Watching your kids football matches

[Kurt.]

I do think there’s a tendency to ‘over coach’ young kids these days too. Academies are all the rage now where parents get sold a lie that their young Diego is going to get the best footballing education and the best chance to make it as pro footballer when the reality is the academies are made up of usually local people who have completed a two day football leaders award, this is all they need to be classed as a qualified coach at academy level. I’m not saying all the coaches are under qualified but coaching is only beneficial if it’s good coaching.

 

[Eggs]

….i love youth/schoolboy football and there was nothing better than watching my own son playing for his school and Sunday teams. He was reasonable (played in a National Sunday League Final as an adult) but the standard genuinely didn’t matter to me because I knew that playing a team sport would help him in life. It definitely has done.

I’d never say anything standing on the line but we’d talk about the game afterwards.

 

[Alanbileysfeathercut]

I used to coach a team who's ethos was anyone and everyone gets a game.
We actually won a concelatiin cup.
Hard work, very hard work.
The better players got snapped up by others pretty quickly.
Parents are a nightmare.
I pity the refs

 

[lesbattersby]

I go to watch my 7 year old he's only started 7 months ago so is way behind the rest of them. I only take him as it's an hour he's not got his head stuck to a screen. The parents especially the soccer mum's are just the worst. One day I went to watch my niece who were paying a boys team. One of the boys mother started shouting at him to "hit them hard", pathetic really. Another thing I've noticed is around where I live is these 1 on 1 coaches. Charging parents about £20 for an hour coaching.

 

[edge]

Went with my lad from aged 5 to 16.
Training, school , Everton , Liverpool academy ect Saturday / Sunday.
Used to bunk off work every Saturday morning to go to see him in the scotty Rd League don't know how I never got caught.
Loved it .
Don't half miss it now, must admit I used to love it when the games got called off in the winter sometimes.
Been to see a few of my mates teams , but can't get into it as the standard is crap, long time since I have seen a player thst really stood out, and there seen to be a lot of people that have read a book on coaching but don't know the game.
I used to help manage one of the teams and they were decent.
But when they got to about14
I wasn't enjoying it and more importantly neither was my lad,
He only played on because he felt he was letting his mates down totally lost the love of playing.

 

[edge]

I go to watch my 7 year old he's only started 7 months ago so is way behind the rest of them. I only take him as it's an hour he's not got his head stuck to a screen. The parents especially the soccer mum's are just the worst. One day I went to watch my niece who were paying a boys team. One of the boys mother started shouting at him to "hit them hard", pathetic really. Another thing I've noticed is around where I live is these 1 on 1 coaches. Charging parents about £20 for an hour coaching.

I hate people saying that to kids get into them ect,
just let them play.
I went around to one fella telling his kid to kick this one.snap him.ect
His kid was a nervous wreck he wasn't the type to do it and quite frankly would have got a hiding if he tried to do it.
I just said mate tell you what the minute he kicks anybody on are team , I'm going to kick you that's fair isn't it?
His arse went and he started telling the ref to get me on my own line.
I went to school with the ref
So no chance .
He said you move him hardcase telling your kid to break his legs ect.
Just stood next to him till half time , he didn't utter another word.
I apologised to there manager at half time.
He said am made up to be honest he is a blert but the kid is a nice kid.

 

[magicjuan]

I was involved in both coaching my lads footy team and his rugby team, I also refereed the rugby for a long time ( really easy, as the kids are taught to respect the ref from the age of 5 ) So from the age of 5, I`d say I`ve probably only missed a couple of games in both.

The rugby really takes some commitment, as you can be travelling as far as Penrith to play a game and a close game away game, would be somewhere like Lymm.

100% the hardest part of the footy coaching the kids, was the parents.

They tend to fall into the following categories :

Sound - they played a bit themselves, get on with everyone, have a laugh, due to their own experiences know their lad isn`t going to be a pro and enjoy watching him.

Knobhead - Think they`re kid is Pele, all the other kids are crap and are only there to give the ball to their kid. They`re acutely of aware when the shady scouts are there, in their club coats and coach their kid from the side, telling them to ignore everything they`ve been taught and instead never pass the ball, to try and score a worldee every chance they get. They`re whole life is their lad becoming a pro.

Scum - Turn up still bevvied / beaked up from the night before, smoking skunk, encourage the mini version of them to " snap " every opposition player. They try and wind up the fellow scum parents on the opposite touchline and threaten the referee with violence, which can occasionally lead to the game being abandoned.

See all them at every game.
We've had to cancel a game against a Winsford side as it's too risky. Very violent and threats from parents. Two of their players, under 15s don't forget, I swear were beaked up, their behaviour was so scary.
Our lads aren't daft but they're not violent at all and it's just not worth the hassle. It's all a bit crap this football malarky isn't it?

 

[COYBL25]

See all them at every game.
We've had to cancel a game against a Winsford side as it's too risky. Very violent and threats from parents. Two of their players, under 15s don't forget, I swear were beaked up, their behaviour was so scary.
Our lads aren't daft but they're not violent at all and it's just not worth the hassle. It's all a bit crap this football malarky isn't it?

Footy and rugby is like night and day.

I`d hate to referee a kids footy game.

In saying that my lad played in the Warrington League for three seasons, all over Warrington, and the likes of Appleton, Lymm etc and 99% of the kids were sound, as were the parents.

Rugby areas, where the kids played both, so the kids and the parents had the rugby ethos of respect ( both codes )

The only bad teams came from around Runcorn.

 

[pfim]

I do think there’s a tendency to ‘over coach’ young kids these days too. Academies are all the rage now where parents get sold a lie that their young Diego is going to get the best footballing education and the best chance to make it as pro footballer when the reality is the academies are made up of usually local people who have completed a two day football leaders award, this is all they need to be classed as a qualified coach at academy level. I’m not saying all the coaches are under qualified but coaching is only beneficial if it’s good coaching.

I coached my kids when young (I'm in the States), I had to take a 16 hour course and obtain a USSF E license (which I don't believe they have anymore).

If you wanted to coach above 14 yo, you needed a D license which was a one week course. This usually weeded out the parents (like me) and was made up mostly of college players 18-24 (the courses are hands on, I couldn't keep up with people that age). I believe you needed 6 months of experience as well.

There are three above that, but then you're getting into pro courses.

Our club had only volunteer coaches, so we were mostly parents who were just helping out.

The bigger clubs at premier level, which my kids played on as well, all had paid coaches and that was essentially their job.

Results were mixed, if a parent was motivated enough to do the course and help the club, they were generally successful people in their work and had a good attitude towards coaching (there were obviously exceptions).

With the paid coaches, mixed as well. Some were not very good and stayed on for a paycheck, or to never have a "real" job. Most of the good ones would only stick around for a year or two before they either got a better paying coaching gig, or had to get a "real" job to make ends meet.

The best coach my kids had was paid, he was there for 3 years. Was great with the kids, but didn't accept anything less than what he wanted out of them, and his teams always got better very quickly. At the same time, he was asking the parents if they had leads on a "real" job as he wanted to start a family and couldn't do it on that wage. Luckily he was hired by a local college to coach their men's team so he got to stay in coaching.

 

[pfim]

Went with my lad from aged 5 to 16.
Training, school , Everton , Liverpool academy ect Saturday / Sunday.
Used to bunk off work every Saturday morning to go to see him in the scotty Rd League don't know how I never got caught.
Loved it .
Don't half miss it now, must admit I used to love it when the games got called off in the winter sometimes.
Been to see a few of my mates teams , but can't get into it as the standard is crap, long time since I have seen a player thst really stood out, and there seen to be a lot of people that have read a book on coaching but don't know the game.
I used to help manage one of the teams and they were decent.
But when they got to about14
I wasn't enjoying it and more importantly neither was my lad,
He only played on because he felt he was letting his mates down totally lost the love of playing.

The best parts of the youth soccer season are the beginning and end. Everyone is excited in the beginning, everyone is excited when it's over. The middle is absolute hell.

 

[Kurt.]

I coached my kids when young (I'm in the States), I had to take a 16 hour course and obtain a USSF E license (which I don't believe they have anymore).

If you wanted to coach above 14 yo, you needed a D license which was a one week course. This usually weeded out the parents (like me) and was made up mostly of college players 18-24 (the courses are hands on, I couldn't keep up with people that age). I believe you needed 6 months of experience as well.

There are three above that, but then you're getting into pro courses.

Our club had only volunteer coaches, so we were mostly parents who were just helping out.

The bigger clubs at premier level, which my kids played on as well, all had paid coaches and that was essentially their job.

Results were mixed, if a parent was motivated enough to do the course and help the club, they were generally successful people in their work and had a good attitude towards coaching (there were obviously exceptions).

With the paid coaches, mixed as well. Some were not very good and stayed on for a paycheck, or to never have a "real" job. Most of the good ones would only stick around for a year or two before they either got a better paying coaching gig, or had to get a "real" job to make ends meet.

The best coach my kids had was paid, he was there for 3 years. Was great with the kids, but didn't accept anything less than what he wanted out of them, and his teams always got better very quickly. At the same time, he was asking the parents if they had leads on a "real" job as he wanted to start a family and couldn't do it on that wage. Luckily he was hired by a local college to coach their men's team so he got to stay in coaching.

I’m not knocking anyone who gives up their time to coach at any level as I know from experience how much of a commitment it is, my beef is with these supposed academies mis-selling what they’re actually offering to parents who dream of their child being the next Phil Foden

 

[pfim]

I’m not knocking anyone who gives up their time to coach at any level as I know from experience how much of a commitment it is, my beef is with these supposed academies mis-selling what they’re actually offering to parents who dream of their child being the next Phil Foden

Agreed. I moved to Florida 5 years ago, it's much different down here. The clubs are more competitive (in terms of recruiting kids) and it's strictly a business. They try to tell you things that aren't real to get you to sign.

Parents have to be reasonable in their expectations as well. None of my kids were ever going to earn a penny playing football. If I didn't know that going in, I certainly understood it once you were acquainted with the pyramid they'd need to climb just to be noticed.

 

[Martin Alvito]

Parents sound terrible, in the states it’s the opposite. Nobody knows soccer and it’s by far the most relaxed youth sport. Baseball parents are the worst. Yank football coaches are the worst. Basketball is better than both of those but can still be terrible.

Very much not true here. Rec ball is for blood. They sell beer, even at the county park where spring and fall rec games are played. This is as bad of an idea as it sounds.