Teaching Sports

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Sebudai

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Anyone of you bros out there teach Basketball, Baseball, Football or maybe Soccer? Been thinking about trying to sign up for this or looking into this and wondering if any of you guys have any insight or advice. All were extremely formative for me, and I think I might love doing the same for a new generation.
 

Prodigal

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I’ve coached football and soccer at the youth level for years and enjoyed it, but I’ve decided I’ve gotten too old to deal with the parents.

Number one priority is setting expectations first, and reinforcing expectations regularly. Have a “contract” of what they should expect from you and what you expect from them and get it signed by the parents.
 
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Hosix

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I coach flag football and soccer for both my kids. I never played soccer outside of gym class. I currently coach 3rd through 6th grade kiddos.

My suggestions? Know your leagues rules. Most refs/officials are volunteers. Know the rules better than they do.

YouTube videos for skill drills has been amazing. Especially for soccer and flag football. I certainly can’t line up the old Oklahoma drill.

Keep your practices moving. Kids get bored quick. I try to do each drill for 15 minutes. Always something fun at the end with lots of running.

Be prepared for parents who know everything and will tell you so. Just smile and say thank you.
 
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Asshat Brando

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I coached my daughters for Soccer for almost 5 years. I might continue to do it even as they move up to actual "real" coaches as I do find it rewarding. Biggest things I can say about soccer coaching for ages 6-11 are:

1. As noted above kids get bored quick and also are mainly there for social reasons. You may get lucky with some kid prodigy where it's all they want to do but for the most part they care more about making friends or being with their friends than the actual sport. Always keep this in mind for practice in that they should always have a ball and be moving around. No standing in line waiting.
2. Be upfront with the parents about your skill level. If you've never really played the sport and a parent is expecting you to turn their kid into Messi then they probably need to find another coach. Depending on your area there's plenty of coaches who will take their money for that type of training. On the other hand if you played all your life and want to form a competitive team, make sure you're aware of the time commitment that takes. Basically it's 24/7 365 days a year for my daughters club teams.
3. For soccer, make sure you have your coaching licenses for the age specific group. Until you get past U10 everything you need is online. Biggest thing is you'll get age specific drills with videos of them to demonstrate which is a big help if you've never run a practice before. Running isn't really needed at these age groups though of course it's part of it, more about learning about the game and how to actually control a ball which even with no competitive background a parent can easily demonstrate.
4. For games, which at these age groups are non-competitive, you're going to run into asshole parents no matter what that just want to win and will be yelling at their kids. Make sure to talk to the crazy ones as best as possible to tone it down and always be positive when talking to the kids to off-set their parents being assholes. I've noticed this is way worse for boys than girls but even with girls you get parents that are just pants on fire retarded where cops have to be called.

The other thing I would always suggest is to start with AYSO. They always need coaches and in my region there's been times where kids were turned away due to a lack of coaches which is bullshit.
 
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calhoonjugganaut

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Making yourself available to do like an hour 1 on 1 practice and pick kids up sometimes is important. It's important to make kids also feel included in the entire group. I've helped with soccer and basketball for my nephews but wasn't the head coach or anything. My dad was the head coach for AAU baseball and soccer when I was growing up. He didn't know shit about soccer but I guess he studied it enough to know what he needed to do for us to win some county championships. My dad took it as a serious hobby. He kept stats in baseball and soccer on a different level than all the other coaches. We had a kid one year that batted .970 in Little League...he should've kept playing baseball but didn't. My dad also helped my brother in law coach basketball. Once again, no real formal high school experience or anything there either, but we did well. There is definitely a difference when it comes to being assertive and being an asshole when coaching. Be the former. Some kids might not even want to be there so make it challenging but also make practices fun.
 
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j00t

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best advice i can give is to remember you are not there to win games. you're not some high paid ncaa or nfl coach or something. you are NOT there to win games. you are there to teach the kids to enjoy their time with you. winning games is fun, but not for the kid who sits on the bench. i remember in high school soccer, we didn't have a large enough team for a varsity AND a jv team. so freshmen were with seniors. basically every freshman sat the bench because the seniors were just more coordinated. it was entirely frustrating as a lower classman because your friends and family would come to games just to see you sit the bench. if you were a senior you just about automatically played 3/4's of the game because you had "paid your dues."

that's nonsense. i'm not saying that everyone is a snowflake and should all have equal game time, i'm just saying these kids are putting in time and energy to PLAY. so let them.
 
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Sebudai

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Thanks for all the suggestions, bros. Very helpful. I'm looking at this as more of an opportunity to volunteer and teach kids to enjoy sports and fitness, not really as a competitive outlet. I am kinda concerned about psycho parents though.
 
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Prodigal

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Yeah the parents are the issue 99% of the time. I’ve coached recreational soccer where you have both extremes - the helicopter parents worried about juniors delicate psyche and the parents of the next Ronaldo wondering why these other kids are out there at all. One year the only other parent willing to help me was a varsity assistant football coach whose only goal was to turn his son into a man... this was an under 8 rec league.

Coached my son in Pop Warner from age 5 to age 12. Again, you get parents who want to introduce their kid to sports at 12 by putting them on a tackle football team. You be amazed at how hard an 12 year old that has been playing 5 years can hit. These kids and their parents were too. Meanwhile I had a mother (who FYI was a former college track athlete, as was her husband) tell me I was “killing her sons spirit” by not playing him at running back more, even though he was terrified of contact and would run 25 yards sideline to sideline before bet losing 5.

All that said, wanting to be a positive influence in kids lives is awesome, and generally the kids are awesome too. I have kids I don’t recognize (because it’s been 10+ years since I coached them) come up to me and say “hey coach!” I always told the parents at the start of a season that my goal was for the kids to enjoy (if not love) the sport more at the end of the season than they did at the beginning.

Again, I always say manage the parents expectations and make sure they know what to expect from you and what you expect from them and that will eliminate many unpleasant “surprises “.