Yep, it doesn't always work. The ball is where the "fun" is at that age. Try Swedish Handball. I'm sure they'll like it, then play a regular 4v4 game with 5 yd "end zones" (pass/kick to a teammate in the end zone to score, defenders have to stay out of the end zone) and reinforce what they did during Swedish Handball (move away from the one with the ball and get open.) You can run a ton of different games to teach space, but it's never certain they'll do it come game time. Some will pick it up before others. Be patient. In my two U8 games this past weekend they all swarmed because we haven't gone over space yet. By the second half of the game on Sunday, a couple started moving into space on their own, but the majority were still in a big clump. They'll figure it out soon enough and if they're having fun, that's the point.
I'm going to try a variation of that next week. Here's the full account of last night's practice: http://www.sportsmyriad.com/2011/09/single-digit-soccer-ok-lets-back-up-a-bit/
After reading your blog . . . My two cents are that you're just trying too hard. They mob the ball because it's how their thinking is expressed on the soccer field at this age. Can you reprogram them with your once/twice a week practices to think differently? It's not really until about ten (nine for advanced players) that they spread out and pass with purpose. Mind you that within individual players the "the soccer age" can vary plus or minus two years-so you can have a ten year old with the understanding and skills of an 8 YO or 12 YO. I tried all these games with minimal success. If I can offer my opinion, your efforts will be GREATLY accelerated (improvement over the course of several months, not practices or weeks) is if, for this age, you focus mainly on developing their touch and ball control. As I've said, inherently, the game for these youngsters will be self-centered. You can teach them this stuff and they'll go back, because they're not ready for it yet. At this age, the biggest obstacle is the ball. They need to be able to control it, master it. Once that happens (or in conjunction) we teach them to pick up their head. Once they can still be in complete control of the ball AND HAVE THEIR HEAD UP(eyes looking at something other than the ball) THEN the game can expand.
Yeah, it sounds a bit complex for them at this stage. Here's an example of what I do right now for rec. We practice 2x a week for an hour each. There are probably better ways to do it, but it works for me and the kids. Coerver-type foot exercises: 5-10 min This is basically getting their feet used to the feel of ball and work on their balance. Nothing fancy. Sole rolls back and forth, left and right, toe taps, push-pull Vs, Ls, etc. Throw in a stepover or scissor every once in a while. Dribbling/turning games: 10-15 min. Freeze tag games, stuck in the mud, tail tag (they stick a pinnie in the back of their shorts and try to grab them from the others while dribbling, two lines dribbling across one at right angles against one another to keep their heads up) 1v1/2v2: 10-15 min. Using what they've done the first 20-25 minutes against pressure and with one teammate as help. 4v4 with or w/o goalkeepers (depending on how your league does it): 20 min. There are tons of different 4v4 games to mix during the season based on what you want to reinforce. 4-goal game, 1-0 game, no goals but end zones instead. If you have uneven teams, have the larger team shoot at 2 pop-ups spread out on the endline and have a goalkeeper, and have the short-side team go to that big goal. Most important: let 'em play. Freeze every once in a while to make a coaching point, but get back to playing quickly. That second part of the session can change to receiving/shooting or what else you want to focus on that day, but keep some dribbling game in there. Hope that helps!
The one insight I have is that the tactics you use should be in the service of enabling the kids to use their technique. That's how I looked at it. Like I said, a key obstacle at that age is to get the kids to stop defending their teammates. Whatever you can do to facilitate THAT, do it. The rest will come pretty naturally.
For kids under 10 it is important to break things down into simple and fundamental ideas and skills. With my 9 year old, I use an app called Guruvi Soccer which has a lot of drills that teach fundamental skills.
I'm not sure we should be playing 4-on-4 or 5-on-5 at U8. U.S. Soccer says 7-on-7. Should I try to convince my club to follow suit? My thoughts on it, which are a little less organized than I'd like because the moms' group at Starbucks is really, really loud today: http://www.sportsmyriad.com/2011/09/single-digit-soccer-do-small-sided-games-backfire/
When I read that recommendation from U.S. Soccer I thought it was odd to play that many at that age, considering the other programs like the Dutch and Spanish are still at 4v4 at that age. Maybe they're referring to "elite" U8s, whatever that means. Our association plays 7v7 including GK at U8 Rec with 6x18 goals. The main reason for that is that we have a ton of kids that want to play, with few fields and volunteers to coach them in numbers that would work for 4v4 or 5v5. They feel that the large goals encourage more scoring, which is a fun aspect of the game to that age group. Most goalkeepers at this age are like the Long John Silver impersonators in the Monty Python sketch: They're just kind of standing there. They should be out there playing. As far as dominating players, you're always going to have them no matter what the numbers are. My son has been dribbling a ball since he could walk, and he can take over a game when he's out there. Even playing him as a back, he can take the ball and go through many kids. On the same team I have two who have no clue what to do when they go out there. They just roam around, oblivious to what's going on around them. But they're enjoying themselves and that's what matters. And I have some in the middle who are pretty good and improving each week. Personally, I'd rather stay 4v4 or 5v5 at most. You'd still have the dominating player but you can instruct them to pass to teammates or cross, and once the teammates have the ball they don't have far to go to score. On the 60x40 7v7 fields we have, sometimes players get the ball around midfield or deeper but they don't attack the goal because it's not nearby to their field of vision and they get overwhelmed by the opposing swarms. We've been trying to drive the numbers down in our association, not up. We recently convinced U10 to drop to 7v7 and it's a much better game for all in my opinion.
Our club has a similar issue when it comes to volunteers. That's why they actually play 2 4v4 games at the same time for teams. So rosters are at about 12 players each with 1 coach, but we can still play 4v4. We take up less space in the parks for our fields because the fields are small and right next to each other. As for the keeper situation, I agree that this is too young for keepers. You could suggest encouraging coaches to play this player as a sweeper/keeper though. Then the player is merely acting as the last defender and would be granted more freedom to come out away from the goal.
Yep, it's a great way to do it and one that I would support (more touches!) but that would blow the minds of some of the other parents and administrators around here. The DOC of our state association can't even convince them to change to that format.
It's very very difficult to manage as a coach. You basically need a good assistant coach to help out, which can sometimes be difficult considering the parents available. I brought in a friend who plays soccer with me as the assistant and it's helped out tremendously, but most coaches don't have that option available. There's no question that finding quality coaches willing to volunteer their time is an extremely difficult problem. Which leads to the even more radical idea of academy style practices with scrimmages rather than individual teams. Better for development, but much more difficult to gain acceptance.
We've changed to a single 4v4 game format with a max roster size of 8 for U8s beginning this season. It did require many more coaches but based on our first practice and game, I think it is going to work well. With 2 coaches, the kids will get some pretty individualized attention.
We have two 5v5 games simultaneously, with each "team" split onto two fields. I have a 13-player roster and one assistant coach, though I've recruited someone else to help.
I need some advice on handling subs. In our league we play 7 v 7 with a golie. I play a formation of 3-3 because when I didn't the teams with formations were dominating possession and running up the score on us since everyone was just crowding the ball. Naturally some players picked up on the concept of defense easier then others so the ones that could play defense and actually stayed back as opposed to chasing the ball everywhere got more playing time. I have a couple of players that not only didn't understand the concept of formation they were easily distracted from the game so I tended to sub them out more then the others. I try to let everyone play for at least 60% of the game however some of the boys come out less if they are willing to play defense/are having a good game/ or have the stamina and focus to play the full game. Now I am getting complaints about not playing the boys equal time although I hear playing equal time is a nightmare so I am not sure I want to go that far especially since as expected everyone wants to play up and be on the ball as much as possible so getting volunteers for defense generally gets rewarded with playing longer. I wouldn't say I am concerned with winning but I am trying to set my lineups in a way that allows us to have a decent amount of possession because those early games of getting crushed and having almost no possession didn't really seem to help anyone on my team develop any aspect of the game they were just chasing the ball around all game and were lucky to get a touch every once in a while. So in order to hold possession better I have divided my stronger players into 2 groups and placing some up top and some in the back line and then mixing around some of my players that can't focus for a full game were there are open spots. I was hesitant to develop a formation in the first place but the fact that they learned the concept of getting into space with purpose, passing, and defense and were able to hold possession better made me be ok with it. I made sure that my defenders got a chance to play forward enough so that they didn't start to think crossing the middle line even when they were defending was off limits. However now I wonder if I have made a mistake in the way I treat my players that don't focus very well and gotten to competitive. My goal was to play them as long as they were focused on the game and as they began to disengage pull them out and hope that as the season progressed and they got more comfortable with the game and what their roles in the field are they would play longer and it wouldn't be like we were at a disadvantage in terms of players on the field. However now I wonder if there is a better method of bringing along players that are easily distracted. Should I just play them close to equal time? Even with the limited minutes some of the easily distracted players get I have gotten comments from an assistant coach/parent when I subbed his kid out that the other kid wasn't even focused and I should take him out instead. Of course there are also complaints from parents of the kids that play defense that they want to see their kid play forward more. Naturally I don't expect to make all the parents happy with the way I am lining up players and the way I am subbing them in and out but the fact that I am getting this much blow back and the fact that I have made decisions that were based on trying to make the team more competitive are making me doubt my method. Perhaps I should sub out players less but then split playing time from game to game more evenly so it doesn't seem like I am subbing out some players more then others? Right not I run fairly short intervals of 5-8 minutes so no one is on the sideline to long but I do sub out forwards and my easily distracted players more then others.
Where does US Soccer say 7v7? US Youth Soccer says 4v4. Sorry for the format. Section 1. (a) Except as provided by USYSA and its State Associations, the length of games, overtime periods, ball size, ball circumference, and ball weight for each age group is as follows: Age Group Game Length Overtime Periods Size Circumference Weight ____Number of Players Under 19 Two 45’ halves Two 15’ halves #5 27-28 in. 14-16 ozs. Under 18 Two 45’ halves Two 15’ halves #5 27-28 in. 14-16 ozs. Under 17 Two 45’ halves Two 15’ halves #5 27-28 in. 14-16 ozs. Under 16 Two 40’ halves Two 15’ halves #5 27-28 in. 14-16 ozs.11/15 /08 - 7 -Under 15 Two 40’ halves Two 15’ halves #5 27-28 in. 14-16 ozs. Under 14 Two 35’ halves Two 10’ halves #5 27-28 in. 14-16 ozs. Under 13 Two 35’ halves Two 10’ halves #5 27-28 in. 14-16 ozs. Under 12 Two 30’ halves Two 10’ halves #4 25-26 in. 11-13 ozs. No more than 11, 8 strongly recommended Under 11 Two 30’ halves Two 10’ halves #4 25-26 in. 11-13 ozs. No more than 11, 8 strongly recommended Under 10 Two 25’ halves NONE #4 25-26 in. 11-13 ozs. No more than 7, 6 strongly recommended Under 8 4 -12’ quarters NONE #3 23-24 in. 11-12 ozs. No more than 5, 4 strongly recommended Under 6 4 – 6’ quarters NONE #3 23-24 in. 11-12 ozs. No more than 4, 3 stronglyrecommended
I didn't spot any other questions. My advice is let the players have equal opportunities for playing time and position to the limited extent that you have positions. Substituted players tend to take time to fit in. So if you have a choice let players stay in for longer periods. It is less disruptive to the team. If you play 25 minute halves (or 12 minute quarters) I would let them play a 12 minute shift. for 35 minute halves, a 17 minute shift. I like to switch players through different positions for every shift. I want to teach them how to play all positions. Some coaches prefer to have players keep a consistent position for each game. That works better if you are trying to teach specific positions to players, which I don't feel is appropriate for U-Littles. For me its easier to ensure a good mix by moving players around in a match. You didn't mention anything about filling the keeper position, so I won't comment on it.
I only have about 4 or 5 players that play keeper because a few parents have told me they don't want their child to play keeper and I have a few that are afraid of the ball so I have been hesitant to play them as keeper. The few that volunteer to play keeper I generally let play longer after they have played keeper since they are the small few that are willing to play keeper. That is one of the factors which is making equal playing time a bit difficult to juggle
I missed that when I skimmed the doc a while back. It's kind of buried. So for U7, the recommendation is 4v4, but for U8 it's 7v7. That's quite the leap. Am I to assume that the 7v7 includes goalies? And what about field size. A 7v7 U10 field is ~60x40, which is twice as big as a standard field for U8 per USYS guidelines. What are we to make of this? USYS is saying (and has said for quite some time) for U8 it's 4v4. More touches, more space to do something with those touches, etc. No goalies; the kids aren't physically and psychologically up to the demands of the position. Plus, my guess is that many leagues are divided U6 and U8, so how do you handle that? Do you make U7's play 7v7 field? If we split up our 7's and 8's, we'd probably only have enough 8's for 3 teams for inhouse play (which would make scheduling a joke). While I have my opinions on the subject, I'm more concerned with doing right by the kids. Has anyone formed a view as to whether US Soccer's view or USYS's view is the "better" one? How do you reconcile the two views? And while the differences are most stark at U8 (4v4 or 7v7), there are also differences between U9/10 (6v6/7v7 or 8v8/9v9) (although in my state, IIRC, the Youth Rules provide for 9v9 for U10 at higher levels of play).
Does your league require "equal playing time" or "at least 50% playing time?" They're not the same. Unless you have a roster of 14 playing 7v7, and everyone shows up every game, no one ever gets injured and you sub the entire team out every equal time interval, you'll never have equal playing time. Our association requires at least 50% playing time each game. With 11 or 12 on a roster some will play more than 50%, but all will play at least 50%. Like you said, you're likely to only have a few keepers, so they'll likely play more time than someone in the field due to the nature of that role. I use a "3-3" as a place to go when we kickoff plus you help them understand somewhat the roles and positions of "Back" and "Forward". After that they're on their own out there and the formation breaks down into attacking, support and principles of play. The spine of that 3-3 (keeper, center back, center forward) typically stay in an entire quarter and I sub out the outside players. Then I put a new spine in for the next quarter, make my subs starters for the next quarter, sub out, etc. A few players play more of the game but all play at least half the game. As the outside players improve during the season I rotate them into the center, but in fact they're going where they think they need to go so rigid position is not important at this age. Over the course of the season with rotations, missing games, sickness or injury, they all average about the same amount of playing time in the end. You have to communicate this early to your parents, as they'll only be looking at it from the perspective of an individual game. Sure, you'll get shellacked sometimes, but who cares? We got beat 6-1 last Saturday and they knew it, and after the game I asked them if they had fun playing soccer and they all yelled out a hearty "YEAH!", and then we came back the next day and won 7-4.
We have the at least 50% rule which I generally bump up to 60% since I only have 1-2 subs max. I pretty much have been playing it like you do a spine in the middle that I rotate however due to the lack of subs and players that stay back or play keeper I haven't been rotating it as much as I should so my weaker players have only been getting 60% while others get more.
If there was only 8 players for a 7v7 team and my kid was only playing 60% of the match, I would be very upset, as in good bye, solving your substitution problem.
Can you explain why? As I said before a big part of this is I don't want to force anyone to play goalie so that creates a timing problem for me that I am still trying to figure out its why I posted on here. Unless I force one of my kids to play goalie to get the time each player has balanced or I have someone play goalie and then sit out I am fairly limited by having 1 sub its something I am still trying to figure out especially when the kids ask to come out because they are hurt or want a break. I will admit the American soccer subculture is something I am still adjusting to its become pretty clear parents can be pretty sensitive to even the slightest sign of unfairness. I am well aware that when it comes to peoples children lack of fairness can be a big issue however the fact that you would pull your kid from playing as opposed to having a conversation with me about how to handle playing time better is a bit difficult for me to understand. I am more then willing to correct my mistakes and I am sure the poor way in which I handled playing time was an obvious mistake to some but it wasn't to me. I will admit the competitive side of me took over a bit and I started to treat playing time based on how the players were playing and not emphasizing the fairness in time however I honestly felt that since everyone was playing large portions of the game the fact that playing time wasn't exactly equal wouldn't blow up in my face like it did. After having read the responses on here I intend to shoot for more equal time though I am still trying to work out how. However its still striking how quickly things can escalate in American youth soccer it honestly makes me reconsider ever volunteering my time again.
In that situation having one kid play only 60% of the match would indicate either that you are intentionally not giving my child an equal opportunity to play or else you are unable to manage a sideline with only one sub. Your original post implied that it was intentional because the kid was "distracted." Unfairness would not be my concern. The object would be providing an opportunity for my child to learn to play soccer. You would be only providing 60% of an opportunity.
If my math is right, half a game is 25 minutes of playing time. 60% is 30 minutes. Assuming a 50 minute match, there are 300 "field player minutes" (50 minutes x 6 field positions) divided by 8 players that's 37.5 minutes that each player should get. So, 60% isn't radically off. But if we go further and say that every kid should play goalkeeper then we're talking about almost 44 minutes of playing time per kid, if things are kept equal. Then 60% is annoyingly low. I'm not really concerned about "fair" but they can't get better without game minutes. I have players who also play on "Classic" teams who are good but their coach won't give them meaningful minutes and it affects their confidence considerably. If these kids went out to play on their own, they'd get 100% of the minutes. Limiting their PT is an adult construct. Assuming they're not disruptive in practice, and attend every practice then there's no reason for me to dock their playing time.