Tips for Coaching Youth Soccer

Coaching soccer requires many different attributes. To coach soccer successfully you need patience, determination, humility, desire to learn more, the ability to lead your team and much much more. You will also need to learn about the best ways to progress them from one training stage to the next.

In this section you will find tips for coaching youth soccer and guides to better your soccer team.

Here is a list of criteria that are important to soccer coaching.  This list is by no means all inclusive.  If you have other ideas please email me.

What makes and does not make a good soccer coach?

• Just because you have knowledge does not mean you have greater  ability than someone else.  It makes you a good soccer technician.

• The opposite of the one above is that you do need knowledge to be a great soccer coach.  You can't teach your athlete's the game of soccer or make the required adjustments if you don't know the game.

• The ability to teach is a key attribute.  If you have the knowledge but cannot translate that knowledge into action for your soccer players it is useless. From teaching how to kick a soccer ball to the proper 4-4-2 tactics, teaching the game of soccer is key.

• Patience! Sometimes there is nothing you can do to win games.  You simply will not have the talent.  That is not always your fault.  Through your knowledge of the game,  your ability to teach and your patience, the soccer team that you inherited will get better.  Remember soccer is a game. Yes, we all like to win.  But if you are patience, your team will grow, and players will get better.  Learn to instill discipline without being a jerk. 

• The ability to motivate will be required from time to time.