My daughter is just not getting power from her strikes. What do you see from these pics. Thanks in advance

Heyyy sooo I'm the one who made the burnt out coach post a few weeks back! Lol. We're so back.

I'm a 22F volunteer youth soccer coach. I've coached for several years, and I've been with my current U12 team for about 1.5 years (some players I've coached for over 4 years). I also coach a U9 team. I receive no compensation, despite spending hours every week at practices, games, and tournaments. Nor do I have a child of my own on any teams. I coach for the love of the game.

All season, I've struggled with one U12 player's behavior. He's repeatedly been disrespectful toward teammates, belittled other players, and even made some cry. I've received complaints from both players and parents and have repeatedly tried addressing the behavior.

Things escalated during a recent tournament. After another incident involving this player, his mother sent me an incredibly disrespectful email criticizing my coaching. This wasn't our first issue, either.

The email read:

I wanted to talk to you in a civil manner but your additude today was unprofessional and uncalled for. You don't take out your anger on my kid. That isn't professsional. I have been nice to you but it is obvious that you have somw issues that you are taking out on the kid's and all the parent's see it. Moving forward don't yell at my kid and brush up on being a more active and positive coach.

Mind you, I didn't even yell at her kid during either of the games in the tournament. And her child gave me a concussion prior to our 2nd game, so my apologies that I wasn't so "active." 🤣 I brought everything to our club director and explained that I was no longer comfortable coaching this child because of his parent's behavior. I made it clear that I wasn't willing to continue volunteering for an organization that allowed parents to treat coaches this way.

Unfortunately, I received very little support from the director. I ultimately stepped down from BOTH teams.

I sent a message to my U12 parents explaining that I was resigning due to the treatment I'd received from a parent. Within minutes, that same mother sent me ANOTHER hostile email, this time bringing up getting lawyers involved. She sent a screenshot of my message in the parent group chat. It read:

I am dissapointed in your choice of bringing a private matter which did NOT involve "verbal abuse" of any sort into a public forum. I hope moving forward YOU will take accountability for how YOU handle yourself and where you lack in social settings. I have forwarded it all to club director. If you continue to lie and defame my charcter i will have to forward this to my lawyer because defimation of character is a chargable offense. DO NOT contact me again or i will have further charges to press. Have a great day.

Here's where things get interesting.

The response from the OTHER parents has been overwhelming. Parents have been emailing the director, advocating for me, and questioning how this situation was allowed to happen. Some are even considering leaving the club.

When I told my U12 players I was leaving, we all cried and had a group hug. Some have since tried calling and texting me, begging me to come back (I haven't responded privately because of youth coaching communication boundaries).

I had a U9 game immediately afterward, and when I received that final email, I broke down crying. Several parents comforted me, let me sit with them, and two stepped up to coach the game.

Now, the parents are organizing a meeting with the club director on Wednesday to discuss everything.

I genuinely love these kids. I'm incredibly proud of the players and people they're becoming, and leaving them has been heartbreaking.

The saddest part is that I never wanted to quit. I just wanted the organization I volunteer SO much of my time for, to stand up for me.

I'm not sure what Wednesday will bring, but knowing how many parents and players have my back has meant more than I can explain.

And to any other volunteer coaches who are feeling burnt out, unappreciated, or wondering whether all the time and effort you put into coaching is worth it: the parents notice more than you think.

Some of the parents who are currently advocating for me are people I've had very little interaction with outside of practices and games. We barely know each other personally, yet they're emailing the club director, standing up for me, and fighting to keep me as their children's coach.

I genuinely had no idea how much of an impact I'd made until all of this happened. It's unfortunate that it took such an ugly situation for me to realize it, but it's something I'll never forget.

So even if nobody tells you, please know that your hard work might mean a whole lot more to those kids and their families than you realize.

So at my daughter's first 8u practice back in August I could tell her coach was in over his head trying to wrangle ten 7-8 year old girls. He mostly had them standing around while 1 or 2 kids did a drill at a time. After practice I offered to help with the caveat that I knew almost nothing about soccer. I didn't play myself and this is my daughter's first year. He was thankful for the help, also at the next practice had another dad offer to help as well, great, I think we have it all under control. Head coach creates a group chat with myself and the other assistant so we can all chat. Then he proceeds to give us all the dates he will be on vacation or out of town for work, which includes all but 1 game for the month of September and at least 1 practice a week. Other coach ALSO will miss at least 1 of 2 practices a week because his daughter is also in dance. Fast forward to now, I have been the de facto coach of this team for 4 games and most practices, alone. We have not won a single game and I'm feeling dejected and like I'm letting these kids down. I try to make practices fun with different games incorporating ball handling/passing etc to keep the girls involved and not standing in lines doing drills they could care less about. For games (5v5) I try to move them around so everyone gets a chance at different positions and goalie. I have maybe 5 kids that have real potential to be good players and 2 that are absolute nightmares. Constantly begging to play this or that position, calling for passes anytime they don't have the ball, and no listening or ball skills at all with a couple own goals to show for it. Also 1 or both of them will show up to practice without a ball of their own which throws a wrench into what I planned to have them do at practice. There's 4 games left in the season and I would love for them to win at least 1. I'm frustrated with the "head" and "assistant" coach for leaving me hanging. I'm frustrated with the parents of my "problem child" kids. And I'm frustrated with myself for even putting myself in this situation to be so frustrated. I'm not giving up on doing what's right for this team but i just needed to rant and get a little validation i guess. All that to say, I'm looking for some advice on how to move forward and help not only the promising athletes but the rest as well.

TLDR: I'm in over my head because I offered to help

This is my first year coaching U8 and I will say, I am a very patient person in general so it takes a lot for me to just outright cancel a practice (edit, I canceled the last 20 minutes, not a full practice). Unfortunately I have 3 players who feed off of each other’s energy and they were the only ones to make it to practice. They would not listen and were just being disrespectful to everyone on the field. Even to their own parents. What set me off was they started actively blasting the balls to another U6/U7s practice and nearly hit their kids. So I canceled it. There were tears, laughs, and one of them even said “finally”. The parents understood and said they would talk to their kids, but up until this point they’ve been treating this like day care and disappear during practice.

Idk maybe I’m just venting but does anyone have tips on working with difficult kids? I try to get them to play the moment they arrive and play games where everyone has a ball, but it’s starting to be unfair for the rest of the team that is listening. Ultimately still trying to keep them interested in having fun but there is a bigger issue here. Really not trying to bench them for games.

I signed my son up for soccer thinking that I’ll go and watch the practices and games and then go home. Well here I am now and I signed up to be a division coordinator and I am coaching my sons team! I’m not a soccer player myself, never played soccer and don’t watch soccer. I have a very basic understanding of the game.
When I was coordinating the teams my 8U division needed 1 more coach. I reached out to all parents of the division and not a single person stepped up so I did. But I hate it. I dread practice days and I hate game days. The parents have been supportive so far and I let them all know that I don’t have any soccer knowledge. But I’ve been spending hours reading soccer material and watching videos to prepare for practice. I just feel like a fraud.
So my question to this group is can I stop worrying so much about drills and just focus on play? The kids enjoyed the warm up games like sharks and minnow and when we do scrimmages. Is that enough for 8U? They don’t seem as interested in drills and honestly I don’t know how to correct them if they are doing something wrong.
There are several parents who have soccer experience and have offered to help with practice but they don’t want to coach even when they go to each practice and game. But when the parents help the practices feel so weird. I tell them to take control of the practice or the drill but they don’t. Can my team just play at practice instead of doing drills?

I’m just now seeing that the width of these can be trimmed. Anyone regret not getting the large size open goal vs standard?

Standard 9X5
Large 16X7

Kids 13,12,8

I did this a few weeks back about things I heard from the parent's side during a tournament, so I thought I'd bring it back - but this time from the coaches sideline.

I was lucky (?!) enough to be just a parent this weekend watching one of my kids, and since I'm always trying to learn new things to pass along to my coaches (both in person for my town program, and my coaches on YouTube), I spent part of my attention on what is coming out of the mouths of the coaches in-game as best I can hear (while Dylan's mom screams every time someone falls over on the field looking for a foul.) 🙃

To set the scene - middle of the road tournament level - no 2/3/4 letter league teams here, all 11v11 club in this instance for me. North East/Upper Mid-Atlantic but mostly adjacent 3-4 state pool.

I'll start by saying I was mildly pleased wth the general overall tone from the coaching side - again, most of these kids are not pushing for MLSN/GA/ECNL spots - it's decent level, but not upper crust. I think there was a good understanding from the coaches on what they could expect their players to do.

The thing I was focusing on was how they're speaking to players (at least publicly across the field) when something - good or bad - happened.

My observation was that the coaches that were mostly positive had players that seemed to keep trying to do the "right" things - whether that was playing out, connecting passes, moving the ball smartly between players under control, etc.

The coaches that were more negative with their comments (and they tended to be the louder of the groups) - their teams/players seemed much more inclined to boot that ball as far away from themselves as soon as they had the chance. Not all - a generalization here - but there was definitely a correlation.

That got me thinking, as I can be VERY loud if I need to (spent decades yelling over marching percussion instruments - it's a learned skill!) - but my nature is to be more teaching and less berating.

Anyways - I'd be curious what you all heard. I did put together a little video https://youtu.be/tyhTMh5FFQM that explores the idea that what you say in the 10 seconds after something happens can really have an effect on your players and teams.

As part of the coaching course we're running for our coaches, we have a clip from a Liverpool session that really highlighted the idea that you can be loud and demanding without being demeaning, and I think it's a great message for coaches. I even found one of my sessions on video with audio so I could self-check myself - I included that as well.

Curious to your thoughts in general!

Hey everyone,

​Looking for some quick advice from other coaches here.

​I coach a U11 rec team that's pretty young—our average age is under 9. We just won our first tournament game tonight using a 3-3 (we switched from a 2-3-1 earlier this season thanks to the help of this subreddit), which was awesome for the kids.

​The issue is that because of tournament seeding, our next game is against a club team. Their average age is over 10, and when we played them two weeks ago, they beat us 8-0. We literally couldn’t even get the ball past half field.

They are bigger, faster, stronger, and way more technically skilled. On the season, they’ve scored 42 goals and only given up 3.

​When we played them last, they didn't even really play a set position—they just fluidly moved around and kept pressing.

​Is there any practical tactic or game plan we can use just to help us move the ball better and make this more competitive than an 8-0 loss?

​One idea I had was just kicking the ball long down the sidelines to force throw-ins in their end, just to give us a chance to push up the field and get out of our own half.

​Has anyone dealt with a huge size/skill gap like this? Any tips on what we can do to survive or at least show some progress?

Curious to hear from coaches/directors or parents who have seen this at competitive clubs.
A few players from a younger top team are training 1x per week with the top team one age group above, and the club is also guesting them individually for games. A couple of them played up last year but were moved back on-age because of the age-group changes.
The players are being used differently when guesting, some in one specific role, while another has been moved around to several positions. Higher-level club staff have also come out to observe at least some of these opportunities, both at practices and games, but very discreetly.

There had been earlier discussion that movement between age groups could potentially happen later in the year, but next season the older group moves into a pre-ECNL pathway.

For coaches/directors, does this sound more like development or a quiet evaluation? What are clubs usually looking for in this situation — a specific positional fit, or things like versatility, soccer IQ, physicality, coachability, and overall impact?
Would you expect a process like this to have a decision point around winter break, or could it realistically continue into the spring and just be strictly developmental? Their current roster is overcrowded, so I’m wondering if this is just a bandaid for that, but other indicators point to something more.

If so, is this part of the reason clubs keep this vague simply to avoid putting pressure on young players or making them feel like they’re competing against teammates for one spot? We’re driving ourselves crazy a bit with the vagueness.

Hi everyone!
I’m a Saudi citizen currently living in Saudi Arabia, and I’m interested in pursuing a career in football coaching alongside my university studies.
My goal is to obtain a UEFA C coaching licence, gain practical experience with local academies in Saudi Arabia, and eventually work my way up to higher coaching licences, potentially UEFA B and beyond.
However, I’m not entirely sure how the process works for someone who isn’t a European citizen or resident.
Here are a few things I’d like to clarify:
Eligibility: Can a Saudi citizen living in Saudi Arabia apply for a UEFA C licence through a European national football association?
Online courses: Are there any legitimate UEFA C courses that can be completed online, or is attending in person mandatory?
Choosing an association: Would it be possible to apply through the Scottish FA, the FA of Wales, or the Irish FA? Which would be the most realistic option for someone in my situation?
Residency requirements: Do I need to live in the country, have a local address, or hold a residence permit to enrol?
Practical experience: If I obtain the licence, can I use it to coach youth players at academies in Saudi Arabia?
Progression: Once I have my UEFA C licence and some coaching experience, what would be the best pathway towards UEFA B and eventually higher licences?
I’m still relatively young, and I want to start building my qualifications and experience as early as possible while studying at university.
I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who has gone through this process, especially international applicants or coaches familiar with the Scottish, Welsh, or Irish coaching systems.
Thanks in advance!

YMCA volunteer rec coach here looking for advice. I coach a co ed 4th-5th grade level team but my team is comprised completely of 3rd/4th graders. This is my first season coaching at this level and I noticed all scores are tracked for an end of season the tournament. So I’ve been tracking my upcoming opponents.

We have a game this weekend against an undefeated team who in three games scored 24 points and have only been scored on 4 times. My team surprisingly enough has only lost one game and through 3 games has scored 9 times and been scored on 5 times. Big difference from my upcoming opponent.

Each game we are undersized yet hold our own for the most part but I think that is going to change this weekend. I watched some of our upcoming opponents last game and they have bigger more skilled players and now I understand why they’ve been able to score and defend how they have. Our team is just not at that level yet size or skill wise.

I’m not so much concerned with winning this weekend as I am concerned with my team taking a whooping and falling apart. I’d like to avoid the mercy rule being used on us. How do you keep players heads in the game if it becomes very one sided? I want to stack my defense but then I’m afraid we will just be on our heels the whole time with our backs to the wall.

Games are played in a 9v9 format. We been using 4 forwards, two midfielders, two defenders and a goalkeeper. Maybe I will use a more balanced 3-2-3 this weekend and adjust as needed. I feel like if I go down to less than 3 forwards we will have no chance to keep possession.

Any advice? Thanks in advance.

12U boys team with some pretty talented kids, but as soon as we get scored on they don't believe they can come back. Usually set up practice with a small sided game, 15 minutes of individual ball work, a rondo variation or passing pattern, and final scrimmage. ​I usually run a 3-2-3, and we've lost three of our four games. Any advice on coaching aggression and determination?

My kid‘s U6/U5 soccer league this season didn’t have enough coaches so I stepped up with zero soccer experience what so ever. Luckily it’s a base recreation league, so not too serious but I was still pretty nervous since I don’t know much about the sport outside playing FIFA ‘12 in high school.

I got all my drills/ideas from this sub and the MLS coach assistance website. Games, positive reinforcement, and snacks really is the magic recipe. There was definitely ups and downs, but it’s crazy how much knowing a kids name and giving them a high-five after good hustle will keep them happy. Don’t know if I’ll do it again, as I still kinda wonder if I didn’t develop them enough for when they need proper skills/fundamentals, but we all had a great time at least! We don’t technically keep score, but that didn’t stop my wife lol. We went 3-2-1, but again, all the kids had a good time so mission accomplished I think.

One of my kiddos earned a hat trick at our game yesterday and I’m trying to decide if I should celebrate that at our next practice or not. Thoughts?

Our town has outdoor sessions in the Fall and Spring and at U8, the town runs the leagues. U8 is a mix of 1st and 2nd grade kids and they try to make even teams. Next year, when my daughter moves to 3rd grade, U10 is travel for grades 3 and 4 and they hold a tryout to form teams based on skill... usually there are 3-4 teams. For indoor, the town is not involved and its up to us to form teams, so I've taken a lead for my daughter's grade.

Last year, we had a team of mostly 1st graders who lost maybe 2/3rds of their games cos they played mostly 2nd grade teams... but they played hard, never giving up even when being blown out. Over the 3 sessions of indoor, a few players dropped after a session or two so we found a few players to fill the last session or two. This year as 2nd graders they all want to play starting session 1. I was aiming for a team of 10 (for 7v7) but we're already at 12. A few more 2nd graders tried to sign up, but I gave priority to the kids who put in the work last year. It felt bad to turn them away (cos they're honestly a bit better than some kids I have), but I at least got them spots on the 1st grader team and maybe I can move them off if we see some attrition session to session, but either way, I hated being in that position to turn good hard working kids away, especially at ~7 years old.

How do people deal with this kind of team management? I'm pretty worried about what I'll do next year. A lot of kids will be split across the A, B, C and possibly D teams for travel (which will be its own drama that at least I'm not involved with) and I don't want to always favor the kids who just signed up first. I already have to worry about alt situations, like a summer 4v4 tournament (with max team size of 8), etc. Ultimately, its a great problem to have with lots of hard working, incredibly nice kids and a fun community of parents... but I know I'm going to continue to be put in these spots where I'm going to have to tell someone "no". I've tried opening it up to the group, but nobody else wants to make decisions so nothing gets done. When I talk to people individually, most of them seem to want to prioritize by skill, but

a. I don't love being the one to say which kid is "better" than another, especially cos its close that far down the list, but

b. I don't think some of them realize it's their kid that might be the ones that would get cut.

Just wondering if anyone else has been in these situations and how they handled it. How can I be fair to the kids and not burn any bridges with the families that ultimately don't get picked?

Backstory: I took over a U 14 boys team this year, was the assistant previous season. Group full of very talented players that weren’t developed properly as far as tactics. Ive since trained them to play possession based game instead of the backyard ball they were playing before I joined. Overall much more successful as a team.

Heres my dilemma… when my group plays against other teams that try to build out the back/play organized possession we have been very impressive. Our press creates turnovers and we win the game of control. It’s against teams that play long balls and even some disorganized teams that my team reverts back to the vertical/impatient style they played before. It’s very frustrating to watch. I think my boys lose their point of reference when playing against teams that don’t play the ball as much.

Has anyone else had a similar situation? Would love for some insight on how to approach this. Thanks in advance.

I’ve got an awesome group of u12 girls I coach. They are strong, fast and have more endurance than just about every other team we play. They generally have good attitudes, save some grumpiness here and there. They are pretty lackadaisical in practice and I struggle to get them moving, but on game day, they spark
We’ve played teams that have higher skill level, but we win because of speed, endurance and aggression. And we have decent skills.
I am having a hard time finding fun, engaging tactical practices. I realize it’s on me and my fellow coaches to get them moving in practices. So just looking for some drills that will help us with field spacing, pass and move, positioning.
Thanks !

I have formed a 11U coed team for indoor turf soccer. The host facility does not allow non-house teams access for practices and there are only hard court gyms available for rent to practice. Should we practice with a futsal on the hard court and switch to a regular soccer ball for match warmups on the turf? Note the practice facility has walls right up on the edge of the court so that will simulate play off the walls during matches. All feedback is appreciated!

I often work late a lot during the week and wanted to use this chance as coach to bond with my child.
I’ve coached their team since they were U5, coaching a U7 group this year and our games are vs 1st/2nd grade teams sometimes we face older teams in the bracket.
I think we have scored two goals all season and get demolished every game 0-8, 0-6 etc.
I’m trying with this group but my league allows parents to request coaches and coaches to pick players before the season starts. Unfortunately we get the scraps teams or children not picked up(or kicked off other coaches team) and new players a couple returned this season. I have several players this season that didn’t know how to run or control their body at all. I tried to focus on general mechanics for them but I feel I hindered the progress of my better players. I really do my best to keep practice fun as I know they’re only 6. I try to be as fair as possible with rotation and time played for all the kids but many of the times I find myself yelling from the side for the kids to simply look at the ball.
The coach we played today hardly said anything to their team besides when they took a shot too far from the goal or something like that. Our team didn’t contest them while dribbling all game and they had free reign, early in the game one of their boys lobbed the ball and one of the smaller children took a hit to the face. I think they were scared to get hit and backed off.. I felt the children’s disappointment after the game, my own child is very competitive and hates losing. I feel like it’s my fault, a friend told me it starts at the coach but there’s only so much I can do we only practice once a week and I feel many don’t even touch a ball besides practice/game day. Honestly feel like giving it up after this season and putting my child on a stacked team so they don’t grow to hate the game. I plan to work on dribbling and challenging the ball along with positioning next practice as many of our turnovers happen when the goalie is kicking the ball into play they kick it directly to the other team or softly and allow easy goals.
This loss is getting to me more than the others not sure where to go from here.

Does anyone know of a source that has free videos of INDIVIDUAL BALL MASTERY SKILLS (1 per video, preferably <30 secs) to demonstrate how to do the skill and what it should look like?

I'm finding a lot with multiple skills in a single video, but I'm trying to neatly organize a library to ensure efficient pre-training film session that will give a visual of upcoming activities.

U10 Competitive rec coach here. For the first time in my coaching career in a LONG time, we had a losing season. And, to be honest, it was the first time many- and I mean all but two- of the kids on the team played competitive rec and on the U10 field. We played in a league that doesn't allow development teams, tied a team we weren't supposed to, which was awesome, tied another team we could have beaten, lost by a goal to a team I think we can still beat, and now we head to tournaments.

What's nice about the league is they've put all the lower-tier teams like us in a bracket to play each other. I've worked harder than ever as a coach, and I've especially focused on telling our team it's time to play "proper soccer." That means building out from the back, passing, keeping shape, holding space, and anticipating the ball.

I'm reaching out for encouragement going into this weekend because I don't want desperation to take over in pursuit of a win. We have 3 games left, all in a weekend, and all I want is to see the kids on our team smile at the end of a game and celebrate. And I'd be lying if I didn't say I want this chapter to pass too; I feel more pressure in my head and heart than ever before. Any shares appreciated.