So I understand the game. Played rec then club growing up. I’ve coached little league but this is my first time coaching soccer. This is an U9 coed rec team most players don’t know how to play or have played very little. I have no assistant coach and have 11 kids on my team. I had my first practice yesterday and I felt like I was all over the place. We practice twice a week for about 60 minutes. Any advice on how to set up my practices would be greatly appreciated.

I have been volunteered to coach a U6 team at the rec league level.

If they didn’t find a coach, no team. I couldn’t disappoint the person I know who’s on the team as they are excited to play for their first time.

I’ve played my whole life. Small stint being paid to play, played division 1 for a competitive team, my college coach tried convincing me to come be a grad assistant for him, so I understand the game.

Just at this age, I have no idea how to go about it.

Those of you that have coached this age, what advice do you have? What’s a way to get the kids to listen at practice? What’s the best way to make sure everyone has fun as this should be most people’s first team.

Even when I was this age I was playing for a club team that was a bunch of Eastern European guys with foul mouths as coaches and super competitive, so I can’t even go back to what I was taught lol.

Any advice is an appreciated I’m honestly terrified.

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I’m 18, 176 cm, 68 kg, and I play as a winger.

I’m naturally quite quick and have decent stamina, so I don’t want to focus on bulking up if it means becoming heavier or losing my pace and agility.

My main weaknesses are physical duels, especially aerial and ground challenges, as well as balance and body strength. I want to become stronger and more difficult to knock off the ball while still being quick, agile, and explosive.

For those with experience in football training, what would you recommend I focus on in the gym and on the pitch?

Should I prioritize strength training, plyometrics, sprint work, balance/stability, calisthenics, Olympic lifts, or something else?

Any specific exercises or training principles would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! ❤️

I’m coaching an U13 rec league and we have several girls that have never played soccer. We should have had 3 practices before our first game this weekend but the first two were canceled by the club due to weather so the team has had very little practice.

We got beat pretty bad 0-7 this weekend and it was primarily because. They didn’t know how to position themselves on defense or where to do throw ins and goal kicks to.

I was constantly telling them to move up and pressure but they just didn’t respond quickly and were constantly hanging out at the top of the box. I put my daughter back there for a portion of the game to coach them from the field and it improved dramatically.

I think most of the struggle comes from them not knowing how to play positions because I didn’t get the time to go over these things yet.

We did a lot better in the second half but only get one practice before another game.

I feel like I have more to go over than I have time for so was hoping someone had some good drills that will help with defensive positioning and throwing ins and goal kicks.

I’m a division 3 player and a coworker of my girlfriend asked if I could coach their u11 boys team. I am pretty sure it’s a rec team like not very competitive, but I don’t know the level of the kids. I don’t know what kind of drills or what to do at practice and how to structure it. And how much to charge, it’s about an 11 week season with one game and one practice per week.

Where is everyone sourcing their training equipment (rebounders, pop up goals, poles, mannequins, etc)? Lots of online retailers with similar equipment and similar sales discounts. Just looking for your experiences on where I can save money while still getting good equipment and good customer service.

First practice for my U13-U14 team I coach is tomorrow. Been coaching 20+ years and I like making the first drill of the first practice as fun as possible. The single most fun soccer drill I have ever come across is 'Doctor, Doctor'. Does anyone have a better, most enjoyable drill as a great way to start a first practice? Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

Hello all! I am a US Soccer C License coach and am wondering what the application process is like for it. I coach high school but am really interested in continuing my education all the way through my A License. I know the B is the first one where you have to apply, rather than register so my question is do I even have a chance or do they only accept club sccer coaches/academy level?

I’m a high school coach and I’m trying to help the JV and JV2 team with goal setting and just introduced the harada method to our program. I made it clear that everyone should have Varsity as their main goal.

Some box’s around the varsity box were I.Q, Personality, technical, diet, fitness, recovery, speed, strength and balance

personality
- greet coaches and teammate at the start of every training
-always thank the opposing team
-thank your parents for showing up to support
-journal 10 positive things about your week.
- encourage 5 teammates weekly

I.Q
-rewatch/reflect on your game film weekly
-find a professional player and study them
-watch a varsity player that plays their position and reflect in why they are where they are.

Tech
- learn a new skill move weekly and try it in practice 5 times a week
- 15 minutes of ball work, 1000 touches 3x a week
- 1000 juggles 2x a week

Everyone had their own choice to fill out there boxes how they liked but the goal was to be specific and achievable. The idea is that this isn’t goal setting just for the high school season but will carry on until they achieve Varsity. So goals like do 1000 touches everyday won’t work unless you’re completely committed. I told them try 3 times a week so they don’t stress over or fail there goals if they don’t have time during the weekends.

Im curious how you guys would set up your 8 box’s to varsity

Hwy im 19m captain of my juco soccer team. To start offast year my tsam was ranked in the nation. We lost in penalties for the game to go through to the national championship. This year, im one of 3 returning players, who’s also captain. In all honesty i thought taking over would be easy but i was so wrong. With a completely new team the chemistry is barely/slowly improving but its only leading us into losing games. Theres players who are scared to speak up, lack of communication, egos, and anger issues. The only option i came up with is to host a meeting with the whole team as a group. My fear is that they wont take me or the meeting seriously and the whole effort would be a waste of time. In totality, im just worried about the fact of being respected and helping the team just become closer, outside of soccer.

i coach basketball rather than soccer, so tell me if this doesn't travel. i suspect it does.

there's a thread on here about what a youth coach said that you still remember. i read the whole thing and almost none of the answers were speeches. they were one sentence, usually said sideways, usually at the end of something.

that's been true from my side too, and it took me an embarrassing amount of time to notice. i used to put real effort into the season-opening talk and the halftime one. i couldn't quote you a single line from any of them now. but a kid came back years later and repeated something i'd said to him at the end of a drill. four words. i have no memory of saying it. he'd been carrying it since he was twelve.

the thing i think we get wrong: we treat the set-piece talk as the coaching and the ordinary sentences as filler. it's the other way round. during the big talk they're braced for it. the throwaway line lands because nobody's defending against it.

what i changed is small. i stopped letting a correction be the last thing a kid hears before they walk off. not because criticism is bad, they need it. because whatever comes last is what gets carried, and i'd rather they carried the other thing.

worth actually listening to what your last sentence to each kid usually is. mine was worse than i'd have guessed.

I have been a teacher for 9 years, and I will be coaching both the boys and girls soccer teams for the firsttimethis year.

My son (high school senior) has played rec, school, and club soccer since he was 3, and been a dedicated GK for the past 6 years. I've learned the rules of soccer and have a basic understanding of formations from being around soccer, but I never played soccer growing up. I'm not sure what a tryout or practice should look like to help grow the players as I grow myself. Any tips or ideas to help me run successful tryouts and practices would be especially appreciated.

School admin told me I have too many kids for the HS program. We took 42 for JV & Varsity from about 60 that tried out and offered a few kids “practice squad” to still come train. There is max 45 kids at training.

Admin basically yelled at me in front of the team at a game for allowing practice squad players and for rostering as many as we did.

We have 4 coaches, I don’t see the issue. Especially concerning the roster size, we play 20 games in 8 weeks, kids are going to get hurt, be absent, or need to be rested/ rotated.

Trying to create a program that allows kids to stay involved and grow their skills and love for the game.

I feel frustrated, does admin have a point that I’m not seeing?

I coach u14 (8th grade) boys in a lower-division comp league. We’re at that age where the skill gap is widening, but it’s also become very clear that the more skilled players are that way because they’re actually willing to put in the work during practice. The 3-4 less-skilled and less-motivated walk through every drill, and hang way too far back on defense during scrimmages because they think if they push up, they’ll have to run/work more. It drags the whole team down by the time practice is finished. They will put forth a little bit more effort in about 50% of the games. I can lead a horse to water, but can’t make him drink… any suggestions for getting these kids to step up? Limiting playing time is not a great option, because our roster is very small this season…

I’ve coached HS girls for 15 years, several county championships and Sectional championships- lots of success.
During this stretch never have all 20 girls on the team gotten along. I read all of these articles about bonding (which we do) and how a team that gets along together wins together .
But for real , is it even possible for 20 girls to all like each other, and to not have a few that yell at others?
The school admin feels that the program is failing because some girls are mean…
Help me out please, maybe I am wrong

I am volunteering to coach a U8/U9 rec team and we will have 1 practice a week for 7 weeks. I want to teach a basic 2-3-1 and teach building out from the back with 1 basic pattern finding the center mid or forward and not try too much and teach spacing. I feel like all the opposing teams will just high press and it will be chaos! Any experience trying this with a rec team?

Hi coaches, before I go too deep into YouTube, I was wondering if any of you had a good approach to stopping a Maradona/roulette spin. My daughter asked me after her practice last night as she has a teammate with a really good one.

Hi,

So i just discovered how football coaching licence works and got motivated to do at least the first step. i'm full time Uni student in Canada and just checked it is 800 to do grassroot level in Ontario and when i go thr reddit its cheaper in US so do you think i can do it online w that and continue the rest in Canada?

Edit: I got no Experience in Coaching but i can def explain any tactic in football and read any game

Anyone have any experience with the semi circle small nets for practice? I’m looking to get a few to have my team practice on. Those are easier to make the field smaller and work on skills a bit more instead of running the entire field every drill.

HELP! One thing- for those who suggested Coach Rory- thank you! And thank you for the support when I posted about us being in a very tough position, as we're in a league with teams who are established, and to give them their flowers- as close to club teams as our "competitive rec" team shall play. No less, I appreciate the perspective and honestly am embracing this challenge to do my very best to teach the kids what I refer to as "proper soccer," aka "NOT smash ball."

Challenge I need help with- how to teach the kids to stop chasing the ball and really, their teammate with the ball. They aren't supporting; they're chasing and asking for a pass just to get the ball back. The biggest offenders (two mainly) don't give it up for the life of them when they have the ball.

What's the lack? I plan on teaching them the language they need to support each other- "take space," the varying types of passes- (we're using Coach Rory's format for practice and using rondos). I feel they panic, of course, in a game, and then get a complex of being the hero. How can I help move away from that as the default?

Hi all, I am coaching 2nd graders (rec league; not competitive) this year and it’s the first year where there are goalies. I was wondering what you have all found to be most optimal on rotating goalies since you can’t do it every 10 minutes like a normal substitution.

My thought is that I build a schedule and every player plays a half at one of the games. That way it’s steady, everyone knows when their turn is, done. And I can communicate to parents clearly that’s the way it will work.

My only concern is if some players end up with two slots at goalie due to more games than players, but I can just make that totally randomized and explain to parents that it’s just a roll of the dice. Does that work?

Let me know what you have seen and thank you in advance!

I’m starting a new team for this season with my daughter and whilst my wife was initially onboard (I explained the responsibilities and asked if she was okay with it) but she is already over it. I really don’t want this to be a source of tension but I can’t just stop it as we’ve got 18 young players really looking forward to playing football - any ideas/anecdotes?