Your chance to teach a soccer mom more about the game
Remember the friendly soccer mom who was having difficulty sorting out the offside rule?
She’s back. This time she’s looking for some help finding “better, more soccer-ish phrases I could be using. Something that would result in increased aggressiveness, without actually shouting for blood.”
Here’s a great chance to share your knowledge of our wonderful game.
Some of my contributions are below but I wonder, if I were coaching, if I’d want parents yelling much at all. The thing is, I’m not a coach so I’ll leave it up to the youth soccer coaching experts to answer that question.
“Turn it/him out/in!” This is used when defender has possession of the ball, facing his own goal, with someone from the other team in strong pursuit. This tells him which way to turn (outside, toward the sideline or inside, toward the middle) to have the best chance to play the ball to safety or start a counter-attack.
“Make a run!” This is used when nobody is moving off the ball. In order for the ball to go anywhere, someone needs to dribble it or pass it. A player who dribbles too much will almost certainly be dispossessed eventually, so you need people to get into positions to receive the ball.
Here’s the thing, though: these are tactical matters and I’d really like to hear from current or former youth coaches to see how they prefer their parents to cheer.
10 comments
Oh…no tactical comments from the sidelines please. It’s hard enough for my 12U boys to be talking to each other without sideline distractions.
MannyMR,
That’s what I figured. So, what should parents be doing?
FYI, when my kid is old enough, I’m going to have to sit in the car so I don’t yell the whole game…
My oldest is on a U6 squad right now. At that level, it’s mostly about having fun, runnning around, etc. The coaches are often parents who have one or more of their own that they’re coaching. It would appear that the majority of them don’t have much soccer sense. A year or two from now that will bother me, but for now I often take a few minutes right before the game or right after to go over one or two points with my son. 5 and 6 year olds have enough trouble remembering which goal is theirs during the game. I doubt “during-game” instructions would do much good, whether they came from a coach or a parent.
However, I’ve coached varying age groups up through the college level and began playing myself back when the Minnesota Kicks were the hot ticket in town. As a coach, I had no trouble with parental cheering, encouragement, etc., but if they began to “coach” from the sidelines, I would have a quick “discussion” with them. As a player, it’s pretty difficult to listen to anyone other than your teammates during a match, given the size of the pitch. Personally, I can’t imagine hearing my parents yelling some tactical advice from the stands and actually thinking it would be wise to follow it, as opposed to what the coach had said.
The way I read it she just wants phrases like “hustle” to cheer on her son or daughter to be more pro active. Not something like “switch the field.” My suggestion would be “get stuck in” but I don’t know at what age that becomes appropriate.
I agree with Kinney. She’s looking for positive things to say not tactical advice to be given.
As a long time MN youth coach I will tell you that sideline coaching is one of the greatest issues we have to deal with. It’s downright dreadful sometimes. Especially from the parent who was an athlete him/herslef, is new to the game but thinks they understand it all even though they’ve never played soccer/football and they don’t know why the coach hasn’t got the kids winning more, because after all that is the end-all. I have had to have my team manager talk to parents almost every season. And in many a season over the years I’ve had to call a parent and talk to them after a game or give them a call on the phone and explain that there can only be one coach. For a youth who are getting instructions from well meaning but over zealous parents it can be really confusing. For instance, the plan is for Jimmy to try to take the ball up wide more often and even though Jimmy is losing the ball a lot you’ve been working on this in practice and want him to develop his skills. (were talking younger ager here) Yet father X is not liking that Jimmy is getting the ball stolen and his kid who is open isn’t getting the ball. So he starts yelling at Jimmy in a very commanding voice from the sideline, “PASS THE BALL!” It only takes a few of those and guess what Jimmy is doing. My favorite is when I wanted my defenders to start to learn to build the attack and play the ball outside and find a pass, you would have the parent who is screaming, “JUST KICK IT!” God, how I hated that. After 18 year I’m glad I’m out. I loved the training but the babysitting parents was awful. I remember 3 different times having to ask parents to basically shut up or leave the field.
So yes, positive things. Understanding the game helps a lot. Then when a kid makes an overlapping run but doesn’t get the ball, you can call out after the play, “Hey Johnny, great overlap, keep it up.” You get the point. Then Johnny’s thinking, “Oh, someone noticed even though I didn’t get the ball, cool!”
My ex used to embarrass my son by yelling things like “Beautiful!” and “Wonderful!” and other such non-soccer terms. Of course innocently and well meaning…but still.
Best advice I would say is keep it positive and keep it general. Specifics are bad!
Perhaps this is the type of advice she is looking for.
KICK THE BALL!!
It works every time.
KICK THE BALL!!
Depending on the age group and player, you might also need to add a directional heading and/or frantic pointing to prevent an own goal or two.
What Parents Should Shout From The Sidelines…
One other bad part of being away from the blog these few weeks is I didn’t have time to read any other blogs either. So I started catching up on some RSS feeds and like always, Josh has a post up that just screams ‘link to me’
Reme…
My suggestions:
“Get stuck in!” (any age is fine)
“GO ON, Son!”
“Good X” (where X is shot, pass, run, tackle, header, etc)
Come and see English League soccer and you will expand your vocab - unfortunately nearly all words unsuitable for children to hear. There is a very good chance also that you will be able to sample some of the violence as well!! I cannot not explain why but be assured League Soccer brings with it Crude and Violent behaviour - beware as this will be coming your way. It’s not just the UK - in Italy last year the League was on the verge of being suspended and there have been issues in Spain this year.
Heed the warning
Mar, UK
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