Introduction
I asked coaches in our community what their biggest achievement was.
“The biggest achievement is all players I have trained always greeting me when they see me.” — Mark Wiltens, FCA Member
“Players still calling me ‘gaffer’ whenever they see me, years after managing them when you bump into them outside of football. Still really close to a lot of my ex players.” — Jamie Birch, FCA Member
No trophies mentioned. No league positions. Just relationships that lasted.
What Traditional Metrics Miss
Results in youth football reflect birth dates within the team. Physical maturity distribution. Luck of fixtures. Opposition strength. A hundred variables outside coaching control.
A coach can do everything right and lose. A coach can do everything wrong and win.
Results tell you almost nothing about coaching quality.
Participation numbers mislead too. “We have twenty players on the books” sounds impressive. But how many come consistently? How many are actually developing? How many enjoy it? How many will still play in five years?
Numbers without context hide reality.
What Successful Coaches Measure Instead
Retention. How many players return next season? Not because there is no alternative. Because they want to.
Retention indicates enjoyment, development, belonging, and positive experience. Aim for 80% or higher each year.
Player feedback. Survey your players regularly with simple questions. Rate how much you enjoy training on a scale of one to ten. What is your favourite part? What would you change?
Do it anonymously. Trust the answers. If they are not having fun, you are failing at the most fundamental level.
Parent sentiment. Happy parents are not the goal, but consistently unhappy parents signal problems. Are parents supportive on the sideline? Positive in communication? Volunteering when asked? Recommending the team to others?
Long-term relationships. Do former players stay in touch? Remember you positively? Credit you for their development? Return to help with younger teams?
These outcomes take years to measure. But they are the true scorecard.
The Metric That Matters Most
How many of your U10s are still playing football at U16?
Industry statistics show massive dropout in youth sports. The majority quit before reaching their teenage years. If your players stay in the game longer than average, you are winning at what actually matters.
“Still going, starting at U7 and now U16 with a happy bunch of currently 18 kids. Hoping to see it through to U18.” — Stephen Kavanagh, FCA Member
That is a nine-year retention story. That is success that no trophy can match.
The Mindset Shift
Stop asking “Did we win?” Start asking “Did they improve?” “Did they enjoy it?” “Will they come back?” “Will they remember this positively?”
A coach whose players greet them in the street fifteen years later has achieved something no trophy can represent.
That coach built relationships, not just skills. Created experiences, not just results. Left impressions that lasted decades, not just seasons.
What I Changed
I started documenting individual progress for each player. Not compared to others. Compared to themselves. Where did they start? Where are they now? What specifically improved?
I started tracking retention systematically. How many players returned each season? Why did those who left actually leave?
I started asking players what they thought. Anonymous surveys. Honest conversations. Actually listening to the answers.
I started staying in touch with former players. Not intrusively. Just enough to know if they are still playing. Still enjoying football. Still remembering their time with me positively.
The shift takes time. The results do not appear immediately. But asking different questions changes what you prioritise. And what you prioritise changes what you achieve.
The Real Scorecard
“The biggest achievement is all players I have trained always greeting me when they see me.”
That is coaching success.
Not the league position that changes every season. Not the trophy that gathers dust. Not the participation numbers that hide more than they reveal.
Relationships that last. Memories that stay positive. Impact that compounds over decades.
That is worth measuring.
Want to focus on what actually matters?
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