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Your Child's Playing Future: Getting Started - Step 3
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Karl Dewazien of FUNdamental SOCCER, Emeritus State Director of Coaching for the California Youth Soccer Association 1978-2012, releases the third and final piece explaining what parents need to know to ensure their child has the best possible soccer experience.
The coach decides: Who, When, Where, How much, and How your child plays. So, you must attempt to cover every one of these topics and be satisfied with the coach's response.
During this 'two-way' conversation, make sure you cover mutual goals both short and long term. This should include topics such as sportsmanship, technical development, tactical development, practice results, and season results.
Find out what the coach expects of your child so that you can reinforce those expectations at home. For example, many coaches use buzz words such as, "Push-Peek-Pass" when training the children to pass the ball properly. In other words, ask the player to "Push" the ball slightly forward to give themselves the time to "Peek" (read the game) and find the teammate or space into which to "Pass" the ball. Then, when you pass the ball back and forth in the backyard with your child, you can reinforce the coach's buzz words.
Before the meeting ends, be sure to find out if the coach could use some assistance. Most youth coaches have private lives of their own and are coaching because they love being around soccer or children. Your volunteering to help the coach may allow him/her to spend more quality time to improve your child as a player --what a FUNtastic trade-off.
Finally, you must realize that your first duty to your child is to make them happy. So, you need to make sure that you have input from your child regarding their impression of the coach. 
Well, that’s a wrap for my first series here for SportsEdTV! I hope it’s given some of you parents out there a guiding hand for the first few steps in getting positively involved in your child’s soccer experience. Remember, it’s all about finding and creating the right environment for your child to have FUN and establish a healthy base for their playing future. I look forward to writing more here on SportsEdTV in the near future, so be sure to follow on Facebook and Instagram so you don’t miss any of my upcoming articles, and tune in to FUNdamental SOCCER to see the rest of my work and collected knowledge on youth soccer. See you soon!
For any questions or if you'd like to suggest a topic for future blogs, be sure to email the SportsEdTV soccer content manager at sbhandari@sportsedtv.com
