Parents Responsibility
I know how much time is spent running your
child or children around for everything they are involved in, But we as coaches
are dedicated to helping your child improve as an
individual and a team player. Players coming late are a real distraction and
your child will miss an important warm up and stretching
exercise. This will increase their chance of an injury.
Our practices will be based on a different theme, or
skill, either technical or tactical, based on previous play, and on what
we feel needs improvement. If your child misses a
practice, he will be behind the others.
Please bring your child to practice on time.
Please bring your child to the game early, we will be meeting 30 min. prior to game time.
Please read Game Requirements, Practice Requirements, Player Responsibilities to know what we expect.
Feel free to call the coaches if you have any questions or concerns now or in the future.
Our Goal this season is to work on player development, we want your child to finish this season as a better player!
If your child becomes better, we will meet our goal, and you will see the difference in the way our team plays.
Parental Support - The Key to Peak Performance
The role that parents play in the life of a soccer player has a tremendous
impact on their experience. With this in mind, we
have taken some time to write down some helpful reminders for all of us as we
approach the upcoming season. If you should
have any questions about these thoughts, please feel free to discuss it with us,
the coaches.
1. Let the coaches coach: Leave the coaching to the coaches. This includes
motivating, psyching your child for
practice, after game critiquing, setting goals, requiring additional
training, etc. You have entrusted the care of your
child to these coaches and they need to be
free to do their job. If a player has too many coaches, it is confusing and
therefore
performance usually declines.
2. Support the program: Get involved. Volunteer. Help out with fundraisers,
car-pool; anything to support the
program.
3. Be your child's best fan: Support your child unconditionally. Do not
withdraw love when your child performs poorly.
Your child should never have to perform to win your love.
4. Support and root for all players on the team: Foster teamwork. Your
child's teammates are not the enemy.
When they are playing better than your child, your child now has a
wonderful opportunity to learn.
5. Do not bribe or offer incentives: Your job is not to motivate. Leave this
to the coaching staff. Bribes will
distract your child from properly concentrating in practice and game
situations.
6. Encourage your child to talk with the coaches: If your child is having
difficulties in practice or games, or can't
make a practice, etc., encourage them to speak directly to the coaches.
This "responsibility taking" is a big part of
becoming a big-time player. By handling the off-field tasks, your child
is claiming ownership of all aspects of the game -
preparation for as well as playing the game.
7. Understand and display appropriate game behavior: Remember, your child's
self esteem and game
performance is at stake. Be supportive, cheer, be appropriate. To perform
to the best of his/her abilities, a player needs
to focus on the parts of the game that they can control (their fitness,
positioning, decision making, skill,
aggressiveness, what the game is presenting them). If he/she starts focusing
on what they can not control (the condition of
the field, the referee, the weather, the opponent, even the outcome of
the game at times), he/she will not play up to their
ability. If he/she hears a lot of people telling him what to do, or yelling
at the referee, it diverts their attention away from
the task at hand.
8. Monitor your child's stress level at home: Keep an eye on the player to
make sure that they are handling stress
effectively from the various activities in his life.
9. Monitor eating and sleeping habits: Be sure your child is eating the
proper foods and getting adequate rest.
10. Help your child keep priorities straight: Help your child maintain a
focus on schoolwork, relationships and the
other things in life beside soccer. Also, if your child has made a
commitment to soccer, help them to fulfill their obligation to
the team.
11. Reality test: If your child has come off the field when
their team has lost,
but he has played his best, help him to see
this as a "win". Remind them to focus on "process" and not
"results". The fun and satisfaction should be
derived from "striving to win". Conversely, he/she should be as satisfied
from success that occurs despite inadequate
preparation and performance.
12. Keep soccer in its proper perspective: Soccer should not be larger than
life for you. If your child's performance
produces strong emotions in you, suppress them. Remember your
relationship will continue with your children long
after their competitive soccer days are over. Keep your goals and needs
separate from your child's experience.
13. Have fun: That is what we will be trying to do! We will try to challenge
your child to reach past their "comfort level"
and improve themselves as a player, and thus, a person. We will attempt
to do this in environments that are fun, yet
challenging. We look forward to this process. We hope you do to!
Special Thanks to Bob Kopperman for allowing us to use this
page from pittsburghsoccer.org.