New Coaches Guide

(Select/Travel Team)

Select team coaches at the recreational level have some advantages over their regular season counterparts.

Advantages

1. The players generally have several years of experience
2. They may get to pick the players and the players may have played together before
3. Parents my be more committed
4. Some players may have outside training with other teams, schools or clubs

Disadvantages

1. They are given a very limited time with the players to prepare a team and execute a game plan
2. The coach often has limited resources and little to no training equipment
3. Families may not take practice/games seriously, so attendance and punctuality suffer

To help new coaches, we have put together a list of the basic equipment and some suggested reading.

Equipment list:

• Must haves:
  • Disc cones (At least 24 each of two color) - NOTE: Dome cones can used as an alternative
  • Pylon cones (4 to use as goals)
  • Practice Vests (enough of two different colors for the team or reversible vests)
  • Enough balls for the  drills (expect 50%-75% of the players to have a ball at any given practice with that number shrinking as the season progresses)
  • Match Level Ball (a higher quality ball for use only in the games)
• Nice to haves:
  • Practice flags or Dutch Gates
  • Corner flags
  • Practice shirts (having the whole team in the same color makes many things easier - I usually ask all of the players to wear white if the team does not want to buy matching shirts)
  • A practice ball for every player plus three game balls (One to play and a spare for each net)
  • Agility trainer (a ladder or speed rings)

Suggested Reading:

• Success in Soccer - the book (German Soccer Association)
• Skills and Strategies for Coaching Soccer (Alan Hargreaves)
• www.avidsoccer.com