Football Coaching

[Locky]

Started off coaching with a club in Edinburgh when I was 15. Was coaching with 4 age groups a week at one point and enjoyed it but then I got a full time job and got my then girlfriend pregnant and that sort of put a stop to it.

 

Then in 2017, me and a mate started up our own adults Sunday amateur team. He was manager, I was secretary and his number 2. Done it for 6 years. Brilliant memories overall but it was intense at times and not an easy job at all. Won a cup in our first season, got 2 promotions under our belt and survived relegation each time we went up a level. Despite that it ground me down a bit eventually. Between that, settling down with the missus and now working a job with shifts all over the place, I packed it in around Christmas time.

 

My mate is now managing a Saturday amateur team and wants me to go but just don't really know if I've got the drive to do it at the moment.

[Locky]

23 hours ago, PaddysBar said:

I coached from about 2017-21. Enjoyed it when the kids were young (8-12) but less so as they got older. 
 

The main reason I gave up was my son swapped football for rugby for a year but the saddest thing for me was discovering nothing had really changed since I was a kid playing in the late 70s early 80s. 
 

Most of the coaches are dicks and the refs are shite. 
 

It was great seeing the boys develop a team spirit though. My son’s now 14 and still playing and loving it so I’m happy to go along and support. 

In defence of the refs, they're amateurs just like the players and coaches at grassroots level so I can accept them not being great. What I couldn't stand though was how officious some of them could be. Barely even approachable when you want to ask a simple question. 

[PaddysBar]

My main gripe after being a coach and now just a parent on the sidelines is the lack of support for the kids. 
 

My son plays under 15 so 11 aside and a handful of subs. 14/15/16 kids playing and it’s the same 6 or 7 parents that turn up to watch. 
 

8 or 9 kids have parents who never watch them and either leave them to get to home games on their own or just drop them off and disappear. 
 

Im 53 and still appreciate the fact my dad was always there watching when I was a kid. He even swapped sides at half time as I was a left winger. 
 

I now do the same for my son and know he appreciates it too. 

[PaddysBar]

6 minutes ago, Locky said:

In defence of the refs, they're amateurs just like the players and coaches at grassroots level so I can accept them not being great. What I couldn't stand though was how officious some of them could be. Barely even approachable when you want to ask a simple question. 

Agree on the refs. Most of them are just trying their best but just guess offside etc as they can’t/don’t keep up with play. 
 

Not a big deal though as without them there’s no game 👍 

[Dawnrazor]

Just now, PaddysBar said:

My main gripe after being a coach and now just a parent on the sidelines is the lack of support for the kids. 
 

My son plays under 15 so 11 aside and a handful of subs. 14/15/16 kids playing and it’s the same 6 or 7 parents that turn up to watch. 
 

8 or 9 kids have parents who never watch them and either leave them to get to home games on their own or just drop them off and disappear. 
 

Im 53 and still appreciate the fact my dad was always there watching when I was a kid. He even swapped sides at half time as I was a left winger. 
 

I now do the same for my son and know he appreciates it too. 

That's where I'm at, I try my absolute best not to miss a game and training session, now my son plays on a Wednesday and trains during the week, I rarely get to see him play, I get to home games but his away games are all over the place between Durham, Leicestershire, London, Exeter and Gloucestershire. Him and about seven or eight of his mates from college are joining Preston Grasshoppers next season so back to watch him train and play, I'm really looking forward to it. At his last club it was obvious who the interested parents were, there were about half the parents who would drop them off or just sit in the car, they were also the ones who were begging for lifts for their kids for away games, I just can't get my head around that attitude.

[Morgan]

1 hour ago, Bender said:

 

 

Take it outside please gents, it would be nice if at least one thread on here wasn't derailed by petty bickering.

Go and tell someone else what to do, Mr Moderator.  👍

[Bender]

16 minutes ago, Morgan said:

Go and tell someone else what to do, Mr Moderator.  👍

 

I genuinely don't know why you think you need to constantly be a dick to people, but it's pretty boring man.

 

Grow up.

[Morgan]

2 minutes ago, Bender said:

 

I genuinely don't know why you think you need to constantly be a dick to people, but it's pretty boring man.

 

Grow up.

 

[The Hogfather]

5 minutes ago, Bender said:

 

I genuinely don't know why you think you need to constantly be a dick to people, but it's pretty boring man.

 

Grow up.

 

Morgan generally adds nothing to any thread he posts on tbh. His whole life revolves around arguing with people on here, which is pretty ****ing sad.

[Bender]

51 minutes ago, Locky said:

In defence of the refs, they're amateurs just like the players and coaches at grassroots level so I can accept them not being great. What I couldn't stand though was how officious some of them could be. Barely even approachable when you want to ask a simple question. 

 

I always tell my boys not to hound a referee because they're not going to change his mind and to always show the proper respect, but there are some who test even my patience with them. One even tried to chase our team off our own pitch with 20 minutes left because he wanted to kick the next game off earlier for him to get home for Man City v Liverpool.

 

There are some good refs at our level though, ones who speak to the kids and give them a break when they can. But some think they're Mark Clattenburg.

 

 

[Morgan]

1 minute ago, The Hogfather said:

 

Morgan generally adds nothing to any thread he posts on tbh. His whole life revolves around arguing with people on here, which is pretty ****ing sad.

What a lot of nonsense.

 

My ‘whole life’.  😆

 

Like, you would know too.

 

Sad, aren’t you?

 

 

[The Hogfather]

1 minute ago, Morgan said:

What a lot of nonsense.

 

My ‘whole life’.  😆

 

Like, you would know too.

 

Sad, aren’t you?

 

 

 

61,600 posts. Life your life away from the internet once in a while Morgan, big old world out there.

 

If you can manage to walk away from the wine bottle for long enough.

[Morgan]

Just now, The Hogfather said:

 

61,600 posts. Life your life away from the internet once in a while Morgan, big old world out there.

 

If you can manage to walk away from the wine bottle for long enough.

Life your life.  🤭

 

How good was your education, Hogboy?

[The Hogfather]

1 minute ago, Morgan said:

Life your life.  🤭

 

How good was your education, Hogboy?

 

Catching me out on a spelling mistake is probably the highlight of your week as well.

 

Deary me.

[I P Knightley]

4 hours ago, Dawnrazor said:

Lots of rugby clubs had to close certain age groups after COVID, my son's age group, u14 at the time and U17 now, suffered across the country, he was really pissed off at the last club, I explained to him that he'll never be able to do anything about favouritism and when he starts at college he'll start with a clean slate and you'll get where you get to on merrit and not who your Dad is or your mates are, he's thrived at college, he's been picked in the starting 15 for the U17 squad and is subbing for the u18 year squad for college that are going to the world youth rugby tournament in Portugal starting this weekend.

One interpretation of that:

 

DawnRazor junior struggles to get picked at club 1 'cos nobody wants to stand on the touchline with DawnRazor the Original.

 

Shift to another club but this time DawnRazor has invested in wig, false nose/moustache/specs combo, adopting a french accent, introduces himself as 'Rasoir de l'Aube' and DawnRazor junior shines. 

 

(You know I'm just pulling your leg, right?)

[Morgan]

1 minute ago, The Hogfather said:

 

Catching me out on a spelling mistake is probably the highlight of your week as well.

 

Deary me.

Aye, probably.

 

But, you’ll never know, will you, Hogboy?

 

 

[The Hogfather]

1 minute ago, Morgan said:

Aye, probably.

 

But, you’ll never know, will you, Hogboy?

 

 

 

 

[Homme]

I coach under 18 girls team. Started out with them at u14s a few years ago.

 

Core bunch of girls are fantastic but they are all at the age now where work, boys and drink are competing with the football. Form has nosedived since we lost girls to Hearts, Rangers, Spartans and Livi which is rough as we have been unable to replace the quality. 

 

My daughter is a good player but has fallen out of love with it a bit. I will jack it in when she does. 

 

My son is in a 2015 team but I'm never going to get involved with his teams in future. Need a break and time to myself back.

[Ked]

On 01/04/2024 at 20:57, Bender said:

Anyone else on Kickback involved in coaching football, be it children, juniors or adults? I got back into it nearly a year ago after a gap of about ten years and I genuinely don't know why I ever gave it up. I'm curious to know about other peoples experiences in the game, good or bad.

 

Surely there'll be some good stories out there.

Both my sons have played /play.

My youngest has had a mix.

My oldest the same.

There's some right arseholes and some real good coaches.

Won't name or shame.

My youngest coach just now is class and had improved my laddies game.

Both my boys are very different types of player.

Oldest always reminded me of Steve Coppel

Youngest reminds me of Souttar.

 

Obvious parental glasses 

[Locky]

45 minutes ago, Bender said:

 

I always tell my boys not to hound a referee because they're not going to change his mind and to always show the proper respect, but there are some who test even my patience with them. One even tried to chase our team off our own pitch with 20 minutes left because he wanted to kick the next game off earlier for him to get home for Man City v Liverpool.

 

There are some good refs at our level though, ones who speak to the kids and give them a break when they can. But some think they're Mark Clattenburg.

 

 

When I was running my amateur team I was the one who contacted the refs to confirm games and would be as civil and polite as possible. We'd need to find refs ourselves if they pulled out or were organising a friendly and they wouldnt take games on if they didn't like you. I generally got on very well with most. But like you, some really pissed me off. Some would make glaringly obvious mistakes or just disregard the laws of the game completely and you couldn't even dare question it even if you approached them calmly after the match.

 

We had one ref from West Lothian come through (league appointed him not us) to ref our cup tie. The pitch had been double booked and our kick off time was delayed and he was pissed off as he had another game that afternoon he had to go to. We obviously wanted a quick warm up and he demanded we kick off pronto. Set us a deadline of quarter past then ****ed off at 10 past as both teams were walking onto the pitch ready to kick off. Not proud of it but I phoned him and gave him a right mouthful before reporting him to the league.

[The_razors_edge]

2 hours ago, Lord Montpelier said:

Kids start at such a young age now. It's almost like a kid that turns up at a club age 7 or 8 could already be 3 years behind their peers. 

 

Clubs I don't think have a choice other than to "tier" them to have them developing with kids at similar stages. Anything else like you say can result in wild mismatches and disjointed training sessions benefitting no-one. 

 

For grassroots clubs it's then imperative they set up structures to cater for this. Typically though that's constrained by access to facilities particularly over winter and as Razor points out, getting the bodies in to volunteer (good luck with your recruitment efforts above Razor lol)

No harm in asking. Would be nice to get another jambo (or 2) on board 😄

 

This is quite an emotive topic and everyone’s opinion is likely based on their experiences of kids/youth football - coaches, kids, parents, refs, tiering, cliques etc 

 

Ultimately though, without guys like me or you there would be no kids football. Yes, we’ll get it wrong from time to time and it’s impossible to keep everyone happy - game time, session content, formations, style of play, conduct, tiering, opportunities (or lack of), communication (or lack of), the list goes on…but one thing I always remind any complainant is that I’m a volunteer, giving up in the region of 8 hours a week to plan and deliver training sessions and do matches at the weekend. If that person thinks they can do better they’re more than welcome to try. 
 

I started my son’s team when him and the rest of the kids were still in nursery - 4&5 years old. From my experience the kids who joined when they were 7&8 were a fair bit behind.

 

At that point you have no option but to place the kids in a team/environment where they are going to thrive and develop. This means putting them in a group with kids of similar ability and experience. Kids only get better with touches on the ball. Putting them in a group with kids who are miles ahead in their development doesn’t do anybody any good - the more experienced kids get frustrated and the less experienced kids lose motivation and confidence. That said, with determination and dedication these kids can absolutely catch up but the environment has to be development centred and not outcome centred. 

[Sydney]

I've been involved in coaching all of my kids football teams - and also coached and/or managed adult teams in the past.

 

In general I love it, but it helps a lot if you get a good group of parents.

[Dawnrazor]

11 hours ago, I P Knightley said:

One interpretation of that:

 

DawnRazor junior struggles to get picked at club 1 'cos nobody wants to stand on the touchline with DawnRazor the Original.

 

Shift to another club but this time DawnRazor has invested in wig, false nose/moustache/specs combo, adopting a french accent, introduces himself as 'Rasoir de l'Aube' and DawnRazor junior shines. 

 

(You know I'm just pulling your leg, right?)

😆 Cheeky ****er!

[Dawnrazor]

@Locky

Did you organise the fixtures?

My mate was Fixtures Secretary for our son's Rugby club for a few seasons, he says it was a nightmare, people backing out of game the night before.

 

[Ribble]

19 hours ago, The_razors_edge said:

If I remember correctly you’re in Dunfermline mate? If/once he’s ready give me a shout, I’ll happily get you involved with my grassroots club - badges up to 1.3, first aid and PVG all paid for by the club. 

 

Will do, going to start him with Soccer Stars in the summer as they start at 18 months

[Lord Montpelier]

15 minutes ago, Ribble said:

 

Will do, going to start him with Soccer Stars in the summer as they start at 18 months

I coached kids from a really young age (although not that young). 

 

One of the things I think became apparent is whilst they will likely favour one foot or another, they have no concept of a weak foot until 6 or 7 years old.

 

For the period leading up to that I think the coach has a real opportunity to wire the brain towards working up the weaker side when they don't have any concept of it.  So producing more two footed players. I've often thought this is as psychological as it is physical. 

 

Often wondered what age Aaron Hickey started who obviously plays well off both sides. 

[Hannibal]

Started taking a few sessions for a 2011 born team 5 or so years ago and we were the intermediate team of the three in the club, and was soon made head coach of them. 

5 years on have been through my 1.1, as well as the 1.2 & 1.3 courses on children's, youth and adult along with the goalkeeping and i also take the GK sessions, absolutely love it.

 

And no my son isn't on the pens!!!

 

[Locky]

6 hours ago, Dawnrazor said:

@Locky

Did you organise the fixtures?

My mate was Fixtures Secretary for our son's Rugby club for a few seasons, he says it was a nightmare, people backing out of game the night before.

 

Thankfully the league and SAFA organised all the competitive done most of the organisational stuff in terms of pitches and refs etc. But if it was our home game and the pitch was unavailable/unplayable or the ref pulled out, it was up to me to source one at the last minute which could be a nightmare.

 

Pre-season though was all down to me. Sometimes clubs offered us a friendly and took care of it all for me but otherwise I had to find the opposition, pitch, ref etc.

 

Bloody stressful.

[I P Knightley]

16 hours ago, Locky said:

Thankfully the league and SAFA organised all the competitive done most of the organisational stuff in terms of pitches and refs etc. But if it was our home game and the pitch was unavailable/unplayable or the ref pulled out, it was up to me to source one at the last minute which could be a nightmare.

 

Pre-season though was all down to me. Sometimes clubs offered us a friendly and took care of it all for me but otherwise I had to find the opposition, pitch, ref etc.

 

Bloody stressful.

We'd occasionally have no-shows from the refs for the lads' Sunday games. 

 

The usual remedy was to agree that a parent from one team would take one half and the second half would be from the other team. Probably knowing how awful parents can be with refs, there were never many hands in the air to volunteer for it. I would volunteer and, generally, enjoyed it but some of those 15/16-year olds be awful little shits. Even then, most of them would back down if they got a talking to that it was "either pipe down or the game doesn't have a ref". 

 

One of our refs told me the number of refs on the local FA's register dropped off a cliff in the last five years or so, with many deciding that the grief from players, coaches and parents wasn't worth the £25 match fee they were getting. I don't blame them. 

[Locky]

8 hours ago, I P Knightley said:

We'd occasionally have no-shows from the refs for the lads' Sunday games. 

 

The usual remedy was to agree that a parent from one team would take one half and the second half would be from the other team. Probably knowing how awful parents can be with refs, there were never many hands in the air to volunteer for it. I would volunteer and, generally, enjoyed it but some of those 15/16-year olds be awful little shits. Even then, most of them would back down if they got a talking to that it was "either pipe down or the game doesn't have a ref". 

 

One of our refs told me the number of refs on the local FA's register dropped off a cliff in the last five years or so, with many deciding that the grief from players, coaches and parents wasn't worth the £25 match fee they were getting. I don't blame them. 

Refs for amateurs were £40 when I started but was up to £50 a couple of years ago as we had the same problem with refs just walking away. Mostly to do with the amount of violent behaviour that occurred after Covid as well as a worrying pattern of racial abuse cases. 

 

Downside of refs pulling out at our level was that the game could not officially go ahead. We always still played a game as we were all there at the end of the day, but it would be put through as a friendly and the match would be rescheduled which was annoying. 

 

Worst one I had was last season, first game after the winter break. Moved to a 3G at Peffermill and got a 9am kick off so we were all meeting about 7:30, pitch black on a baltic Sunday morning. 9am comes, teams stood about ready and no ref. Tried phoning, texting etc. And totally blanked. No idea to this day what happened.

[Jim_Duncan]

11 hours ago, I P Knightley said:

We'd occasionally have no-shows from the refs for the lads' Sunday games. 

 

The usual remedy was to agree that a parent from one team would take one half and the second half would be from the other team. Probably knowing how awful parents can be with refs, there were never many hands in the air to volunteer for it. I would volunteer and, generally, enjoyed it but some of those 15/16-year olds be awful little shits. Even then, most of them would back down if they got a talking to that it was "either pipe down or the game doesn't have a ref". 

 

One of our refs told me the number of refs on the local FA's register dropped off a cliff in the last five years or so, with many deciding that the grief from players, coaches and parents wasn't worth the £25 match fee they were getting. I don't blame them. 

I’ve been coaching my son to become a ref from an early age. A constant stream of verbal abuse has thickened his skin and I’ve refused to take him anywhere near an optician. All that’s left is to get elocution lessons from that wee fat racist ‘comedienne’ that’s pals with Sturgeon and he’ll be on the FIFA list within three years.