I recently read the article "5 Reasons Every Aspiring Coach Should Work With U6 Players Early in Their Career" by Logan Hoffman, University of Wisconsin- Green Bay Assistant Coach. The article referenced a topic that I had not often thought of and I found it very insightful. However, I didn't truly realize the depth of the article until I, myself started to coach a group of U-9 players earlier this month.
My previous coaching experiences have been at the collegiate and high school level. I had the chance to work with young adults who had already been instructed for many years on fundamentals, systems of play, and just overall had a much higher level of physical and emotional maturity. I never had to process the development of a player I was coaching from back when she was 10 or 12, I just needed her to perform well as a college player. In short, my job put a lot of faith in youth, rec, club and high school coaches to do a lot of work before I had the task of fine tuning them.
In a short few weeks, I feel that I am already a better coach for having worked with a U-9 team. Working with this age group has taught me how to really "dumb down" the game and convey basic teaching points of the soccer. I had to learn how to speak of the game on a much more basic scale, less is more. One sentence explanations are good, two is okay, but by the third the girls have started to do cartwheels : )
Unlike in college, when you have to address multiple issues in a short span of time before the next critical game, I have learned that the development of these youth players is not a race. I will not get 15 girls all to understand movement off the ball in a 3-3-1 system in one week of practice, but I will reach some. Even at this level you can pick out the kids who have a gift, and the kids who will be successful just because they work hard. The challenge so far is giving those kids enough attention to really blossom while having to simultaneously ask the girls who are rolling around in the grass to please stand up and play. :)
The biggest lesson I learned so far, however, is just to smile and create a fun environment. If the kids aren't having fun at practice, they aren't going to want to play again. The future of USA soccer could very well be on my pitch every Mon & Thurs afternoon and it is my job to take care of them.
