Iceland Coaching

[Unregistered]

Does anyone know what it cost to get a coaching license in Iceland? I am just curious if it's cheaper and that's why so many coaches have licenses.

[Unregistered]

Does anyone know what it cost to get a coaching license in Iceland? I am just curious if it's cheaper and that's why so many coaches have licenses.

Program was subsidized by the country's FA. They specifically stated that the courses would be done at cost, no profit. The government also chipped in. Every coach is paid, even in their equivalent of rec league.

Keep in mind, the total population of Iceland is about 300,000 or about the same as Orlando (not including the suburbs).

[Unregistered]

Rec coaches should be compensated for their time.

[Unregistered]

Rec coaches should be compensated for their time.

Only if they have an UEFA A or B license like the coaches in Iceland.

[Unregistered]

Program was subsidized by the country's FA. They specifically stated that the courses would be done at cost, no profit. The government also chipped in. Every coach is paid, even in their equivalent of rec league.

Keep in mind, the total population of Iceland is about 300,000 or about the same as Orlando (not including the suburbs).

Actually it's a little closer to 350,000 but nevertheless, it's sad that Iceland can beat our men's team and we have about 325 million here or roughly about 1000x the population of Iceland.

[Unregistered]

Actually it's a little closer to 350,000 but nevertheless, it's sad that Iceland can beat our men's team and we have about 325 million here or roughly about 1000x the population of Iceland.

It's smaller size and lack of other competing sports for athletes made it easier to pull off such a feat. But it is an important lesson in having cohesive leadership all aiming for the same goal. Almost every coach in the country has top licensure. Kids from 5 and older get those coaches, not a parent volunteer who never played or a college kid earning some beer money. Our kids don't get better coaching until at best middle school. There's too many years of development lost so we're forever playing catch-up. Now that other countries are dedicating more resources to the women's game they are beginning to catch up to our women too. More on Iceland https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/s...nd-france.html

Germany, Belgium, England The Netherlands and others have gone through a national "ah-ha" moments and got their acts together. After this WC obviously Brazil and Argentina need to do the same. I don't have much confidence in USSF leadership to do the same.

[Unregistered]

It's smaller size and lack of other competing sports for athletes made it easier to pull off such a feat. But it is an important lesson in having cohesive leadership all aiming for the same goal. Almost every coach in the country has top licensure. Kids from 5 and older get those coaches, not a parent volunteer who never played or a college kid earning some beer money. Our kids don't get better coaching until at best middle school. There's too many years of development lost so we're forever playing catch-up. Now that other countries are dedicating more resources to the women's game they are beginning to catch up to our women too. More on Iceland https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/s...nd-france.html

Germany, Belgium, England The Netherlands and others have gone through a national "ah-ha" moments and got their acts together. After this WC obviously Brazil and Argentina need to do the same. I don't have much confidence in USSF leadership to do the same.

A lesson the US clubs should take note. Early development! Club leaders should know yet they don’t provide quality licensed rec coaches.

[Unregistered]

Pulisic at the age of five was a walking juggle machine.

[Unregistered]

Pulisic looked like a little pure bred Icelandic horse that can toit with a ball.

[Unregistered]

A lesson the US clubs should take note. Early development! Club leaders should know yet they don’t provide quality licensed rec coaches.

Giving kids a solid foundation at the younger ages is absolutely vital. However, given the number of kids that play ulittle it's unlikely we will ever get to a point where there's enough well trained coaches for the younger ages. Higher licensed coaches can get better pay coaching older club teams. The entry level programs tend to be town/rec programs that rely on parent coaches. Some never even played the game. It's very different than the other big sports where lots of daddy coaches (and some moms) played basketball, football or football. In other countries coaching soccer is a respected profession; here not so much.

[Unregistered]

Giving kids a solid foundation at the younger ages is absolutely vital. However, given the number of kids that play ulittle it's unlikely we will ever get to a point where there's enough well trained coaches for the younger ages. Higher licensed coaches can get better pay coaching older club teams. The entry level programs tend to be town/rec programs that rely on parent coaches. Some never even played the game. It's very different than the other big sports where lots of daddy coaches (and some moms) played basketball, football or football. In other countries coaching soccer is a respected profession; here not so much.

If Iceland can do it then surely the big clubs can spare licensed coaches to work with the youth recreation teams for one night.

[Unregistered]

Parents would pay more for quality youth soccer training. It would also make the parents want to keep the kids involved in the sport knowing they were getting training from professionals.

[Unregistered]

Parents would pay more for quality youth soccer training. It would also make the parents want to keep the kids involved in the sport knowing they were getting training from professionals.

soccer is already too much of a middle to upper income sport. At the lowest levels, when their kids are first getting introduced to the sport and aren't even sure if they'll stick with it parents don't want to spend a lot of money. We had people in town complaining about $175 for the YEAR. Many programs can't run without volunteer coaches. It's tough to get volunteers who are licensed or get them to take classes (we've tried that too). Also, affordability is a huge issue in soccer. Once outside of rec level the fees ramp up and the cost shuts out a lot of families. Professional coaches want to get paid.

[Unregistered]

soccer is already too much of a middle to upper income sport. At the lowest levels, when their kids are first getting introduced to the sport and aren't even sure if they'll stick with it parents don't want to spend a lot of money. We had people in town complaining about $175 for the YEAR. Many programs can't run without volunteer coaches. It's tough to get volunteers who are licensed or get them to take classes (we've tried that too). Also, affordability is a huge issue in soccer. Once outside of rec level the fees ramp up and the cost shuts out a lot of families. Professional coaches want to get paid.

Having each licensed coach work a night with the rec kids in a group is not too much to ask. Take that fundraising money and pay the coaches for their time. An extra $100 in their pocket would be worth it to the coaches for the extra small job to train rec kids, that volunteer parent coaches could handle the facilitating of the weekend games and orange slices.

[Unregistered]

Having each licensed coach work a night with the rec kids in a group is not too much to ask. Take that fundraising money and pay the coaches for their time. An extra $100 in their pocket would be worth it to the coaches for the extra small job to train rec kids, that volunteer parent coaches could handle the facilitating of the weekend games and orange slices.

Our program is a hybrid like that - paid coaches for practices, parents manage and coach the weekend games. But we had to raise fees to do it. Fundraising went nowhere. Most families don't stay in the program very long - either their kids just aren't soccer players or they're pretty decent and move into club programs. But our town is very much an upper-middle income suburb. Most families can swing the higher fees. Also, it's one thing for $100 for one or two nights. That isn't going to cut it for most coaches over a time period longer than that. Even a low level coach can make $50-60/hour doing private training, even more if they're really good.