NorCal Creates Level 1 Coaching Course to Provide Solid Foundation
As an organization, NorCal Premier Soccer constantly strives to offer the best-quality coaching education possible.
Better coaches make better players, so it’s paramount to constantly bring in instruction that will help improve the level of the game all across the state.
But with Northern California being so large geographically, it’s not always possible or practical for coaches to attend some of the lectures and field sessions that NorCal offers.
After taking a look at these circumstances, though, NorCal Premier Soccer decided to form the NorCal Level 1 Coaching Course, the vast majority of which takes place with online classes.
Starting this spring with four courses, those who were accepted into the program were given instruction from coaching education staff members Paolo Bonomo and Andrew Ziemer.
“Understanding for a coach, what to teach and how to teach at this age is vital for the success of a player going forward and eventually to reach his or her top potential,” said Bonomo. “All the feedback so far has been positive.”
The class, which runs from March to June, includes lectures, field sessions with observation from NorCal’s staff, and assignments in between designed to further the level of coaching in one of the state’s biggest needs.
The course is based on 7v7 and 9v9 game from the U9 through U12 age groups with the objective of the course is to address the importance of the fundamentals of the 4 main pillar areas of player development, technical, tactical, physical and personality.
“The purpose of the course is to help coaches understand what the main characteristics are that the kids need to develop in the golden age of learning, from ages seven through 12,” Ziemer said. “We’re trying to give the kids a solid foundation.”
“What we feel is that we’re rushing the game too much and we’re teaching an adult version of the game at too young of an age and skipping past the basics, we’re teaching fractions before the kids have figured out addition and subtraction,” he added.
The free-of-charge course is based on the coaching manual that NorCal developed, which can be found here, and was given a trial run last year on a limited basis.
This year, roughly 160 coaches applied to join the course, indicating the level of interest in a program like this.
It won’t just stop here as NorCal plans to expand the program in the future with courses running in the Fall and Spring.
