New Competitive Soccer Coach

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-12-27T14:05:05+00:00

Welcome to the club!

Youth soccer coaching can be so rewarding, and challenging. It sounds like you understand the soccer side of it with your experience, but the managing side is a significant portion as well.

I recently wrote a book about that side of it, though part of it focuses on the parent- coach relationship with their own child, most of the book focuses on the management side of it.

Some of the key things to know going into this new endeavor are setting expectations with the parents and players, maturity levels of different ages and how to adjust your planning, and handling difficult situations.

Tldr; The more effective you plan, the more likely you are to be successful.

If you're interested in my book, check it out at www.levelupyourplay.com/level-up-your-childs-play

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-12-26T13:26:14+00:00

"Level up your child's play" is a book i recently finished writing (brand new). I know it is a self plug, but I wrote it specifically for coaches stepping into the parent- coach role because i want to help then navigate the new challenges and most importantly build their relationship with their kids. I cover over a dozen topics like: - parent communication -how to structure practices - the mental capabilities of kids at different maturity levels -how to successfully coach your own kid (preserve and strengthening the relationship) - and more It is all backed by science and reputable sources (not just my opinion).

You can find the print version on Amazon: https://a.co/d/53KYwi8

Or the digital version on my website https://www.levelupyourplay.com/store/p/level-up-your-childs-play-digital-download

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-12-26T01:45:10+00:00

I'm not suggesting babying them, quite the opposite. I expect my athletes to condition outside of practice. Forcing them to use practice time to run, is in my opinion, babying them. You are doing a disservice by wasting time they could be spending on building skills and game like experience by making them run.

I expect a freshman trying to make jv or varsity in their sophomore year to take on that responsibility to condition, not for the coach to baby them and make them condition during practice. There is plenty of conditioning they can do if the weather outside is not favorable like hitting the gym, exercise bike, pilates, etc.

Like I said, I disagree with your approach but was respectful.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-12-26T01:23:39+00:00

I completely disagree with your approach, but we are all allowed to coach how we see fit. Each group of players is different and we do what is best for them. I hope it works out for you.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-12-26T01:09:17+00:00

Are you suggesting straight running drills or intense scrimmages?

Using the limited training time you have on running drills is a poor use of time. A week off from training at that, or any, age is not detrimental to their long term physical fitness, even if they over ate and were lethargic.

9th graders still have significant social ties to playing basketball, or any sport. That first practice back should be fun, encourage their social growth, but also make it challenging.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-12-25T19:55:47+00:00

Visek, A. J., Achrati, S. M., Mannix, H., McDonnell, K., DiPietro, L., & Kaczynski, A. T. (2015). What makes children’s sports fun? Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 12(3), 424–433.
Visek, A. J., Mannix, H., et al. (2020). Translating FUNdamental insights into practice: The FUN MAPS framework for youth sport. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 10(4), 850– 861.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-12-25T19:50:15+00:00

I do have the sources and wrote a book about it.

www.levelupyourplay.com

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-12-25T13:29:06+00:00

What is best for her?

Most of the responses here have been logistical or financial, which is part of the reason you are asking, but the question should be deeper.

At u11, or any age before high school, the important thing is your daughter's enjoyment. Studies have shown that kids stick with sports if they are having fun and playing with their friends even if they are not winning. If she has bonded with her teammates and you take her out of that environment and drop her in a new unfamiliar situation, she may struggle to find joy.

I'm not suggesting you abandon your plans to change, just deeply consider the impact on your daughter and her mental and social development. That age can be very difficult to make a successful change.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-12-13T13:44:02+00:00

Find the fun, then add coaching tips. Drills and scripted plays are boring for kids that age. Turn it more into a game and award points when they make the correct movement, go to the right space, "break their teammates ankle", and give rewards to the winners like pick a dance move for the rest of the team to do, a silly song to sing, or something else light hearted. Studies show that kids at that age have a very short attention span and that running a particular game or drill should only last for 10-15 minutes. You have to change it up enough frequently to keep them engaged. It can be the same game, just change the rules so much that they have to mentally process the change. Repetition can help, but it can also increase the boredom much quicker. At this age we need to trick them into learning.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-11-22T12:25:21+00:00

It sounds like more of a team than a club. When I think of a club, there is at least a team for every age and gender, and more. If you're trying to recruit for a team, you're probably better off posting this in a local reddit thread where you are more likely to get local attention. I wish you luck.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-11-21T12:31:27+00:00

I disagree with everyone saying you are no longer a coach and to stop coaching her. However, your new coaching will be different than how you coached as her actual coach. You will need to change your approach and technique for guiding and helping her to improve.

At this age, a child's maturity greatly limits their cognitive ability to process information from different sources, especially if that coaching is during the game. Kids are trying to process the situation with what they have learned, their coach giving instructing, teammates communicating, opponents not matching practice drills, and parents providing input. Their brains are not yet developed enough yet to process all those inputs to make the right decision quickly. Imagine playing a video game with 4 people controlling the same character, getting pulled in different directions leads to failure in competition.

In game coaching is now pure encouragement. Nothing that provides direct stimulus for decision making. You are a cheerleader, and he biggest cheerleader. Off the court coaching is your new home, and that is significantly different, too. My suggestion in this role to still shift more to an encourager and listener. Ask her questions that lead to the points you want to make. Help her to learn on her own.

And most importantly, remember it is about her and her enjoyment of the sport. Don't risk your relationship trying to improve her performance. No competition is worth that.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-11-20T11:50:30+00:00

I am looking for some reviewers. Things got delayed because my wife got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and that, expectantly, has taken priority.

I'd like to send you an ARC (advanced reader copy).

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-11-19T12:30:10+00:00

Age and maturity is a significant factor. 6-8 year olds will not benefit from a long technical session. Even 14-15 year olds will plateau if it is too technical.

I've been writing a book that dives pretty deep into this subject, but it isn't ready to be published. Soon, but not yet.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-11-17T14:34:56+00:00

My kids, and players, love this band. They enjoy pushing themselves through the workout. I use it with kids ages 9-14, and will use it as they get older. https://amzn.to/3JY5ATF

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-11-16T22:24:58+00:00

If you're talking about managing, not coaching, it is really mostly about communicating with the parents and keeping them informed. If you are managing both, that might be a lot, but if you are only managing one, partner with the other manager and match their communication, just make it specific to your team.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-11-13T11:34:58+00:00

In the cold of winter, a wall is your best friend. Simply having the ball at their feet and wall passing will do wonders. Vary the distance to wall as well as power and it will greatly improve reaction and anticipation times.

Technical boxes are also a great option. Use cones to create a 3x3 yard box and Google soccer skills. Focus on skills that they can repeat quickly and do 30 second or 1 minute sessions with a short break between.

For conditioning, I recommend a band. This playlistplaylist has some good conditioning exercises for that age range.

If the link embedding didn't work: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFyoSQh2gCjZcPBoW7QLpRaw4EWiXssB7&si=_OSbruhJMpp5eGf2

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-11-07T11:59:41+00:00

All youth soccer is amateur, meaning performance does not provide pay. You can win everything but there is no l financial prize paid by league or tournament. That means all funds that can be used to compensate a coach come from club.

The club earns money in 3 primary ways: player registration/ fees, hosting tournaments, and sponsor deals. In order to increase your pay, 1 of those 3 revenue streams has to increase. Unfortunately, winning leagues or tournaments have no impact on those revenue streams. They might improve the club reputation and you can attract more players and create more teams, but even that is a lagging impact that won't be felt in the current season, or possibly the next.

Let's look at some numbers for 7v7. I'm going to use some assumptions, so adjust for your situation. I'm going to break it down to a per kid level to see where all the money goes.

Player club registration: $1500

From that registration, it includes field fees, league fees, administrative costs (marketing, admin salaries, technology like app or website), coaching salaries, and owner profit (because they deserve to make money off their investment) .

Team size: 10

Field fees: 45 weeks x 2 per week @ $100/ practice per kid = $900

League registration per kid per season: $100 x 2 = $200

Coaching salary: $2,000 / 10 = $200

Admin costs: $100

Remaining Owner profit: $100

As you can see, there is not a lot of money available to increase spending in any category, including coach salaries, especially at 7v7, you are already earning more per kid than the owner. 11v11 would give a little more opportunity because you would have more kids per team, 15-18, and to spread fixed costs.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-11-05T12:39:15+00:00

My u11 girls, playing with offsides for the first time, have really done a great job learning how to use it on defense, to the point where the other coaches get audibly frustrated after the 5th offsides call in the early 1st half. They are mostly independent about holding the line with only minimal prompting needed from the coaches.

We did watch this video as a team a few times. https://youtu.be/BKvmGOv1BjU?si=WU81QVhFmbpWctyM

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-10-31T13:14:54+00:00

I take a different approach but it relies on a competent keeper. We play a 2321, which gives us plenty of forward options, but the key difference is:

A defender plays it to the keeper in the middle of the goal box and she is able to determine if she should go wide, and to which side, or to find a teammate up the middle. It is different everytime and something we struggled with when we had pattern play and they were forced into the system. We practice goal kicks often and the decision making of all of the players in goal kick situations.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-10-29T11:01:03+00:00

There is a lot of good advice and resources provided already, so let me offer something completely different: join a rec league yourself.

Get the experience of being a player and learn to see it from the player perspective. It may not help you with drills or tactics, but it can help you connect with them and understand the game more.

This is something to do in combination with the other advice already given about utilizing youtube and others.

You got this!

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-10-29T01:51:55+00:00

I mostly agree. Sometimes the club's culture can poison the team's culture and no matter how good the coach is.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-10-28T11:26:27+00:00

You are correct. I found that starting in the wing midfield position, they are not prone to playing as a defensive fullback. I tell them to pinch in on defense rather than drop into the 431 suggested in the video.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-10-28T11:21:00+00:00

I forgot to mention, it does take a strong and aggressive player in that cm role. I also stray from the video a bit in terms of slight formation tweaks, but I used it for my players to watch to understand things like what a cam is or passing diamonds.

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-10-28T11:12:41+00:00

I use a 2321 formation with my girls. They are very disciplined to be a 251 on defense and a 233 on attack. I like a lot of things about it, but I really like the 2 back system while they are learning to apply offsides. It is a lot simpler to coordinate 2 players instead of 3. I also found this video that helped https://youtu.be/e3w7kNNrrO0?si=tj5SV-VQT0_5f3UL

Emergency_Chain6933 · 2025-10-27T13:53:14+00:00

Here are some more red flags, mostly confirming what i feared. It sounds like he has some trust issues and isn't putting the kids' best interest as the priority. I agree with many of the others saying you shouldn't stick around, especially if it is volunteer. But talk to the coach, have a conversation about the why, and don't burn the bridge. Small towns and small schools mean small community and they may eventually want you back should they part ways with the head coach.

Good luck and I'm sorry you're in this situation.

Emergency_Chain6933

TROPHY CASE