What Makes a good soccer coach?
Lasse's Thoughts: Why Great Players Don't Always Make Great Coaches
One belief I grew up with — and I hear it echoed all the time — is that a great soccer player naturally makes a great soccer coach.
The longer I’ve been coaching, the more I’ve realized that playing soccer and teaching soccer are two entirely different worlds.
Sure, if you don’t understand the game, you can’t teach it. But just because you’ve played at a high level doesn’t mean you know how to teach it — especially to children.
The Two Worlds of Soccer
As players get older and better, training shifts. Less time is spent on technical skills like passing or dribbling, and more on tactics, systems, and decision-making. A freshly retired professional might have spent the last two decades mastering game strategies, but not a single recent hour on teaching a child how to do a stepover or receive a pass with the inside of the foot — skills they learned as a kid and haven’t consciously thought about since.
That coach might thrive at the college level where players already have technical foundations. But coaching a U8 rec team? That’s a whole different ballgame.
Young kids not only lack those basic soccer skills — they also have short attention spans, need constant engagement, and require a completely different style of communication and curriculum. The challenge isn’t that high-level coaches don’t know what to teach — it’s that they don’t know when to teach it or how to break it down in a way that kids can actually absorb.
What Makes a Great Kids’ Soccer Coach?
A great youth coach knows exactly what kids need to learn at each stage — and how to teach it in a fun, fast-paced way that keeps them engaged. They can spot why a child is struggling with a skill and know how to guide them through it — not just correct them, but help them truly improve.
Over the past 8+ years, I’ve spent more than 7,000 hours coaching kids between the ages of 6 and 14. And here’s the truth: teaching kids soccer isn’t about having the deepest tactical knowledge. It’s about having the right content, delivered in the right way, with the right energy.
Bottom line:
We often hear coaches frustrated that kids “just don’t get it.” But the issue isn’t the kids — it’s usually that the drills or explanations aren’t age-appropriate for where they are in their development.
At Fussbally, we specialize in exactly that. We help kids fall in love with the game, build confidence, and progress faster than anywhere else — because we meet them where they are.
Let’s build a generation of players that are not just better, but love the process of getting better.