Why Do Kids Play Soccer and Your Role As Coach / Manager?

http://www.juniorsoccercoach.com

Understanding why children play soccer is important so that you can the most out of your sessions and games.

Neil Travers

Football is the worlds most popular game. The feelings can be intense support for your team as can be the lows, and at the end of the day there will always be next season.

Children are very creative and are not constrained by the preconvcieved ideas that adults carry with them.

Football is a simple game, its about goals. From a childs eyes the team is either on the attack trying to score goals or defending, trying to prevent goals.

There are many reasons why children participate in football, here are just some:

Its fun
Its exciting
I'm good at it
I want to be with my mates
My parents want my to play or
I want to get away from my brother(s) & sister(s)

However playing football also brings with it a host of benefits for children that include:

Working as part of a team
Development of social skills and sense of belonging
Learning how to co-operate and compete
Learning to express their emotion and imagination through new experiences
Taking responsibility for their actions
Dealing with success and failure

The role of junior soccer coach has very important part to play in the development of kids and their soccer skills. You should guide young children as they grow from childhood into adulthood. As a result the coach has a number of hats to wear through this period. Mostly as being an instructor to transfer soccer skills to eager children, but there are other roles such as:

Teacher
Leader
First Aider
Agony Aunt

A large proportion of junior coaches are parents, whose children just want to play football. They become a member of a local club and before the parent knows it they have become involved in the training sessions. The experience that parents have differs greatly from being able to play or having played competitively to those who have no more experience than once playing for their school. It shouldn't really matter what experience or credentials a junior soccer coach has other than a few basic qualities (although a good knowledge of the game is an advantage!). There are certain characteristics that enable a coach to become well accepted by the children and the parents, the following list identifies some:

Pleasant appearance, smart dress and good physique
Healthy lifestyle
Good organizational skills, promptness, training sessions, good knowledge of techniques
Good communication skills. Especially relevant with younger children
Patience and tolerance, always has time for children and parents
Highly motivated, wanting to run fun enjoyable sessions that transfer good learning to the children
Despite being a voluntary activity it can be a stressful role so a good sense of humour is essential
Good social skills, self control and calmness are essential especially when conflict arises
Drive for constant improvement, not only in the development of the team but to develop ones self in new coach exercises, methods and formats
Being able to watch, listen, evaluate and make decisions to correct or adapt then the ability to review and admit own faults
Open and honest, demonstrates flexibility to change and suggestions from players and assistants
Fairness with the players and parents, and actively demonstrates a genuine interest in the development of all in the team

If you can work on these skills to be an effective coach you will be remembered for years.....let me leave you with two questions for you to ponder....

Who was the worst and the best teacher / coach you had as a child? and
Why did your arrive at your answers?

Let's try to inspire the youth of today, and promote safety, player development, fair play and sportsmanship!