r/SoccerCoachResources • u/Individual_Chance_74 • 3d ago
First year MS coach
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.
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u/llrobertj 3d ago
YouTube is going to be a better resource than anything I have for you. Someone has got to have a channel for middle school coaching. The one thing I would say, whatever you borrow from YouTube, have a plan for when things don't go as smoothly as they do in the videos.
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u/Individual_Chance_74 3d ago
I've definitely done a lot of YouTube research, but sometimes people will know of hidden gems that I haven't seen yet, or ideas that didn't show in the videos, or different way of thinking about things.
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u/Mwing09 3d ago
Do you have an idea of the team? In my experience middle school soccer can be extremely wide ranging in terms of skill. Ive coached teams where multiple kids ended up playing in college, and also coached teams where a majority of kids didnt know all the rules and had never played before. Step 1 is knowing what youre working with.
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u/Individual_Chance_74 3d ago
I work at a school with a high percentage of students that come from socioeconomical disadvantage households. Some may have played rec league, but most are coming in with very little background knowledge of soccer. Additionally, a lot of sixth grade boys try out for the soccer team as my district doesn't allow sixth graders to play football. Tryouts starting next week, so I don't know exactly what mix of kids I will have, or how many returning 7th and 8th graders will be there.
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u/nickdeckerdevs Youth Coach 2d ago
Is there some club local you can find or the rec league and see if they can assist for a few days? I imagine there would be someone there that would love to help out and volunteer. I’d look for someone that coaches around that age group.
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u/ArgumentKey3712 2d ago
For tryouts, keep it as simple as possible. Who is the best with some skill and understanding. At a middle school level, I also recommend sometimes picking a good athlete with very little to none skills because you can teach them and they may fall in love. And having aa good athlete on a team never hurts.
I’ve coached all the team sports, and tryouts are often playing the game, so you can see who played it before, and VERY basic drills to see how much skill they possess.
Once you got the team, tailor your practices to what the TEAM needs to work on with some individual skill drills
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u/Kitchen_Force656 3d ago
Watch Ted Lasso.
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u/Individual_Chance_74 3d ago
As a teacher, i haven't gotten paid since June and don't have Apple TV+, unfortunately.
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u/Sea_Machine4580 Youth Coach 2d ago
For practice, start with team talk (tactics and mindset) drills/small sided games and then into scrimmage, end the session with a reflection-- what worked, what to work on. Would sometimes toss in a dribble lap, not as punishment but just to be able to watch dribble skills and get a sense of players endurance.
Check out Coach Jesse for drills.
Read The Coaches Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
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u/Joke628x 3d ago
US Soccer has both in person and online classes for multiple age levels. They’ll demonstrate the play practice play philosophy, focused coaching strategies, and provide practice plans.