Youth Soccer is complicated, there are so many teams, leagues, clubs, levels, personnel, tournaments, events, training, and governing bodies it is tough to keep straight. Even at the team level, it can be confusing for a parent new to soccer. Organizing a youth soccer team is a lot of work and the smart teams divide that work up to ensure smooth operations. The following are relatively generic and universal definitions of some key individuals on a youth soccer team that should help navigate youth soccer.
The Coach
Bottom Line: the coach is in charge of the team. They are the top of the team leadership hierarchy and ultimately responsible for everything that the team does, or fails to do. The coach sets the practice schedule, selects the players, decides the formation to play, coaches the game, develops and manages the players, sets the environment for the team, communicates with players and parents, and ultimately leads the team.
Each of these very broad tasks contains hundreds of sub-tasks that are necessary for the team to be successful. The coach must ensure the success of the team, while developing individual players. Coaches take care of individual players, but their primary responsibility has to be to the team. At times, a Coach putting the team before individual players can be difficult for a parent to understand or deal with, but the team has to come first and players have a responsibility for their individual development.
The Trainer
The Trainer is a hot button topic for many coaches and parents and how they fit into the youth soccer world. Trainers typically fall into three categories: Team Trainer, Club Trainer, Individual Trainer.
Team Trainer
Team Trainers typically fall into a couple of subcategories as well. A Team trainer may be there to focus solely on the technical aspects and development of the team, they may be strength, agility, and endurance coaches, or they may be partners with coaches and appear almost like an assistant coach.
Team trainers have a different role with the team, they are very important but have a more limited connection with a team. They are often with the team for a particular period of time to accomplish a specific task or help the team through a developmental process. A team trainer might be dedicated to striking or finishing, or maybe one that focuses on defensive body shape or perhaps just technical skills. The role is similar to a coach, but more narrow in focus.
With teams that play at higher levels, a team often dedicates time to strength, agility and conditioning. This task is often the perfect thing to delegate to a trainer as this area of athletics has exploded in recent times and it is difficult for a coach to keep up with the specifics associated with development of this part of the player.
Additionally, at the younger ages and lower levels of competitive soccer you often see coaches that benefit from partnering with a more experienced trainer. The trainer provides coaches in these situations with a resource to help the development of the team and some consistency across the club with regards to training. Part time coaches often partner with trainers, as these coaches may have “day jobs” or some other reason that they can’t take as many practices that a team may need to develop, so they partner with a Team Trainer to take the second or third session during a week so that the team can progress on schedule.
Typically the trainer in these instances is someone who has a number of teams in the club and while they have capacity to train during the week, due to scheduling issues can’t take on the team for the regular weekend games. These situations provide teams with a lot of flexibility for the development of the team and individual players.
Club Trainer
Many clubs have a high level paid individual that is a technical trainer that works with many teams in the club. This individual is often implementing a club wide plan, taking sessions with teams in an effort to work on specific aspects of development that a team may be lacking, or that a club wants to focus on with all of its teams. This individual is typically in sync with your coach and club and can offer a valuable “second voice” toward player and team development.
Individual Trainer
The Individual Trainer is just that, they focus solely on training individual players. Typically they focus on technical skills, but can also spend time on the tactical aspect of the game. Parents and players typically seek these individuals out to help the individual player improve with technical aspects of the game. Individual Trainers sometimes get a bad reputation, three are many good ones, but just as many bad ones. It is important to vet your individual trainer via more than their instagram page. Do your research to know the trainer’s background, what players they have helped, and find out if they integrate the training of your player with the team. Beware of Trainers that won’t coordinate or take input from your player’s coach and only have one training technique.
This is a very individual selection as you must balance the good (technique, fitness, work rate) with the potential bad (cost, burn out, overtraining (mental or physical injury)).
The Manager
The Manager is typically a parent and this person often has the most contact with the coach of any parent. This direct contact often leads to the Manager serving as the first filter between the coach and the rest of the parents. Selection of the right manager is vital to a smooth running team. The Team Manager runs the administration of much of the team level tasks.
Youth soccer today is extremely administratively intensive. Team managers collect birth certificates, take head shots of players, collect registration forms, register teams for tournaments, handle the finances, update the website used for scheduling, print game cards, pay referees, check in teams at tournaments, etc. The list is long and a team needs the right person to be the manager, organization is key. The Manager typically has all the “Team Supplies” as well as the administrative responsibilities.
Team Managers can get a little out of control at times, so the coach must keep a pulse on how things are going between the manager and the team. Coaches that don’t pay attention, could find themselves losing players, either run off by the Team Manager, or taken to another team or Club by that Manager….
The Team Parent/Parent Volunteer
The Team Parent is usually that person that sets up the hotel or restaurant reservations, manages the snack schedule at the younger ages, manages the social media account, assists with fundraising, and handles the “social” aspects of the team like pool parties, end of year events, and team bonding. This person is very important to the “vibe” of the team and a bad selection can be disastrous for the long term health of the team. This person usually coordinates an end of season gift to the coach from the team. Often the Team Parent and Team Manager may be one in the same, but teams with shared responsibilities fare better, even though more communication is required.
Parent volunteers don’t get talked about enough, but they are extremely important to a successful team. Parent volunteers take on labor intensive tasks like bringing and setting up the EZ Up and Bench to the field and carrying supplies for the team when the players are young. They also seem to shag a lot of balls during warm ups….
A well run team has all of these people working in harmony and unison with the single purpose of helping the team continue to progress and maximize its potential.
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