Welcome to Youth Soccer Coaching

A brief overview of the newsletter

Ignoring needlessly long introductions, this sub-stack will examine in-depth what I’ve learned during my time as a youth soccer coach. I imagine at times it might become quite esoteric (I’ve already started writing a piece about how changing different components within an exercise can affect a player’s psychology) but I imagine that, like me, you are passionate about what you do, and thus what might turn off an average reader might actually be as interesting to you as it is for me.

A majority of my coaching experience has been with players under the age of 18. I’ve worked with collegiate and semi-professional teams as well, and there is quite a lot of overlap between the two realms of coaching for development and coaching for performance, but I’ll primarily write for those who work with players younger than 18.

As I’m sure you already know, coaching (or at least coaching well) envelops so many different things. You have to be able to organize, instruct and — most importantly — teach. You must know about the game of soccer, but that pales in comparison to the importance of communicating ideas, building consensus, creating psychological safety, managing egos, upholding standards, modifying behavior and more, all within a constantly changing environment. Each training session and game presents different problems which you, as the leader, must solve.

Solving these problems requires a skill set and knowledge base that is incredibly deep and complex. There’s a variety of coaching methodologies, skill acquisition theories, and teaching tools that must be selected and implemented based on the factors that you perceive to be relevant at that time. And even that is a skill in itself! A sign of expertise is your ability to separate which information is useful and which you can discard.

And none of the things mentioned above are even specific to the game of soccer. Once you arrive there you must build a game model, choose and design exercises, periodize your season, set seasonal goals and objectives, and put it all in the context of that season’s learning blocks, all while ensuring everything is appropriate for that group’s particular developmental needs. It’s an incredible about of information to grapple with all at once and an even higher number of skills that must be layered on top of each other to achieve mastery.

However, I don’t say any of this to overwhelm you. Really this is all just a long-winded way of saying that I intend to write about all of these topics, and much more, because they fall under the umbrella of coaching youth soccer, which has become significantly more professionalized over the last two decades.

Historically, the term ‘youth soccer’ has brought up mental images of grassroots programs with volunteer coaches where at any given time a player on the field was kneeling down to examine what a ladybug was eating. Yet today, ‘youth soccer’ can also encompass academies that fly players across the nation to participate in elite-level tournaments. Both of these systems are crucial to developing the game in the United States and each coach, regardless of which players they lead, needs to wield a large number of tools – and have the requisite contextual knowledge – to successfully guide their actions.

I’ve always taken notes, kept journals, read excessively, and watched way too many YouTube videos of coaches in action. The thought of writing something has always excited me and I’m currently in a phase of my life where I have the time and space to do so. I’ve also learned there’s gaps between remembering, learning, and applying, and I’ve found that writing is the best way for my brain to pinch these gaps closer together. If I can achieve these ends while simultaneously sharing my ideas with like-minded people and potentially provide some fuel for others who are on their own coaching path than I think I’d be crazy not to at least try. I hope you join me on this little journey of mine and I look forward to (hopefully) exchanging ideas with fellow coaches soon.