Soccer Edition 63

Welcome to the Soccer Newsletter.  Today’s subject will deal with how to become a better coach as well as how to determine whether a coach is good at what they do.

First I would like to remind people that there is a new survey online at http://finesoccer.com/survey.htm (new as of last week).  If you haven’t already, please take a minute to take the new survey as well as check out the results of the old ones. 

Also, check out the bonus article by Bill Beswick, which includes his way of defining a coach.  It can be found at http://finesoccer.com/bonus_article.htm and is one of the best things I have seen written about this subject.

This newsletter is going to ramble a bit because it’s something that too many people seem to care about but not do enough with.  One of the reasons that I know people really do want to become more knowledgeable coaches is from the number of subscribers to the FineSoccer Newsletters.  If you didn’t want to know more about the subject, you wouldn’t be reading this.  I do NOT track where subscribers are from or what level they are coaching but I do look at the email addresses and notice a surprising number of college coaches subscribe to the newsletters.  Does this mean that they are bad coaches?  Of course not, rather it means that they are looking to learn more on a regular basis (and that is one of the reasons I write these newsletters as both the writing of the newsletters and the number of emails I receive from subscribers is a tremendous way for me to learn more about the game and the art of coaching).

How can you become a better coach?  The first answer is that to become better, you must acknowledge that you don’t know everything there is to know about the game.  This might seem silly but the truth is that I have been involved in too many coaching clinics and courses where people will ask questions simply so they can get into arguments to prove how knowledgeable they are.  Or they have to show that they know more then everyone else so when the instructor says something or asks a question, they MUST be the first to respond to prove just how much they know.  If these people would acknowledge that they aren’t all knowing, then the learning process could begin.

The next thing to do is be willing to steal!  I get asked quite frequently where I get my drills.  While I do make some of them up, most are things I have seen other coaches do with their teams.  I have been accused of being anti social at fields sometimes because if I am at a field early for a training session, I prefer to go watch another team train rather then socialize with other coaches or parents.  It is very unusual for me to watch a training session and not get something out of it (although more and more it seems I am learning what not to do rather then what to do.  If you ever have the opportunity to watch others train and don’t take advantage of it, then I would question how serious you are about becoming a better coach.  It doesn’t matter what level you coach or what level coach you are watching, if you want to learn you will.  As a bonus, this is a much cheaper way to learn then coaching courses or books or videos.

The next way to learn is by going to coaching courses or clinics.  In the USA, the most popular coaching courses are run by the USSF (http://www.us-soccer.com/) and the NSCAA (http://nscaa.com).  Although there are some differences between the two, I am going to lump them together for now.  Can you learn at a coaching course?  The answer is definitely yes.  Will you learn?  Well this is a much harder question to answer.  I have seen way too many people attend coaching courses and not learn a single thing.  Why didn’t they learn anything?  Simply, because they had not acknowledged that they didn’t know everything.  I was at a course this past summer and saw a session run by two very impressive Brazilian coaches who were showing how they work with players on dribbling and becoming comfortable with the ball.  They did a wonderful job but I was watching the coaching candidates who milled around during the session because it was “beneath” them since the drills were actually quite simple.  Rather then seeing the beauty of being able to do simple drills with skillful players and getting a lot out of it, they preferred to talk to each other since they knew more then these instructors.  I saw this over and over throughout the week (I was not there as a coaching candidate but certainly paid as much attention to the instructors as I could while also watching the way they were being received.  Does attending a coaching course or clinic and receiving the license or certification mean you are a good coach?  Of course not but it does mean you were willing to go through the cost and time of these courses.  While I have seen coaches with the highest licenses and certification who couldn’t coach well and have also seen many coaches with no licenses or certification who were excellent coaches, if you really want to get better, this is an excellent way to learn (but don’t waste your money and go unless you really do want to learn).

Next you can learn a great deal from books and videos.  I am sure everyone has their favorites and at the suggestion of a subscriber, I am going to come up with a list of people’s favorite books and videos for learning.  I will be asking for people’s suggestions within the week.  One of the most successful club coaches I have been around never played the game and hasn’t been to coaching courses.  Everything he learned is from books, videos and watching other coaches.  Am I saying this is the most effective way to learn?  Definitely not.  However, it certainly can help you learn more about the game and coaching.  There are also numerous other resources available such as web sites (personally I like FineSoccer.com lol), magazines, etc.

If I were a college age person who was interested in getting into coaching, I would consider either being a business major (managing a team is very similar to managing a business albeit a business with young employees), or majoring in education.  Being a coach means being a teacher so why not learn to be a teacher?

While becoming a great coach is not an easy thing to do, it IS easy to become a better coach.  The most important thing to do is to want to become a better coach.  The first step for most of you is already done since you are still reading this newsletter.

Remember that all previous newsletters are archived at http://finesoccer.com.

There are some excellent coaching points being discussed on the FineSoccer Forum.  Check them out at http://finesoccer.com/forum.htm .

Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to comments@finesoccer.com

Have a great day

Lawrence