So, how do you objectively measure a coaches performance? The current systems aren’t set-up in such a way to measure coaches. In all of the leagues that I’ve been a member, the coaches are chosen in January. I believe early decision making on coaching appointments gives the DOC or Board only a couple of objective measurement tools – team records (not good for youth) or angry parents calling for a mutiny.

Just as tryouts are a great way to analyze player ability, it’s the perfect time to measure a coaches performance. Tryouts are the key here, because you can have multiple coaches analyze the talent of the players trying out for the team. If a number of players from the previous year don’t make the team, or rank lower than they did the previous year, the coach didn’t do the job.

1. How many players are still on the team from when the coach started? If the coach started with 11 players at U10 and by U12 there are less than half the players on the team, I’d begin to ask some questions. Is their generally high turnover in the league due to families moving – military? recurring natural disasters?
2. How many players from the  previous years team were placed a level down? If the coach is replacing more than 1-2 (10%) players per year with new players, I’d wonder why the coach isn’t developing his players ahead of the players coming in. Having a season (which is a year in today’s youth world) to develop players is an awful lot of time and they should be ahead of anyone that comes to the team later on.
3. How many players from the years previous team didn’t tryout again, or found another team? If this is the scenario, the league has some questions to ask the coach, because the players are voting as fast as their feet can take them somewhere else.
4. Does the team always win their flight, but never moves up to the higher flight? The coach that consistently makes this decision only wants to win and should be avoided. This coach will make decisions that are only in the name of winning. Development of skill, character, team work, and respect for the game probably don’t enter this coaches mind.
5. Does the team always finish at the bottom of your table? Here the record of wins/losses should be considered, because teams are placed in different flights based on their previous records. Teams should be playing in competitive flights, so that the kids develop. If the team always finds itself at the bottom of the table, you definitely have some questions to ask of the coach.

Currently, many coaches are chosen or re-hired before tryouts for the next season, destroying any opportunity for the most basic constructive measurement. Boards and DOCs should be asking themselves every year, “Are we putting the best coach in charge of our teams?”

How does a league measure coaching ability with tryouts when State Cup is in January? Have an assessment weekend or two in early December, when the league play is wrapped up and the teams are preparing for Cup play. Recreation leagues are just finishing too, so you will get all of the kids at the end of the season when soccer is fresh in their feet. You can’t have the “Assessment” weekend take the place of the tryouts at the end of February, because it will hurt your team for State Cup, but you can begin to compile the objective data on whether the coach should be asked to return for another stint of leading and developing the players on the team.

I had the great fortune to referee 7 games yesterday and for the most part had a great experience. The ability to always see the sidelines was difficult to call balls out of bounds. The age of the kids and the fact my first 6 games were girls made the difficult out of bounds call easier. They always seemed to stop when it went out, so I’d know.

My third game was interesting in that it had a team with only 6 players on the field against a team with 4 subs. The 6 player team destroyed the other team by a score of 9 to 1 and controlled the entire game. They possessed very good skill, created space for each other and would get their heads up rather quickly for their young 8 years, they would also talk to each other while playing. The other team was coached by a “joy-stick” coach, as the score differential increased, the coach yelled louder and more often. I, for one, couldn’t wait for the game to be over. Even halftime wasn’t a relief because the woman went on a five minute tirade at a volume that would make an 18 year old with a new car stereo jealous.

The juxtaposition in coaching styles between the two teams was interesting to see. The other coach gave a 30 second speech about doing great, keep it up and make sure to get to the ball followed with some time for the kids to drink and relax. He gave a few words of advice to individual players, all in a relaxed tone and then assigned positions. It was so, so calm.

The second half began and the “joy-stick” coach only got more vocal, which I couldn’t have imagined was possible, and the kids began to shut down. They would look around in frustration and you could see the defeat in their body language and faces. Not a defeat of, “boy are we getting creamed”, but of the “get off my back” variety.

My last game was a U10 boys game and that is where the fireworks of the day began and ended for me. The turnaround between games was only 5 minutes, so I’d introduce myself to the coaches, explain how I’d like substitutions to work, get the captains and see if they had any questions. The first coach I went to says to me, “Are we going to have to supply the balls again?”, which is a rather weird way to see who was going to provide a ball for the kids to play with -  uh “does it really matter”. So, let’s call this guy “hot-head”, I’d go with “the world is against me and not very fair” but that’s a little long to type each time.

The game began on time and fairly early in the other team scored. I went through boot camp at the young age of 19 and my drill instructor would have been very proud of how this coach ripped apart these 9 year old boys for giving up a goal. He didn’t stop with his boys though. Every call, or non call, that I made that didn’t go for him was a travesty. As a single ref on the field, it’s pretty tough to see the lines. This guy would even throw his hands up depending on the out of bounds calls. At this point, I diagnosed him as certifiable and figured his actions would have to be addressed. About a minute before half, one of his boys took a a feeble shot on goal between the two back defenders about 5 yards outside the penalty area and fell to the ground after shooting. This coach went nuts about it being a foul and I had had enough and walked to the sideline to warn him that any more ridiculous outbursts and he would not be around to finish watching the game. His team went on to win 3-2 and they had scored the goal with about 4 minutes left in the game. But after my “little talk” with the coach, it was amazing how down his team played. As if they were embarrassed or reprimanded too.

I do not yell at the refs as a coach. I do not feel yelling at them will do any good during the game and that a discussion during halftime or after the game is a much better way to handle any frustration with a referee. But I also don’t do it because I don’t want my team to think their play should be influenced by the referee in a negative way. If I’m hopping around like a lunatic, waving my arms up and down like I’ve been attacked by a swarm of bees, how is my team going to play? How much respect for the game, themselves, the other team, and for their coach are they going to really have. And at the end of the day, what type of role model do you want the players to have?

Parents, you don’t have to put up with this behavior from your coaches. You should discuss their behavior with the appropriate person on the board of directors. In many leagues this will be the Coaching Coordinator.

Coaching Coordinators, you should be out watching your coaches to see how they act on the sideline and preempt any complaints by speaking to the coaches before they get too far along and do too much damage. You should also have on your year-end reviews from the parents a question about how the coach handled themselves with referees.

Perspective people, perspective!

“There was a very cautious man
Who never laughed or played.
He never risked, he never tried,
He never sang or prayed.
And when he one day passed away,
His insurance was denied.
For since he never really lived,
They claimed he never really died.”

A friend of mine recently had a very trying experience with his daughter recently and it breaks my heart to hear these kinds of stories. The coach had told his wife that his daughter wasn’t playing well. His daughter was devastated because the situation is confusing. Her confusion was apparent in the only coherent sentence she could get out between sobs, “how can he say that, we only did fitness today?” His daughter is 11 years old and only wants to please her parents, her coach and play soccer. This is about the 3rd time in two months that the coach has told her either directly or through her parents that she isn’t playing well. The first instance he told the father, 2 weeks ago he pulled her out of a game that she had played a total of 6 or 7 minutes, and then the mother today.

This is a coach that has gone through all of the NSCAA accreditation up to and including the NSCAA Premier Diploma. I’ve taken courses through the Advanced National and we’ve covered why kids play, but maybe the NSCAA needs to pay more attention to psychology of developing youth players.

I guess I’m trying to figure out why it matter’s so much that she improve overnight. She’s growing and knows what she needs to work on – dribbling and being able to hold the ball. Let her work on it and give her time. She doesn’t play in the EPL and shouldn’t need to have drastic improvement from one game to the next to keep her spot. Repeatedly telling a kid they aren’t cutting it isn’t going to help them improve, but giving them positive reinforcement and having patience is a much more positive and fruitful approach  for developing youth players.

There are so many issues with the current situation that “U.S. Youth Soccer” is facing that I’m surprised at this level of coaching credentials I am seeing such an amateurish approach. This is why there is such a drop-off of players after age 12. This is why we don’t get better development, because the kids are quitting before they mature. At least this kid won’t be like those American Idol kids that think they can sing…  she won’t have much confidence at all at the end of this season.

Parents

1. Prepare for practice like a game: make sure they eat/snack an hour and a half before practice starts, they sip water on the ride to practice and they have all of their gear.
2. Encourage your players to give 100% in every practice.
3. Look for a team where your child is challenged by their coach to always improve.

Players

1. Approach your teammates as opponents during practice.
2. Your best friend is the teammate that challenges you the most.
3. Listen to your coach and give 100% effort in everything you do during the 90 minutes of practice.
4. Be positive and take every critique as a challenge to improve.
5. Be respectful to your fellow players and coaches to be a great teammate.

Coaches

1. Create sessions that bring out the intensity of your players  by making sure movement from one drill/game to the next doesn’t take more time than a 30-60 second water break
2. Challenge your players by having older players practice with your team.
3. Challenge your players by playing up an age bracket or, if they are girls, by scrimmaging a boys team.
4. When you see a player giving a 100% effort, make sure that you let the team know by publicly acknowledging that player.

Players need to approach every practice and every game with the same intensity. It is not enough to come to practice and go through the motions. A player’s goal in practice should be to play as hard as they would in a game. There is no better way to improve yourself or your teammates than to play at game speed as much as possible.

Playing at game speed, with good players is the reason parent’s should seek out the most talented team their child can play on. Even if they aren’t the best player, being challenges is how they will get better. Often, especially at younger ages, the players that develop the most and go on to do well are those that had to work harder when they were younger. You see this with siblings. Many, many times, the youngest brother/sister is the better player because they’ve had to play and compete with their more mature (physically and mentally) sibling. So, encourage your children to get the most out of practice, to give 100% and to make sure they aren’t in an environment that makes them become complacent.

Jozy Altidore as an example:

Hull City manager Iain Dowie says U.S. striker Jozy Altidore, on loan this season from Villarreal, must focus on training harder and work on his “football intelligence”  if he is to achieve his potential.

He finished with one goal in 28 EPL games. According to Dowie, “for the level of investment it’s probably not enough.”

“I’ve spoken to Jozy a number of times since I’ve been here and, if Jozy can train the way he plays, I think he’s got a great opportunity but he needs to understand that it’s that day in, day out,” said Dowie. “He’s a lovely, laid-back boy and there’s no side to him but he needs to focus on training at a better level. Kevin Kilbane keeps turning it out because he trains at that level, Nicky Barmby can keep playing because he trains at that level. It’s a different level than Jozy’s used to training at and he’s got to get used to it. He found the physicality of the Premier League very hard when he came in. He’s got used to that now but he must not get comfortable.”

Kelley and Ali’s Corner video blog — giving a glimpse into the life of a professional soccer team.

Last year I tried to create coaching sessions and ensure that fitness was gained through the small sided games and drills. I coach girls, so it may be completely different with boys, but I found that the intensity that they brought to training wasn’t intense enough to achieve the necessary fitness levels through this type of training. Previous to this little experiment of expecting fitness to be gained through drills/SSGs, I had always incorporated fitness into our training sessions and we’d been quite successful with a record of 46-3-2 over 2 years.

We went to a tournament and were destroyed, some due to our fitness, some due to the fact we were playing U12 soccer with eleven 10-year old players, and partly because we moved to the full size field. The coach I was speaking with, as many coaches are, was focused questioned focusing too much on fitness and not enough on teaching soccer.

For those of you who don’t believe fitness should be part of every training session, I have a few questions:

• How do you keep up your forward run, if all you want to do is pass the ball so you can stop and watch?
• How are you going to get back on defense after the attacking run?
• How are you going to pressure the attacker, if you are tired?
• How are you going to decide to take a player 1v1, if you just want to pass because you are tired?
• And the most important, how do you make good decisions if the brain isn’t working due to a lack of oxygen?

Here is how our fitness regimen worked and it worked very well as we became a team that handled the fitness requirements of an entire game vs. barely playing a good 15 minutes at the beginning of the season.

• Team would warm up with dribbling exercises, coerver drills, dribbling in crowded spaces and then a game of takeaway (half the team in a square with the ball, half without – those without try to take other player’s balls, those without a ball at end, get 10 pushups).
• Team would go through some dynamic stretching (zombie walks, butt-kickers, jogging, hopping, carioca, shuffles, sprints)
• Team lines up and would run just under half a mile in 3.5 minutes
• Those who didn’t make the 3.5 minutes would get to do it again
• Those who didn’t make the 3.5 the 2nd time would get 1/3 less distance in 2 min. 20 seconds
• Those who didn’t make that would run half of that in 1 min. 10 seconds.

Half way through practice, before we went to our 6v6 or 8v8 part of practice, we’d do a fitness regimen again. Sometimes it’d be the above or it would be an exercise where the girls were lined up about 15 yeards from a partner and would have to chase each other down. The winner moved up a lvl in the drill the loser moved down. Bottom half would have to do push-up or one lap at the end.

After the first two practices of running the top portion of the fitness drills, all girls would make the first leg, so the fitness would only take about 4 minutes total and the second session would take anywhere from a  repeat of the 4 minutes to a more lengthy 10 minutes. So, in a 90 minute workout the girls would spend 15 minutes (16% of the practice time) working on their fitness.

The good thing about this approach is that the least fit get the most fitness workout and it puts the responsibility in their court. I’d say at the beginning, “make the first 3:30 so we can get to start playing.” I was on their side, but I’d hold them accountable and they knew that’s what I was there. As their fitness became better, nobody would complain/roll their eyes, huff and puff about having to run. I’d be sure to point out to them after games that we’d controlled the second half or the middle of the field, or possession because of their fitness.

Their fitness became a badge of honor, even as it became easier for them to maintain. Besides being fit, their overall game improved. There thought process was positive as they would take players on 1v1, close down an attacker, cover the far post after a 50-yard breakaway and create space by passing and moving.

I’m sorry, but the game isn’t 15 minutes long, for these girls it is 60 and to have fun and find success they need to be fit.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (April 21, 2010) – US Club Soccer has announced the details for the upcoming season’s id² program, which provides an opportunity for the country’s top youth talent to be identified and developed for possible inclusion in U.S. Soccer’s National Team programs.

Currently in its seventh year, the id² program now includes boys born in 1997-98 and girls born in 1994-97.

Player recommendations are being accepted; please use the Player Recommendation Form at the id² Web page on usclubsoccer.org. Early recommendation is encouraged to ensure that players are able to be properly evaluated.

Any coach is able to recommend qualified players with national team potential for inclusion in the id² program. These player recommendations supplement US Club Soccer’s own scouting process that utilizes a network of key scouts at the organization’s National Cup Regionals and Finals, during league play and at various other events and tournaments throughout the country.

There is no cost to the player to be recommended or scouted for the id² program.

Player recommendations and the results from US Club Soccer’s own scouting process will be used to form a player pool from which qualified players will be invited to an id² Training Camp. Three id² Regional Training Camps will be held for boys born in 1997-98 and girls born in 1996-97. Approximately 65 boys and 65 girls will attend each camp in the fall of 2010. Additionally, US Club Soccer will hold an id² National Training Camp for 1994-97 girls in early 2011, which will take place in conjunction with the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL).

The specific dates and locations for the id² Training Camps will be forthcoming.

“The first id² National Training Camp co-sponsored by the ECNL in early 2010 was a tremendous success,” said ECNL President Christian Lavers. “The ENCL Player Identification Program worked to identify and bring players into the camp that either had not been identified previously, or deserved another opportunity for evaluation at a national level. The success of that camp, in which six players were invited into U.S. Soccer National Team programs, makes us tremendously excited to expand our relationship with US Club Soccer’s id² program in 2010-11.”

For the second successive year, a team of the best 18 boys from the fall id² Regional Training Camps will have the opportunity to experience the day-to-day culture of some of the world’s most well-known professional clubs while also improving themselves via high-level training and game competition as part of the 2011 id² National Selection International Tour. Details for the 2011 trip will be announced soon; click here for information and highlights from the 2010 id² National Selection International Tour.

“Last year marked significant gains for the id² program,” said id² Boys’ Program Director Gerry McKeown, who is also a U.S. U-15 Boys’ National Team assistant coach. “The 2009 id² Training Camps were all very successful, and the experience and knowledge that the players obtained on the 2010 id² National Selection International Tour was invaluable. We are encouraged by this and anticipate additional success in this program year with a more encompassing recommendation and scouting program.”

“We’re pleased that we’re able to expand the age groups for girls,” said id² Girls’ Program Director Rory Dames. “I am looking forward to the wide-ranging recommendation and scouting process that will take place throughout the year, which serves as the base for our id² success.”