A Recipe for Success - Introduction

Useful thoughts and ideas for coaches of higher level U11 to U13 girls teams

Important Note

For those of you who didn't/won't figure it out, the topics in [brackets] under the Browse the Ingredients heading have yet to be published. 

There are many very good coaching books and websites out there today that give ideas for successful youth soccer coaching.  In this section I am going to list the key factors that have led to what I think has been some serious development in the girls I have coached* over the last six years.  I'm not saying that my way is the only way or the right way, or that my way is even unique.  I'm simply saying that I feel that I have been successful in identifying and developing some very talented young female soccer players, and the development "recipe" that I use may help other coaches do the same.  Or, at the very least this might give interested coaches other ideas as we all work to help raise the level of play in our area. 

* Though I have been training young players since 1992 and still work with many other players outside of my main team today, when I say "coached" here I'm referring to those main team players - players who have played for me for an extended  period of time (a year or more) on a club team that I head coached.   

At the end of the day, I have two jobs with these girls (which, by the way, both combine to pay at the stellar rate of roughly $0.27/hr).  My main job is to help develop good human beings by addressing many of the life lessons that can be learned through participation in team sport.  Though I am conscious of stepping across the line between coaching and parenting, I believe that all educators have a responsibility towards impacting young people in a positive manner, and I am always trying to make good on this in everything that I do with this group. 

My soccer job as a coach of the younger, higher level players is to help the them build a love for the game. If there is this love, this passion, for the sport, development and success will surely follow.  The second part of my soccer job is to get interested and talented girls ready to compete at the next level.  I do this by developing a positive team culture, focusing on technical ball mastery, pushing the envelope of tactical awareness and understanding in the younger players, finding challenges playing environments in order to best test the girls' abilities, addressing the mental side of the game at an early age, and more.  But all this is only possible because I feel I am very good at helping the young girls build a love for the game.

My girls love the game for three main reasons -

1. they enjoy the game
2. they have developed an above-average understanding of the game
3. they have experienced measurable success in many parts of the game

All three categories are intertwined and all three feed off of and into each other.  For example, because the girls enjoy our training sessions, they are more interested and actively tuned in to what we are doing.  This focus allows them to better be able to pick up ideas and coaching points than if they were uninterested, bored, and tuned out, and also allows for better retention of new knowledge.  This in turn leads to a better overall understanding of the game which allows the girls to enjoy the game more. 

Now their enjoyment can lead to many other things, as can their understanding.  This is just a quick example of how what I feel are the three key factors in successful player development can interact with one another.

This Enjoyment, Understanding, and Success happens within and helps build a Positive Team Culture that must be continually fueled with Positive Energies (+E).   I go into these two aspects in greater detail elsewhere on this site.  I think the illustration below is useful in order to better picture what I'm saying here.

 All that follows in this Recipe For Success can be related to one, if not more, of these categories mentioned above.