COACH-SMARTER BLOG MOVED TO NEW SITE!

Please go to coach-smart.com/soccerblog to access our new and improved blog.
As we grow as a resource for soccer coaches, we want to provide the best coaching advice available.
Our new blog will continue to post helpful information, videos, articles, and interviews to help soccer coaches of all levels. We will help beginner coaches run productive and [...]

DURING GAMES, LESS IS MORE

Why and How Coaches Should Leave Games to the Players

Over-coaching, or over-instruction, plagues American Youth Soccer, not to mention many other sports. The intense atmosphere of games often causes coaches to try to control their players’ every movement.
“I see a lot of over-coaching on the sidelines, a lot of instructions from coaches play to play,” [...]

THE IMPORTANCE OF “DOWN TIME” AT TOURNAMENTS

We often think of tournaments as one riveting game after another. But the truth is that, no matter how many games your team plays in one day, players will spend the majority of time not playing.
“Down time,” or the off time that occurs between and after games, serves as a crucial period for players to [...]

HAVE PARENTS FIGHT FOR YOU, NOT AGAINST YOU

What Every Soccer Coach Should Know About Dealing With Parents

Novice youth coaches often underestimate the impact that the parents of players can have on their team. This impact can produce vastly different results, depending on the nature of the relationship that you, the coach, establish with parents. Parents can be supportive and organizational lifesavers. Or [...]

POSITIVE INSTRUCTION

A Beginner’s Guide to Coaching Youth Soccer Gives Useful Tips on Staying Positive At Practice
Today, Coach-Smart.com published a handy Beginner’s Guide to Coaching Youth Soccer. The guide aims to serve as a concise and informative instruction manual to help a new coach have a positive first-time experience. The guide gives useful tips on organizing practices, [...]

INTERVIEW WITH ANNE MOORE, THE NEW DIRECTOR OF COACHING FOR WYOMING YOUTH SOCCER

Anne Moore, recently hired as the Wyoming Director of Coaching (DOC), speaks about being the first female DOC, developing young players, and youth soccer in Wyoming.
Q – You’re the first female Director of Coaching for a state association. Can you put this into perspective at all? What does this mean for other women coaches?
A – [...]

CRITICISM SHOULD COMMUNICATE, NOT CRUSH

What Every Coach Should Know About Criticizing Players
Coaches take vastly different approaches to criticizing their players. Some coaches nit-pick constantly during practices, some not at all. During games, some coaches “instruct” their players to tears from the sidelines. Some coaches go entire games without saying anything.
Coaches have different styles, and they maintain different theories on [...]

WHY COMPETITION?

Some youth coaches fear that competitive games or drills can bruise young kids’ self esteem and deflate enthusiasm for soccer. They shouldn’t. Competition, which lies at the heart of any good game, makes soccer fun while pushing players and teams to improve. This is true at any level of the sport. But coaches need to [...]