Old Soccer Guy has a post up about his U18 parents being model soccer parents. If you’re curious what a soccer coach looks for from parents, especially at the select/travel soccer level, he tells you. But even for those of you with kids in Recreational soccer, many of these things are important. So to his list of on time ready to play (ball, cleats, shin guards, water), disappear until game time, and cheer don’t coach, I’d add one thing. Soccer is not babysitting. While coaches don’t want you interfering with what they are doing, you should care enough to stick around for most practices, especially if your child is on the hyper side. Talk to any Recreational coach in the U8-U12 levels and they’ll probably tell you the hardest thing is keeping the ADD kids focused and preventing them from disrupting practice. We try our best, but sometimes it takes a parent stepping in to lay down the law. There’s only so much we as coaches can do. So when the coach asks for your help, don’t just roll your eyes – actually help them keep your child focused on the task at hand. Because every minute the coach wastes trying to get your child’s attention is hurting the entire team.
Model Soccer Parents
Sep.22, 2007 in
Parents
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October 4th, 2007 at 2:51 am
I so agree…especially about the disappearing part. Our parents (baseball) have mastered that, pretty much just drop the kids off at practice and pick them up, but at Alex’s U7 practices, the parents are pieces of work! One question, though, what do you think of a rec team with 19 kids? I am so frustrated this year, because parents who ‘heard about our coach’ and ‘had friends on the team’ requested her, and now? 19 kids ranging from 5 to 7. It’s so crazy…they stand in line for half of the practice, because only a couple of parents help out to get stations going. We’re looking into a ‘micro soccer’ league for next year…Alex is 5 and has some good ability, and gets really frustrated with the kids who are just messing around. The coach is frustrated too, and wants to downsize for next year, but I don’t know if it will really happen. In the micro soccer league (Nortac) there are only 6 kids to a coach, and I think he’d benefit from the smaller group/more attention thing. What would you do? I’m interested in your opinion! You can email me, or just leave a follow up comment here, or on my blog…my email is [email protected]. Thanks, soccerdad.
October 8th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
For what it’s worth … even if you were playing 11v11, 19 players is too many! The other obvious problem is the age disparity. 5 year-olds are U6 and 7 year-olds are U8 (based on their age as of August 1st). If your league follows USYS guidelines (which apparently they don’t), the small sided recommendations and rules for the different age divisions would eliminate the huge roster issue. The guidelines for U6 are different compared to U8, from the number of players, field size, goal size, etc etc. I’m curious … are you using goal keepers??? (I hope not!)
To determine the max roster size in our league, we take the number of players allowed on the field and then add half that number to the roster. For example, at U10 the teams should play 6v6. We roster 9 to 10 players. I believe U8 plays 4v4 so the roster size would be 6 to 7. USYS does allow for more, but we have found that it makes it difficult to coach and give each player equal playing time with more than the fielded players plus one-half.
Hope that helps … good luck!
October 8th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
19 kids on a U7 team is insane. Certifiably insane. I don’t care how many assistant coaches you have. We have the same problem where parents always ask for the same coaches. We tell them outright during registration that we MAY be able to meet special requests, but don’t count on it so some get the coach they ask for, others don’t – it’s random. This is why many leagues do a random assignment outright. We still try to accommodate as much as we can in Rec, but we still have to put our foot down for this very reason.
Definitely switch to the micro league. Lots more ball touches and hopefully more attention from the coach. Most leagues have moved to smaller rosters at younger age groups for this reason. Our U5/U6 divisions are max 7 or 8 per team. U8 is max 10 – we shoot for 9. In U10 we shoot for 9-10 max is 12. Not only does it help the kids, it helps the coach maintain some sort of functioning practice, make it less likely kids are fooling around, and ensure the kids touch the ball often. Plus they get lots more playing time. Now just like going too big, you CAN go too small on a roster too. It’s all about a happy medium.
October 9th, 2007 at 3:25 am
THANK YOU! I think we’ve made the decision to switch next year…he had his first game last week, and it was like a big cluster of kids just kicking blindly trying to get the ball. Alex is 5, but can hang with the 7 yr. olds, skills wise, but he’s not getting enough ball touching action…he’s frustrated. And soccer coach, yes, we do use goal keepers, and they play 10 v 10, on a big field. Not the ideal league, obviously, and I think the micro will be better and less frustrating for Alex…he gets so mad when the kids goof off! I think he gets more irritated than the coaches…
October 9th, 2007 at 7:00 am
When our league first got started, we played something like 7v7 or 8v8 for U6 and it was nuts. First, you had 14 4 and 5 year olds on a team running around. Plus the keepers just stood there and if a few of the kids had good shots, it was scary.
That said, don’t anticipate some type of magical change in a small sided match. Our U5 and U6 teams play 3v3, but it’s still amoeba ball. But with only 6 on the field, they get lots of ball touches. That said, many of our U6 kids will be passing and setting each other up by the mid point of their season.
But regardless – at that age, more kids goof off than don’t. They’re four and five. But a good coach will work to keep them busy to avoid the fooling around (no lines, etc).