If US Soccer wants better coaches at the grassroots level

Not necessarily. More online trainings options. I've completed grassroots training online. If I want to get my D License, I'd need to go to 2 more grassroots in person courses.

D Licensing can be done near me but it's 3 days of training. I get it, I can make it work over the summer when hours are more flexible. Price is $400, I can probably get my team to pay that.

However, if I try to get a C License, I'd have to take 2 weeks of work off AND drop $1,700.


So if anybody has aspirations of expanding their coaching education, they need to have at least 2 weeks of vacation time through their employer and nearly $2,000 just to get to a C.

US Soccer just needs a better way to identify talent. The ODP model is super jacked up, and other routes even worse. My son’s teammate has offers from clubs in Denmark and Germany and he and my son have been to US tryouts together where they literally didn’t even get show what they could do. It’s political, the kids that get selected, in my experience, simply aren’t the best. Whatever though.

Vision of a club is more important than a coach or two. U9-U10 you are responsible for teaching these kids X, Y and Z. The kids selected for the U11 A team are done so 100% based on how well they implement X, Y, and Z. Not the tallest or fastest or the ones that kick the hardest. U11 you teach F, J, and K, B team kids still work on X, Y, and Z...you WILL learn it. If so you start making the A group larger. U12 something different, patterns of play. Coaches stay in their age group, kids move on.

This is 100% not how my son was taught. Best, fastest kids make the A team, let’s go win tournaments. By the time U13 came around the damn defenders still hadn’t learned how to pass out of the back...kick ball over the center and just fight for it.

Vision of the club, judge players and coaches on what they are supposed to be learning and teaching, build a bunch of fundamentally sound kids and THEN when you’re U13-14 you start picking positions and making a competitive team. You did everyone justice...a kid can grow late, but he’s fundamentally sound enough to make huge strides in high school.

ETA: But you’re right, there should be more access to coach training. Should have resources available to you to make training plans and evaluation tools. Kids are so different, pulling off quality training on a team level, 15 kids, has got to ge tough.

I also think requiring these licenses deters people from wanting to coach. The class E was clearly a money grab. Lots of clubs will pay the fee for the coach, but who wants to sit through that. And regardless of the classroom setting, it doesn't mean they can teach you to coach. I've seen coaches who know the game inside and out, but can't handle people.

forgot to mention that the biggest learning tool was just learning from more experienced coaches. Time spend watching and following a good coach is 10 fold over a coarse.

Got to pay those fees though!!

My preparation for coaching is the fact that I've been around the game since I was 3 years old. I know that I know how to coach, and the results prove it. I'll just have to make due as a low licensed coach though because the process isn't feasible for me.