what they practice and in real game conditions. And finally in an elite team punctuality and attendance are important and I have used this as playing sanctions when a player is a bad performer in both these areas, especially the older players.

Open Door Policy

The last topic I cover is that I adhere to the open door policy. Express to parents that if there are any issues or concerns they encounter not to keep it among themselves and to bring it to you for open discussion. If you are a soccer parent coach impartiality will be hard to preach but if your not then you will want to express this as your goal is to be the best role model you can be as a coach

This was a long blog but I felt that this is important and very much lacking with many coaches training young teams. I have used this for many years and it has worked well in the long run. I have had parents approach me and thank me for the openness and how thy wished more coaches or club would adapt this type of coaching.

What do you think about this approach? Are you involved with a team that has a coach with similar policies? Is this type of transparency something you wish would exist within your current team?