The Parent's Area

 Probably the single most important thing a parent can do for a child is LEARN about the game of soccer. Not to coach or referee but to stop the comments to coaches, referees and opponents. Soccer is not a game of kicking, it is a game of control yet a walk around the soccer complex on any given game day results in screams of KICK IT! Georgia's youth program is in a bound manual and the name of the program is KINS. Kicking Is Not Soccer. The entire focus on youth soccer should be on the element of control and the number of kids on the field working together to posses the ball and work it towards the opponents goal. Starting late in U-8 but definitely by U-10 children want to be challenged by their tasks. Simply running to a ball, kicking it, and running back to the spot they have been occupying the entire game is NOT soccer, it is NOT challenging and it is NOT fun. If this is your coaches philosophy to the game then by all means address it with the coach because eventually your child will tire of this and want to explore other activities in which they feel like they are learning and progressing.
New to the game? Click here
 
The 6 best things to say to your child at a game click here

Things to consider before yelling at the referee. click here

 A shocking trend that needs to be stopped ASAP click here
A Good Read For Parents. 
  
 

Myths about Coaching

- It is the coach's fault if a team is not winning.
- Anyone who speaks with a foreign accent is privy to secrets of the game denied to ignorant Americans and is an appropriate coach for my child.
- Anyone who once played soccer and who owns an Adidas warm-up would be a good coach for my child.
- The more tricks (with a ball) the coach can do, the better will be the coaching.
- A team’s winning record is a good gauge as to whether or not a particular player on that team is developing properly.
- A good coach yells instructions and paces up and down the field during a game.
- All soccer coaches are inexperienced, amateur, power-hungry, controlling parents (i.e., "idiots").
- A good coach plays on the field with the players during scrimmages.
- You can coach girls the same way that you coach boys.
- Girls should be coached by women.
- All good coaches have national "A" licenses.
- A good player makes a good coach.
- In order to coach effectively, you must have played on the US Men's National Team [in the Olympics, professionally, as a child, as an adult, in college, for Brazil, etc.]
- “Unintentional” balls-to-hand applies to my team. “Intentional” hand-to-ball applied to the opposing team.

Myths about Practicing

- Players can get great by attending only 2 practices per week.
- Practices should be only as long as the length of the game at that age.
- Each practice should be organized around a single theme that isn't repeated at a later practice.
- Players like to hear long explanations from the coach at practice.
- It's fun waiting in long lines for your chance to shoot on goal with the only ball the coach brought to practice.
- Youth players have an attention span longer than 15 seconds.
- It's realistic to expect youth players to ignore such distractions as the Ice Cream Man's truck, a gopher sticking his head out of a hole in the field, someone's new baby, or someone's new puppy, kitten, or rat.
- You can restore order to a practice by yelling at the players.
- The best way to get their attention is to send them on a long run.

Myths about Games

- If a team won its game, the team played well.
- If a team ties its game, the team played so-so.
- If a team lost its game, the team played poorly.
- The farther away a game is, the better will be the competition and/or the player's development.
- The team with the fanciest warm-up routine will win the game.
- The first team to arrive at the field will win the game.

Your Coach

Horn Lake Soccer recreational soccer organization. There are two vital elements that go into youth sports; fun and learning. There are some things that should be taken into consideration:

1. Appreciate your coach. They are a volunteer and usually get nothing out of the season except memories.

2. Support your coach. Ask them if you can help with practice or games.

3. If you have a problem with the coach take it up with them, do not create a negative atmosphere by talking about them to other parents.

4. Remember your coach is NOT a babysitting service. What if something happens while you are away and they cannot contact you? How interested are you in your child if you look at every practice as an opportunity to run to the store, tan, or run somewhere else and take care of another chore instead of watching you child practice soccer?

5. Bringing a child to practice late or missing practice slows the child's development in the sport, it does not hurt the coach but does impact the child and their importance to the team.

If you take a problem to the coach and cannot get resolution consider speaking with the Age Group Coordinator. In the mean time do what is necessary for the child to continue playing. Pulling them because of a disagreement with the coach or because you think the team is not winning enough does not teach the child good lessons for the future. If the issue cannot be resolved through mediation the child can be placed in the draft for the next season.

Team Formation Policies

What is the draft and what does it do?

1. It's a player assignment method that assigns players by age oldest to youngest by month and year.

2. It insure that each coach is given equal opportunity to any player. Players will not be rated using trials or tryouts.

3. Such a process ensures that any player may be assigned to any team in their age/gender division except those players listed in the two items below:

4. The children of the head coach and the assistant coach are the only players which are automatically assigned to the team.

5. Brothers and sisters in the same age/gender group shall be assigned to the same team unless their parents or legal guardians request otherwise.

When the computer forms the teams through the draft it only sees 1 and 2 beside a player's name. What this means is a first year player in the age group (a 10 year old in Under 12 would be a 1) or a second year player in the age group (an 11 year old in Under 12 would be a 2) The children of the coach and assistant coach are assigned to the team BEFORE the draft. Why? Because the teams have to be age leveled (an equal number of 1s and 2s on each team) and if both coaches have second year children they start off with two older children and the computer will assign them two younger players to level the team. This is as close to even as we can get in recreational soccer and puts the destiny of the children and the team solely on the coaches shoulders. Occasionally there is a team that ends up with more "talented" kids on a single team, it is not a manually loaded team because it would be out of balance age wise. These are also the reasons behind parents requesting a player to be on a specific team or play for a specific coach. This would more than likely unbalance the team age wise.