BSS Fall 2011 Coach Survey

Survey Summary• Over two thirds of coaches responded (52)• Differences between long term coaches vs new coaches

– 2/3 of long term (5 or more years) believe ethos not shared among all coaches compared to only 17% of new coaches (coaching one year only)

– Overall 33% believe ethos not shared (including coaches with 2 – 4 yrs experience).

• 90% of coaches are “keen”, or “could be persuaded”, to take part in coach development – hence MYS engagement

• 66% believe we should split genders completely in 2nd grade• Groups of comments focused on:

– Coach recruitment, development & sharing BSS ethos (14 comments)– Roster / team inequalities (13)– Logistics (game day & practice) (13)– Gender split (clear majority in favor of split gender 2nd grade) (11)

• Better advertising, directed at parents, was main idea to recruit more coaches.

• Despite venting on some issues coaches still scored ‘value for money’ and ‘recommending BSS to friends’ extremely high.

• Surprising (to me) was not recommending Winnbrook refurbishment. In fact Winnbrook, coach & player development scored the same in priority choices with only “more split gender” being favorite!

Who completed the survey?

• Would you recommend BSS coaching to a friend?– All but one respondent

• Do coaches share BSS ethos?

– 5 or more years coaching (12) 58% not shared ethos– 3 to 5 years coaching (15) 33% not shared ethos– 1 or 2 years coaching (23) 17% not shared ethos

• Interpreted as no common objective. Coaches have equal priority for refurbishing Winnbrook and do coach / player development, for example.

What needs some work?

• Coaches (14)– Need more coaches with more

experience who share same BSS ethos

• Logistics (13)– Practice logistics; games starting

on time; goals themselves and sharing put up / tear down work

• Rosters (13)– Maintaining smaller, more

balanced teams over 3 years• Gender Split (11)

– Split 2nd grade and maybe start with a split gender game in 1st

• Parents (5)– Explaining parent responsibilities

• Referees (2)– Ref inconsistency

Additional “interesting” responses:• Don’t keep teams together for all 3

years• Coaches should officiate/facilitate the

games.• Children should be placed by age, not

grade level.• Kids wanted trophies/medals instead

of tee's• No rain on game days...weather

control• Over-emphasis on games rather than

skill building.• Rained out games should be

rescheduled • Remove the nets or make goals

smaller• Spend money in getting a "coach" for

the coaches• What are the goals for player

development?• Player development - our second

graders shouldn't be treated like preschoolers where its all for fun.

How to recruit more coaches?• Direct outreach to parents (15)• No idea (7)• Inform parents what’s required & possibly have

part time (7)• Discount registration fee (6)• Better advertising & PR (4) • Practice & games at weekend – move

availability (2)• Should only be 2 coaches + helpers for goals,

etc (1)

General Comments1) i think MOST coaches share the philosophy, but there are a few who still do A/B splits and take the competitive part "too seriously" 2) I played soccer my whole life competitively, but it was not until I took the G (and then F license) that I became a good/better coach. I believe coaches should be REQUIRED to take the G (and in person, not on-line) and also required to attend one coach development session before the start of 1 st grade coaching year. Belmont should pay to offer the G once per season in Belmont to ensure compliance. 3) in terms of more touches and quality touches, we should require purchase of a standard ball along with uniform. A small % of kindergarten children are developmentally ready to play actual games in the fall season. For the fall season consider practices during the week and intersquad scrimmages for a portion of the hour and skill themed games for the first half hour. Week one dribbling games,#2 passing games, #3 keep away games,#4 striking games, #5 shooting games, #6 racing for a 50/50 ball, #7 games of mass soccer with six teams and six goals with 12 foam balls with four players on each team. The object of the game is to score goals on as many teams as All my personal experiences with other coaches have been positive, but there was a situation once when our head coach had a negative interaction with another coach complaining about how he thought we were stacking the team. The conversation could've started better and I know our head coach just had a good rotation of players Get more parents involved! If they do it in kindergarten they will see how easy it is and be willing to do it as their kids grow. Also Smaller sided games at early ages would be better but I understand the field constraintsGet rid of the trophies / medals at the end of the year. Perhaps provide a framed picture of the teams and/or the player ... or put that money towards other league supplies (nets, fields, balls).Good overall. Imbalance in skill level of the coaches as some clearly know the game and know how to coach, others don't know either. At some point, need to start doing more skill development with the kids and less 'run I really like having both genders on the same team in 2nd grade. Coaches are able to teach some "life" lessons, it's more important to share the ball and work as a team than to win.I think 1st graders are too young to have goalkeepers. Ideally I would like to see 4v4 (maybe 5v5) with smaller goals and no keepers. Also, the difference in abilities on the same team is frustrating for all players. More-skilled players are told to tone it down and play less aggressively, and less-skilled players hardly get a touch on the ball. I think coach recruitment should be prioritized more than all of these items.

General CommentsI think there needs to be effort to balance the teams reasonably between boys/girls each year. I think better team management expectations could be set to guide coaches/parents. For example, simply assigning oranges, practice setup parents, goal setup/takedowns, etc. Call it a semi-co-op. We all need to pitch in. Noone volunteers. At 8:30 games at Winnbrook too often coaches not to mention parents show up until 8:25! My teams coaches and parents are asked to arrive at 8am and typically we've setup all the goals for everyone. It would be good that this schedule for all these extra activities is distributed by the coach at the beginning of the season with I'm ambivalent about the gender split in 2nd grade. I think the girls would benefit, as I see my 3rd grade daughter is playing much stronger now that she's not competing with the boys. I also put a lot of value, though, on the team continuity that BSS fosters. If you were split in 2nd grade, I think it might be nice if you could do so by combining teams—e.g., 2nd grade green girls gets the girls from 1st grade green and yellow, while 2nd grade yellow boys get the boys from 1st grade yellow and green. Also, I don't have a strong feeling on the best time to do player development. I marked pre-season just because so many players are busy with other activities during the in terms of splitting the kids by gender in 2nd grade, I clicked yes, based on feedback from parents. I have boys and it doesn't seem like an issue to me.... so perhaps we should do a more extensive survey just on that issue for J ust want to thank you for all that you do. I really enjoy coaching in the program.League management recently sent out an email detailing the gender split of each team. As a coach of the sole team with a female majority, I would like to know if all of the other teams started out with an even gender split and if so, why the girls have dropped out. I have also heard rumors of teams that were essentially hand picked back in kindergarten days. Equally matched teams and competitive games are in the best interest of the league and Most coaches are great about this but we all need to be more vigilant about the one or two player on our teams who say things to the other team or otherwise display poor sportsmanship.Overall, we have a group of good kids. However, we probably have 5 or 6 kids in the group that are more difficult (either behaviorally, socially, etc). It is really tough with 20 kids to try to teach soccer and also babysit. Not sure there is anything can do about it, just the reality. 20 kids is a lot of kids to have on a team with 2 coaches. We Please try to avoid shutting down the fields on first sign (or forecast) of clouds - soccer is a rain sport world over and its okay to get wet..We would rather have better players than look at pretty fields ! Unless there is a

General CommentsRegarding Q#4 and BSS Ethos: I do think some coaches take the game too seriously. In kindergarten, I even had one coach approach me before a game and say that "we should definitely switch sides at halftime because there's an uphill/downhill aspect". For the life of me, I didn't see it, we didn't switch because going"downhill" my team was trailing by six goals at halftime! Regarding Q#8 and outsourcing of instruction: I advise BSS to be VERY careful. I think if you get the proper person/organization, then this is a great idea. HOWEVER, I know first-hand of a number of towns who contracted with club organizations for this purpose, and it became a "fox in the Some coaches are too competitive, and don't split their teams equally. Also, they sometimes keep their best Some kindergarten coaches are OBVIOUSLY interested in winning. This is too easily picked up by the kids and We played one team where we were told before the game that one of their teams would be much better than the other. This lead our head coach to divide our team unevenly . . . leading to a very frustrating and uneven game for half of our players. I think it needs to be made clear from the beginning and repeatedly (nothing like repetition to hammer a point home) that the teams should be divided evenly and players mixed up EACH week. It was so This is entry level soccer. BSS should relax on the focus of player/coaching development. If the kids enjoy the sport, they will continue to play and develop. Don't over-coach and over-structure the league. Kids can join club Though I don't coach 2nd grade, my daughter plays. If there were not split squad games this year, she would have quit soccer. Every game should be split squad, because both the boys and the girls enjoy it more and get more out of it. I only wonder how many girls we have lost along the way because there were not split squad games in first grade. Perhaps split squad games should start in 1st grade and every game should be split squad Why would we consider charging parents for player dev when we are thinking of resodding winnbrook? Can we buy real goals for winnbrook so they are available for practice? Can we try to ensure that each team has the same number of boys and girls? The ratios are inconsistent? I think the total emphasis on fun is ridiculous in first and second grade. It should still be the top priority but learning and development should be a close second. Imagine if in belmont schools second grade was just for fun instead of learning. We can do better for the kids Would highly recommend splitting in 2nd grade and readjusting the teams for the 2nd grade season. Perfect opportunity to realign and make the experience better for all the kids involoved. Some teams, whether we want to admit it, are "stacked" when first formed. 3 years is a long time to coach (or play) on teams that continue to struggle. Split the genders, readjust the teams a bit (coaches can rank their players after the spring 1st grade season), and readjust/add new coaches. More parents should be involved and complete the entry-level coaches course - they will not want to get involved later as the kids move up. Also, the kids have grown in size anyway

General Comments (Congrats Grouped)

Great job on survey. Another big improvement during my time. Congrats!Great organization. I love the emphasis on teaching/coaching kids, not winning. These kids are learning to play a soccer-like game, but they are more importantly learning about themselves and being part of a community of Great to have the kids enjoying themselves and their team mates . Learning some skills- still very young so a few I didn't understand question 12.I think the program is great! I don't think many changes need to be made. For the most part the coaches and parents have worked great together! the kids are having so much fun! I think it's important to make sure it's all I'm having a great time coaching BSS. Thank you for all you do!!Thanks to all the members of the board for all your hard work!