Melanie Thomas is a coach who has lived the life. Got the qualifications, walked the walk and got the T shirt. She has great insight and shares all her experience with us. In this episode we champion all things youth coaching. We challenge the status quo and hope to begin the national conversation about best practice and where we are going with youth soccer coaching in the USA. Melanie shines a light on her experience coaching soccer as a female and the situations she has found herself in with some male counterparts. This episode is a raw, eye opening real account of the barriers that still exist for female coaches and why we must continue to advocate, work for and offer opportunity to all marginalized groups of people who hope to enter the beautiful game. Doing things the "old way" may still be prominent for a lot of youth soccer coaching but no more will it be ignorant. We know so much more now about how young players learn and this episode makes no apologies for calling out some of the practice that dominates the national discourse. We have to consider the environments our young players are growing up in and if nothing else this episode serves as a benchmark to further discussion and improvement in the coming years.

For female coaches wishing to begin or improve their coaching journey contact us today and we will explain how we at the ProPlayer have partnered with Coachbetter and the Football Association of Wales to help you get you started on the pathway to your UEFA badges - [email protected]