The Soccer Parenting Resource Center run by Skye Eddy Bruce is a what every soccer parent needs, even if you don’t know it yet.
If you’re trying to choose a soccer club, find a soccer coach, have questions about soccer training, wondering about soccer tryouts, trying to coach your kid’s team, want to learn about playing soccer in college, or pretty much any question you might ask as a soccer parent – Skye has probably already answered it in her Soccer Parent Resource Center. And if she doesn’t already have an interview, articles, or video about it you can email her and she’ll get it answered for you!
Soccer Parenting
As a soccer parent of young kids I started reading her site SoccerParenting.com right when it launched 5 years ago and have gobbled up countless helpful tips for our family. Then when Skye created the Soccer Parenting Resource Center I joined right away and I’m really glad that I did. I honestly don’t know how she finds the time to talk to so many soccer experts and share so much information in the resource center.
In addition to running the website Skye also travels around the U.S. speaking to soccer teams and clubs of all levels and helping them with all things youth soccer. I had the pleasure of attending some of her seminars at the United Soccer Coaches Convention and getting to meet her and chat about soccer.
What that means for you as a soccer parent is that Skye has incredible insight into youth soccer today in the U.S. and the challenges that soccer families can encounter and also multiple different ways to deal with them. Every time she travels to a new club or team to give a talk or consult on soccer development she adds to her network of soccer specialists. So anytime she gets a question from a soccer parent if she doesn’t have an answer she knows who to ask.
Soccer Experts
When I was helping run the monthly Coaches & Coffee sessions for United Soccer Coaches and I ran into a topic where I wasn’t sure how to best present it or needed an expert or speaker I could always reach out to Skye and she’d offer valuable insight or connect me with experts who could help.
So even though I took pages and pages of notes from her talks the most that I’ve learned from Skye has been from all the soccer folks that’s she’s connected me with. Some in person but most have been inside her resource center where she shares videos and interviews that she does with experts from around the country and even the world.
I can tell you right now that as a soccer parent there’s no way that you’ll ever watch, read, or listen to all she’s made available. We’re busy folks and don’t have the time but she gets it and has organized it well so you can easily find answers to your questions. Here’s a screenshot from inside the site that lists of all the different topics she’s covered so far. The great thing about Skye is that these aren’t articles or videos of just her talking about what she thinks are important, she takes the time to get experts lined up to share their experiences with all aspects of youth soccer.
She has a variety of formats that shes uses. One is called “Ask the Experts” where she asks the same question to 5 different folks who have experience in a certain area so you get to read a variety of responses to the same problem.
She also has a section called “Soccer Talk” that gets into the nuts and bolts of soccer for parents or players who aren’t familiar with some technical, tactical, or strategic parts of the game. For example one of them is – “U.S. Soccer Player Numbering System Explained” and another is “Principles of Defense”.
She also has lots of articles on a wide variety of topics that offer parents a pretty good perspective, for example one is “8 Disconnections between Coaches and Parents in Youth Soccer”.
My favorite resources are the monthly webinars that she holds with soccer experts that you can watch live and ask questions during the presentation. Some of the best ones I’ve been a part of have been on soccer tryouts and a good one on soccer skills training with David Copeland Smith from Beast Mode Soccer. All of those are recorded and put into the library so there are a lot to choose from. She also does shorter video interviews she calls “Breakaway” which are smaller 3-6 minute video interviews on specific topics.
Soccer Parent Guides
Soccer parenting advice can vary widely depending on the age of your kid. That’s why I like how Skye’s done a great job of segmenting her advice based on age range in her Soccer Parenting Guides. She’s broken it out into Soccer Parenting 101, 201, and 301:
- 101 Guide – Parents New to Soccer
- 201 Guide – Parents of Players 8 – 12
- 301 Guide – Parents of Players 12 – 16
These guides are actually an online course that walk you through all different aspects of being a soccer parent. These are good to go through maybe at the start or end of a season. Usually as parents we don’t go looking for information until there’s a problem or we have a question. These can help with that but they’re a great resource to go through ahead of a season to help prepare you and your players for what to expect and things to consider.
Lastly, the resource center has a “Community” section which is a forum where you can ask questions and share your thoughts/ideas.
It’s nice to have a place to go to ask questions about being a soccer parent. What we’ve learned is that the experience will be different with each of your kid that plays. So if you think you have it figured out after the first kid, chances are you’ll be surprised by the 2nd or 3rd. The more kids you have that play soccer and the longer they play, the more valuable Skye and the resource center will turn out to be. The way you get access to the parent resource center is to signup for an annual membership. The price is affordable and as you can see from all that Skye offers it’s well worth the money. If you decide to join I’ll see you in the forums, be sure to say hi to Skye and I!
You can join here in the Soccer Parent Resource Center.
P.S. Once a year Skye runs a special on annual memberships. Her special is going on now, you can get the soccer parent discount by entering the coupon code “INSPIRE” at checkout.