Disorganized Coach, Disorganized Team
It comes from the top
It is imperative that a high level youth coach to be organized and professional if they want to get the most out of their young players. A highly organized coach is better able to earn respect from their players, and this respect goes a long way towards building the positive team culture that all highly competitive youth teams possess.
Here are a few key areas that coaches can focus on to help them at least appear to be better organized.
Training Sessions
Organization and structure of training sessions is important. Coaches need to take their time in designing training sessions that include activity, instruction, and competition. Different drills and exercises should flow into one another with minimal downtime for the players between them. This probably means 1) knowing what you want to do and how you are going to do it in your 60, 75, 90 minute session, 2) getting out early to set up all the different grids and field sizes that you will need over the course of the entire practice so that new drills and exercises can be started by just simply picking up or quickly rearranging the disks and cones.
When I was playing for the MN Thunder, it was a running joke among the players to guess how many disks/cones Buzz Lagos (our coach) would be using at training that evening. We would arrive to the field to see Buzz, back sometimes bent over due to the 1,000 disks he was carrying around, stepping off yardage on the field and lightening his disk load by one every time he dropped a disk to mark off an area. Sometimes, people who were walking/driving by our training field a minute before our Thunder practice was set to begin, would pause and gasp in wonder at the mosaic of colored disked apparently strewn at random hither and yon on the grass. I'm sure some of these passers by thought that if they could somehow see the field with a bird's eye view, they would be able to grasp the significance of the colored chaos. I remember someone mumbling about crop circles one time.
Regardless, we would begin our first activity and then Buzz would instruct us to pick up a certain group or color of the disks. A quick water break and we were back out on the field in another exercise already set up. More time passed, more disks were picked up, more water at break, and we were quickly out on the field in a third exercise, again with the grids/fields already set up. Brilliant!
Suffice it to say that Buzz could not have possibly winged this. This took thought, planning, and creativity. The end result were very flowing and efficient training sessions with minimal down time between activity.
Color Coordinate
Use the same color cones and disks to mark certain playing areas. Coaches look sloppy and disorganized if they try and set up a 30x40 yard grid with four different color cones making up the boundary. Along these lines, coaches should use different colors to designate different grid areas or boundary lines in the same exercise. For example, if you are playing a game with two teams going to end-lines, each end line may be a different color to signify which team attacks which line, or the end lines may be one color and the sidelines another. The best scenario in my mind is three colors; one for the sidelines, and one color for each of the end lines.
Brand Coordinate
For scrimmage vests, use the same kind in different colors and make sure you have enough of them. Again, a sloppy and disorganized appearance occurs when one team is supposed to be in blue vests and you either have enough blue vests, but there are three different hues, sky, royal, and navy, or you only have 6 out of 8 blue vests and need to use two green ones to supplement.
I have 12 vests in three different colors. All Nike, all the same type of Nike vest. Maybe too much OCD I realize, but I usually have what I need when I need it.
Invest In the Right Stuff
There are a few things that I feel are absolute necessities to organized and effective coaching. Yes, they are dollar investments, and hopefully your club can help offset some of this expenditure.
Field Marking Disks
I carry 100 - 50 orange, 25 yellow, 25 pink. This allows me plenty of ammo when designing training sessions that involved multiple grids/playing areas and boundary lines, as well as give me enough options when players need individual set ups for technical training. Is 100 overkill for one team? Probably. But I guarantee that I won't ever be short as well as have extras as disks get stepped on and break.Flags/Coaching Sticks
Players love to shoot at goal. When there is not a goal available, flat portable goals are almost just as good. However, these are not only bulky and tough to cart around, but they also take a while to set up. I've seen coaches carry these around with them and I say more power to them!When goals are not available, flags/coaching sticks are the best bet. I have 8 coaching sticks and 16 flags that I use for small goals when needed. I don't carry all these around all the time, but have them in my garage to use when needed.
Pugg Goals
Man, wish I would have invented these! Pugg Goals are the lightweight and portable pop-up goals that kids love to use. They are perfect for 1v1 work and small sided games, and I use them probably at least once a week. I have two sets of the 6 Footers, and four sets of the 4 Footers.Scrimmage Vests
Again, I probably lean to the equipment overkill side of the spectrum here, but I have 3 sets of 12 vests, orange, yellow, and green. I also carry a handful of purple vest as I like to make sure my GKs stand out when needed.With these numbers/colors, we can have exercises with four teams no problem (three teams in each of the three vest colors, and one team in our gray training shirts).
Again, yes there is initial expenditure here. But, I've had my scrimmage vests for 3+ years now, my flags for nearly that long, and my Pugg Goals for 2+ years.
You tell me which practice field set up below appears more organized and more fits along the lines of developing a high quality training atmosphere.
Set Up #1
Set Up #2
No question, right?
With all this said though, the right equipment does not a good coach make. I've played with my share of posers; players who bought all the right equipment and looked the part, but who couldn't play the game to save their life. I'm not claiming that if you buy all the right equipment that you are suddenly going to be able to coach better. But the right equipment will help provide a more organized and professional atmosphere around your training sessions as well as allow you to be more effective at what you do.
Weekly Email Contact
Parents cart their kids all over the place and write the checks to boot. Keep them in the loop with weekly emails. May be as simple as the coming week's schedule, or as complex as a weekly analysis of the team's progress. Uninterested parents will delete them without reading, but the organization that this portrays to the parent group as a whole helps in the long run.
Emails like this help build trust and parents are more likely to follow an organized coaches lead when it comes down to making important soccer decisions; adding additional training sessions to an already busy schedule in prep for an event, or adding additional events such as tournaments, ODP, professional games, team bonding activities.
Be On Time
Nothing says "I don't care" to the players and parents more than a coach consistently showing up late to training/games. If you can't show up on time, set your watch early. For more thoughts here, see Stick to the Clock.
Team Handouts for Tournaments
When we travel to big events, I usually give the girls a number of handouts. Here is an example of what went out prior to the Jefferson Cup event this spring.
Jefferson Cup What to Bring Checklist
Jefferson Cup Playing Positions - positions the girls could expect to play this weekend
Team Formations Attack - in the event we needed to push forward in search of a goal
Team Formations Defend - How we would likely set up if trying to keep a lead late in a game
Not only are these handouts helpful reminders to the girls, but they also serve as another example to the players (and the parents) of the coach's organization and attention to detail.