Temper Your Temper. Stop Being a Bully Coach!
Young children playing soccer need positive, upbeat role models as coaches. They don't need angry, cranky, coaches who think they need to earn respect by yelling. Kids don't need a coach who feels like the only way to get players to listen is by yelling. Angry coaches, you know who you are. You are the coach that yells little kids out of the game or to another team.
You have to ask yourself why yell at little kids like that. Is it because you see professional coaches yelling at their professional players? Or is it because you want to prepare little kids for the lessons they will face later in life? What ever your reason for yelling and screaming at kids-stop.
First of all, kids now adays are already exposed to enough negative pressures. They have kids making fun of them at school, parents who yell at them, or any other negative pressure pushing them down. It's not the coaches job to add to the negative pressure. It's not your job to teach little kids how to cope with angry people. Practice and games should be used as an outlet from outside negative pressures. Practices and games should be a time for kids to get with friends who are supported by a positive role model (Coach).
I had a bad experience with an angry coach as child. While I was younger I played on a baseball team. For some reason the coach thought he had to yell at us. The thing he did was drive me away from the team.
Let's say your goal is to build respect. There are other ways to get respect than to yell. Try being positive. Make the kids want to play well because they like you, and because you are a good positive leader. A lot of these kids already respect you anyways, just because you are older. The job of a coach for younger kids should not be to make the game miserable for them.
The job of the coach is to make the game fun, and teach them the fundamentals.
If you are currently a coach who yells and screams at little kids on the soccer field-stop. It just makes the game less fun and might drive them from the game altogether. And what good are you then. You've just taught kids soccer skills they will never use again anyways.
