Good idea for a thread.
Under 8 football team. Up until October we were doing well, improving by the week, starting to pass the ball around, lads getting more confident then a new boy arrives who just can't play. He's a happy lad, tries but at most gets 2 weak kicks per 30 minute game. I wouldn't want to write off anyone at this age but we play 7-a-side and we are always effectively playing with one less player. The result is we are losing whenever this lad plays and he's a regular. For the sake of the rest of the players should I ask this lad (via his parents) to stop attending? I really am torn on this.
Football is never about results at that age...never. It's about involvement, fun, exercise, and technical development. What a lot of parents and coaches inadvertently do is heap a load of pressure on their 7 year old kid by focussing on results as opposed to what they've learnt and what new skills they can show. If a kid or team then goes a week or two without winning, then the fun goes. If the fun goes, you lose the child from the game at the end of the season, potentially forever.
My advice would be two-fold... firstly, don't keep a record of the scores, not even during the game. The kids might do themselves, but if they ask, just tell them it doesn't matter. Sit them down at the end of the game and ask firstly if they've had fun (which should be a yes!), and second if any of them have put into practice the dribbling/shooting/passing you may have worked on in training.
It's far better to develop the kids and let them enjoy themselves than focus on winning and giving the ball to the kid who's a year or two ahead in their football development. The role of a coach at such ages is to help develop the tools the children can use to become better players later in life.
So following from that, I'd embrace the weaker kid, and make every session fun for them. See it not as a hinderance, but as a challenge - can you, as the coach, help the child progress to the stage where they're closer to par with the rest of the group? If you can, I can guarantee that you'll have done something more rewarding than winning a few games in a U8 league.
Not so much about what im doing at the minute but what i want to do.Currently im coaching an U10s team.Im 19 and I play football with the senior team at the same club.Its something i really really enjoy doing and wish i could do it every night/day of the week really.I was wondering if theres any coaches or anything out there who could help me with a few things?Currently unemployed at the minute and i dont start college til september.However im not sure what i want to do and college is just like a stop gap basically.Id love to get into coaching at any level.IS there any course i can do to improve?Also id love to go and coach in the states but im sure theres alot more to it then just applying.By the way im in Ireland!
What experience / badges do you currently have? I'd recommend taking on as much learning as possible - I'm not sure how the FAI works, but the English FA, aside from their standard courses, youth courses etc, also have a lot of online courses which help explain the pathways into the industry. As for working abroad, I can only speak from experience - the FA Level 1 was sufficient for me to work in America in 2006/2007, and whilst you'll spend your time coaching young kids and playing games, I'd recommend it to anyone. It's a great way to spend a few months, and can lead to a lot more.
I'm a qualified coach with a CRB but can't find a job at the moment, which is crap.
Where are you? What qualifications / experience do you have?
Cheers for the reply lad..Ye i wanted to do sports science but i didnt do a science subject when leaving school so couldnt get into college over here for that.Plus theres no real emphasis on anything like that in the course anyway as i checked it out and its mostly just physio/pe teacher sort of road..Id love to study overseas,and planning on moving to australia before im 25 hopefully so that would be ideal but its the cost of it all i supose..Somewhere like the states/australia would be ideal for me.Theres a course over here you can do with FAS that you do for the year and get paid like 100 squid a quick to do it.You get all your coaching badges through it in all but its run arseways.First of all you have to apply along with a letter of recomandation.Not so bad.Then if they like the application you get invited for a trial with a couple of hundred people and they choose it on footballing ability.Basically prob wont touch you if youre playing just sunday league level..Found that out the hard way even though i was bloody playing with my towns youth team for the 6 years before!
Depending on your location, you can actually get football coaching apprenticeships which take you through your NVQ in football coaching up to Level 3 (which is nonsense in all honesty), and your FA Level 2 course, and they'll normally assist you in finding somewhere to coach during the length of the course too. You don't need to be able to play to any great standard, you need to want to be a part of it all. If you're down Liverpool way, send me a PM.
i would like to go into coaching when im older (one of many things i would like to do) but i have no experience whatsoever. how do you start off?
How old are you? The best way to start if you're young is to help out with a team at your local club. If you know anyone who coahes a team, or know any young players / parents of young players, than just have an ask around to see if any of their teams wouldn't mind you helping out for a season.
If you decide you like it, then enrol yourself on the FA Level 1 course (normally about £80) - it's an easy course to complete, but covers essential information such as session delivery, how to interact with the kids, and you'll pick up a few useful games in there too.
