‘You always have a choice’: River Dogs soccer coach Martin Siml says field skills are life skills
By: Christine Lasek

Coach Martin Siml (back center) is a 10-year coaching veteran, with the last three years spent coaching soccer for Think Detroit PAL.

It’s a job he takes very seriously.  After coaching in other cities, he came to Detroit and TDP in search of a stronger competitive spirit.  “There is definitely a [higher] competition level in [Think Detroit] PAL, with every sport,” Siml explained in a recent interview.

But Siml knows, in working with the youth leagues, he’s not just teaching kids how to play defense and shoot the ball.

 “The biggest thing I teach them [the kids] is that they always have a choice.”

Siml explained that learning the rules of the game is not enough. The players have to internalize the rules and then apply those learned principles to the various situations they could face on the field.

When the player has the ball, he can choose to run it or to pass it to an open player.  When the wrong decision is made, the opposing team scores. “I try to get the kids to think about the decisions they make,” Siml explained, in the hopes that the next decision will lead to a goal.

Innately, many of us know that the skills kids take away from the soccer fields, basketball courts and baseball diamonds are more than just how to kick, how to shoot or how to hit a homerun. It is often hard to articulate just what the coaches are trying to impart, but great coaches have an end goal, and it’s always about something bigger than the sport. 

Brenna M. Hicks, children’s therapist and author of parenting blog “ The Kid Counselor”, says the power of choice is often a lesson that is overlooked. “Life involves decision-making. Many children grow up unable to make decisions intelligently simply because they have had so little experience doing so,” Hicks writes.

But Siml’s players practice decision making every time they take the field.

“There is always a choice in soccer, like there is always a choice in life. I can’t make the kids come to practice,” Siml said.

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