Coaching Development
At LVR Soccer Club (WSC) we don't require you to be a licensed coach. You need to register as a coach, pass a background check (RMA (Risk Management Association) to work with kids, in addition to some basic safe sport training outlined in the coaching registration/certification tab.
Clinics and Courses
Information on coaching clinics are emailed to coaches and announced on this website. SYSA hosts several clinics for coaches during the summer months.
Washington Youth Soccer and United States Youth Soccer are great places to get your start in coaching or, for experienced coaches, to learn a few new tricks. Check out the U.S. Soccer Learning site and browse the “Grassroots” course offerings here. These online course will help orient you to coaching from 4v4 on up. These course charge nominal fees, but LVR will be happy to reimburse you if you choose to take the grassroots courses.
Practices Plans
United States Youth Soccer has an excellent coaching page that will guide you to a wealth of resources. Find that here. Their recent partnership with Mojo, an app that will help you put together age-appropriate practice plans, is especially worth exploring. Because there are so many resources online, we suggest you try and explore some of these resources before getting lost in all the content the internet has to offer. But once you have a sense of what’s expected of you as a coach, there is no shortage of ideas for fun games to play at practice, practice plans, and other ideas on sites like YouTube.
SYSA has weekly practice plans and diagrams that might be helpful. You can find those here. They are working to add some for the youngest age groups, so check back if you don’t see ones for your team.
Washington Youth Soccer has age appropriate video recordings for U6-U12 ages. Their 8 week lesson plans on their website with videos demonstating each of the 4 session activities. Additionally, each activity is in print and video format – coaches can see the training exercises in action with the videos and then print the diagrams out to bring to the field.
Age-Appropriate Training Videos - Washington Youth Soccer - click on the top right of the video for the various sessions.
Many other state youth soccer organizations have practice plans available. The ones from Massachusetts are particularly detailed and exist for all age groups. Find them here.
When looking for more ideas, we suggest using the phrase “play practice play soccer sessions.” Many LVR coaches have found this to be a helpful approach to making soccer fun while helping the kids develop their basic skills.