A common belief is that US youth soccer players suffer from over coaching, and in many cases that is true. But in our helicopter parent society where kids rarely can just go 'play in the park', coaches are in a situation where they have to provide SOME instruction and opportunity to develop. How do you create a fun practice where the kids push themselves vs go through the motions while also correcting mistakes and allowing for self discovery of soccer skill?

I realize this has been around for a while and has likely made the rounds, but it cracked me up. The sad part is many youth soccer coaches have had to deal with what is said in this video, and it can be impossible trying to get parents to understand why winning is not important when they're 10 years old.

Our recreational league has been coed since it's inception. We formed coed divisions simply because of numbers. When our league formed in 2002, we had ~350 players or so from U6 up through U12 just enough to form small two year divisions of coed teams (U6/U8/U10/U12). A few years later players were split by gender only if they made our new travel teams (U10 and above).

I'm getting very close to my 10 year anniversary of coaching youth soccer, and I guess I'm reaching that stage where I look back and think 'Oh my God what have I done!' when it comes to those early years. Blessed with children born 8 years apart, I hope I've learned from my mistakes coaching my eldest so I can do a better job coaching my youngest as well as all the other kids I coach.