With a growing resume of successfully coaching youth in the Lower Mainland, Daryl Ware-Lane believes with the opening of his private soccer academy in Steveston he’ll be taking on a new role — that of a teacher.
“Most people think our job, as coaches, is to coach players to win games, but it’s not. Our job is to coach players to develop their skills, much like a teacher in a school. It’s to give them the technical tool kit to go out there and succeed with any team,” said Ware-Lane, who is labelled a coach for female youth soccer players in the Girls Elite Regional Excel (REX) and Mountain United FC programs, both in Burnaby.
And so, it was after much reflection of his nine-year Canadian soccer coaching career that the English immigrant decided to open Soccer Labs Skill Centre, a facility on No. 2 Road designed to “give 100 per cent focus to the individual.”
Having opened the 2,000-square-foot facility just three months ago, Ware-Lane has now hosted more than 600 training sessions for youth soccer players — girls and boys — from all over the Lower Mainland.
His new small business is a labour of love, he told the Richmond News, and a product of an idea that took shape roughly two years ago.
“There isn’t anyone, in my eyes, to develop an individual. There’s lots of people doing it out on a field, but there’s no one who will take a closer look,” said Ware-Lane.
Saving any extra money he could from years of coaching, Ware-Lane took the next step with Soccer Labs, which has allowed him to take his private evening lessons, normally reserved for outdoor fields, to an indoor facility that allows him to track and monitor performance of individual players.
His goal is to have kids focus on their skills and to forget the pressures of winning on the field.
“Everyone says, ‘I’m going to force you to think.’ I’ll do the opposite. I’m going to force you not to think. I’ll give you so much repetition and knowledge that it’s the subconscious that comes through. Every good athlete knows, if you’ve stopped to think on the field, then it’s too late,” said the 35-year-old certified B National coach.
“My job is to compliment the team coach, tweak the players’ skills and send them back to their team. The beauty of that is if I don’t do my job, my clients don’t come back and those coaches don’t use me. So I’m accountable for what I do,” he said.
With so much pressure on winning, he’s noticed many players who come to him have anxiety.
Ware-Lane said he first makes the player comfortable at the lab and then performs a skills assessment. From there, the player will focus on skills such as dribbling, passing and striking.
“I find out everything about the kid. I don’t think any two players can be trained the same way. There’s no one technique where you can say, ‘Here do this.’ But there are some fundamentals, absolutely,” said Ware-Lane.
There is an element of ongoing data assessment to Ware-Lane’s self-designed custom programs, using digital equipment.
For instance, his Quick Feet program works on passing and the vision and awareness required to improve it.
“It’s aimed to hone specific repetitions that eventually become ingrained,” he said.
The program monitors a player’s reaction times and accuracy by having a player kick a ball at different targets in a circle. It can be set up for specific positions on the field.
Ware-Lane also gets down to the nitty-gritty on his small artificial turf field, procured from the now demolished Sports Town, where he once coached and officiated games.
For information on individualized programs, which can even include in-game assessments, visit SoccerLabs.ca or visit Unit 8 12491 No. 2 Road.
