I will never understand youth/HS soccer coaches that focus so much time on fitness and conditioning without a ball. If you design your training sessions the right way, players should be moving/running most of the time…with a ball at their feet.

If you are a parent thinking about getting your kid into youth sports, please take my advice. Your kid is not elite. Don’t buy that grift. You’ll be happier (and maybe your kid will become really good) if your focus, first and foremost, is on your child having fun.

Kids should find environments that work best for them as individuals. If that means switching clubs, that’s fine. What bothers me is the parent revolt where 7 or 8 parents conspire to club hop and take their kids. Kids are developing and having fun but parents want to win.

When your club joins an elite youth league, what is actually changing, other than marketing?

Coaches - do you have parents that complain about their kid’s previous coaches? Just wait. You’ll be on the list soon enough.

Parent tryout advice: Before you accept a spot on a team, demand to know the commitment level. Does your kid enjoy playing soccer, but also likes doing other things? Maybe the top team isn’t for your family. And that’s okay. Trust me, over the course of a season, it matters.

You could run a good session, with good coaches, at an affordable price, and parents wouldn't be interested. Charge a lot of money, use the magic words (academy, pro, elite), and throw in a European club badge, and parents will remortgage their homes to pay for shit soccer.

Most youth sports clubs are just like fast food chains. Each team is its own little franchise and what you get from one team to the other depends on the franchisee (coach). The only true standards are costs and uniforms. Some burgers are hot and some are on stale buns.

This article sums up my experience in 30+ years of coaching. We need more thinking like this from club admins, technical directors, etc. It’s easy to fall into the winning = success mentality, especially as a young coach. But kids and parents deserve better.

If you want kids to stay involved in youth sports, you need fewer competitive options and more rec options for older ages.

What youth sport is the biggest money grab?

What’s next in youth sports? Selling tickets to use the bathroom at events?

You shouldn’t live in the past, but you should definitely understand it. Otherwise, you’re making uninformed decisions.

Awards, licenses, and recognition are great for players and coaches. It usually represents the culmination of hard work. But years later, people are only going to remember how you treated them as a teammate and coach. All that other stuff fades away. Relationships matter.

I don’t get youth coaches that hang out in parking lots at soccer games and recruit kids to their club team. It’s weird. And when I see it, I wish Chris Hanson would appear with a film crew.

When I played, training was about drills and fitness. Why did that work? Because kids played and became smart/creative on their own time. If you use that model today, players that juggle 100 times and run a 6 minute mile will be rewarded. Not sure that will help you in a match.

If you talk to your teammates negatively, you are actually making them perform worse. A 2014 study measured brain function under different team dynamics and found that negativity undermines the brain functions that influence performance. To get them to play better, keep it

In a 2019 study of over 600 HS age athletes 55% showed signs of burnout. Some signs of burnout: -complaints of exhaustion (emotional and/or physical) -Express negative view of their abilities -Become cynical about sport or disinterested I asked former female athletes to

Not sure what I’m supposed to take away from a national youth league highlighting kids that run the most distance during matches.

I don’t coach a track team. I don’t care about your 100 yard dash or mile times. Those are nice. But can you play soccer?