One of our readers, Dennis Hillyard, has written several terrific articles regarding coaching youth in soccer. We will be publishing many of these over the next several weeks. This is the first installment.

I am often asked which profession is similar to that of the soccer coach.
Without hesitation I always reply a SCHOOL TEACHER‟ but with one very important difference.

The teacher usually specializes in one or two subjects and where for example there are thirty students in the class then guaranteed that a fair percentage will NOT be interested in the particular topic (s). Accordingly, youngsters will always learn quicker when being taught something they enjoy.

Children are required to attend school by law. They are NOT required to attend soccer training therefore the advantage and it is a tremendous advantage is that youngsters join a soccer club simply because they WANT to play soccer thus, the role of the coach Is that much easier.

Unfortunately, with this advantage and even if the squad of youngsters are all extremely talented then it is not always a guarantee of success.

Why? If we refer back to the teacher versus the soccer coach then the teachers role basically is to develop the individual students abilities whereas the soccer coach whilst requiring to do exactly the same than has the added responsibility to develop those individual skills within the framework of the team.

At the same time it is ESSENTIAL that each child should retain there individual skills so that they are best utilized for both, the benefit of the player and the team.

Contributed by Dennis Hillyard, FLMSL Head Coach