Reality of Grassroots Coaching
Coaching children is a very serious and competitive environment that demands results!!!!!
Good morning! I want to talk about some of the realities that come with coaching grassroots players.
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Not many people get into coaching because they want to coach a U7 team. That responsibility is relegated to the parents of players. If a child is lucky, they may get a qualified coach to work with as they begin their playing days.
I know that when I started to coach, I did it with the intention of reaching the Champions League as fast as possible, leaving all the children behind in my path because they were merely tools for my inevitable success!
Obviously, that’s terrible. I’ve matured since then, now demanding more from myself as I aspire to take those players with me to the Champions League.
There’s very little shared online about the realities of grassroots coaching, both great and grim, so I’d like to share my experiences.
For the purposes of clarity, I consider any age group below U13 to be grassroots. This is where players are learning the fundamentals of football and begin to fall in love with it as we all have.
The Good — Communication Skills
Communication is a skill. Being able to explain hard concepts in as few words as possible, as easy to understand as possible, is incredibly valuable. Not only is being able to do this with children going to make your life easier, but this skill will hold its value when you move up in the footballing world and speak work with dumb people who may as well be children.
You could argue that communication can be worked on with a U16 group, but I don’t think it’s the same. A 15 year old player will likely speak the language you speak fluently, whereas a child won’t. The relevance? Good luck explaining Juego de Posicion to the Vietnamese wonderkid at whatever European super team you end up with.
Players have different levels of game understanding, your language understanding and education. Speaking to them in simple speak, like you would a young person, will make your job a lot easier.
I can confidently say that coaching players who don’t speak English as a first language is hard — I’ve done it with players who speak Hindi, Mandarin, Chichewa and Scottish.
The Bad — Equipment, Facilities and Lack Thereof
I’ve coached grassroots for about as long as I have academy football. Sometimes you’re given a pitch that hasn’t been cut in six months, sometimes you’re given three bibs, six cones and told “good luck.”
It can be very difficult to manage a training session when you have a limited amount of equipment. Your perfect session plan falls to pieces when you find out you don’t have mini-goals or movable full-size goals.
It’s a pain in the ass, honestly. I hated this part of grassroots coaching, but there is a silver lining:
Constant change makes you more adaptable.
Your false fullback and JdP get you the job, but adaptability keeps you in it.
The Good — You See Results Quick
A 12 year old player can improve a lot more than a 16 year old player because the 12 year old player hasn’t learned as much as the 16 year old. Very simple. The importance of being able to see development quickly is that you get to see if your session plans, coaching points and connections with the players are valuable and working.
If you’re relying on your incredible session plans and small-sided games to develop players, you’ll be replaced by Coach YouTube very soon. Most coaches, myself included, don’t know what sessions they’ve made or stolen from other coaches.
Believe it or not, what you teach the players and how you teach them is what helps development take off. Yes, training games and exercises help, but they can be used incorrectly. An inexperienced coach may not notice their games are being used incorrectly because they decided to coach a U16 and won’t see development as clearly as they would with younger players.
The Alright — Parents
Every team has a parent or several parents who was some sort of player in a college/academy/beer league who tries to undermine you at every opportunity because their son/daughter/nuisance is on the team.
This is annoying. I don’t really have a fun anecdote or quip for this one.
If you’re from North America, then you’ll know the pay-to-play structure all too well.
I can’t tell you how many late nights I’ve spent speaking to parents on the phone, via email or at a local coffee shop, explaining to them that their child is in fact not special to me and that they need to be rotated so that everyone can develop fairly.
I’ve been chewed out in front of 50 people before, heckled at in games, had things thrown at me etc because parents don’t like losing, or the winning teams parents aren’t nice people.
It can be very disheartening at times to work with people who struggle to understand what you’re trying to accomplish despite repeated explanations.
Having said that, wow, I really love some of the parents I’ve worked with. Sometimes you’ll get a group of players who have parents who make time to hear what you have to say and want to learn about their child’s development in football.
When you come across parents like that, it makes everything we do worth it. Before moving to Malawi, I was coaching at a small club called Ancaster Legacy in Hamilton, Ontario. That club, by far, had the best parents I ever worked with. It broke my heart to tell them I was leaving. ALFC parents, if you’re reading this, if your kids develop into even half the people you are, they’ll go far in life. What a privilege it was to work with you.
On top of being paid and winning trophies, I coach football for the gift cards that parents get me after their child gets a scholarship. That’s fulfillment.
Just like how the grassroots level is imperative for the development of a player, coaches should not skip this step.
It’s a necessary step that I’ve written about several times before. I don’t care if you hate kids, no one in football is going to give you a coaching job at a decent level if you can’t show them a player you’ve developed over the course of a year or three.
In addition to this, don’t be scared of coaching children either. It’s fulfilling and humbling. It’s where you become the reason for a player falling in love with football.