Soccer coaching 7yos

[shanetedissac]

Hello!

We need guidance. My husband is coaching our 7yos soccer team. They are all boys and are the ages of just turned 7 through to going on 8. He is finding it very difficult to get them to listen and follow his instructions. He wants to start to reward them with candy. I really do not like this idea. I like positive reinforcement but not with 'crap' food.

Please help,

[hipumpkins]

I don't have much but I didn't want to read and then not reply.
anyway, how does your DH ask the kids to do things? Is he a strict coach or a fun one? Is it all aboutt he competition or jsut having a good time? If he is too "bossy" maybe the kids don't want to play b/c it is too much pressure?
Or maybe your DH is great with them but maybe they jsut don;t want to play? Maybe their parents signed them up and so they don;t feel likeplaying.
I would definetly not do teh candy thing. That realy sounds like bribery nad could get really out of hand.
Good luck!

[1growingsprout]

humm thats a tough one.... generally 7-8 yr olds are out for fun and running around... unless this is a major competition league then i say.. hey go have fun... personally i feel too much pressure is put on kids to be the best..

maybe your dh just needs to lay out whats goign to happen during practice ie
15 mins drills
15 mins exercise (stretching)
15 mins quasi game
30 mins practice game

[Twocoolboys]

I would agree with the pp and say that the practices sound unstructered. He needs to be firm and not let the kids walk all over him, but not too strict. I think it is a hard balance to find and it will be doubly tough since they haven't listened to him all season. I would not recommend bribing them with candy. They are supposed to be there getting exercise. Feeding them candy kind of defeats the purpose. I bet there would be some unhappy parents too. I would be irked if my ds's soccer coach did that.

Last year, in my ds's cubscout den, it was pretty wild and unstructured. A lot of the parents were unhappy with it. The leader was a really nice guy, but he just didn't have any order to the meetings and the boys took his uncertainty and just ran with it. This year, when my dh took over, we started with some basic structure from the first meeting. The meetings have an opening ceremony, a physical activity, a craft, and a closing ceremony. There are a few other things in there too, but that is the basic structure. The meetings have been much better this year. I know soccer is different, but maybe your dh could come up with some kind of basic structure too. If he is certain of his plan for each practice and gets the boys moving from one activity to the next, I bet they will respond. Also, I recommend getting some of the other parents involved.

Good luck!

[almama]

I would pull my son out if a coach started giving them candy (and my DH is the coach . I don't like him eating candy, but it is also a dangerous situation for an adult to be giving kids treats for being good. There are soooooooo many other ways to handle it.

[shanetedissac]

Thank you so much for responding. I have forwarded your answers and suggestions to my dh.

Twocoolboys, it is ironic that you give a scouting example because my dh is also the leader for our wolf den.

I agree that a firm structure would be very helpful. He has never been great with that if it does not effect his directly. He is great with his own workout structure. Go figure.

Thanks again, keep the suggestions coming if you have them.

[mom2x]

could you ask the other parents to stay for an extra 20 minutes after practice for some free play as a reward? maybe the wilder ones could come early to run off a little of their excitement. candy seems really counter productive if he wants them to focus. we'd also have to pull our 7yo wild child if candy was offered, since it would make him grumpy later in the day and that's not fair to any of us, especially his sister lol.

[aisraeltax]

http://ils.unc.edu/bmh/soccer/young.htm

http://www.coachyouthsoccer.com/

http://www.mayouthsoccer.org/pages/3...g_athletes.cfm

i used to coach my oldest sons soccer team. rewards of candy are not a healthy motivation. maybe the links above can help.

when i was coaching, the League we belonged to provided assistance (pamphlets, etc.). is there any support?

[fromscatteredtribe]

one thing that was popular when we coached soccer was to let the kids play a "game" as a team AGAINST the parents. the parents would really ham it up too.

they loved the kicking goals drills and would have done that FOREVER too......

i think acting silly as the coach (we also got a LOUD whistle lol) is better than candy

[boobybunny]

Our favorite coach did an eyebrow trick for the boys when they stayed focused. Do you have a really cool trick you can do? Or maybe the physical humor of trying to do push up with all the boys sitting on you. That is the kind of thing that makes my now nine and a half year old stand up and pay attention. The carrot of human interaction, of an adult being child like is a far better reward than a passive lollipop.