Layout the Grounds Rules for the season – Example letter from the Coach

Hello!

I am pleased to confirm that I will be your coach for the year as part of ‘our club’ <U9 Wallabies>. This squad is still not fully finalized. We have 10 on our list but may be given an 11th player. If we get 11 players then we will roster one player off each game so that we never have more than 3 subs.

Apologies about the long email that will now follow but I find it useful to outline expectations, assumptions and objectives of the season up front.

The overriding objective at this age and stage is player development. Of course the boys themselves will want to win and we don’t want to coach out their competitiveness but I will judge the games and season based on player development and player improvement. This objective, as well as the clubs explicit philosophy and goal to produce players who can play a possession based proactive football style will dictate many aspects of my coaching. Here are some examples:

Equal opportunity for development versus substitutions for winning. I will have pre-determined rotations and substitutions planned for all games and will stick to them regardless of score/position of game (in other words I won’t leave someone on or take someone off to manipulate a result. I will however reserve the right to take someone off temporarily and “have a 1:1 chat” if they are struggling in some way.

Tactics to enhance development versus tactics to get a result. Wherever possible we will try to have the objective of effective possession, even from defense and using our GK as a passing option when needed. This is opposed to tactics such as “clearing our lines” or booting the ball up the park or kicking it out whenever in defense. Our tactics will encourage players to be brave, learn to be comfortable on the ball and work for each other but this approach will also mean players will make mistakes and we probably will concede goals through mistakes – I don’t apologise for this since this is how they will become better players! A famous quote: “I never lose. I either win or I learn”. I will try to instill an identity and pride in the boys that they are learning to play the right way.

Parent sideline coaching ban. I want to be clear that although I want parents to support and encourage effort during games, I do not want anyone to shout out instructions from touchline during games (other than the coaching staff). This means things like “pass it” ,“kick it long”, “down the line”, “cut it back”, “too many touches” , “get rid of it’ , “shoot!’ etc. This is for two reasons. Firstly it is confusing. I read an article recently about a coach who used a counter to record every time he heard a parent yell an instruction at a U10 game. He stopped counting after 10 minutes at 167 instructions. This is info overload for kids and confusing. One set of cues and instructions from the coaching team only. Secondly, instructing and directing is contrary to player development where we want players to develop THEIR decision making and THEIR ability to solve problems during games. You will find that although I am quite vocal at training and encouraging in games I actually wont “instruct” that much on game days – that is the time to see how the boys go with their decision making and problem solving.

Positions and Goalkeeping. When deciding positions I will factor in fun and enjoyment for the player, development opportunity for the player, fairness and team needs. The 2 hours of training each week is very general meaning even if players did not experience all positions in games, their development of all round skills will not be compromised. Everyone will goalkeep on rotation – no exceptions. This is good because I will be explicit that we want our goalkeeper to be a passing option and be comfortable in possession of the ball. If we have one player who is very keen to goalkeep more and is enrolled in the clubs GK program, we will rotate him far more than other players but he will not be a permanent keeper.

As well as being clear re: coaching for development, I want to also be clear on my style of coaching and my approach to my behavioural expectations of the boys. I will speak to the boys about the concept of fun. If we establish a culture that fun is playing lots of football, trying to get better, working on skills and supporting each other, then we are going to have a great year. If their idea of fun is kicking balls away from each other, spraying water bottles, disrespecting coaches and other things like that then this may not be the team for you and your child. I want to explain to you guys, the parents that I am not a teacher , a behaviour management expert and won’t spend massive amount of time managing behaviour. I will work with the boys who want to learn and I will work on assumption that the boys want to learn. I may quietly ask boys to sit out of an activity for a few minutes if they can’t manage their behaviour but this will not be punitive and will only be for benefit of the group. If behaviour doesn’t improve then i will send them over to you, and you can deal with it, while i coach the players who want to learn.

During games in particular the boys will be reminded that they are representing their club, themselves and their parents. They will be expected to model respect; for themselves, team mates, coaches, opposition players and especially officials. Anyone failing to adhere to expected standards will have their game time impacted accordingly.

Further to that, in the past I have sometimes had parents encourage me to shout at their child if they are not running or doing something in particular. I want to be explicit that I will not shout at kids or “get angry” in order for them to do stuff, especially in respect to “running” and putting in effort, although I will quietly and firmly be very clear on expectations and will praise and reward behaviours that fit with our values. If a kid needs a berating from a coach or adult rather than being intrinsically motivated to run around at age 10 it is going to be a short lived career!

Lastly, here are just a couple of other general expectations. Once pre-season is over and other sports and commitments have finished and once we settle into Monday and Wednesday night training, I expect that all boys come to all training sessions barring illness. Of course parents will have issues getting kids around sometimes (I know I do) but I really want to set the expectation that if a child wants to improve, if they want to respect team mates and coaches and if they want to learn about commitment that they always come. I also want to reserve the right to potentially give someone a little less game time if a regular pattern emerges where the parents just don’t bring kids to training enough when others are always there.

If your child just simply can’t come please SMS me in advance. Planning sessions can be difficult with last minute withdrawals so please respect this and let me know early. On training days could boys please arrive at least 15 minutes before training start time and could you please ensure boys have a full water bottle every training session and game. Also lease ensure boys have been to the toilet before training . I won’t let kids go to public toilets on their own so this disrupts training a lot.

By the way, if your boy really sees themselves as a future player, two times one hour sessions and a fifty minute game per week will never be enough. With one or two coaches and twelve kids, and as per FFA curriculum, training will mainly be game based and so there is not that much opportunity for 1:1 tuition. To keep improving the kids should be doing a lot of ball mastery practice on their own at home, at school, with mates at the park, etc. Basically if they have a passion to develop into really good players they should practice, play, practice, play, practice, play!