Soccer coaches vs coaches in other sports

[Unregistered]

Just watched a really bad game in Hs JV girls soccer. Got me thinking. Does soccer have a significantly lower number of qualified soccer coaches vs other sports such as basketball or hockey? Or is coaching this poor across all sports? I have seen terrible club coaches so I’m not saying they are any better.

[Unregistered]

Just watched a really bad game in Hs JV girls soccer. Got me thinking. Does soccer have a significantly lower number of qualified soccer coaches vs other sports such as basketball or hockey? Or is coaching this poor across all sports? I have seen terrible club coaches so I’m not saying they are any better.

Why are you watching? Kid playing? or Stalker?

[Unregistered]

No other sport has such a comprehensive.. I mean scam money making licensing system for coaches.

[Unregistered]

No other sport has such a comprehensive.. I mean scam money making licensing system for coaches.

Licensing stifles innovation. Does Belichick have his football pro A yet?

[Unregistered]

Agree it's not just about licensure - there's plenty of high level coaches that aren't good and vice versa. But just in terms of sheer numbers there are fewer soccer coaches because it's a much less popular sport. There's far fewer adults that played the game at a decently high level. Then not all those adults want to be coaches. With baseball, basketball and football there's loads of adults who played their sports. Just by sheer volume organizations will have more options for coaching placements.

HS JV is especially challenging - the stipend is a joke considering how many hours go into it. The hours you have to work are tough to if you work another job. No doubt you're more likely to have the stereotypical history teacher coaching JV (we do lol). A good number of head coaches are club coaches so they can make the hours work.

[Unregistered]

Soccer coaches, if they grew up in the states, at best are second generation.

Most other sports are 4th generation and beyond.

[Unregistered]

HS coaches are typically teachers or school employees. That creates a very small pool of qualified candidates. Many, but certainly not all, HS coaches are bad, really bad. They often barely know the game. The JV HS coaches are usually just people who know the Head Varsity coach and are willing to help out. Development in HS soccer is almost non-existent. It is purely a social experience. At the JV level, nothing is happening from a plaher development standpoint.

In most towns, there are much better or far more qualified coaching candidates than the current HS coaches, but most of these qualified candidates are not school or town employees so they most often don't even get considered for the job. The few enlightened towns that actually consider outside candidates have a more success as a result.

HS soccer is becoming irrelevant, just like town soccer. It's meant to be a fun time with your friends from school.

[Unregistered]

HS coaches are typically teachers or school employees. That creates a very small pool of qualified candidates. Many, but certainly not all, HS coaches are bad, really bad. They often barely know the game. The JV HS coaches are usually just people who know the Head Varsity coach and are willing to help out. Development in HS soccer is almost non-existent. It is purely a social experience. At the JV level, nothing is happening from a plaher development standpoint.

In most towns, there are much better or far more qualified coaching candidates than the current HS coaches, but most of these qualified candidates are not school or town employees so they most often don't even get considered for the job. The few enlightened towns that actually consider outside candidates have a more success as a result.

HS soccer is becoming irrelevant, just like town soccer. It's meant to be a fun time with your friends from school.

The time commitment to coach HS soccer makes it difficult--these people have to be available every day at 3pm (or earlier), so it's not surprising that many are teachers. Some club coaches also coach HS, but certainly not JV.

[Unregistered]

HS coaches are typically teachers or school employees. That creates a very small pool of qualified candidates. Many, but certainly not all, HS coaches are bad, really bad. They often barely know the game. The JV HS coaches are usually just people who know the Head Varsity coach and are willing to help out. Development in HS soccer is almost non-existent. It is purely a social experience. At the JV level, nothing is happening from a plaher development standpoint.

In most towns, there are much better or far more qualified coaching candidates than the current HS coaches, but most of these qualified candidates are not school or town employees so they most often don't even get considered for the job. The few enlightened towns that actually consider outside candidates have a more success as a result.

HS soccer is becoming irrelevant, just like town soccer. It's meant to be a fun time with your friends from school.

Don’t agree that HS or town soccer is irrelevant. Soccer is a game. It’s meant to be enjoyable for the participants regardless of ability. Games are played for fun with healthy competition being part of the fun. Non- professional games should not be judged by how enjoyable they are to watch by spectators or who wins and loses. Just cause you judge them not to be to be up to your standards, doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant for the participants.

[Unregistered]

My apologies. I agree with your comment and I should have chosen my words more carefully.

HS and town soccer are important social outlets and they are good, healthy recreational activities. However, they aren't developmental and one should not expect to find top coaches there.

The problem is that HS soccer and town soccer lose perspective through the playoff system and MTOC.

Don’t agree that HS or town soccer is irrelevant. Soccer is a game. It’s meant to be enjoyable for the participants regardless of ability. Games are played for fun with healthy competition being part of the fun. Non- professional games should not be judged by how enjoyable they are to watch by spectators or who wins and loses. Just cause you judge them not to be to be up to your standards, doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant for the participants.

[Unregistered]

Agree it's not just about licensure - there's plenty of high level coaches that aren't good and vice versa. But just in terms of sheer numbers there are fewer soccer coaches because it's a much less popular sport. There's far fewer adults that played the game at a decently high level. Then not all those adults want to be coaches. With baseball, basketball and football there's loads of adults who played their sports. Just by sheer volume organizations will have more options for coaching placements.

HS JV is especially challenging - the stipend is a joke considering how many hours go into it. The hours you have to work are tough to if you work another job. No doubt you're more likely to have the stereotypical history teacher coaching JV (we do lol). A good number of head coaches are club coaches so they can make the hours work.

Seems to me there are more club coaches in high school programs than ever. If your school doesn't have a qualified coach, school teacher or not, then I would blame the AD or the teachers' union.

This debate has appeared on TS for years. You can't be a great coach without a desire to learn, evolve and grow as a coach. That may or may not involve formal coach education and acquiring licenses along the way. Being a great player doesn't make you a great coach, but it can certainly empower the coach based on their experience and ability acquired from playing the game at a high level.

But we're not talking about high level, we're talking about youth and school teams, right? Certainly no one is doing for the money. My answer to the OP is that it isn't much different in soccer than any other sport. There's a wide segment of average coaches in all of youth and school sports, and much smaller segments of great and awful coaches.

[Unregistered]

As others have posted, there just simply aren't the number of adults who have played soccer at the HS or college level who end up becoming high school teachers, which is where the majority of high school coaches come from. Especially at the JV level, many of the soccer coaches are just biding time in the fall until they can coach the sport they actually played in the winter or spring. When the swimming or baseball coach is coaching fall soccer, there won't be that much soccer development happening, no matter how well-intentioned the coach is. You just accept it and hope your kid enjoys it as a social and recreational activity, and sign them up for club in the spring if they are really looking for development.

[Unregistered]

I think there are bad coaches across every sport. It's not just soccer. It's frustrating as heck.

I get that for the most part the money is just not there to hire good coaches and even good coaches, as in they know soccer, seem to not know how to deal with kids...

[Unregistered]

My apologies. I agree with your comment and I should have chosen my words more carefully.

HS and town soccer are important social outlets and they are good, healthy recreational activities. However, they aren't developmental and one should not expect to find top coaches there.

The problem is that HS soccer and town soccer lose perspective through the playoff system and MTOC.

No problem. I don’t disagree that on average HS or town coaches don’t have the experience, support, or even time to be very good at developing players. That’s not to say that there aren’t good ones, and probably better than many club coaches. Where HS and town soccer excel though are in teambuilding and allowing players to experiment with different positions and skills. I don’t see the problem with the playoff or MTOC system. Basically, it allows the top teams to test themselves outside their league.

[Unregistered]

I think there are bad coaches across every sport. It's not just soccer. It's frustrating as heck.

I get that for the most part the money is just not there to hire good coaches and even good coaches, as in they know soccer, seem to not know how to deal with kids...

Or you guys...