CoachCraft with Alf Gracombe
CoachCraft explores the art and impact of coaching youth sports through in-depth conversations with renowned coaches from grassroots to professional levels, revealing how exceptional mentors use athletics to shape character, build confidence, and positively impact young lives.
CoachCraft with Alf Gracombe
Tommy Geis - How Coach Education Changed My Life
Tommy Geis, Technical Director at Massachusetts Youth Soccer, joins us to explore why coach education transforms not just how we coach, but how we understand youth development itself. With over 40 years in the game, Tommy shares his journey from thinking he knew everything about soccer to discovering "how much he didn't know" through formal coach education. We discuss the critical difference between telling kids what to do versus helping them discover their own solutions, why coaches need to see the game through children's eyes rather than adult perspectives, and how to meet players where they are developmentally. Tommy walks us through the coaching education pathway in Massachusetts, from grassroots certification to advanced licenses, and explains why even parent volunteers coaching for just one season can benefit from training. Whether you're new to coaching or have years on the sidelines, this conversation offers practical insights on becoming more effective at developing young players while keeping the joy in the game.
For more information about CoachCraft, visit https://coachcraft.info.
Welcome to CoachCraft where we explore the craft of coaching youth soccer through conversations with coaches at every level of the game. I'm Alf Graecombe, and today I'm joined by Tommy Geis the Technical Director at Massachusetts Youth Soccer. Tommy brings a unique perspective to our conversation. He spent over 40 years in the game, from his early days coaching in Western Pennsylvania, through a stint developing soccer in Anchorage, Alaska, to his current role here in Massachusetts, where he's been for the past 15 years. As technical director, Tommy's primary focus is on coach education, helping coaches across the state better understand not just the game itself, but how to see it through the eyes of the children they're coaching. He's passionate about creating resources and opportunities that help coaches move beyond simply telling kids what to do and toward having real conversations that help players develop their own understanding of the game.
In today's episode, we'll explore why coach education matters, what changes when coaches invest in their own learning, and how coaches here in Massachusetts can access training opportunities, whether they're parent volunteers just starting out or experienced coaches looking to deepen their knowledge. So let's get to it.
Alf Gracombe
Tommy Geis, welcome to the CoachCraft podcast. Great to have you here.
Tommy Geis
Thank you very much for the invitation.
Alf Gracombe
Excellent. Well, I know we're going we've got a lot of things we want to cover today. And I think, one of the topics is going to be, coach education and, ⁓ talking about the work you're doing at the state of Massachusetts with Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association But before we get to any of that, I'd love to hear just a little bit of your story, how you came to coaching generally, and then also how you came specifically to this role as the technical director at Mass Youth Soccer.
Tommy Geis
Well, I got involved in coaching just because it was something to do. It was more of a hobby. I was playing and found out there was an opportunity to get involved and give back. before I knew it, I was doing more coaching than anything else. And a good friend of mine who was also my college coach was coaching a club. And early on, he asked me if I wanted to get involved in coaching. So when I graduated from college, it was jumping all in the coaching, both feet, which couldn't have made my parents happier at the time because you said you just spent all this time in college and now you're gonna be a soccer coach.
Alf Gracombe
So you came to coaching pretty early then,
Tommy Geis
did it through college and I just figured it was a way to make a little extra money and do something that I enjoy doing. I had no plan that it was going to be more career driven, but it turned out to be career driven.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, and just out of curiosity, what ⁓ age groups were you coaching initially?
Tommy Geis
When
I first started, it was a lot of U-12s, U-13s, sometimes younger, doing some clinics here and there on an invitation basis.
Alf Gracombe
And was this here in Massachusetts or elsewhere?
Tommy Geis
No,
that was actually where I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, just north of Pittsburgh.
So my first almost 25 years in the coaching world were spent with one club in Pittsburgh. And where that turned into was I kept growing and learning more and eventually had the opportunity to expand and continue growth. And I had some very good mentors who helped me through that process. I ended up taking a job in Anchorage, Alaska, which was kind of a fluke because I was only supposed
to look at opportunities and try to see what was out there, but it worked out to have a good director role there. then when after four and a half years in Anchorage, Alaska, I was planning to come back to the East Coast and another mentor of mine was in my current role in Massachusetts. And he asked me if I wanted to come to Massachusetts. So 15 years ago, I decided to come to Massachusetts and I've been with Massachusetts
Youth Soccer ever since.
Alf Gracombe
Before we get to Massachusetts, let me come back to this Anchorage, Alaska. So this was you were coaching youth soccer in Alaska.
Tommy Geis
I was
an executive director and a technical director for a soccer club. So I was doing a lot of coaching still, but also trying to work with coaches and not even build a program, but help a program in there as well because they needed some leadership.
Alf Gracombe
Anchorage is not typically thought of as a hotbed of youth soccer. So what was it like? What was that program like? What were the kids like?
Tommy Geis
It was interesting because soccer is small of a state as it was at one point we had several players involved in the national programs on the boys and the girls side which was absolutely shocking.
The challenging part was it's such a small soccer environment that it's really hard to paint a picture when you don't see what the opportunities are. Like Massachusetts being as big as it is, it's easy to go down the street and see, wow, there's better soccer. There's a different soccer program. So it's easy to see all the opportunities. But when you get into a small environment, not always so easy.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, I can imagine. Plus, I would just think also with the climate, there considerations around like if they weren't playing into November as we do here in Massachusetts, I imagine, or were they?
Tommy Geis
Well, just like in Massachusetts, they play year round. It's just, it's a very short outdoor season and it's weird in a sense that they play their soccer season in the summertime in June, July and into August with the mindset of something that's going to happen almost eight years later.
for the following June when you have regional events and national events. So it's a challenge because they have to keep a group of kids together for eight months to prepare for an event that's probably gonna be in the lower 48 states.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. Okay. So back to Massachusetts, you're, you, you come here and did you immediately begin working with Mass Youth Soccer or were you in another program or club?
Tommy Geis
No, I came here for Mass Youth Soccer to work with them. And really in Alaska, I started going down a path of, I always did coaching education, even when I was in Western Pennsylvania, when I got into Alaska. But when I came to Massachusetts, it was an opportunity to be more.
That was gonna be more my focal point was to work with the coaches as opposed to the children. And I have a passion for coaching education. Yes, I miss being on the field, but I won't say I miss being on the field seven days a week. But I do miss the interactions with the players, but I truly follow where my heart goes is towards working with the coaches. Hopefully to make a better environment for the kids through the coaches.
Alf Gracombe
you're now the technical director at Mass Youth Soccer. How long have you been in that role?
Tommy Geis
in that role for about three years and 12 years before that I was the assistant technical director which the silly question is what's the difference and I said the difference for me is I attend more meetings but the rest of the job seems to be very similar.
Alf Gracombe
You
Yeah, well talk about this job. So technical director for Mass Youth Soccer, What exactly do you do in that role or what does a technical director do?
Tommy Geis
Well, primarily, Mass Youth Soccer as a whole, we just want to make sure that there's a safe, enjoyable playing space for all the kids that want to play. So.
We don't necessarily govern it, but we are a resource. We do support them. We do try to encourage people and hold them to minimum standards when they step out on the soccer field. But in the technical department, we are very much focused on education, creating resources, and being a resource that if we could get out into the community and help in some way, we're always looking to do that.
Alf Gracombe
And so is part of your role because there is a big coach education focus and that's your background and that's your expertise. Can you talk a little bit how you shape the, I don't know if I want to call it a philosophical approach, but you know, there's different ways to coach. We all know, and you know, any.
A lot of people will say there's not one right way to coach. I think we'd probably all agree that's the case, but it is helpful to have some kind of guidelines and parameters for what we understand an effective youth soccer coach to be. So how do you and how does Mass Youth Soccer answer that question in terms of what are the kind of high level guidelines or the philosophy around coaching youth soccer?
Tommy Geis
Well, primarily our coaching education that we work on is focused on U.S. Soccer's curriculum.
and what they support and we then we have our values and our beliefs that are very similar. So we support those. U.S. Soccer, there's a specific pathway that if for a lot of what coaching you want to do in the United States follows U.S. Soccer's pathway. So that's why that's what we primarily support. Having said that, and as you had mentioned before, is.
No one should come across and say there's only one way to teach because if you look around the world, lots of people do it different ways and they're very successful with it. We just promote this is our way and this is what we believe in and this is what we promote.
Alf Gracombe
And so let's talk about coach education. First of all, why is it important?
Tommy Geis
Well, you and I have had several conversations in the past, and one of the conversations is, and I've felt this way even when I was going to get my licensing, your license is a piece of paper. Well, now it's a virtual piece of paper because everything's online. So your license in and of itself does not make you a better person or a better coach. It all comes down to how you apply it. And if you're taking coaching education,
Hopefully you come in with a mindset that is steering you towards you want to improve in the art of coaching. So you're going to get out of it exactly what you want to get out of it. And coaching education is designed to do that. It shows that you have more of a growth mindset. It gives you some new ideas, teaches you that coaching just because you are a player does not necessarily mean you're a coach or you're to be a successful or even a good coach.
if you try to do the things that you did just because you were a player. Coaching takes a much deeper dive into it and really focuses on not so much just doing the activities, but digging down deeper and helping and having a better understanding of everything you do on the field is for a purpose and you're trying to.
change behavior of players from what they're currently doing and use in the training sessions and the activities to help steer that behavior into a different direction.
Alf Gracombe
So what the point you just made there about changing behaviors and as a coach, your job is to help your players develop. At the end of the day, this is a player development endeavor. Sure, it's nice to win games and the like, but.
Presumably you'd agree with this. mean, we've, as you said, we've talked a bit before about it, but like this is a, the game is developmental. We're trying to help kids build skills, not just soccer skills, lifelong skills, but in terms of coach education, a lot of it is how to make these better players, how to develop them as players, their skills. But how can coach education help coaches do a better job of that? Like what's.
what's behind the training that kind of gives this, you know, this kind of getting coaches educated versus just, you know, I don't know, stepping out on the field because yeah, you've played the game before and you think you have an idea of what it's like to coach kids.
Tommy Geis
Much of it has to do with recognizing who's in front of you. What does the child want to get out of the game? Not necessarily what you as an adult or you as the coach want them to get out of the game. It's helping them identify what they want to get out of the game and helping them to achieve that. We know a lot of times there's tangible things that parents and coaches could look like, like your record. If you're winning a lot of games,
they sometimes equate that as we must be developing or if we're losing games, we're not developing. And we go down that pathway that that's how we measure growth in a player when they don't have to be separated somewhere probably 20 or 30 years ago. They said, you're not supposed to talk about winning and losing because that's not important. But it's also something that helps keep focus.
So we can say we're trying to teach players and when we step out on the field, we're also trying to be successful because if we do what we want to do when we have the ball and we prevent the opponents from doing what they want to do when they have the ball, there's probably going to be a result and hopefully we want to win.
So some of the things I learned from coaching education is I don't have to put development and winning and losing on separate buckets. They could be all in the same bucket. What I want to be mindful of is I still stick behind my values. If this is what I believe is the right thing to do and the right way to treat children as human beings, I could still stick to that and still help them enjoy and learn the game of soccer.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, because winning and losing, know, winning does, it is a motivating thing. I competition, it, maybe it shows up in different ways or more intensely in some kids rather than others, but it matters. used to say, winning isn't everything, but it's something right. Kids want to compete and this is a soccer is a competitive game. And so it's part of the ecosystem of development. I, I I've seen that and I fully agree with it.
Okay, so...
Here in Massachusetts, uh, you know, I'm in Boston and I've been involved in grassroots soccer for about the past 14 years. And I've gotten some coach education, but not every coach does. Um, and there's maybe many reasons why that's the case. Maybe they don't know it's available even, or, uh, many folks don't have the time. These are often volunteers, right? And they go take a course. Uh, you know, it's, it's, it's time commitment. There's a financial commitment.
But why should coaches do this? Why should they seek out coach education?
Tommy Geis
When you look at coach education as a whole, there's no good time to take it. When you look at coach education, many people don't feel like they need it. They feel like they understand the game. They understand what's the strategies behind the game. They understand what, at least in their view of the game, what looks good, what doesn't look good. And that's a big part of soccer.
The benefits of coaching education is just trying to teach you to look at the game through a different lens. Trying to look at the game through the lens of a child, trying to help children understand what's happening in the game at their level. If I go back to my playing career after college and the 10 years after college, if I take all the knowledge that I had gained over to that point in my life and try to...
impose that on a 10 year old child, they're going to nod their head in agreement. They understand the words that are coming out of my mouth, but how to apply it, how to interpret it, what it means to them, they cannot process that. That's not the level of the game that they see. So a lot of the focus on coaching education is
trying to help the children understand the game at their level. So what does it mean to be a U-10 player playing seven versus seven? Here's the.
the player development initiatives, which are the local rules that they might have to follow. You know, what does it mean for them? And how might that change when they get to U-12s? And how might that change when they get to U-13s? And as you go up through the process of coaching education, you take a deeper dive in to really look at the game, learn how to observe the game, learn how to analyze the game, and learn how to take that information back to the children in a way that makes sense
to them.
Alf Gracombe
So when we spoke before you talked a little bit about how I think you even said, know, how, how coach education changed my life. Right. So if you go back to when you started taking courses and this long journey that you've been on as a coach, how did it, how did it change your life? How did it change you as a coach?
Tommy Geis
Well, when I got into coaching, I definitely had a coach's players mindset. And I looked at coaching education. I had a very somewhat arrogant approach. I hid it quite well, but I would say I was very smug in the courses and I looked at the people that were instructing it and I said, I'm a better soccer player than you are. My teams are better than your teams.
I know everything I need to know about the game of soccer. What can you possibly teach me? And this was a friend of mine who was actually teaching the course. And these aren't the words I used, but this is where my mind was. And every game he played, I'm just kind of scoffing at it. Like, I played that game. I know exactly how that game works.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah.
Tommy Geis
But then he struck a chord when he said, when you're playing this game, what are you looking for? Specifically, what are the details? What are the key points you want to address? And I kind of perked up. I'm like, I didn't know that.
And it was very humbling because then I started actually listening and I started realizing more and more. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. And when I came back to work after the course, after the first weekend of a course I was on, my boss at the time of an indoor soccer facility, he said, how's the course going? And I just kind of put my head down and shook my head and I said, I didn't know how much I didn't know.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, that's, that's a great story. feel like that is a pretty common, you know, mindset that many new coaches enter with. And then, ⁓ once they start engaging in coach education, whether it's through courses or just their own research. And there's no one way to learn as a coach, of course, but,
you do quickly get humbled. And I, you know, had a, have a similar story or at least a similar sort of, ⁓ you know, attitude or mental trajectory where I was a former player like, like you were, and like, you kind of come in and it's like, yeah, I know the game, but playing the game or watching the game and doing your armchair analysis, if you're watching, you know, Premier League games on the weekend or something is very, very different than stepping out on the field with.
10, 11, 12 year old kids, and then trying to coach and make them better players. And for me, it was very similar. you realize, once you have that moment of realizing how much you don't know or how much there is to learn and that it is kind of this like universe almost opens up in front of you. And then you realize, well, there's no amount of coach education that I can.
You know, ever get to fill, you know, my own lifetime with it. it's a learner's mindset, a beginner's mindset in many ways that any good coach should be entering those opportunities with. And so, but, but you see it, right? I mean, I've, you know, we've been involved in the grassroots game for awhile. It's just a very common thing. A lot of coaches come in and.
maybe don't think there's a lot to learn. So how do we get to those folks to be like, hey, know, check out this coach education. I think it's probably something worth your time, worth doing. How do you convince people?
Tommy Geis
Really one person at a time. And it's really important when you're teaching a course, you get to know the coaches on an individual basis to the best you can, because some of the courses are very short. But you listen and you have conversations and coaching education should be a discussion, not a lecture. So you listen to their stories and you listen to their experiences and you try to incorporate that into this into the.
education process because now you're making a personal connection with them and both not only with them as people but also trying to connect coaching education to what their real life experiences are like so now it's more meaningful so they can now apply it in the way that meets their needs.
Alf Gracombe
So what are some changes that you see, that you typically see in coaches, kind of the before training and after training? How do you see that show up on the field with coaches?
Tommy Geis
If you see coaches that are vulnerable enough to at least try it, you start to see their interactions with the children change. They start to carry on conversations and ask them questions and talk soccer at their level, not just give them instruction. And a lot of times when coaches don't have as much interaction
are not held to the same accountability as you will through coaching education, they will spend time and practice in the game just telling children what to do. And when the children repeat what they tell them to do, they call that learning. And that's not learning, that's just following a command. But when you're able to help the player come up with a solution that they can now take out on the field and solve it, now that's development.
Alf Gracombe
That is gold. I'm going to pull that out of this conversation. Just the way you stated it was so concise and clear and right from my own experience. I've seen this as well, using the Socratic method that there's a dialogue that's happening between you as a coach and the players. I think you said, meet them where they are, right? Be able to have the conversation about the game.
on their terms and not on your terms. Is there something about soccer and learning soccer that's unique? You the nature of the sport, the fact that it's, you know, it's very dynamic, it's seemingly chaotic at times.
Tommy Geis
There is, and this is true with every sport, and it's not just soccer. Anytime as a coach when you're an interaction with a child talking about the game of soccer, it really revolves around the moment. And the more those moments can duplicate themselves, then they can start having memory recall. So it's important that we try to avoid talking about how to get through just a specific moment.
We want them to identify when. So for example, if I'm having an interaction with a child on the field, I try to start it with when this is happening or start it with what were you trying to do? Because maybe what they were trying to do was a good idea, but their execution wasn't there.
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
Tommy Geis
Or if I ask them what they saw and they're not quite sure what they saw, then that changes my coaching point. That changes the discussion because I have to circle back to my first step is help them recognize what they saw. So now we could have the conversation again after they start recognizing those familiar moments.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, that's so interesting. that's this value on the, the interchange with the player, right? Leading with a question, maybe trying to understand what it was. You just said it, what the player was, was trying to do there. Like you can't really then react as a coach until you've heard how that player, that child is looking at that situation. So you can't really assess. ⁓
their own progress as a player if you don't really understand even what they were trying to do or how they were seeing that particular moment.
Coaches as adults are coming into this youth soccer environment. And maybe again, they've not done a lot of coaching, but their orientation is around the adult game. But this is kids, right? This is a kid's game. The game is being played by the kids. It should be for the kids, right? You're just an enabler as a, as an adult who's involved in youth sports, but talk a little bit about this difference between
the game as we understand it as adults, and the game through the eyes of kids. And your role as a coach of making and keeping this a kid-centric endeavor.
Tommy Geis
One of the things we discussed before is making sure you understand why each kid is trying to play and not talking about what their potential is. Now we look at the top we had a former captain of our national team Landon Donovan. When he was a professional, mainstream was telling him you need to go play in Europe. But he loved playing in Southern California. He loved being close to his family. He enjoyed that environment.
And he was very successful, but people still said you need to do it this way. And I think that trickles down to the children because they'll tell the children why they need to play soccer. And I can remember a youth player I was coaching at one time who at nine, 10, 11 years old was the best player on the field. He was a good defender. He was a good attacker. Very athletic.
Not necessarily the best decision maker, but very athletic tools and he was very successful. And I had a conversation with him and the conversation was, I really don't like soccer that much. I just love playing soccer with my friends. And my friends are here, so that was my motivation. So.
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
That was his motivation.
Tommy Geis
It influences my coaching the way I interact with that child because if I try to talk about him making a national team one day or making his high school team, that's not his motivation. His motivation was how you could help your teammates be successful, how you enjoy playing with them. So the approach was what do you need to do? What can your friends do to help you be successful? And what can you do to help your friends be successful?
And if I would have, I feel if I would have approached that in a way that he has potential to be a regional type soccer player or play for a top club, I would have already lost him because we're not on the same page.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. mean, how often do you see it? Right. You'll see kids that are eight, nine, 10, 11, and they look like great players out there. They're, we're honest, very, very early in their lives, but
It's hard for adults to sometimes look at these kids and be like, that kid has potential. I could see him playing, you know, college. I could see that kid playing with a national program. Right. And I've always like, what are you talking about? Like this child is 11 years old. You have no idea, you know, a lot can happen. You don't even know why that kid might want to be out there to your point.
Tommy Geis
and they might also like basketball and they might also like football and they might also like golfing and being in the school play and all the other things. Soccer is just one component of their life and sometimes as adults we think soccer is their whole life which tends to chase them away a little because they don't want to stop doing the stuff they enjoy doing just for soccer. Some do. I mean some have a little bit more of a that more of a of a narrow focus on what they want to do.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, well...
Tommy Geis
But some kids just want to be kids.
Alf Gracombe
Well, talk if you can a little bit, Tommy. mean, here you are. You're, Mass Youth Soccer Technical Director. You're a soccer guy, but this move, we've all seen it in youth sports towards more specialization, you know, more single sport players. How do you look at that?
Tommy Geis
Sort of through the lens of kids have to be kids. If many times if we try to get them to focus on one sport and only one sport, they tend to quit that sport because there's no outlet. There's no.
There's no way to channel energy in a different way. And sometimes they realize that maybe this isn't my favorite sport. I'm not passionate about it. I just like it. Soccer is a cool sport because they have over 40, over 50, over 60, over 70 leagues around the country. So you could play soccer for the rest of your life.
But do you want to, what's that level that you want to play? You know, some kids I want to play through high school and that's, that's it. That's really what my, I aspire to do. Some people just want the experience of playing in college, any college. And then you have a very small percentage of the kids that do aspire to go professional. I mean, and we're not talking to 10 year olds because all 10 year olds want to be professional, but when it really comes down to it and they start recognizing the demand
and the commitments that you have to make and that means you can't do some of the other things you enjoy doing, they realize that there's a difference between a dream but actually working towards something and we need to listen to the children more and let them tell us like are you getting out of the game what you hope to get out of the game? If so, then you're on the right path.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. And that path doesn't need to be laid out terribly far in advance for any, for any kid, right? We used to say, kids vote with their feet. If they keep coming to practices, they keep coming to games, then that is a bigger measure of success than what your score line is. on the Saturday match. So I'm tempted to go down this.
Tommy Geis
Right.
Alf Gracombe
line of questioning around advice for parents because that's a whole big piece of this equation. But I want to stay focused on coaches and often the coaches are parents. in some ways we're talking about parents as well in many, many instances when we're talking about coaches. But
You made a great case for why coach education is important. And so, okay, I'm a coach in my town program here, or I'm a coach in a club, but let's just stick with the town program. I haven't gotten any coach education yet. How do I get it? What does it look like? Where do I seek it out? And what's the appropriate coach education or courses for me to take?
Tommy Geis
Well, there's formal and there's informal education. And formal education just means there's a license or a diploma at the end of it, which, as we talked about, we go down the pathway of U.S. Soccer. So they can go to the Mass Youth website, go into the coaches page, go into coaching education, and when a course becomes available, sign up for it. We've had times that towns and programs organize their own course and...
their coaches sign up for it. They'll send them out a link which sends them to the same spot, but they're simplifying the search process. But we also have the other form, which I think you do a little bit of this with the JP program with informal education. And it it's still quality. It just means it's not attached to a license.
But anytime you're in an environment where you can share ideas and get suggestions and get some feedback, you're probably going to walk away from it better than you were. The only caveat to consider is if you take informal education, it does not connect to anything else. So you can't say I took this clinic with my town. Can I now take this license or this course? Well,
depending upon what the prerequisites for the course are, more often than not, no, you can't. So it really comes down to what you want to get out of it, and that's going to determine what is the pathway and what are the courses you need to take for that.
Alf Gracombe
So let's say you want to take the formal coach education courses that are designed by U.S. Soccer. First of all, what does that pathway look like? And it's much, I can send a, I can put a link in the show notes, but, you know, this is at learning.ussoccer.com. can see this, but can you just kind of describe that pathway where it begins and ultimately where it ends?
Tommy Geis
Sure, so they have the licenses are designed based on the number of kids you put on the field on game day. So the recognized formats for play are up through U8, it's three versus three to four versus four. From U9s and U10s, it's seven versus seven. U11s and U12s, it is nine versus nine. And then U13 above, it is 11 versus 11.
So you could take whatever course based on what your game day looks like. And if you're coaching multiple teams, you can take two courses if you want. And all you need to do is go into what is called the US Soccer Learning Center or on the Mass Youth website, which will directly connect you to that. And you look for a course.
and you sign up for the course. The course, if you're going to do a blended or in-person course, means we'll have and actually have one tonight, you take a two-hour Zoom meeting, which is the virtual classroom portion of it, and then you do a two-hour on-field application process with the group. So it's not overbearing. Yes, four hours for some people is a lot of time out of their life.
But for the most part, it still allows you to do whatever else you're going to do in that day.
Alf Gracombe
This is specifically the kind of intro level grassroots entry point into the coach education pathway, correct?
Tommy Geis
Yes.
Alf Gracombe
And then, okay, these were great. I loved them. I did the, ⁓ I think there's an intro course and then there's an online only course. And then there's, I think to get your full grassroots credential, it's then two additional blended courses as you just described. Great. After that, I've got my grassroots certification, correct? What's next?
Tommy Geis
Yes.
Then if you want to pursue it further, if you take two blended courses where you have a classroom and a field portion and you take one completely online, then if you want to, if you want to go to the next step, you can take the D license. And the D license kind of is taking all the courses and taking a deeper dive into them because
in a four hour course, two hour classroom, two hours on the field, you can only cover so much. But for some people, it's a nice starting point. For people that want to learn more, then you can register for the D license and there's no wait time. just if you take the grassroots this weekend, you can sign up for the D course as soon as you complete those. And again, you just take a deeper dive up through the U9 format, game format.
which is covered in the D license. If you're still eager and you want to go beyond that, you can wait six months and take the C license where the C license is more the introduction to the 11 aside game. But it's still based on novice players, beginners and understanding the game of soccer itself.
And then for the even more ambitious, you could go on to the B license, which is a one year time period between the C and the B. And it just takes a deeper dive into more, if you want to call it advanced players. But that's always.
a question mark because who determines what advanced is but basically players that are playing more of a performance environment based on their schedule, based on their practice regimen, on what the structure of the club is asking them to do. But now you start getting into the more the science, if you will, behind the game as well as what you do on the field.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. And these courses are available all across the state.
Tommy Geis
they are. Generally speaking they start off like a town will host one.
And people come in and people from other communities could join in, which is really cool when you have people from your neighboring towns, all their enemies on Saturday, but then they realize that, Hey, this guy or this, this person, whoever I'm coaching with, we kind of, we think the same, you know, we have the same mindset. We're battling the same issues with youth sports. And, but now next time I see that coach on the field, we're actually colleagues now. We're not the, we're not enemies.
Alf Gracombe
Which is, this is, this is a great pitch for coach education, right? you know, bringing, bringing rival town programs together on the, on the coach education training pitch. Yeah. And that's true. And that I think what you just said just puts the emphasis in the right place. Like we're all ultimately out here to help kids develop and have a good experience in the game. And that counts for the kids that are on the opposing team as well. ⁓ I would, I would agree with that a hundred percent.
Tommy Geis
Mm-hmm.
I'd to hope the coaches are there for all the kids, not just the handful that they happen to be rostered to.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. Yeah. This is something that I actually say a lot in our program here in JP Youth Soccer which is, you know, we have these age cohorts. We kind of do it in two year increments. So you wait, you tend, you 12, et cetera.
And so we're not a huge program, but there's multiple teams in each age cohort. And I say to all the coaches, you're not just the coach of your team, right? This is your Saturday roster. Think of yourself as a coach for this age cohort, because you may be coaching some of the kids from these other teams in the next season. And, you know, this is not just about owning a team. It's really about being a coach for, for a larger, a larger program.
All right. So thanks for sharing the details on how to get some coach education. I'd like to just ask you now a few things getting towards the end of the conversation here. I call this the lightning round.
So I'm not going to have any follow-up to these questions, let me, let me just start to fire away and get your response. Ready? Okay. So what's the most important coaching course or module you've ever taken?
Tommy Geis
Sure.
That's an easy one. At the time it was called the US Youth Soccer National Youth License, which the science and the information that went with that course was absolutely incredible.
The people who are now my mentors really showed us how to take a deeper dive into working with children. And I just cannot say enough about the value of that course. Unfortunately, that course doesn't exist anymore.
Alf Gracombe
⁓ of course, of course. All right, great. What's the best piece of coaching advice you've ever received?
Tommy Geis
I had one of my mentors who I used to work camps with and he was a college coach and we sat down one time when I was going through my coaching education and I was gung-ho and I wanted to coach somebody because I just got my license and he grabbed me and slapped me a few times and he looked at me and he said, you cannot teach the children everything you know, you can only teach them what they are able to learn.
Alf Gracombe
Ooh, that is, yeah, those are words of wisdom if I've ever heard of them. That's a good one. All right, what's a common ⁓ coaching mistake that you see that drives you crazy?
Tommy Geis
not listening to the children or in a sense asking them questions about something and then ignoring what the children say and start telling them what you want to tell them as the adult which the kids don't pick up on it as much but I always do because what you are now talking about had nothing to do with what you just asked the kids or how they responded.
Alf Gracombe
I've seen that a lot. I've seen that a lot. All right. Well, what's something outside of the world of soccer that's influenced your approach to coaching or to education?
Tommy Geis
Rick Pitino's book, The Basketball Coach, which I'm not an avid reader, but this is just one I happen to start reading. And one of the parts in that was this concept that if it's not broke, don't fix it. When he looked at it and said, every year I break it. And if it goes back together the same way it was meant to be. So.
Alf Gracombe
You
Tommy Geis
because kids are always, getting a year older. There's different kids that have joined in. There's more experience, more knowledge. So you can't just assume you can do the same thing every year and it's going to work.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, I love that perspective. All right, last one. ⁓ One skill or topic that you wish every youth coach would master.
Tommy Geis
Just one? No.
Alf Gracombe
I'm gonna hold you to one. Yes.
Tommy Geis
No, it's not that challenging to do, but understanding it's odd in a sense because most coaches in our country are parents and they know exactly how if you listen to the conversations they have with them away from soccer, it's very engaging and very enlightening. said one skill is to be an active listener to the players on the field and treat it like a conversation.
most of these coaches, are experts with children. You know what it's like, what motivates them, what drives them. It is so important that you use those tools that you have when you step out on the field on how to negotiate, how to problem solve.
Alf Gracombe
Perfect. All right, so two more questions for you before we wrap it up here. First is, well, they're kind of related, but what resources should Massachusetts coaches bookmark or know about that they might not?
Tommy Geis
Well, first and foremost, I would say that the Massachusetts Youth Soccer website, because there are so many resources, not just from the coaching resources, but some of the partners that we have, some of the resources on creating a safer environment. So much information that they could get all in one spot. But also there's lesson plans. If you're not sure what to do in your training session, you could go into our
into our website and get your lesson plans really for the whole season if that's what you want to do. The other one is YouTube.
If you want to show children how to do something, if you have a task, for example, if you want to show children how to pass a ball, go into YouTube, take a few minutes, find the video, share the video, and now when you get into practice, you're all talking about the same thing as much as possible. So anytime you can find a way to show, visualize something, show something with the children, it actually makes your life easier because you do not have to so-called reinvent
the game if you will. The information is there for you.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a great thing. And a lot of that's just around communication and stuff that can happen off the field. That's part of player development and coach education as well, or player development, that is. and I guess we should also mention Mass Youth Soccer has this event in partnership with the New England Revolution on February 7th, correct? And that's open to any coach.
Tommy Geis
Yes, we do. And that is a full day event
of.
classroom type sessions, round table discussions, field sessions, lots of guest speakers coming in that can talk about the game from different vantage points and make the connection on how does that relate to your environment, how to create a safer environment for the children. There's gonna be discussions with referees. So if you name it, it's in soccer. We're probably gonna have a discussion about it on February 7th.
Alf Gracombe
Great, and that's open to any coach to register from in Massachusetts , right.
Tommy Geis
Yes it is and they can
come and spend as much time, I mean it doesn't affect the cost, but they can come and spend as much time or as little time as they want to be there. It's really what they want to see and what they want to participate in.
Alf Gracombe
Great, so it's February 7th. think registration is $75 now, but it might go up once the early bird goes up. I it goes up to 100. I was on the site the other night. I hope I'm stating that accurately. But, you know, register soon. That's what we'll say. Just get there and register. So that'll be out in Foxborough in the Fieldhouse, I think. OK.
Tommy Geis
Yes, I just can't give you the date for that.
Yes, well, it's
both. It's inside Gillette Stadium and some of the boxes, but the field portion is in that section that's right off to the side in the indoor space. Yes.
Alf Gracombe
Okay.
Great. And you're presenting out there as well, correct?
I will see you there. I will definitely be there. Great. Good. So Tommy, I really appreciate your time. This was great. I'm really glad we got to talk a good amount here about something I know we both feel pretty passionate about, and that's coach education. And it's just so important to the youth game. just we encourage.
Tommy Geis
Perfect.
Alf Gracombe
Anyone who's coaching kids in soccer do seek out that coach education. It's so important. It's so valuable and Yeah, just can't emphasize that enough. So Tommy really grateful for your time and I look forward to seeing you February 7th, if not sooner and Yeah, any sort of final words that you'd like to say before we wrap it up?
Tommy Geis
Thank you. Thank you for the invitation and hopefully we'll see some more people in the coaching courses or at our event. But if not, I'll see them on the field because I tend to get out and around as much as possible.
Alf Gracombe
Awesome. I agree. Yes. So get your coach education. And Tommy, thank you again for your time today. Really, really appreciate it. And yeah, hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.
Tommy Geis
Thank you.
Alf Gracombe
That was Tommy Geis Technical Director at Massachusetts Youth Soccer, sharing his insights on why coach education transforms not just how we coach, but how we can better see the game through children's eyes. Tommy shared a powerful distinction that really stuck with me. When coaches just tell kids what to do and the kids follow those commands, that's not learning. Real development happens when coaches help players discover their own solutions through conversation and questions, meeting them where they are.
His own journey from thinking, I know everything about soccer, to realizing, I didn't know how much I didn't know, mirrors what so many of us experience when we first step into coach. And I love this mentor's advice that you can't teach children everything you know, you can only teach them what they're able to learn.
For those interested in starting their coach education journey, Tommy walked us through the pathway from grassroots certification through the various licensing levels, all available through Mass Youth Soccer's website. And don't forget about the coaching symposium on February 7th at Gillette Stadium, a full day of learning with coaches from across Massachusetts. A big thanks to Tommy for coming on the podcast, and thanks to you all for listening. See you next time.
