Soccer Edition 52

Welcome to the Soccer Newsletter. Today's edition deals with attendance at training sessions.

I really would like to apologize for being so slow in getting the newsletters out and replying to questions etc. I am finally back in town and will be here for a while so things should be back to normal now. 

The last survey asked what percentage of players are at the teams practice and also whether there is a policy regarding having playing time connected to attendance at training (to see the results, go to http://finesoccer.com/survey.htm). The results weren't surprising but certainly are disappointing.

I believe the key to attendance at training sessions is to give them a reason to attend. Some coaches do it by tying playing time into attendance but at a competitive level, I don't believe this is the answer (if you use this method and everyone attends training then you are saying everyone should play equally and this is much more of a rec. mentality). Instead of tying playing time to attendance, give the players a reason to attend. It has been my experience that if the players see that they will benefit by attending training sessions by getting better they are much more likely to attend then
if they see training sessions as a waist of time. If there is learning going on in the training process as well as some enjoyment, then players are much more likely to attend. As soon as the players don't see both enjoyment and learning taking place, attendance will suffer and once this happens, it's extremely difficult to turn this around.

The coach who shows up for training unprepared and without showing any regard for training or who misses a lot of training sessions, can not expect the players to look forward to attending either. If the player has an alternative between going to a training where nothing is accomplished or hanging out with friends, they will normally skip the training and go with their friends. If the coach provides an environment where the players will learn and enjoy themselves, they will attend.

I am not saying that the only reason a team has poor attendance at training sessions is because of a lack of teaching and fun (I hope not as one of my teams this past year struggled with attendance) but it certainly can be a large factor. Another thing that can really affect a team's attendance is communication.  I see a lot of coaches of young teams be willing to change training times or days with very little advanced notice and they expect the players to be able to do this. While this is extremely irresponsible of the coach to do this, very often the players (and their parents) can make these changes. However, as the players get older and have more and more commitments that can't be changed (other school teams, group studies, work etc), the players need even more advanced notice for any changes. However, since the coach was able to do this when the players were younger, they still give very little advanced notice and don't understand why the players can't make these adjustments.  Players (and parents) are entitled to as much advance notice as possible and if you give this to them, attendance will be much higher.

In short, if you provide a fun environment that has a lot of teaching (and learning) and give players enough time to make arrangements to attend training sessions, I believe you will see attendance go up significantly. 

There are a lot of new subscribers of the Soccer Newsletter recently and I do want to remind everyone that all of the past newsletters can be found at http://finesoccer.com/soccer.htm. 

Please participate in the new survey at http://finesoccer.com/survey.htm.

Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent
to comments@finesoccer.com or posted at http://finesoccer.com/forum.htm

Have a great day.

Lawrence