We all want our kids to win, but winning in the long haul is so much more important than winning a trophy today

Youth Soccer: Tony Bruce on the Coach’s Corner: A Teaching Perspective - Teaching What is Really Important

Talking to Soccer Parents: Great advice on how to pick a club and team for your player

Winning is not Everything:

…But teaching is. As parents move their children from team to team and club to club looking for the magical formula that will afford their child the opportunity to be on a winning team they miss the obvious.

Well what is the obvious, a winning coach? A winning team? A big name club? It can be all of these but more importantly it is a club with a proven record of development. A coach who is a teacher, not one who plays just to win.

The Cost of Winning at all Costs:

We are all competitive by nature. That is our culture. Nice guys finish last and all the other sayings we hear day in and day out from the media etc., adds to the win at all costs mentality.

Winning is important but it should not be the measure of player development. Every coach wants to win. The health and welfare of their players, both physically and mentally should be paramount. Losing can also be a problem to the players self belief and to their self esteem, but the teachers will find ways to get their players beyond a losing mentality.

True Development:

A lot of clubs big and small develop teams not individual players. They look for players to fill holes in their teams but do not teach them their roles and the responsibilities of those roles in the systems they play.

Too many players are put in the game just to get them some minutes, although the coach already know they cannot do the job due to technical or maybe physical limitations and then the player is castigated because he or she fails. Who is at fault the coach or the player?

The answer is easy but it reinforces the coaches argument to the parent and to the players teammates as to why they don’t belong and are ultimately replaced by an ‘accomplished’ player.

Giving players the tools to solve problems on their own is the key to success. We talk about players playing on their own in the street with no adult supervision or direction. All the old-timers will tell you that this is how they grew up learning the game, but it is not the same today.

Soccer Coach Tony Bruce on the field training

We live in a world of parent and coach supervised coaching sessions. I would love to see some 50-year-old coach get on a skateboard and show a kid how to do a trick.

In fact, kids skate because they are in charge.

Soccer should be the same the players should have the freedom to express themselves on the field. Will they make mistakes, yes of coarse, but they can then learn from those mistakes and improve.

What is Success?

In this day and age, results are important. Parents want their kids playing premier and if they are not then they are leaving that team and or the club. So the circle continues. Players are moved around, see less playing time because of, psychosocial, physical or technical deficiencies (especially during puberty) and ultimately move again and again.

The problem is not with the coach and his or her philosophy but ultimately with the parents who do not do their homework.

Go to the games of the team they might want to move to and watch the coach. Is he a yeller? Does the team try to play the proper way?

Do the substitutions make sense and are the players being given instructions both before they enter the game and when they exit the game during substitutions.

You can learn a lot about a team and its coach just by watching a game or two. You can also attend a training session and watch the coach’s methods of teaching.

Listen and learn there is no secrets in soccer, only the way the message is delivered will determine whether or not players improve, not moving from team to team chasing medals.

Ultimately when players develop know their roles and responsibilities winning follows. This is the true measure of success.

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Tony Bruce is a well known and admired soccer coach who has be involved in soccer for more than 40 years. As a Youth, Tony Bruce played soccer in Scotland and in England for Leeds United, Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers. As an adult, Bruce played for Los Angeles Aztecs, San Diego Jaws and in the NASL for California Sunshine. In the ASL, Bruce played soccer for 14 years in the Greater Los Angeles professional league for San Pedro Yugoslavs, Montebello Armenians, San Pedro Croatia, L.A. Gauchos, So. Bay United, Maccabee.

Bruce has coached college, high school and competitive club soccer in the San Diego Orange county and Los Angeles areas. Bruce holds USSF National A Coaching license. Bruce is currently working with Martin Vasquez at the Real Salt Lake Arizona Academy in Casa Grande, Arizona.