Ep 321: How Valuable is Competition Within the Youth Team Environment, and How do You Manage It?

What does competition actually mean?

And more specifically, what does it mean for coaches to create a competitive environment within their teams?

There’s a lot to dissect here because it’s not just about:

• The level of your opponents.
• The level of the league.
• The level of your teammates.

No, no, no.

There’s a lot that goes into this, and a lot that a coach has control over. But they’ve got to get everybody on board.

In particular, if you’re a youth coach, you have to have the parents on board one way or another.

And it’s not like you’re going to convince them fully and completely because there’s always issues that crop up.

You might be in paradise with a parent for a week or a month or a year. Hell, maybe multiple years.

But eventually, that paradise is no longer a paradise. And then what do you do? How do you bring them back into the fold?

And that’s just with one parent. What if there’s a coalition of parents?

Some of the topics that crop up in this context are:

• Holding players accountable.
• How to treat the top end of the roster.
• How to treat the bottom end of the roster.
• Pay to play entitlements.
• The need for parent education
• US players suffering because of a soft culture.
• Playing players up.
• At what age should the environment be competitive?
• Brian Kleiban having a nationwide impact.

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