NSC Coaching Toolbox
Needham Soccer Club’s “coaching toolbox” is a library of coaching resources intended to help our coaches both continue their informal education of the game, as well as provide more insight into the culture we strive to create for our players at every level of our club.
The bulleted questions below each link provide some insight into what you can expect to be addressed within each document. As coaches it is important that we ask questions of our players and ourselves! Don’t just give orders (answers)! We should look to create an environment that encourages players to think for themselves and be creative in their solutions.
Fall 2021 Revolution Academy On Field Assistance Schedule – Coming Soon!
- Needham Soccer Club is partnered with the New England Revolution Academy! As part of this partnership, Coaches from the Academy will be on field throughout the duration of the season to assist our coaches and teams during our week day practices. Clink the link above to see when your team is assigned to have help this season!
Spring 2021 BAYS Travel Coaches Guidebook
- Intended for Needham BAYS Head and Assistant Coaches as a guide to procedures, policies and best practices for teams playing in the BAYS (Travel) League.
Spring 2021 NSCCL Coaches Guidebook
- Intended for Needham NSCCL Head and Assistant Coaches as a guide to procedures, policies and best practices for teams playing in the NSCCL program.
Spring 2021 NSCJA Coaches Guidebook
- Intended for Needham NSCJA Head and Assistant Coaches as a guide to procedures, policies and best practices for teams playing in the NSCJA program.
Complete Set of NSCJA Rules & Regulations
- Guidelines for what to expect during 1st & 2nd Grade Games! No Ref’s at this age, Coaches Expected to Know Rules and Work Together to manage games!
Introductory Email Guide – With COVID & DRIVN Guidance
- What to include?
NSC Practice & Game Cancellation Procedures
- Need to Cancel or Reschedule a Game or Practice?
- A lot of movie pieces for practices and games! Be sure to follow the instructions provided above to ensure everyone is aware of changes to your teams plans!
- What does it mean to be a coach?
- What are my responsibilities?
- What phase of development our my players in?
- How do I structure a practice and break up the time?
- How do I create the right environment for my players?
- Which specific ball mastery moves should I focus on for my players?
- At what age should we teach/provide specific names to moves?
- Talk the Talk
- What’s the soccer specific language I should be using with my players?
- Using the right language is vitally important to creating players who will be able to adapt to different coaches and understand the nuances of the beautiful game.
- What’s the main “focus” or “topic” for my session?
- What do I want to accomplish/what is my goal?
- How do I plan my coaching points accordingly?
- How long should each activity be?
- Can I relate what we are doing in practice to a situation that happens in the game?
NSC Practice Planner Explained
Practice Planner Ex. Attacking Session
- How well did I do in executing my plans?
- Did I communicate my coaching points well?
- Should I adjust part or all of an activity I used?
- Was I effective?
- How do I want to Start?
- When do I rotate players?
- What is our focus for this game? Beyond winning!! Can we connect 5 or more passes in a row? Can we play quick? Can we encourage our teammates to play the way we are facing? Can we use the goal keeper to help us build out of the back?
- What were my coaching points?
- How did I communicate them?
- What did I do well?
- What do I need to be more aware of in the future?
Player Tracking Sheet Template
- The player tracking sheet is intended to help the club watch and track the development of each of our players. In soccer, as is with everything in life, kids develop at different rates. This tool is meant to help the club gather information on our children over-time that will be extremely useful to us on multiple levels.
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- By having an idea of where each player is in their development we can create better environments for them to succeed.
- It will help us identify players who our coaches consider to be “advanced”. This will help put players on our radar going into travel team tryouts in the Spring. OR Fall for our 1, U9 team.
- It will identify players considered to be “on-the-bubble” as well as help us define how big that “bubble” is for each of our age groups every year.
- Finally it will help us create a better environment for our NSCCL (recreational, in-town league) by allowing us another tool to aid the club in the difficult task of trying to balance these teams to keep it as even as possible.
- Meant to help coaches figure out exactly how to fill in this form for their teams.
Player Evaluation Sheet Template
- Evaluation Form Coaches will be expected to fill out for each of their players and hand in to the Club for Tryouts.
- Coaches Who will be selecting the next Travel teams will use these evaluations, along with tryout evaluations, when selecting their teams.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR Player Evaluation Form
It is our hope that every coach will use these links and resources to help build a plan for the season, set goals and expectations for our players, gain confidence in their role as coach, understand club expectations and ultimately provide a better overall experience for our players!
