The Coach

A coach can be the most influential person in a child's life. In AYSO, Positive Coaching is a fundamental philosophy because of the crucial role that a coach has. Coaching in AYSO is a chance to spend quality time with your own child but you'll also provide an important role model for all the children on your team.

 In fact, the joy of coaching is so meaningful, that many AYSO coaches continue coaching long after their own children have moved on from AYSO.

 Soccer knowledge is a plus, but AYSO provides training and materials so that even a soccer novice can coach effectively by starting in the younger age divisions. Being a coach involves skills you probably already have in addition to specific soccer knowledge.

Getting Started

Thanks to all of you that have stepped up as a volunteer coach. This can be a tremendously rewarding experience. It all depends on you.

Get organized! This will go a long way to making this an experience to remember.

Remember, there are some things that need to be done NOW, and NOT the night before your first training session.

1. Register as a volunteer.
2. Go to AYSOU and take the Safe Haven and Concussion Awareness classes.
3. You need to be certified at the level you are coaching**
4. Attend the preseason Coach meeting.
5. As soon as you receive your team start contacting the players' parents. Figure out a time for a meeting that suits the majority of parents so that you get the maximum attendance possible. This is very important since it is much easier to recruit volunteers when you sit down with them face to face.
6. You will need to recruit at least one assistant coach, a team parent (aka team manager) and a few referee volunteers.
7. Once you have completed your volunteer registration and certification classes, you are eligible to receive your team roster from your Age Group Coordinator (AGC).
8. It's a good idea to make copies of the medical authorization forms and have the parents wet sign them. Give copies to your assistant coach and team parent. This way, if you are running late, the assistant coach can still work with the team.
9. Typically, the uniforms arrive around the middle of August (in Fall) and January (in Spring), but they could be as late as the first week of September/February.

Season starts on the first Monday of August (for Fall) and first Monday of January (for Spring).

• Have your cones, bibs, soccer balls, clipboard ready to go.
• You should have the medical authorization form for every player on your team. You must have these with you for every game, practice or any other team function.
• Know what you are going to do during practice, at least the night before. Attempting to run a practice on the fly usually doesn't go too well.
  

Gauging Success

We all have different opinions on what constitutes a successful season. For some, only a 10 win no loss season equates to success. If this is you, then statistically, you have very little chance of being successful. Others are content with just winning more than they lose.

It is a fact that most coaches, parents and players when asked if their season was successful, will somehow relate it to the win/loss column. After all, we teach at the coach clinics that the primary objective is to score goals and prevent the opposition from scoring. Still, there are many better ways of gauging success.

If you start with buying into the notion that development is more important than winning, everyone has a realistic chance of having a successful season. At the end of the season ask yourself some basic questions:

• Did your players improve their technical ability?
• Are they fitter?
• Are they physically stronger?
• Did they make new friends?
• Will your players sign up again next year?
• Will you sign up again next year?
• Did they have fun?
• Did you have fun?

If the answers to the questions above were all 'yes', then please consider your season a resounding success.

Remember, the teams handed out to you have player abilities from either end of the spectrum and some in between. Even though teams are balanced on paper, they might not have the chemistry to gel together. Also, we rely on subjective ratings from the previous season coach. All you can do is your best and keep plugging along.

Concentrate on development over winning and every season will be a success for you and the young players entrusted to you.