Home 9 Education

Education

EDUCATION PROGRAM

Each year, the United Soccer Coaches Convention & US Youth Soccer Workshop feature an extensive education program for its attendees. The education program showcases a vast collection of classroom sessions and field demonstrations led by top-end coach educators, Ph.D. holders, high-level coaches, and more.

Attendees have the unique opportunity to attend select sessions that can earn them a United Soccer Coaches Special Topics Diploma.

Diplomas available at the 2024 United Soccer Coaches Convention have not been announced yet.

Special Topics Diplomas Available at Convention

By attending select sessions related to each certificate, you can add a Special Topics Diploma to your coaching resume.

Modern Club Administration and Management

Sharing best practices, sessions delivered for this diploma will highlight purposeful experiences related to club culture, expansion, planning, mission, values, curriculum, social media, governance, board management, risk management, medical/mental health support, and conflict resolution gained through executive positions at youth clubs in the United States. 

Youth Academy Director

The Youth Academy Director Special Topic Diploma focuses on the administrative roles and expectations for current and future youth academy directors. In this diploma, the “youth academy” would use the player development initiatives associated with small-sided play and the use of the build-out lines for U9 and U10. Designed for recreational and competitive youth club academy directors, sessions related to this diploma will offer valuable tools and processes for planning, running, and evaluating all aspects of their youth academy including administrative duties, curriculum development, parental engagement, and developing an appropriate environment for the development of the youth player. 

The Women's Game

The Women’s Game Special Topics Diploma will host sessions offering a wealth of information on the history, development, and trends in the women’s game around the world. Attendees earning this diploma will obtain advice for coaching female players to excel on and off the pitch, as well as education around the evolution of the women’s game, and behind the scenes insights from professionals. 

Leading Up and Down

Created with the notion that the modern coach needs to lead their team and staff, but also need to be a conduit between all parties within an organization, the Leading Up and Down Special Topics Diploma will focus on building relationships, opening lines of communication, and thinking big picture. Coaches have the influence and power to lead an entire organization in the right direction, and through the ten sessions offered within this diploma, attendees will explore setting and conveying standards, effective and individual communication, and leadership across multiple planes of hierarchy within an organization. 

Desarrollo de Jugadores

Este diploma, entregado en español, abordará los Principios del Juego, el uso de los componentes del juego para diseñar sesiones de entrenamiento efectivas. Cómo liderar a los jugadores individualmente y en equipo, tanto dentro como fuera del campo. Entrenamiento por medio del juego, cómo identificar y utilizar momentos de enseñanza. Cómo organizar y estructurar un equipo, y el la organización del fútbol juvenil en los Estados Unidos.

 

Urban Soccer Diploma (Sunday Only)

The Urban Soccer Diploma is a unique collaboration between United Soccer Coaches and the U.S. Soccer Foundation that provides tools to coaches working in non-traditional soccer settings. The diploma was conceived out of the need to reach coaches that were not being served by the typical coach education pathways. These coaches work for community-based soccer organizations that serve low-resource communities, and often either do not charge a fee to participate or charge players a nominal fee. This can also mean that they do not have access to high-quality playing facilities or the means to afford typical league fees and new equipment from season to season.*

Sessions in this diploma, instructed by Jeremy Toyosa and Danielle King, include:

  • The Youth We Serve
  • Principals of Great Coaching
  • 6 Step Practice Method for Children in a Non-Traditional Setting
  • Skill Based Activities for Children in a Non-Traditional Settting

*This diploma only has sessions on Sunday

Talent ID

The Talent ID Special Topics Diploma is an excellent education track for scouts, analysts, coaches, directors and soccer enthusiasts with a desire to understand the process of identification. Through the sessions delivered for this diploma, attendees will gain an understanding on how to scout and analyze, in addition to building a foundation of fundamentals that could lead to a change in thought processing. 

A sequence of interactive hands-on activities and conversations will provoke a series of processes that could lead to a better understanding for inclusion, tracking, and projecting. Individual development in the realm of identification is part of this diploma with the goal being for the tools provided to be applied to current environments as well as assist you in your ongoing recruitment processes. 

Assistant Coach

The Assistant Coach Special Topics Diploma is designed to provide attendees with an opportunity to develop the people, management, and leadership skills necessary to be a competent and confident assistant coach  

Game Analysis

Exclusive to the 2024 United Soccer Coaches Convention, this Game Analysis Special Topics Diploma will offer a detailed look at how analysis is being conducted and implemented at all levels of the game: Grassroots to National teams. Each session will be hosted by soccer professionals sharing their knowledge and experience of analytics within the specific age group/level. This course will cover the very basics of analysis to advanced realworld usage in professional/national teams. Sessions will relate to subjects discussing what analysis is, how it is used in different levels, and how analytics can be turned into a career.  

Game Model

A game model is the process that provides the tactical framework around which all individual, unit and team decision-making is made. It is unique to each coach, combining their idea of how they want their team(s) to play and the specific circumstances in which they are working. The sessions in this diploma will provide coaches working at any level of the game with a framework to build their own game model and will combine both workshop and field sessions to step coaches through this process in a way that clarifies thinking and maximizes value. 

Goalkeeping Level 1 (Sunday Only)

The Goalkeeping Level 1 Diploma dives into training specific to the goalkeeper position, in addition to integrating the goalkeeper into team training. It will range from grassroots to the professional level.*

Sessions for this diploma, instructed by Lisa Cole, include:

  • Understanding the Role of the Goalkeeper
  • Games and Activities to Utilize in Training the Goalkeeper
  • Foundational Warm Up
  • Incorporating Your Goalkeeper in a Team Session

*This diploma only has sessions on Sunday

MEMBERSHIP

Join

CONTACT

30 W. Pershing Rd., Suite 350
Kansas City, MO 64108-2463
816.471.1941

Contact Us