Here are several excerpts from the player/parents guide in relation to the role of the parent at Rotherham FC. We would like to express our thanks to John Bilton one of the most respected Youth Coaches in English Professional Soccer for kindly donating this extremely useful guide.

- Parents must not coach from the pitch side during matches and training

- Parents should not criticise their child on any part of the Player’s game, leave this to the coaches since it may cause confusion and erode the Player’s confidence.

- Be your child’s best fan and support him unconditionally. Don’t withdraw your love when he performs below his standard.

- On transporting your son home, please be supporting and always focus on the positive aspects of his game.

- Develop a responsibility in your son to pack his own kit, clean boots and bring along his water bottle full of water only.

- Respect the facilities at Rotherham United and our opponents’ grounds.

- Do not allow any of your young children to roam around the facilities, this particular applies to our training ground, this is surrounded by a deep stream and the dangerous river, please also do not allow them to play on any goal posts, this could be dangerous.

- Do not criticise your child’s coach to your child or other parents, if you are not happy with the coach you should raise the issue with the coach and follow the procedure laid out in the “Complaints/Grievance Procedure”

- Encourage your child to speak with the coach. If your child is having difficulties in training or games, or can’t attend training etc. encourage him to speak directly to the coaches. This “responsibility taking” is a big part of becoming a mature person and a professional Player. By handling off the field tasks, your child is claiming ownership of all aspects of the game.

- Monitor your child’s stress level at home. Keep an eye on the Player to make sure that they are handling stress effectively from the various activities of life.

- Monitor eating and sleeping habits. Be sure that your child is eating the correct foods as suggested in the “Nutritional Programme”. Players should be in bed at 9.30 pm on the night before a game and early enough on other nights to ensure that adequate rest is being taken.

- Help your child keep his priorities correct. He needs to maintain a focus on schoolwork, relationships, and other things in life besides football. However you and him have made a commitment to the Club so help him to honour that commitment.

- Help the young Player to focus on the performance and not the result.

- Winning is not as important as the performance.

- Support all the Players in your son’s squad. Do not criticise any other Players in the squad.

- Do not criticise the opponents, their parents, coaches or the referee.

- View the game from the designated areas for spectators.

- Football at the Rotherham United Centre for Excellence is “Serious Fun” football. We will try to challenge your child to reach out of his “comfort zone” and improve himself as a Player and a person. We will attempt to do this in environments that are fun, yet challenging.

- Should the Player and or his parent/guardian have any grievance or complaint then they shall follow the procedures set out in the booklet of the Complaints/Grievance Procedure.

- The Football League carry out frequent inspections of the Football Clubs Youth Development Programme Players, Parents and Guardians are encouraged to contribute towards any such
inspection in relation to asking questions of the Football League or answering any questions asked by The Football League. Players, Parents and Guardians may also obtain a copy of any report issued by The Football League on any matters that are not confidential.

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