The Youth Football Guide – No. 15: Not Just a Football Coach

Welcome to the sixteenth installment of a small series of serialisations of my book “A Guide to Surviving Youth Football” If you like what you see and want to read more please do go and purchase a copy of the book by going to amazon.

Counsellor, Childminder, Mentor, Friend and Parent all Rolled in to One.

As a coach at times you will have to be all these things to your players. When you build up a good relationship with your players they will start coming to you with all their problems which you will have to deal with. When working closely with young people you can’t just expect to come and coach football.

At football you will see your players at their best and at their worst throughout the season. No matter how many times you tell your players not to bring their problems to football and to leave everything outside of football young people have problems doing this. If you just happen to be the first adult they see and that they trust after a problem has happened they will more than likely come to you for support.

After seeing your players for a few weeks at training you will get to know their individual personalities and how they behave. As you see them on a weekly basis you will be able to spot their mood swings and when they are acting out of character. It is hard for a young person to keep up a shield for a whole season so normally you are going to be able to tell when something is up.

The problem with noticing when something is up with one of your players is that some will want to come to you for help and some will want to keep it to themselves. As a coach it is important that players know they can come to you but don’t have to if they don’t want to. Never pressurize your players into having to talk to you about their problems. Your time spent with them should always be about football, only breaking from that if they ask you to.

Your players will come from a range of backgrounds and experiences. Some will have a so-called better life than others but it doesn’t mean that all young people can’t have problems. As a coach it is important to be aware and sensitive to the situations your players find themselves in but to try to not treat them any differently because of it. If you ask young people what they want to be most will say they say just wanted to be treated normally.

www.theyouthfootballguide.com

(Image courtesy of StuBaker)

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