Practice does not make perfect -- practice makes permanent.
(Thus if you practice poorly, you will play poorly.)
The game is the best teacher -- the job of the coach is to present the game in a way that stimulates the players engagement and rewards the skills and cognitive development needed for a robust player.
I think ¨Never be a child´s last coach!¨ is one we should all take to heart. If I have a player leave the game because they love something else more, I am okay with that. What I hope they take away from the game is engagement, responsibility, and authority for their own game, own learning, own experience. Thus, if a player leaves soccer for horse jumping or fashion design, they apply the life skills: discipline, responsibility, and hopefully fun, from soccer and apply into other areas of their life, and they become their own coach.
