I may not be a great coach, but I know a bad one when I see one...

Let me start by saying that I don't think that bad coaches are bad people. I think they are good people who care about kids and want to help and believe in themselves. They just haven't been taught properly how to coach kids in our beautiful game.

That said...I watch other coaches out there, hoping to learn something and I am sadly now no longer surprised when I see really bad practices.

I watched a U8 practice last week where the coach showed up 5 minutes late and then proceeded to set up a very complicated steel goal. The kids where standing around doing "stretching" led by a militant 10 year old boy who was helping out. After about 15 minutes the coach "taught" (read lectured) the kids about push passes. He explained in detail about push passes and then finally had the kids pass the ball back and forth with the inside of the foot. Finally they get to touch a ball, after at least 20 minutes of practice.

After this, the coach did a really weird and complicated drill with the kids in line running a lot and touching the ball very little. None of the kids got the drill and since only two kids went at a time, there were 8 kids waiting. The last drill was all 10 kids lined up, dribble toward the fancy, complicated goal, and shoot at the coach who blocked most, if not every shot that the boys took on goal. On top of all of this, when the kids screwed up they were made to do push ups.

I was ready for him to finally turn the boys loose for some 5 v 5 when he then had them do sprints, then ended practice and sent them home.

I wish I had made this up as a perfect example of how not to coach, but it was real.

People argue different reasons why the US with all of its organized soccer cannot dominate on the world stage. The most common reason I get is that there are soooo many choices and that we get our best athletes playing baseball and football.

I think it is more simple than that. We have good people with poor coaching skills killing any love for the game out of our kids.

Baseball and football can work with this type of coaching. They are a series of stops and starts and rely largely on skill. with play calling and a fairly straight forward set of goals. You can run baseball practices all season and only have kids play an actual game on game day and it works.

Yes there are amazing and magical baseball players and in no way do I mean to diminish the skill required to play these sports, but soccer is just different. It may seem like it works to train kids "our way" and we may get lucky and get a few good kids with talent who learn the skills and become good players, but how many truly great players have we produced...?

Cue the cricket sounds...

Soccer is like a language. You can spend years and years in classes and "learn" a language, but to really be a fluent speaker, with no accent, you have to go and speak and listen and immerse yourself in the language and the culture.

Soccer is even more like that.

Soccer more than most sports, is constantly moving and the game is played in hundreds or thousands of small battles in every direction, across every part of the pitch. No line up drill or sprint or shooting on a goal all day will produce an intelligent, creative player who can do magical things on the field.

Even more so, a player who is bored to death from a horrible practice session will almost never be inspired to go on and love the game, play all the time and become great at it.

One problem is that most coaches don't understand the game and how players develop. Sadder yet is that many of these coaches played their whole life and some still play. They just don't get it. Most of them learned the game the same way they are teaching it. They didn't play 4 v 4 when they were a kid. This goes to the whole lack of street soccer in our country. That is a whole other post.

I read at least one article each day about youth soccer development and the overwhelming majority of experts throughout the world say the same thing...

The game itself is the best teacher. Just let the kids play.

Coaches - even if you feel compelled to line them up, run them, do your complicated drills and lecture them for 10 minutes about how to do a push pass, at least at the end of the practice let them play. They aren't out there to learn how to do a push pass or sprint really fast across the field. They are there to play soccer. The sport gives them joy.

If you believe in what you just taught them then give them a chance to show you. You may enjoy watching them for a few minutes and their parents might too.

Lines, laps, and lectures...

No lines, no laps, no lectures…really?

I don’t think that many American coaches of preteen kids trust everything they learn and read. Any intelligent coach who has been through state license training or even through the most basic AYSO training has heard this popular phrase. The problem is, it is a cute phrase and easy to throw about, but very few coaches live by it.

They talk a good game, but when you go out to the training pitch you see it all around.

Lines
Laps
Lectures

I think that coaches don’t consider 2 or three kids standing for several minutes to get their turn in a drill a line. It must mean a line is only a line when the whole team is in it.

Same with laps, I assume. A coach may not send their kids for laps around the field (although many still do), but they will certainly line them up and run them for 10, 20, or even 30 minutes of a practice….without ever touching a ball.

Maybe stopping the kids constantly during a drill or a small sided game to talk to them for minutes at a time doesn’t constitute a lecture to these coaches, but I would certainly put it in the lecture column.

We learn it at every step of our coaching education, yet many if not most of us throw it out the window at our first opportunity. Is it an American thing born of coaches raised playing baseball, football, and basketball? Is it a human thing? Do we as adults need the order that lines, laps, and lectures provide? Is it the players' parents? If we don't line them up, run them, and lecture them it doesn't look like we are really training and coaching them, now does it? So maybe we do it to impress those parents who are paying the big bucks for us to turn their kid into the next college prospect.?

I am certain it is at least a combination of these. Most 'professional' coaches and trainers need to have a reputation and make people believe in them to make a living. Many do a great job with kids, don't get me wrong (even the ones who run kids and line them up), but they need to make a practice look like, well, a practice.

Kids playing small sided games doesn't look as orderly as kids on four corners of a grid lined up waiting to get into the mix. Having all of the kids compartmentalized into their little lines while you are not instructing them is much easier to manage as a coach, especially if you have a large group of kids.

The fact is, doing it the right way takes a lot of effort, training, and practice. Hmmmm, those are all of the things we ask of our players, and yet so often we sell those very players short. We cut corners because we either don't make the effort to create better training or we don't trust ourselves enough to do what we know is right.

Coaches, I challenge you. At your next practice do an honest assessment of whether you have the kids engaged, touching the ball, and having a good time while they learn the skills they need or are you falling into the comfort zone of Lines, Laps, and Lectures...Awareness is huge. Be aware and be the best coach and trainer you can. You can give them a love for the game. Don't just say it. Do it. Live it.