I would recommend coaching or mentoring to everybody. You get to help shape kids outlook on life, they can be pretty damn funny at times, and you focus on your own life when you are trying to teach to somebody.
Being a goalkeeper specific coach this year was really rewarding, more so than being a head coach. I worked with the keepers on the team I was an assistant for, which was actually 2 teams, u12 and u13. There were 2 U13 keepers: 1 who was more experience and technically polished but out of shape and too passive, the other was a superior athlete and more assertive.
The biggest impact I think I had was with the kid who was supposed to be the U12 keeper, but was hurt the whole season expect the last game or two. He showed up at every practice and game, and would be my helper as I worked with the others. Because he was always around he picked up my methods and ideas, and by the end I would feel comfortable letting him handle stuff like warming up whoever was going to be the backup while I got the starter ready.
I also worked with a few times with keepers from other teams in the club, mostly group sessions with kids who hadn't played the position before, going over the basics. A few times I would work with 1 or 2 kids who were wanting to really commit to the position.
It's incredibly rewarding have a bunch of goalkeepers that I've coached, and even one who is sort of his a Junior coach. You can see your influence on them, and they get better so quickly being pretty young. It's fun to see all the other players I've coached too, but the goalkeepers have a special place for me because they're directly implementing your coaching.
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