Pre-season Parent Message

This message was sent out by one of our coaches to his team's parents prior to the start of the season. It's a good basis for a similar message you may want to send out that helps to manage expectations and understanding of what you expect from players and parents.

Thank you to Matt M for allowing us to share it.


League season

- As expected we are in Crowborough A league and will be with 7-8 other teams, which we will play home and away over the course of the season ie 14-16 matches in total. We do not move league intra-season.....

- This season is the first time that points are awarded for wins / draws and a 'proper' league table is displayed on FA full time on a weekly basis. Goal scoring charts are also displayed throughout the season. I will provide a link to this once it is up and running

- Our first league match will be on Sunday 8th Sep (no ko timing, location or opposition known yet, will confirm ASAP). For U12s we would normally KO either at 9.30-10 am or around noon on a Sunday. Our home matches will be played either at Bennett 3G, Ashurst or Groombridge.

- Refereeing will in general be tougher than previous seasons around throw ins, fouls, etc and yellow / red cards can / will get used more often by referees as well. These will mean fines for parents should they happen to anyone in our team...

Squad approach

- We have a core squad of 14, but we will only ever take 12 players to each league match. Based on previous seasons' experience with holiday, other commitments eg school/scouts/etc, injury, or illness most weeks this will mean that everyone who is available to play will play. But if we have more than 12 available we will operate a strict rota policy to ensure complete fairness over the course of the season.

- The other criterion that will determine selection for a match squad on Sunday is if the player has attended training on the Tuesday that week. If someone can't make Tuesday that doesn't necessarily mean they won't play on Sunday, but hopefully all the players and parents can understand that as a coaching team we will not choose to pick a player for Sunday who didn't train on Tuesday ahead of a player who did train. We appreciate everyone's support on this approach

Team ethos

As a coaching group we will prioritise the following things as part of playing with us next season (in order of priority)

1) Having fun playing football (otherwise why is your son or you as parents giving up your hard earned Sunday?).

2) Treating your team mates, coaches, match officials and opposition with respect. The coaches will treat every player with absolute respect and we ask the same in return.

3) Hard work and commitment (every player should come off the pitch at the end of every training session and league game feeling they have given their all, whether we win, lose or draw

4) Developing on pitch communication skills and learning how to support each other and play even more as a team, rather than a set of individual players. We win, lose or draw as a team......

5) What we do what do we do for a goal kick, what do we do for a free kick, what do we do for a corner, what do we do in transition when we gain or lose the ball. Each player will be coached to try different roles in these scenarios to work out what they are best at / most comfortable doing.

6) Speed......of thought, of pass, of movement, of shot, of communication. Being able to do these things more quickly than the opposition as a team more regularly pays huge dividends.....

Everyone will notice that winning games and scoring goals don't feature on this top 6 list.....that is because we believe if the boys do the things above consistently well that the other things will take care of themselves.

Parental support

As a coaching group we would ask the following of you as a parent group:

- bring the boys to training and pre match warm up on time - this gives us coaches the best chance of helping the boys develop and enjoy their football on a weekly basis

- treat the coaches of both teams, match officials and opposition with absolute respect (even if you don't agree with officials decisions or behaviour from the opposition coaches, players or parents). The coaches on both sides are all volunteers, we give a lot of our time for free and put a lot of effort into giving the boys the best footballing experience we can, we respectfully ask you to support us in that endeavour.......

- help with pre match set up and post match take down, plus running the line would be hugely appreciated

- we encourage you (or your sons) to give the coaching group regular feedback on how we are doing - do the boys like / hate certain drills, do they want to try a different position, etc, etc.

- lastly and really most importantly I would like to remind you all (and myself too as a parent) that the key reason cited by the FA for why a child gives up football at any age is parental when you are standing on the sideline we would implore you to NOT coach the boys but rather provide consistent positive encouragement (cheering and clapping)....we know you think you are helping / doing this for the right reasons when you provide specific direction, but it actually has the exact opposite effect. It confuses the boys as what you are saying is very likely different to what we have asked them to do as coaches during training......

Sorry if this email feels like a bit of an essay (some might say lecture....) but we really hope it helps clarify how we expect next season to work and I would ask everyone to please let us know if there are any questions or concerns with the proposed approach.

We would like to start the season with coaches, parents, and players all in complete alignment as it sets the season up for the boys in the best way possible.