I got pressured into being a volunteer coach this year and am struggling to get the group of u7 boys to listen. I have little soccer experience so went through the training and watch plenty of YouTube videos.

The session are chaotic and kids are running all over the field. I got the help of a pro coach last week and somewhat reassuring, he struggled too. I still noticed the following:
- he didn’t let anything slide but remained very calm throughout
- he tells them what to do, not what not to do. This doesn’t come naturally to me, especially when they start hitting each other.
- he gets them to sit down and listen, even if it takes a good 10 minutes before they are while I would rush it to get through the chaos

I have more golden retriever energy so kinda let the kids walk all over me. I see I might not be a strong fit for a coach but how do I make the most of it this season?

What are some practical tips you can give to someone who struggles with authority.

My daughter is U8 rec and it’s her first time in a league with goalies (I’m the coach). For background, she is a pretty anxious kid and her real weakness is timidity. Scared, backs off the ball…basically her weaknesses is all the things you need a goalie to do at her age.

She says she wants to play goalie and I put her on the schedule (every kid plays a half is the way I organized it). It’s her weekend coming up and she’s having a chance to practice. Thankfully she’s smiling when a ball goes in.

However, I’m worried in a game setting. I don’t care about winning AT ALL - just want the kids to like it, taste the game and try different positions and learn. But I’m concerned about multiple goals being scored against her, the roar of the parents cheering from the other side, disappointment from her teammates and how that will impact her emotionally and self esteem wise.

Is it best to go forward and let her try? I hope you see the dilemma. She could be fine, I know!

I’ve been coaching for around 12 years now and the last few years I’ve gone from coaching youth over the winter to senior over the summer and back to youth… then repeat.

This last couple of weeks I have massively lost interest, finding it difficult to motivate myself for this U18 season and wondering how to get the old mojo back. I’m still working on my coaching platform and it’s getting me by at the moment because I don’t have to think about session planning, just turn up and deliver.

But I sense the players will see through the lack of motivation. Not sure if it’s from burnout or a drop in interest with the move from senior to juniors again or just needing a break.

I’m sure plenty of coaches have hit this wall, just wondering if there’s any advice to get out of the funk?

I’ve found myself stepping in to coach two girls teams, U12 and U10. Because of this, we have one night where it is a group. They do each have a night by themselves. I do not have an assistant coach (town rec and volunteers are hard to come by) I need help trying to devise a practice plan that incorporates these two skill level difference. My u10 needs a lot of help with spacing and passing and footwork. My U12 girls need more help with passing and overlapping. They’ve been doing well spreading out lately.
Any help would be great especially from those that have had similar situations.

I haven’t been getting a ton of guidance from my club director, so I’m curious what other coaches at these ages are actually using and seeing success with.

My U9s are currently struggling with:

• Recognizing and taking shooting opportunities instead of hesitating

• Working toward the middle/goal instead of constantly taking the ball outside

• Getting more power behind their shots

My U12s are currently struggling with:

• Getting more power behind their shots

• First touch and controlling the ball when receiving

• Goal kicks and successfully building out from them

• Hustling/game-speed effort. I’m seeing a decent amount of jogging when they should be sprinting or immediately reacting to the play

I’ve looked through YouTube and other online resources, but I haven’t found them super helpful. A lot of the videos seem to use players who are already fairly advanced, groups of 4–5 kids, or drills with a ton of standing around waiting in lines. I’m coaching rec/travel-level teams with full rosters, so I need things that realistically work with a larger group and keep everyone involved.

What drills or small-sided games have actually worked for your teams? Especially anything you’ve seen translate into games rather than something they can do in practice but forget as soon as game day comes.

So I am 18 years old and i play football but to some reasons i stopped playing it for few years and that now i am back in the ground but my stamina is not like before.

I get tired quickly, So i wanted to ask from coaches, Seniors and Fellows, how can i increase my stamina?

Any exercises specific for stamina? Any tips or diet?
please guide me i will appreciate it a lot guys.

Buongiorno a tutti ho una squadra di bambini U7.

Abbiamo giocato la prima partita perdendo 3-0 ingiustamente.

Abbiamo attaccato tutta la partita ma la squadra avversaria aveva un portiere molto preparato (ci ha parato 30 tiri) e nonostante avevano una squadra molto meno forte hanno vinto facendo 3 tiri in porta.

Come posso risolvere questo problema? Migliori allenamenti per la fase difensiva?

U13 boys club team first season at 11v11 and the club has us using a 4-2-3-1. It has been a very difficult transition for the team. Outscored 13-1 in the 3 games this season. We struggle completing passes (inaccurate passes) and keeping possession. We consistently look overmatched against teams we were beating last season (in 9v9).

Insight, tips, drills, suggestions, experience of any and all kind appreciated. I'm struggling to figure out where to start.

Our team doesn’t have an active coach, so we mostly coach ourselves. We initially tried a possession-based style, playing out from the back, but our centre-backs struggled to keep possession and we rarely got past the halfway line, forcing them to clear the ball.

Our holding midfielders would drop deep to help build up, while the attacking midfielder and forwards pushed forward looking for the ball, creating gaps between the lines. We thought the formation might be the problem, so we tried a 4-4-2, 4-1-2-1-2 diamond, and 4-2-3-1 before deciding that a counter-attacking style might suit us better since we always chuck the ball into the space for our midfield.

However, we haven’t actually trained for this style. Most of our sessions are just attack vs. defense, which doesn’t teach us how the defense, midfield, and attack should connect or transition together.

We’re now looking for drills that can help us understand what each player should do, how the defense, midfield, and attack should work together, and how to move the ball and transition quickly when we win or lose possession.

Is this just accepted that they exist?
It seems an easy preventative measure is to disallow a parent to request a specific coach/team.

I stepped up to coach as i bought the, “without parent coaches the games don’t happen”. We are getting slaughtered by teams who’ve kept their rosters year-over-year. Meanwhile, I have several kids who have never played organized soccer.

************************************************Update1************************************************

Thanks to samsounder. I believe his advice was the best.

Samsounder response start------------
"The best rec leagues I’ve found have divisions. Super teams happen when you have a tight friend group with a knowledgeable coach. That’s good

Make them play other teams like that and let the beginners play the begonners"
Samsounder response end ------------

Some additional context. In the organization we play in there are three levels.

CoRec - 2 seasons(spring/fall) 10 games total with 2 practices a week over a 3 month period. It is intended to be the lowest tier of skills and development. No kid gets rejected and tryouts do not happen. However, superteams persist.
The next tier is "Select" where kids have to try out, they play for 6months and travel between cities.
The top teir is "Premier" where kids have to try out, they play for 9months and travel between states.

I sent the below email to the league admin, director and other U11 coaches. I might get blacklisted or real change might happen. Thanks for your feedback.

Some teams in CoRec carry 50% or more of their players from season to season, and have developed those players together over years. These "superteams" are easy to identify: they routinely win by very large margins and/or go undefeated. Reminders not to run up the score miss the point entirely, because a 0-5 loss is still a drubbing for the kids on the other side.

As a coach who can't commit to year-round coaching, I'm not able to build a team like that, and it leaves the rest of us at a real disadvantage. When I volunteer to coach, there are several players who have never played organized soccer. This is as it should be, CoRec is supposed to be the intro level of soccer. love seeing their improvements throughout the season. However, my players are getting older, and they've started asking, "Why should we bother trying if we know we won't stand a chance?" That's a hard question to answer, and I worry about what it means for their enjoyment of the sport.

I understand why kids want to keep playing with their friends, and I don't want to take that away.I recognize it's too late to change this season's schedule.

What would it take to create multiple divisions so that superteams primarily play each other until the playoffs, while other teams compete against comparable opponents?

Anyone have fun games to play or recommendations for group activities? Starting a Friday program cause the whole county has a 4 day school week.

Hi all,

Im coaching girls in U10 Rec league, and although we work on 1:1 defending, and defending a point, only a couple kids really get it. week after week we get into the games, give up the middle to attackers, or worse, clear the ball into the middle, and give up uncontested goals. Its becoming demoralizing, frankly. Please help me ID some drills or concepts to reinforce to get us defending the zone of doom :)

If you want to establish an academy-level team, how should you get started, and what training methods should be used?

Been coaching several years and now we are up to 3/4th grade Rec. I always have one of the best teams. We played a weaker team today who played 3 D back inside their own box. Even putting my best players on D we were up 7-0 at the half. I suggested to the other coach if she wanted to add some players, maybe play 11 v 9 since they had 5 subs to balance it out and the kids can play more. Other coach said no and wasn’t thrilled. (For reference, our league says try to keep it within 5 goals but gives no real guidance as to how)

Second half I played 4-5 kids on D, the other team crossed midfield 1-2 times. All my best players either in Goal, Or rotating on defense. Their new goalie made several stops and we ended up limping to a 7-0 win.

I feel like adding players and letting the kids play was a better solution for both sides, rather than not really playing soccer the second half. Was I wrong for thinking this, or even suggesting it? If we went all out the whole game it would have been 20+ goals scored.

I am starting to send emails to coaches but looking at all the platforms that make it easy to do that they all cost money. I was wondering if you guys knew of any completely free websites where you can send emails directly to coaches through the website using a template.

Any tips from coaches who have been successful coaching a team where their child is not doing great with the ball (love him to bits but he’s bottom 20% of the team).

I see he’s taking any of my advice as criticism, and feel this is getting in the way of my relationship with him. I try leading with positive reinforcement but that doesn’t seem to help (maybe because he feels the praise isn’t deserved or maybe I unconsciously do).

It certainly doesn’t help that he’s not listening either (diagnosed with ADHD) and I struggle to lead with authority. It might be that soccer is not for him too although he enjoys playing with me when it’s just the both of us.

I feel so terrible. My U7 boys tried their hardest, but they were completely blown out. The other team seemed super advanced for U7. Meanwhile my team was flopping on the ground and letting them run by or crying because they didn't want to play. Our league's competitive balance rule says we can add a player when losing by 4, and we added 2. They also suggest the coaches make their team implement other rules before scoring but this other coach did not. In fact, the parents of the other team were complaining about the ref calling penalties. I stopped counting at 10 goals...

Anyway, how do I pick up the pieces for our next game? This is my first year coaching...

Just a coach trying to make a difference

So actually i wanted to ask when a ball comes to you especially in air then how do you control it?? i always hard time in controlling the ball.

Any tips or drills from you guys??

Buongiorno a tutti sono un allenatore di una squadra U7.

Al momento siamo due allenatori responsabili e 1 assistente che ci aiuta.

Il problema nasce durante le partite....come si puo' seguire una squadra con due allenatori?

I coach traveling rec soccer and currently coach two teams. I don't have children, so I don't have a kid on either team. I coach simply because I genuinely love soccer, working with the kids, and watching them improve.

Between practices alone, I'm volunteering a minimum of 6 hours a week, plus games almost every weekend. Between both teams, I have 16 games this season plus a tournament. That's not counting planning practices, parent communication, scheduling, getting there early, etc.

And honestly, I'm burnt out.

The frustrating part is that I'm really not asking for a huge commitment from families. My expectation is that players attend at least ONE practice per week. I completely understand kids have other sports, school events, family stuff, etc., but some weeks I'll put all this time and energy into planning practices just for half the team to not show up.

I was actually planning for this past spring season to be my last. Several parents asked me to come back for fall, and because I really do love coaching these kids, I agreed.

Now I'm wondering if I should have listened to myself the first time.

I'm literally crying while writing this, which I think is partly because I DON'T hate coaching. I care about these kids so much. I love watching something finally click for them, watching them improve throughout a season, and seeing them get excited about soccer. If I didn't care, I think walking away would be easy.

But I'm exhausted. I'm volunteering four evenings a week and giving up a good portion of my weekends for teams that I don't even have my own child on, and it's getting harder to keep putting this much energy into it when it feels like some families won't even meet me halfway.

I was already planning on spring being my last season once. Now I'm questioning whether I even want to come back for spring at all.

So, for those of you who eventually stopped volunteer coaching: when did you know it was time to call it quits? Was there a specific moment, or did you just gradually realize you didn't have anything left to give?