Soccer Edition 49

Welcome to the Soccer Newsletter. This will be a brief newsletter that deals with what a coach really is as opposed to what many people think a coach is.

First I would like to apologize for being late with this newsletter (as well as the other ones). I brought a group up to an NSCAA coaching course to be used as demonstrators and did not have access to email. Because of this, neither newsletters nor any responses to questions went out before today. Because of my keeper camp in Atlanta this week, I will again be late getting things out next week. Everything should be back to normal after this upcoming week.

To be a coach is to be a teacher or educator. If you think the primary role of coaching is recruiting players, talking to other coaches, motivating players (or anyone else) then you have mistaken the role of a coach with that of a manager. In no way do I want to imply that these things are unimportant but rather they are very important but not what coaching is all about. 

I think that too many "coaches" have forgotten about teaching at all and instead are simply looking for the glory of working with the best players they can find. If you really want to make a difference as a coach, go out and work with a young inexperienced team instead of looking for the older more talented and more experienced players to train. Your winning percentage might go down but your satisfaction level will go up dramatically.

To be a successful coach requires a number of different things. First, it certainly requires some knowledge of the game. However, I think the biggest thing it requires is caring about the players. It doesn't matter how many times you say you care or anything like that, it comes down to your actions. Players will pick up on a coach who cares in a second and will also pick out one who doesn't in the same amount of time. If you are a coach and you care, it's amazing how many mistakes you can "get away with" simply because players will understand that everyone makes mistakes but not 
everyone cares.

Way too many coaches (I am speaking of both club and school coaches) spend too much time looking for the next super star and not enough time trying to develop some
good soccer players. Short term, the "recruiter" might be successful but long term the developer will prevail.

This has been a different type of newsletter then most of my other ones and I will go back to more "soccer related" topics next week but sometimes I just feel the need to get back on my soap box.  

If you have any comments, suggestions or questions you can send them to comments@finesoccer.com (but expect a delay till next weekend for a response) or post them at http://finesoccer.com/forum.htm.

Check out the archives of the Soccer Newsletter at http://finesoccer.com.

Also, don't forget the contest that is taking place at http://finesoccer.com/contest.htm

Have a great day.

Lawrence