Podcast# 2: My Journey as Soccer Coach and My Approaches to handle the different situations with Kids in a Right Way
In this podcast episode, I want to share about soccer, my journey as a soccer coach, and other related experiences. I started coaching a soccer team in my early 20s and the team I got was of little young boys. I love them till now and consider them my best team. Since it’s a long time ago, so they all are young men now. But I watched them grow up and even followed them up after I was done coaching them. I follow them through all their life stages including when they got other coaches, when they graduated from middle school and high school, and now when they are getting jobs and they are doing other things. It's been a real pleasure to follow them. But as they were my first coaching team and they were very nice, so I had a lot of pressure to not fail those kids.
This pressure and failure things got so worst that I started having nightmares that they came back to me years later and said, "you didn't teach us this when we were little and now we can't get to where we want to be." When my dreams and the internal feeling was getting worst and worst, it was the time when I decided to have the next coaching license. So, I missed one of their tournaments. I got signed up for a coaching class with the United States Soccer Federation. This was my C license, which is a national level. Next year, I got my B license and after a couple of years, I got my A license. All these licensing struggles gave me peace of mind and helped me calm down. But I didn’t stop studying. Anywhere I find something, I would study it out whether it is related to player development, the differences between boys and girls, etc.
Over the past twenty years, I had the privilege of watching hundreds of parents raise their children. Some raise at high levels and are getting in the national team and playing abroad professionally while the low levels players just wanted to make their high school team. Some kids just wanted to go to college and be really awesome and amazing intramural players. It is fine, as it gave them something to do and it's a good way for them to connect and socialize. I also had the privilege of seeing how the parents would deal with the issues that would naturally come up with raising children, such as getting their first driver's license. To summarize, I had this privilege to watch parents deal with their children from their early years through their teenage years.
My Approach to Handle Children
Fast forward to 20 years later, I have my own children now. I have a 13-year old daughter who doesn't like soccer at all. I have a 10-year old son who loves soccer and I am also blessed with a 3-year old daughter who likes pink and Frozen (Disney Cartoon). Due to my blessed past experience, I have got samples of other parents and how they handle problems. This helps me choose and pick from those samples and attack the situation accordingly. For example, usually as a young soccer team and young soccer parents, the sidelines are nuts and crazy not in a good way, just detrimental to the children. When I go watch my son playing soccer, I sit in the corner and relax. It’s actually a break for me as I can sit there and do absolutely nothing other than watching my son have fun. I don't have the emotional ups and downs so much because I don't care. The main reason is that I never had a national team coach ask me if one of my players won or did this amazing thing when they were playing as a team. So, the point I want to narrate is that
I remain relax and let my child enjoy the game. I also don't transfer any of my personal anxiety to my son before his event. Similarly, I try not to transfer my personal anxiety to my daughter for her swim events. I have been able to give them the space they need so that they can grow. Due to my way of handling things, I often find parents come and ask me a bunch of questions. Parents should know simple little tricks and I will share my tricks and tools further in the next episodes.
I am grateful to you for joining me today. If you have any questions, let me know and I will give you the answers or get you the answers connected to who you need. I would appreciate it if you give any feedback, comment, or five-star reviews. You can also check out our tips, tools, and resources at https://thecrazysoccerdad.com/. There we will be continuously sharing all of our best resources that we are constantly hunting out.
