Instructor’s Responsibilities and Duties

Soccer programs should be offered to youth players of all ages, with the emphasis on fun, fitness, and skill building in an environment in which winning is not the sole focus.

Every child must have the opportunity to participate in every game.
An instructor should be able to define the needs of his youth players. The growth process should emphasize the development of sound skills that can be enjoyed. Players should experience fun and enjoyment every time they come to the soccer field. The instructors should also be able to adapt to each player’s personality, talk to them in a positive manner, lead by example and teach the players to conduct themselves in a controlled manner on the field.

Players need the opportunity to play their own game. Therefore as instructors, we should limit sideline coaching. Teaching should be done at practice rather in games.

Developing a strong sense of self-esteem is as fundamental as a solid technical foundation. It is of great importance that instructors provide an atmosphere of a strong team where players can develop a love of the game as well as environment where players can respect each other.

If we can step back and say to ourselves that our players are developing respect, trust, confidence and a desire to remain actively involved in soccer, then we can honestly say we are doing our job!!!

This article was featured in the Scuola Calcio Magazine - The article was written by Antonio Saviano.

Scuola Calcio Coaching Magazine is aimed to improve youth players from the age of 5 and up. Every activity will be specifically targeted to the appropriate age group.

The Fundamentals of the Goalkeeper (Part 3 of 4)

The following article was featured in the Scuola Calcio Magazine. Was written by Marco Stoini, Director of Coaching for San Luigi Calcio Trieste and Ascoli Soccer Academy Technical Director and translated by Antonio Saviano.

The concept of the psychological and technical FUNDAMENTALS of today’s goalkeepers should have a solid base for “attacking the ball”. What ever movement is put into effect, the idea must never be to endure the ball, but to foresee the ball direction, either in a cognitive sense as well as in a geometric sense; the advantages should be visible, from different points of view.
While the technical fundamentals are easily noticed, for the tactical fundamentals to be noticeable, coaches would have to look at the goalkeepers attentively. The tactical decisions goalkeepers make are different from technical executions.

In general, it can be said that every time the goalkeeper makes a decision (i.e.: position in goal, body position on the field, where to send the ball with his feet or when to come out to clear the ball, how to psychologically condition the opponent and help teammates in their positioning on the field, etc.), he performs a tactical behavior that often alone can save a goal. All this may not seem to influential, because many goals are avoided and because most of the time the intelligent and careful goalkeeper makes good decisions.

Just as the technical qualities make a difference, the tactical and attentive aspects also make the difference between goalkeepers. There are many goalkeepers teaching schools and each one of them has a clear and very specialized connotation on how to teach: it is sufficient to look the significant differences of the technical formulation between goalkeepers, in particular between those coming from various areas.

Obviously, all body movements need to be developed because they are part of that technical base, of which it cannot be absolutely left out. The only applicative limitation in the course of the years is constituted by the age of the student, but at the end, the adult goalkeepers must manage all the technical abilities and possibly have good tactical understanding.

The boxes (above rigth - click on it to enlarge) are a review of the technical and tactical base fundamentals for the goalkeepers. In many of the following seven points you will find different tactical elements... in particular in the particular points: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

This article was featured in the Scuola Calcio Magazine.
Scuola Calcio Coaching Magazine is aimed and dedicated to providing first class soccer information for instructors at all levels throughout the North America and the World.

How Important Is Winning In Youth Soccer

The question is “how important is winning in youth soccer?”

The answer to the above question it will vary and it also depends from who is answering it. For the youth players the answer evidently is, “not really, we like to have fun”. When youth players, between the age of 9 to 13 were asked if “winning” was important to them the response was “Not Really”. The same players were asked the simple questions of “what would they change about playing soccer”, the answer was “less emphasis on winning” and “make it more FUN”.

Of course the importance of winning changes with the players ages: Younger players are more interested in the "fun of the game”, while older players become easily more concerned about winning. But even then, many players say that they would rather play on a losing team than "sit the bench" on a winning team.

If coaches or parents were asked the same question “how important winning is” to the success of team, many of them clearly would respond, "VERY IMPORTANT!"

Even when some coaches do not keep scores or win-lost records, the other adults involved, “parents” know exactly what the results are. For them, winning games is more important therefore "Winning isn¹t everything, it's the only thing," attitude develops.

Some parents along with some coaches believe that winning is essential to success in youth soccer, they place emphasis on which division they play in or which travel level they play. Some may count the trophies they bring back from tournaments, keep track of the scores, check standings to see who has to win and who has to lose for the team to move up. They try to recruit players to their teams rather than support the development of players from within the team. Coaches and parents who focus on winning in these terms are viewing youth soccer as they likely would view adult endeavors.

This thinking often results in loosing players at a younger age. Players are pressured in a negative way instead of a positive way. This may be one of the reason why at the age of 14 we see a decrease of children playing soccer.

Concentrating exclusively on the final score of a soccer game as the important outcome causes negative feeling between youth soccer players, let alone parents! The attitude to have from coaches towards parents or the other coaches who want to win at all cost is simple: Winning should not be everything but trying to win is ok. Determination to win is the essence of soccer. By placing the emphasis on the players and their effort, winning is redefined in such a way that it comes within the reach of all. But here is a good question: how is effort defined and measured?

The answer lies in observing the youth players while they play. It is relatively easy to see whether they are taking the game seriously or are simply "playing the game."

If they are taking the game seriously then we will notice a “great effort”. If they are “playing the game” we will notice “some lack of enthusiasm and effort”. Each of those performances must be evaluated within each game.

The challenge is not for the players but for the parents and coaches to redefine winning in terms of effort and to restructure the soccer development. Some potential changes lie in:

• Creating balanced competitions so that outcomes are not in doubt.
• Helping players set achievable and individual goals.
• Teaching players to measure their success in terms of attaining such Goals.
• Celebrating with and rewarding players who reach their goals.

Most of the time youth players look forward to competitions to be fair and for the outcome to be balanced. If these conditions are met, they will make and give a maximum effort, otherwise, they are likely to spend their time complaining about how unbalanced the teams are or how unfair the game was. It is coaches who do not see the player development concept as an important aspect of the soccer game that "stack" teams and want to win at all cost. Statistics show that youth players look for fairness in the games they play.

Meaningful and attainable goals are essential to success in any activity, but never more so than in youth soccer. Young players should have defined clear goals to work for and learn, and they should be involved in establishing these goals. Individual goals are much more effective than group or team goals in a younger age group. Team goals allow each player to know exactly what needs to be accomplished as a team. Individual goals give players an idea of what should be done to have their efforts measured against each other. Reaching the goals can only be accomplished through learning and executing the basic fundamentals, the goals become the means of measuring effort:

• Did the players give the effort in practice
• Did the players give the effort in the game
• How was the performance
• What should we do to improve the above

Finally, when the goals are reached, the players achievement should be recognized and respected. This will motivate the players and acknowledge the importance of striving to meet the goals and to be competitive.
Giving effort is within the reach of any players and is appropriate for all players. Consequently, it constitutes a definition of winning that can be applied to all situations.

The proper questions for parents to ask to their children are not "Did you win?" or "How many goals did you score?" Rather it should be "Did you give your best effort?" or "Did you learn from the game?"
Youth players often can answer "Yes" to these questions, even when the results were negative.

The result of defining "winning" in terms of effort and development rather than outcome is to make youth soccer more interesting, meaningful, satisfying and enjoyable. Striving to win and giving the best effort are objectives that every coach, player, parent or adult can and should support.

About The Author

Antonio Saviano is the founder of Soccerkix, Scuola Calcio, Italian Premier Soccer School and Soccerkix Academy, a clearing house for the Italian Soccer experience. He has been the North America Director for many Italian professional soccer clubs, including Ascoli Soccer Academy, AC Parma Scuola Calcio and AC Perugia Scuola Calcio. In that capacity he has been helping, leading and developing coaching and player development programs for over 100 affiliated soccer schools across North America and Europe. He is also a freelance writer for Soccer Coaching Magazine.

Antonio has written several books on youth development, among them, “U-6 – U-12 Development Theory”, “U-8 – U-10 Soccer School Development Manual”. He co-authored “Playing to Learn to Play, Didactic Progression for the Development of the Technical-Tactical Fundamentals in the Soccer Schools” and has produced a training video.

For more information you can visit: www.soccerkix.com and http://soccerkix.blogspot.com/