With a combination of enthusiasm, curiosity and the resources below – utilized by Missy herself – anyone can become a great youth soccer coach. The first two resources offer great general and strategic advice about how to approach coaching youth; they are applicable to any sport.
A Coaching and Philosophical Starting Point
If you can avoid the three L’s–lines, laps and lectures–outlined in this one-page guide, you are well on your way to being an excellent youth sports coach.
Piaget for Soccer Coaches
A good one-page resource about appropriate developmental skills for each age.
Soccerhelp.com
Don’t be intimated by this text-heavy site! Soccerhelp.com is a great resource for first-time, parent-coaches of young players, U-11 and below, There is a free version which is enough to get you started, but the paid version is well worth the money. We also use their patch program to incent kits to set and achieve goals.
Bettersoccercoaching.com
If you can wade through the pop-ups and ads, there is very good information on all aspects of coaching the game of soccer. Their weekly newsletter has valuable drills and practice planning tips that are particularly valuable for kids U-12 and up.
YouTube
This seems obvious, but YouTube is a treasure trove of technique tips. Pretty much any move you need to teach or want your team to master, you can find a great instructional breakdown on YouTube.
Baffled Parent’s Guide to Coaching Youth Soccer and Baffled Parent’s Guide to Great Soccer Drills
Prefer something in print on paper? These two classic books can probably get you through U-6, U-8 and perhaps U-10 soccer. If you follow Bobby Clark’s advice, you will be well ahead of most parent-coaches.
Share with us your great coaching tips, and for this fall season, let’s all lean in and help!