coachKidsSports.com

Captain My Captain

Coach Bigs — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 05:00:15 +0000

It's a good thing to turn your mind upside down now and then, like an hour-glass, to let the particles run the other way. - Christopher Morley

How do you choose your captains? In many rec leagues the coach picks 2 or 3 kids at random when the referee calls for captains. That's how I did it for years. I was always trying to remember who had already been a captain, who hadn't and likely hurting almost everyones feelings in the process.

Then it hit me one day. I didn't have to remember because I had already created a list that required each kid to do something at least once during the season: the snack list. Every game a family was assigned drinks and another snacks. It didn't happen often, but I usually had a couple missed assignments during the season. But by pairing snack duty with the captaincy, forgotten assignments were a thing of the past. The kids wouldn't allow Mom to forget because they were excited about being the captain. And if a kid was going out of town on snack duty day, it became a priority to trade with another family.

As a coach, it's tough to balance all of the competing needs. This tip saves you from thinking about one more thing before a game, so you can concentrate on making out your lineup and watching the parking lot for your star player.

Give me your best time savers in the comments.

Coaching Clinic

Coach Bigs — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 05:00:10 +0000

He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery. - Samuel Smiles

Last night I held a coaching clinic for a local soccer league. The coaches were great, very enthusiastic and excited about teaching soccer to their kids. I was very encouraged because the coaches were all looking to learn more, even the ones who had coached for several years.

The topics I covered would be familiar to regular readers: coaching as teaching; building upon fundamentals; how to set up practice; finding the coachable moments and building a team from a list of names. Almost as if I've been reading my own stuff…

To support the clinic I created a new page for the site: Clinic Resources. It has links and downloads related to the clinic, however anyone is welcome to check them out.

The downloads are soccer skills and drills I've picked up over the years as well as an Access database I created to manage my teams. The database is very basic, but then I never thought I'd share it with the world, so use it with that knowledge. If you are so inclined and talented, any upgrades to the database or additions to the skills and drills are appreciated.

I've also included two books on the Clinic Resources page. I've used one of the books, Developing Youth Soccer Players, since I started coaching soccer. It contains drills and games for all age and skill levels. Before each season I go through it again to see if there are any drills my team is ready to take on. The other book, Double Goal Coach, is a book I just started reading, but I'm very excited about what it says so far. The premise of the book — and web site — is that rec league coaches have two goals; teaching and winning. Winning is important, it's why we keep score, but teaching is a coach's primary goal and nothing should interfere with that goal. I think you have read that somewhere before… After I finish reading the book, I'll post a full review of the book as well as a run down of the resources available on the website.

Please take advantage of the links and downloads on the Clinic Resources page. I hope it can help at least the soccer coaches out there.

Ten names on a list don’t make a team

Coach Bigs — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 05:00:31 +0000

Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved. - Mattie Stepanek

Everyone gets a list of names from the league, after that it's up to you to create a team. The greatest satisfaction I get from coaching is building a team out of the dozen or so names I get at the beginning of the season. It goes beyond the kids understanding how to play the game or even the rare times two kids get a feeling for what the other will do in a game. What I really like is when the kids greet one another as they arrive at practice and games, the parents know each other and cheer for one another's children. Here are five things you can do right now to build that kind of TEAM:

Learn the kids names immediately — use them every chance you get. You say you aren't good at names — nobody is… The best part about dealing with kids is they don't get offended if you call them the wrong name, they just correct you. I had two girls who were best friends. They weren't sisters, but they looked similar. I confused them for the two years I coached them, all the coaches did — even the one girl's father. Don't worry about using the wrong name — you will. But the more you use the kids names the quicker you'll commit them to memory.

Create a handout with every Kid's name, number, picture and parents names — pass it out to all parents for the first 2-3 games. You need to build team spirit with the parents also. If you make it easier to for them to learn the other kids and parents names, they will be more supportive of the team.

Run your practice with small groups. Break the kids into groups of 3-4 at practice — rotate the kids through the groups — use the kids names in the groups, so they learn the other kid's names. Worried you don't have enough assistants, recruit a Mom or Dad from the sidelines. They only need to know as much as the kids — just 10 seconds sooner.

Name your team. It can be silly, scary or a tounge twister, but give the team a name the kids will get behind and remember.

Appoint a team photographer and set up a Flickr (or similar photo sharing sites). Flickr is free for 20mb/mo and only $25/yr for a virtually unlimited amount of pictures (2gb/month). Be sure to talk to your parents about this, some people have privacy concerns about posting pictures of kids, even unlabeled pictures. With Flickr you can alleviate some of the concern by limiting access to the site. However that will require everyone to create a free Flickr account and give the team photographer their account name before they can see the pictures.

Thats 5 quick ideas that don't take much time or money; and the return you'll get on each one is immeasurable. You are only limited by your imagination. There are thousands more I haven't listed, or even thought of. Give me some of your best ones in the comments.