Do a Google search on ‘What makes a good soccer coach’ and you will find many of the same characteristics from many sources. Everybody seems to know what makes a top youth soccer coach, patience, professionalism, knowledge of the sport, and communication.
Given all the good plethora of information that is out there regarding good coaches, why is it that we still have many parents placing their children with coaches that fail to develop their children over time? It is conceivable that parents are genuinely not educated to spot a good coach. It is also possible that to some parents, a good coach is not necessarily what is most important when looking for a team for son/daughter.
Good Coaches or Results
The number one decision that probably decides what coach is good for you, is what is important to you. What is important to you however can supersede the importance of a good coach. For example, is it important that your son/daughter plays for a winning team above all else? Maybe having fun is more important, or even playing with a friend. All this factors can make one ignore the qualities of a coach.
All the above reasons for not choosing a good coach above all else is understandable. It is however important to understand what is lost in the process. Over time, players will suffer from lack of soccer development. The environment will also cease to be fun because the team eventually performs poorly over time because the players are not improving. The player can also stop having fun because the sessions are not challenging or motivating. Players need to be challenged regardless of their level.
Of the reasons for not choosing a good coach, one that is inexcusable is placing importance on winning at a very early age over good coaching. We all want to win. The problem is when we take shortcuts to achieve winning results. This type of shortcut will hurt the players and team progress in the long run. This is short term gain for long term sacrifice. Research shows that in competitive soccer, the number one reason for not picking a good coach is the need to WIN NOW.
The antitheses of “winning now mentality” on the other hand is wanting to win, but willing to sacrifice short term victories for long term results. These long term results, produce player and team development, which then translate to a greater number of wins in the progressing years. However, it is still possible to have a winning team at an early age if you have a collection of athletically mature players at that early age, but even then, they will not win as much if your focus is on development.
If you put priority on long term results, then what you should look for is whether the process is in place to achieve the goal of player and team development over the short-term results of winning.
This should not be misinterpreted. A case can be made that a good coach that focuses on long term development places more value on winning than one that is short-term oriented. That coach knows that development will eventually result in winning more games over a long period of time. They also know that winning takes a more significant meaning as players mature. At that point, players will be looking to be recruited for college and professional soccer.
The Marshmallow Test
An experiment was performed by Walter Mischel, testing the long term effects of children who prioritized discipline over doing what’s easy or provided instant gratification. Kids of the ages of 4 and 5 were placed inside a room with one marshmallow on the table. They were told that they could either eat the one mushroom on the table or wait until the researcher came back and receive 2 marshmallows. Kids that waited longer for the researcher to come back and receive 2 marshmallows showed greater progress in a number of areas of life recorded up until their 40s. These included higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, better responses to stress, and other life measures.
Relating the Marshmallow Test to Development
The point of this is not to say that if you receive good results early on then you are not on the correct path. The point of the marshmallow test is to remember that the easy decision for instant gratification is not the best decision. Everyday decisions can involve buying desserts and chips now instead of waiting to go home and eat healthier, or even doing an exercise in the gym a few more times so that you can become stronger or fitter. So whatever decision you choose make sure that the process and methods used will achieve better results in the long run instead of looking for the quick road to instant gratification which will hurt your son/daughter in the long run.
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