RickyMasterCoach.com

Recently I happened to come across this web site, RickyMasterCoach, that has exactly the kind of information I've been looking for a long time. Some of his posts show a point he wants to make, say how to make a penetrating pass or defending, by providing photos of professional players in action. He then adds comments and arrows onto the photos to explain his topic. Highly recommended!

Fall 2010 Observations

Another season of refereeing has ended. This fall was a bit different because I also helped coach a boys U12 town team in addition to refereeing. I’ve seen some recent threads on a couple of soccer discussion forums bemoaning the poor state of officiating. Speaking as a referee I know there is a great variety of quality among referees just as there is among coaches (and parents). The job is not as easy as it might look to parents and coaches who are standing on the sidelines. Decisions have to be made on the fly without the benefit of instant reply.

I also know that there is no unanimity among referees. My home games for the boys’ team I coached were officiated by referees with whom I worked on other games. They made some calls I wouldn’t have. I’ve also worked the lines for a number of games where I would have called something differently than the center referee. When I’ve centered games I asked my A/Rs about certain calls I made. Sometimes they agreed with me while sometimes they didn’t. Even when I take the annual referee recertification in which we watch USSF videos of actual games the opinions among us differs.

I think people also forget or aren’t aware of the fact that referees do have to take annual recertification classes in order to keep their badge. Admittedly it’s only 4 or 5 hours a year but it’s more than coaches get! After I getting my USSF D license four years ago there is no requirement to follow up this course. (I think the A and B licenses do have follow ups but I’m not certain.) I’m also lucky in that my referee assignor works some games with me so I’ll ask him for feedback after a game.

I did get a chuckle earlier this season when in one game the coach from my town accused me of favoring the visiting team. In the following game the visiting coach accused me of favoring the home team! In both cases the teams of the protesting coaches played much more physically, using their elbows freely to buy space.

In any case, I know none of the above excuses us referees from trying to do a good job. Part of the frustration, especially for younger teams is that the referees typically are only a couple of years older than the age group they’re officiating. Assignors do this to help these young referees get the experience they need to get better without throwing them to the wolves (by giving them games of older ages where the competition is stronger and the demands and expectations are higher).

Coaching education: A Do It Yourself Approach?

One of my favorite coaching forums is www.and-again.com. Recently it had a thread about the differences in approach of the USSF and the NSCAA and what other opportunities exist for coaches who want to improve their knowledge of the game. As one of the coach’s said in his post: "There's much more work required on behalf of the coaches themselves to continue their coaching education - and a lot of things can be done that do not involve taking coaching license courses." I eventually realized that the main purpose of the license courses seems to be certifying that I met the criteria of the course, not to teach me everything I needed to know. I recall at my D course during the wrap up the instructor said (with some disdain) how "thin" our knowledge of the game was as a group. At first I was put off by that comment because that's why I took the course, to "thicken" my knowledge. I did learn a lot during the course but not enough to feel I was fully versed in the topic of my practical: 1v1 attacking. They covered it briefly in the D but I still felt uncomfortable critiquing and correcting my coach/students. It became obvious to me that the instructors expected me (and the rest of the coaches) to know more about the subjects on which we were tested than was covered in the course.

Once I realized that the purpose of these license courses is more for certification I faced a quandary. Where do I go to get the experience and knowledge needed? My state association basically runs just the licensing courses. The situation as a coach is somewhat different than, say, getting a Professional Engineer's license in my field. I got most of what I needed to pass the PE exam by getting a degree in chemical engineering. The license test measured how much I retained.

Where is the equivalent to college for soccer coaches? I could be wrong but there doesn't seem to be "one stop shopping" for us. I think we get mixed messages when the licensing is combined with a course. I think many of the participants coming into the license course (myself included) think that the sole purpose of the test is to determine how much we learned during the course when it really is assessing the knowledge of the coach, both what was learned in the class as well as what the coach learned prior to the class.

As a result I've had to rely on books, tapes/DVDs (mostly from the NSCAA), watching Fox Soccer Channel, playing in a men's pick up game every week and most recently refereeing. In addition I'm fortunate to be working with my club's DOC on forming new U12 girls teams for the last two years then handing them off to other coaches in our club. Working closely with my DOC is similar to working as an apprentice in a trade.

It's a shame that after a certain point getting an education as a coach is pretty much a do-it-yourself project. In addition to my comments on the licensing courses, it seems that the higher courses (including the NSCAA) are geared for those who plan to coach full time. I say that because of the time and expense required to take them that make it impractical for anyone who works a non-soccer related full time job. It would be nice if there were courses that provide more advanced information coaches like me want regardless of whether a license comes with it. Personally, I don't ever expect to get an A, B or C license at my stage in life but still want to continue my education (which is one reason why I visit this forum daily).

I think the NSCAA comes closer to this idea than the USSF by not favoring non-players. Since I haven’t attended their higher level courses I can’t say if they cover what I’d like to see in a course. I did attend their Special Topics Diploma course on “Reading the Game.” I went in with high hopes thinking we were going to watch a Revs game (which we did) then have it broken down by their coaches to show what they picked up. Nope. We were assigned into three person groups. Each group was assigned a different topic. My group studied the movement of the Revs forwards. After the match we reassembled to share our observations with each other. Occasionally the instructor would throw in some brief comments but that was it. So you basically had the students teaching each other. ?? They did provide a handout but it was more an outline of suggesting what to look for when coaching a game.

As an example of what I’m talking about the NFL channel runs a segment called AFC (or NFC) Playbook where the commentators analyze parts of games to show what they’re talking about. They repeat the tapes in slow motion isolating on individual players and how they move. The closest I’ve seen to this is on the International Tactics tapes/DVDs by Jape Shattuck which I got in my D course (which is no longer provided as part of the course). On my local TV they have a segment with Patriots coach Bill Belichick using the “Belistrator” where he shows what makes certain players of their next opponent so dangerous. He does the same thing the NFL channel does: slow motion replays isolating on player movement. Between the NFL show and the Belichick segments I’ve learned more about American football than I ever did.

I wish there was something equivalent outside of the licensing courses for non-professional soccer coaches and fans.