Soccer Leaders Chime In On “Why Parent Engagement is Important
By Skye Eddy Bruce December 5, 2017
The term “Parent Engagement” has become a buzzword in youth soccer recently. Clubs are working to develop Parent Engagement Programs and, likewise, parents are being encouraged to get more involved. There is some confusion though.
What does Parent Engagement mean?
Parents often are confused because historically they have been told to DISengage. Parents know they don’t want to hover or be a helicopter parent, they don’t want to be labelled a “crazy soccer parent” and so the concept of Parent Engagement is confusing.
Coaches are confused because they have been told by mentors to not get too close to parents, or to ignore them all together. Perceived and actual barriers have been constructed between coaches and parents with the idea that this will make the youth soccer environment better.
To build some clarity around the concept of Parent Engagement, I asked every speaker (yes, all 21 of them!) from the Soccer Parenting Summit:
What does Parent Engagement mean to you? Why is Parent Engagement important?The responses (see video below) from the youth soccer leaders, coaches, and performance experts were varied. Clearly there is a lack of certitude around the topic, even for our youth soccer leadership.
However, common themes emerged. Parents must feel responsible for asking the right questions when searching for soccer environments for their child. Parents must feel empowered to ask, in the right way, for an environment that best suits the development of their child. Parents must be informed. Parents must feel the door is opened to them by clubs and coaches.
Our youth soccer landscape needs improvement. Not everywhere. Not in all ways. But we can do better.
Parents are the ones responsible for holding clubs and coaches accountable to these important and essential changes.Parents must be ACTIVATED. The switch needs to be turned on and the Level Headed Parents need to be called to action.
What more can be done to activate parents? Please spread the word about the Soccer Parenting Summit – www.SoccerParentingSummit.com. This is a FREE EVENT for youth soccer PARENTS and COACHES.
What does Parent Engagement mean?
Parents often are confused because historically they have been told to DISengage. Parents know they don’t want to hover or be a helicopter parent, they don’t want to be labelled a “crazy soccer parent” and so the concept of Parent Engagement is confusing.
Coaches are confused because they have been told by mentors to not get too close to parents, or to ignore them all together. Perceived and actual barriers have been constructed between coaches and parents with the idea that this will make the youth soccer environment better.
To build some clarity around the concept of Parent Engagement, I asked every speaker (yes, all 21 of them!) from the Soccer Parenting Summit:
What does Parent Engagement mean to you? Why is Parent Engagement important?The responses (see video below) from the youth soccer leaders, coaches, and performance experts were varied. Clearly there is a lack of certitude around the topic, even for our youth soccer leadership.
However, common themes emerged. Parents must feel responsible for asking the right questions when searching for soccer environments for their child. Parents must feel empowered to ask, in the right way, for an environment that best suits the development of their child. Parents must be informed. Parents must feel the door is opened to them by clubs and coaches.
Our youth soccer landscape needs improvement. Not everywhere. Not in all ways. But we can do better.
Parents are the ones responsible for holding clubs and coaches accountable to these important and essential changes.Parents must be ACTIVATED. The switch needs to be turned on and the Level Headed Parents need to be called to action.
What more can be done to activate parents? Please spread the word about the Soccer Parenting Summit – www.SoccerParentingSummit.com. This is a FREE EVENT for youth soccer PARENTS and COACHES.
There are two words in soccer that I dislike. They are drill and hustle. To find out why drills destroy skills and should not be used in youth soccer please attend the “Y” License coaching course. As for hustle it is so often misused that it has come to mean run around the field like a chicken with your head cut off. In other words the coach saw a soccer game once and everyone was running so if you are not “hustling” then you are not playing soccer. Hustle has come to mean mindless running, merely for the sake of running. Do soccer players need to have a high work rate? YES! But it means tactical running, on and off the ball movement with a purpose.
Soccer players need to learn when to run and when to not run. There are times when it is tactically correct to not run. They also need to learn at what angle to run. Far too many American players run constantly in straight lines on the field. They look more like a track team doing the 100-yard dash than a soccer team. Coaches must teach players when to make straight runs and when to make diagonal, square and bent runs. Of course these runs could be forward or backward on offense or defense.
Players must also learn about the timing of runs, when to start and when to stop. Most off-the-ball runs start too early so the player is marked up once he or she arrives in the space where he or she hopes to meet the ball. Directly incorporated to the timing of runs is the pace of the run. Recovery runs on defense are probably going to be all out. Tracking runs on defense will have to match the pace of the opponent being marked. Many, but not all, attacking runs without the ball will start off slow or at a moderate pace and then accelerate at the last moment darting past an opponent to meet the pass.
Well this leads us back to the title of the article; there is something more to running in soccer than mere locomotion. Hustle, run Forrest run, doesn’t quite make it for the game of soccer. Put some brains as well as brawn in your players’ running.
“Don’t run so much,” Johan Cruyff once said, meaning that players often cover lots of ground but to no effect. “You have to be in the right place at the right moment, not too early, not too late.”
Soccer players need to learn when to run and when to not run. There are times when it is tactically correct to not run. They also need to learn at what angle to run. Far too many American players run constantly in straight lines on the field. They look more like a track team doing the 100-yard dash than a soccer team. Coaches must teach players when to make straight runs and when to make diagonal, square and bent runs. Of course these runs could be forward or backward on offense or defense.
Players must also learn about the timing of runs, when to start and when to stop. Most off-the-ball runs start too early so the player is marked up once he or she arrives in the space where he or she hopes to meet the ball. Directly incorporated to the timing of runs is the pace of the run. Recovery runs on defense are probably going to be all out. Tracking runs on defense will have to match the pace of the opponent being marked. Many, but not all, attacking runs without the ball will start off slow or at a moderate pace and then accelerate at the last moment darting past an opponent to meet the pass.
Well this leads us back to the title of the article; there is something more to running in soccer than mere locomotion. Hustle, run Forrest run, doesn’t quite make it for the game of soccer. Put some brains as well as brawn in your players’ running.
“Don’t run so much,” Johan Cruyff once said, meaning that players often cover lots of ground but to no effect. “You have to be in the right place at the right moment, not too early, not too late.”
Click on image below to see video
