5 Steps to Your Soccer Coaching Dream Job

The work of a soccer coach is intensive and broad. You need to develop strategies to outperform other teams, manage practices, and work with players on individual weaknesses. You also need excellent communication skills to spark motivation in players and interact with parents.

You may have to work on holidays, on weekends, and in the evenings. If you are coaching full-time at a high level, you should expect to work over 40 hours a week during the season. Plus, you will need to travel to away games.

Regardless, people want to know how to become a soccer coach due to their passion for the sport. In the United States, soccer’s popularity has increased rapidly over the last thirty years, accelerated by our hosting of the 1994 World Cup and Major League Soccer’s creation in 1996.

How To Become A Soccer Coach

You can follow these steps to becoming a soccer coach to land these jobs in sports successfully:

1.) Get experience as a player.

Strengthening your skills as a soccer player and performing at an advanced level will help in a couple of ways to obtain these competitive sports jobs:

• If you play at the college or pro level, you will pick up invaluable knowledge about the sport. Playing high-level soccer will contribute to your athletic and tactical understanding in ways that are imperceivable without that experience.
• You will get powerful chances to network. Many current college and pro coaches previously played under coaches who gave them their first opportunities. (See Step 5.)

2.) Earn a bachelor’s degree.

Although you do not always need a college education to become a coach, it certainly helps for the higher levels. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ advice related to these jobs in sports notes that a bachelor’s degree is typically needed to succeed in the field.

3.) Get coaching experience.

If you need your first coaching experience, the best place to start is often at the bottom: youth soccer. Also, check with schools and universities in your area. While initial opportunities can be grueling with little reward, they give you a chance to prove yourself and develop your coaching acumen. If you start out assisting another coach, you can learn from them about interacting with players, running training sessions, and managing the team.

4.) Get trained and certified.

To get to a fundamental level of becoming a soccer coach, you will need official training and certification to land the most paid positions. The coaching certificates that are the most widely respected come from the United States Soccer Federation (USSF). These certifications come in five forms, and they are cumulative – you have to pass one to get to the next (unless you are granted a waiver based on your professional background).

The level E certificate is the starting point, and then you work your way up the ladder to D, C, B, and A certificates. Each level becomes progressively more rigorous. For instance, you simply need 18 hours of training for an E certificate, while you need 20 hours of classroom training and 48 field hours for a B certification.

What do you need at each level of soccer?

• Recreational youth leagues – You will typically not need any certification to coach at this level of play. All you will need to do is volunteer and possibly pass a background check.
• Competitive youth leagues – For competitive youth club coaching, you will likely need a license/certification. The USSF’s E license is broadly accepted for these positions. As you progress through the ranks of USSF licensure, you can get D and C certifications. Getting the higher-level licenses will improve your odds of landing competitive league roles with kids aged 14 and below.
• High-school & college teams – You will need a B license to get coaching positions for 15 and older players. This license is also acceptable for many college coaching spots, although an A license does not hurt.
• Pro teams – An A license will be necessary to prove your expertise for a spot leading a professional team. This license is a nine-day process incorporating approximately 40 on-the-field hours and 30 classroom hours.

5.) Meet the right people.

As indicated briefly in Step 1, and as is true of any career, it will help to know insiders. This may be the most critical of all the steps to becoming a soccer coach.

Know that the process for how to become a soccer coach is not a linear path. Take action today on Step 5. At JobsInSports.com, we offer the premier network for professionals within the sports industry – and it is growing incredibly fast. Join our network today!