Choose words wisely while coaching kids
 

By Don Norton Jr.

"If I was asked to find one word to describe one of the main differences I have noticed in 25 years of coaching, the word would probably be 'Why'? Today's players want to know the reasons behind each session on the training ground – and, of course, you have to be ready to give them a good answer."

– Gerard Houllier

As coaches we all want every training session to start on time with all our players in a safe, positive and nurturing environment. By nurturing I mean that very young players want to come to practice because every time they arrive they know they will get to touch the ball as much as possible which is always fun. A youth soccer player’s first experience with soccer must be fun.

Hopefully over the course of time our youth players develop a love for the game because the training and games were enjoyable, and they want to continue playing the world’s greatest sport. As our players grow older we want them to continue to enjoy training because it is also remains enjoyable, has technical repetition, small-sided games, and more tactical information taught and learned from training that replicates the game.

If cones are required for training, which they usually are, coaches should arrive early and have them already placed on the field. The time we have with our players is valuable and usually limited, so we don’t want to waste a few minutes having players stand around and lose focus while we place them down.

Coaches always take the sun and turn players around to avoid distractions behind them when addressing the team. If you are tall and coach very young players drop to one knee so that you are better able to speak to them at eye level and remove your sunglasses if you are wearing them so that your players can see your eyes.

I always tell my players, “If I can’t see your face you are in the wrong place.” This means you speak to all your players together in front of you. For example, all the many world-class players at Barcelona traditionally meet together with staff in a small circle to hear the opening remarks from the coach before training begins.

Some coaches carry note cards with the sessions’ activities and objectives to remind them of what they hope to teach their players. Sometimes goals are met, but sometimes the session turns in a different direction than originally planned, which is fine and not at all unexpected.

With all young players the most important objectives are to instill a passion and love for the game. When our players aren’t training with us hopefully they are touching the ball somewhere, whether it’s in their backyard, at the local park or numerous other ways of “being with the soccer ball.”

Youth coaches usually only have two, perhaps three nights a week to train their players, so if you have players excited to play the game, hopefully they are eager and able to find a way work daily with the ball after school.

The words we use with our players from the very first training session sets the tone for the entire season. By tone I mean a calm yet enthusiastic voice, with information given to our players in a clear and concise manner using words that our players understand.

You very briefly say what you expect of your players for that activity, ask them if they have any questions, and then let them have a go at it.

As time goes on the experienced coach will anticipate the questions that he will get from his players. As a longtime men’s college assistant at some prestigious programs I’ve always had players who will occasionally after I have explained the drill, ask “but what if” regarding an aspect of it. The questions range from the rules, players responsibilities, how score is kept, time limits etc.

Questions from your players are to be expected and encouraged by every age group that you train. No matter how much you try to anticipate every question in your description of that day’s activities, your players will always have questions, which is acceptable. I want my players to always feel free to ask questions because it is our team, and we always want to be clear about what we are about to do in a drill/activity, so that every player knows what we are hoping to accomplish. When I am training a very young team at my club, my goal is to see many eager smiling faces that are all moving around getting the chance to touch the ball as much as possible in a game like environment.

Carefully explaining the session’s first and subsequent activities for that training session is very important at all levels of soccer. As my opening quote suggests, players at the highest levels of the game want to know not only what they doing, but why they are doing the drill. The words we choose are vital because we want to very clearly give our players the information they need to begin the activity.

One mistake some coaches make is to start talking and not stop. No lectures! (Or lines and laps) Players come to “touch” the ball, not to listen to a coach give them a lecture.

If you must discuss the previous game or some important team matter with your players do it as quickly as possible. The younger the players, the more emphasis you put on keeping your comments as simple as possible.

If I am coaching very young players I start my opening statement in a very positive voice by saying, “Hey guys, tonight we all going to work on scoring goals.” Then we quickly start training that will lead to a game-related activity with many shots on goals. And yes I do realize that “coaching” very young players can be, as they say “like herding cats,” so patience and a sense of humor is certainly required.

Always be aware of the words you choose to convey information to your players. Not that it would ever happen, but training very young youth players and asking them to “play out the back with proper spacing, playing quality two-touch balls, moving up the field as a unit, compacting space, etc.“

The kids would look at you like you were from another planet. You need to know and be able to speak to the age-appropriate characteristics for different age groups.

Taking a state level NSCAA or USSF course can help you better understand the social and psychological progression of young age groups and their development. Common sense would dictate that what we expect a 7-year-old to comprehend when spoken to is much different than that of a teenager.

One of my pet peeves in coaching is to hear a coach yell during training “good stuff.” Well what was the “good stuff”? The pass? The angled run off the ball to receive the ball? The weight of the pass? The first touch away from pressure? You get the point.

Be very specific and always positive in the words you choose. As we all know when players mature and grow older they are able to comprehend more soccer concepts regarding attacking and defensive theories. The words you use reflect

In April, 2011 USSF Youth Technical Director Claudio Reyna presented his national curriculum guide and gave an interview posted on the federation’s web site about his many influences during his wonderful career across Europe. He spoke about his former Dutch coach Dick Advocaat at Glasgow Rangers and said “What really struck me more than anything about the Dutch philosophy was that it was simple. It was very clear. He wasn’t a coach who spoke a lot and he was one of, if not the best coach I ever had.”

It has been said by many coaches throughout the years that “the game of soccer is the great teacher.”

Keep your words kind, age-appropriate, and to the point. If your players are in that soccer environment, then all you need are a few words because the game has already spoken to them.

College recruiting starts too young (Steve Swanson Q&A, Part 1)
 

Interview by Mike Woitalla

Steve Swanson, who guided the USA to the 2012 U-20 Women’s World Cup title in September, has coached women's college ball since 1990. After stints at Dartmouth and Stanford, he has coached the University of Virginia since 2000. He spoke with us about the perils of a recruiting system that has girls commit to colleges when they’re still sophomores or 9th-graders.

SOCCER AMERICA: It’s become common practice for college coaches to offer scholarships to 10th and even 9th graders – and for players that young to commit to a college …

STEVE SWANSON: I think it’s one of the biggest potential problems that college athletics has as a whole. It’s happening with our sport in particular. We’re getting earlier and earlier.

It’s a serious enough problem, the [college] presidents have to be involved.

If this was strictly a job situation, who would make a $50,000 investment after seeing a player play for five minutes, or one game in one tournament, three years out before they go to that college?

That’s insane. But because we’ve gone down this road, because the ball is rolling, coaches feel, “Hey, we’ve got to do this for us to stay up.”

It’s a disservice to student-athletes, to the parents, to the coaches. You’re don’t have all the information. You’re going to make poor choices.

SA: Considering how expensive it is to send a child to college, wouldn’t one expect parents to be fine with their 14- or 15-year-old daughter accepting a scholarship?

STEVE SWANSON: Would you want your daughter to figure out who she’s going to marry at 14 or 15? They don’t even know themselves.

I get the financial side. But I don’t think there’s one person — I don’t think there’s a college sophomore who gets up in the morning, they go out, they have a coffee, and they breathe in deep and they say, “I’m happy here because I’m on a full ride.”

That ain’t happening. They get up in the morning and they’re happy because they’re at the right place that fits with what they want, what their needs are, on and off the field.

My concern is we’re only doing this because of the finances.

I see more and more people transferring. More and more decisions that are reversing themselves because it wasn’t the right fit one way or the other.

SA: Does this early-recruitment have a negative effect on the USA’s effort to improve at the highest level of women’s soccer?

STEVE SWANSON: One of my biggest concerns in our sport is we tend to rely so much on the physical aspect. There are some other aspects that in the long run are going to benefit more.

The tough thing we have in college is we’re being asked to evaluate players when they’re freshman in high school and pull this crystal ball out for four years down the road, and say, “Hey here’s where you’re going to be!”

I think any coach in our sport who’s saying where this player’s going to be technically, tactically, mentally – they’re just fooling themselves. And I think we have to be really careful with that.

The easy thing for a lot of college coaches, a lot of club coaches, is to go for the physical side. You know what that’s going to be. It’s probably not going to change that much.

More often than not I think the selection process, the evaluation process is looking at the physical. It’d be one thing if we were swimming or track. The college coach says, “Hey you run the mile in 3:53, so I don’t care what your technique is, how you run, because that’s better than any college runner I have right now.”

But soccer is so much different. There are so many things that go into it.

I worry about the kids. How much growth can happen between [high school] freshman and junior years? You can see amazing amounts of growth. A freshman may believe a mid-major college is about as good as they’ll get, but by their junior year they’re unbelievable and now they want to challenge themselves and play in the best conference.

SA: I’ve heard one reason players so young commit to a college is to get the process over with …

STEVE SWANSON: There’s a lot of pressure. It’s sad that for them recruitment has gotten stressful. It should be enjoyable. It should be fun to explore, go to schools. It’s become stressful and they just want to get the thing over with.

We don’t even have official visits. A student can’t make them until you’re a senior. They’ve already made the decision two years ago.

They visit all those schools on their own. The beauty of an official visit is I can pay for you to come out here. Pay for you look at this school.

SA: So players, because they pay their own way to visit colleges, may be less likely to explore opportunities farther away from home?

STEVE SWANSON: How would they know another option wouldn’t be a better fit without visiting?

SA: The pressure to commit early is applied by the coaches because they want to lock in who they think are the top players?

STEVE SWANSON: If I really wanted you and was willing wait for you, I would tell you that. Some other coach might say, “I’m moving forward here and you’re going to have to make your decision.” There are a lot of coaches out there pushing the envelope. They want to get a body into their program as soon as they can. They want to get their recruiting tied up as soon as they can.

In football you don’t wrap that kid up until they sign. Our sport is different. We have this kind of collegial agreement if somebody verbally commits, that’s it. The recruiting’s done. But a coach might gain a verbal agreement by less than moral means. Maybe they say to a sophmore, “Here’s the scholarship. You have a week to decide. I’m not going to let you look at other schools.” I think there’s some things ethically wrong with that.

This is the same person who, if you committed at a very early age, for financial reasons, gets all upset if another coach came in to recruit — even though that’s completely within the rules.

SA: What’s your advice for young players who are being pressured to commit at a young age?

STEVE SWANSON: Never commit somewhere unless you have all the information about the school, the soccer program. There are a lot of players out there who have made those commitments early and are very happy. But I think what’s happening is there are a lot of players that are equally unhappy.

If a coach really wants you, they’re going to wait for you.
 

Assessing the Beckham Era is a Convoluted Process
 

By Ridge Mahoney

Today, Tuesday, the day after David Beckham announced he's ending his Galaxy playing career on Dec. 1, the world is different, just as it was nearly six years ago when MLS announced the England international was forsaking one of the world’s great clubs to take up with a decidedly lesser party.

The seeds of his move from Real Madrid to the Los Angeles Galaxy had been sown during the summer of 2005, when the teams met in a friendly at Home Depot Center. In postgame interviews, Tim Leiweke, president of the Galaxy’s operator-investor, Anschutz Entertainment Group, just couldn’t stop talking about the buzz and electricity generated by a star-studded opposing team and which one of them he’d like to bring aboard one day.

Leiweke and AEG were chafing at the constraints of MLS. Big thinkers and major players balk at austerity, which in effect is what the league’s prudence imposed. They were also puzzled as to why a successful team — a perennial contender that featured the nation’s best player in Landon Donovan — couldn’t regularly fill up Home Depot Center.

Rapaciously high costs for hot dogs and beers and parking spaces, plus a fleet of sneering concessionaires convinced that customers were vermin, didn’t factor in their calculations. Star power drives L.A., the land of Entertainment Tonight and Hollywood and Staples Center (another AEG project, by the way) and Dodger Blue and Magic Johnson and Phil Jackson and Wayne Gretzky, so that’s the card they played.

They surmised, correctly, the MLS fan base wasn’t enough. And so was created the Designated Player option, known previously and unofficially as the Beckham Rule.

A year and a half after that friendly at Home Depot, in January of 2007, following some intense negotiations and drawn-out drama that edged Beckham toward the Real Madrid exit door, the little league that drew disdain if it merited any attention at all suddenly grew up. The world, for better or worse, discovered MLS through the allure of a limited yet very adept and glamorous midfielder adorned by a plasticized, pop-star wife and borne by his personal marketing agency.

Yes, only in America.

A clandestine loan to AC Milan, the absences prompted by Olympic commitments and a royal wedding, the petulant pissy fits with rival fans, his perceived aloofness toward teammates, the cautionable fouls and arguments that escaped sanction, and a more than a few dreary performances taint the sheen of his stay.

Yet with him in the lineup, at least a fair portion of the time, the Galaxy has reached three of the last four MLS Cups. With him in the league, players such as Juan Pablo Angel and Thierry Henry and Robbie Keane followed in his wake. With Beckham in the public spotlight, jersey sales and attendances and TV ratings and sponsorship dollars rose sharply. That the league expanded from 13 to 19 teams and upgraded its television deals during his tenure are not coincidences. He's not the sole reason but he's been a vital cog, an accelerant, in the process.

He’s not done with MLS, per se, though how he could play for another league team under its single-entity system is unclear even though he’s about to end his career with the Galaxy. A short-term stint abroad (Australia or England, probably) seems most likely, after which he’s expected to re-join the league as an investor.

A minority share in a pending expansion team would neatly suit the needs of MLS, New York, and Brand Beckham. There are hurdles to clear, but Becks in the Big Apple makes a lot of sense. Attached to him, a New York team would be beset by investors and sponsors ready to spend. He’s a money magnet. Or he could also stay in L.A. and invest in the Galaxy, which as part of the AEG sporting empire is up for sale.

As the future beckons, there’s sharp scrutiny of the past. As a player, a rocky, injury-riddled beginning gave way to a solid finish. If he’s not the crowd draw he once was the Galaxy still led MLS in away attendance (27,026). Seattle opened up all of CenturyLink Field for three regular-season games this season; its rivalry matches with Portland and Vancouver, and its game against the Galaxy.

One can find ample evidence to buttress any position regarding Beckham, from spectacular bust to monumental success. His sharply whipped crosses and swerving dead balls dazzled crowds throughout the country as well as abroad (face it, without him nobody wants a touring Galaxy). His charming demeanor and flashy smile endured thousands of interviews and appearances and press conferences. His pouts and snarky behavior confirmed he can play the villain as well as the hero, and more than a few Galaxy fans were exasperated when he embarrassed the team and MLS by cutting his own loan deal on the sly with AC Milan.

But when the Western Conference trophy was presented to the Galaxy Sunday night in Seattle as the rain poured down, along with the players and coaches could be seen a soaked yet beaming Tim Leiweke, sans umbrella or raincoat. He loves the spotlight as much as winning, and Becks helped bring Leiweke and AEG ample doses of both.

As he did for Manchester United, England, and Real Madrid, Beckham played crucial roles for the Galaxy and MLS. At no stop in his career has he been the best player, but for the Galaxy and MLS, in several ways he’s been the most significant.