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 [...]

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, [...]

WARM UP BETTER

Why And How Proper Warm-Ups Can Help Your Team
Improper warm-ups plague youth soccer, and youth sports in general. A disturbing number of coaches do nothing to fix this, even at elite levels.
“I can’t believe how many teams I’ve seen here that don’t run proper warm-ups,” an Eclipse Select coach said at the US Youth National [...]

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 [...]

INTERVIEW WITH TRAVIS KIKUGAWA ON TEAM AND PLAYER MENTALITY

Travis Kikugawa, Head Coach of the National Finalist U16 Real So. Cal Boys Team, On Team and Player Mentality, Mental Preparation, Communication, and Setting Goals
Q – How to you prepare your teams mentally for tournament play?
A – I stress singleness of purpose and commitment. Team building activities, like trust exercises, can be really helpful. We [...]