A Few Basics of Coaching Youth Club Soccer

Coaching youth club soccer can be a lot of fun, although extremely challenging. Soccer is a very active sport that will help children and young adults to get a lot of high intensity exercise. Soccer is a sport that is driven by team work. It takes a team of players to move the ball successfully down the field to the opposing team's goal. This is not usually something that can be done by one player. This means that part of your job as soccer coach is to help players learn the basics of the game and to also learn how to get along and function together as a cohesive unit.

There are a few basic things you should know that will help you to be a good club soccer coach. One of the most basic fundamentals of coaching a soccer team is to remember to make every practice and every game as fun as possible. You want to spice up drills and skill practices to help keep everyone's attention and to push them to do their best. There are tons of ways to make practice sessions fun. Teach a new skill, then create a game to reinforce the skill. Have the winner of the game get an extra piece of pizza after practice or something along those lines.

Another fundamental element of good club soccer coaching is to make the most of your practice sessions. Most youth soccer practices are only an hour or two in length. This does not give you a lot of time to teach skills and work individually with members on the team to help them better their weaknesses. This means that before the season starts you need to sit down and make a plan for each of the practices the team will have. Divide the time up evenly between instruction, drills, and scrimmages. This will give your team members structure so that they know what to expect and will guarantee that you do not waste time during practice sessions.

It is important that you honestly assess the success you are having with each drill or exercise you are incorporating into practice sessions. Many club soccer coaches tend to latch on to routine and neglect to really engage the team to see if what they are doing is actually producing results. If something is not producing the desired results, you need to scrap it and try something different to help your team improve.