Coaching Ideas for U8s

No. The coach didn't. The posters said that a player told his child about it, and then, his child told him.

He may very well have said that. But, coach to player to player to parent conversations tend to distort the message by the time it gets to the third or fourth person.

I don't think there is anything wrong with teaching a player to use their hands to shield or help push/fight for a ball. But, I also agree that deliberately pulling a jersey from behind is a bit much.

 

yes, I'm trying to convince a local club on this, but, I don't have the coaching background to run a program, so there has to be a coach, and the the clubs around are so far not interested in running a rec program.

 

I know it's U9-U12, but I figure many of us eventually move up and take the "E" license, so I wondered if anyone had feedback on this:

http://www.thesoccerwire.com/news/m...ampaign=4e5b30c0fe-NSW042512&utm_medium=email

(If it needs a new thread, go right ahead.)

 

I'd be interested to see how the curriculum has changed compared to when I took it. It may have just been my instructors, but it definitely skewed more to the twelve and up ages more then the nines.

 

Spread out! SPREAD OUT!!! OH PLEASE, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, SPREAD OUT!!!!!

Seriously -- does anyone have any ideas for drills we can do in practice that might discourage magnetball?

 

I hope you are talking about while in possession.

Keep away.

 

Unless you're coaching very advanced U8s, you may get (maybe) two who understand space. Most sixes and sevens just aren't developed enough yet to understand spreading out and how it benefits them as a team. They're not ready for team sports yet. Adults put them in team situations looking for adult outcomes. They see a ball, it's fun, so they want to be where the ball is, dribble it and shoot.

I've done this in rec long enough to not sweat it because they're not spreading out. I have players who I've had for two years (four seasons) who still get confused where I tell them to start out or which half of the field to start on, much less move to space.

I have three kids out of 11 who can naturally make off the ball runs and spread out. Believe it or not they have the most trouble in games playing against swarm teams because the swarm takes away space and contains them where it's harder to get free to shoot, pass or dribble it out.

Swarms are okay because that how you want to defend (pressure and cover in a high position as soon as they lose possession.) If you can teach them to hustle and cover for the ones who attack the ball on defense you're golden. My kids defend high with maybe one player back. They run back to cover on counterattacks most of the time. Sometimes they get beat and scored on, but that is a teaching moment on the importance of running hard to cover and help.

On attack, I tell them to go where they think the ball might go rather than where it is. Some get it, some don't. If they do get it, then spacing comes naturally (If I'm not trying to take the ball away, I will go over here because I think the ball will come here.)

I teach space every practice through games, but they pick it up when they pick it up. You won't have many "Eureka!" moments, but you'll see a very gradual progression if you reinforce it regularly.

 

The funny thing is that spreading out is what parents seem to notice the most. Just yesterday, an assistant coach ran up to me and said, "You know, they might do better if they spread out." OK.

I'd say roughly half the coaches in my club attempt to teach "positions," even in 3v3, 4v4 or 5v5. Usually, it looks like this: "OK, Conor -- you're at left wing. Andrew, go out right. Mason, you stay in the middle, and Luke, you're defense." All the kids duly march out to positions. "Ready? Ball in!" Clump.

 

Not to mention if you teach "positions" as spots on the field they won't learn priniciples of play. Its all about trial and error. They need to be free to experiment to learn.

In SSG there is no need for positions tactically. Functionally its just a line of 3 or 4.

 

I first played at the Y (back in the Stone Age, of course), and yes, we had a lot of gridiron football guys teaching us positions.

You know what I've found is the best "tactic" for "winning" at the U6 level with 3v3 games? Cherry-picking. Seriously -- we so often give up goals to kids who never got back on defense and have breakaways when the ball pops free.

Obviously, I'm not going to teach that.

I do, however, have one U6 kid who has learned to float toward the middle when the ball is out on the wing. I'm going to try to encourage that. I have other kids who sometimes try to pass it to him. One of these days, it'll click.

Oh, great. Maybe I should consider myself lucky that if I told my parents 4-2-3-1, they'd assume I was giving them the first part of a phone number.

 

Is cherry picking so bad? The kids I have had do it at U6 are sometimes being lazy, but sometimes I think they are smart to know that odds are the ball will be kicked backed up to them and they will be all alone. Smart to know not everybody has to run back.

 

Depends. Some leagues/associations have a cherry-picking rule in lieu of no offside rule. As long as the kids are relatively close to the deepest opposing defender I wouldn't call it cherry-picking.

 

In one of the USYS coaching documents is a section on the psychology of the different age groups. I use that to show and explain to parents at the beginning of the season what to look for and what not to look for out of the majority of them.

We had a perfect example at yesterday's game. We played the undefeated team that had scored a ton of goals. We played on a field that was in horrible condition.

We dribbled the ball up as best we could given the field condition, looked for a good shot, swarmed on defense, pressure and cover. They had three kids out of six in the field planted at the top of penalty area, never moving unless we attacked, and the other three would just kick it as hard as they could no matter how far they were from goal, hardly dribbled, and of course boomed long balls at our ridiculously large goals and small, just learning goalkeepers. And still our defense kept us ahead 2-1 until late when my kids were physically spent and they scored some goofball goals to win 4-2.

My kids played soccer, theirs played kickball dressed as soccer players. Mine swarmed and were engaged the entire game, they were spread out and half were just standing there.

They "won" the game, but we were the better team and more skilled, and I'll take that any day. The kids will be much better for it down the road.

 

Chosing player development over match results? Careful you and the NSCAA might start a trend:

"7 to 11 Year Olds

* Begin to teach the basic game -- start to develop maturity on the ball

* Technical skills and game insight have to be developed by playing in simplified soccer situations -- small-sided and small-group games

* Instructions by the coach should be confined to technical matters"

J. Tipping, "From Looking Good to Winning," NSCAA Guide to Soccer Coaching Excellence, p. 224.

 

One thing to consider is that this experience will prove very beneficial to your players. The style of play you described is very common and your players need to be prepared for how to deal with it.

We had a similar situation with bad weather this last weekend. We played against another kick/run team with poor skills on a rainy, windy, cold day (only 40 degrees out) Saturday morning. These conditions made it difficult to control the ball and in the beginning the other team dominated because of it. Reminding the kids to slow it down and keep the ball rather than boot it away changed things around.

Fortunately we only play 4v4 no keepers, so it's difficult for the other team to bunker in too much - can't keep 3 players back like you described, but they usually keep one back as a keeper/sweeper who can't use hands.

Anyway, one play stood out in the stark contrast. A player from the other team booted a ball from defense aimlessly up the sideline a long ways. The whole crowd of parents cheers for the beautiful kick. The ball was controlled well by our player, who then dribbled past two players and made an outlet pass to the other side of the field where his teammate dribbled it up for an easy score.

Players need to learn how to play good possession soccer despite the situation or opponent in order to get good at it.

 

On this general concept of fouling, shirt grabbing, etc. What should I do as a coach when this is going on? Obviously talking to the refs is something we all do, but with the players themselves, should I teach them to tell the ref, or just to play through it and that it means they are doing great and are too good for the other team to handle?

Too be clear, what do you tell your own players, so that they deal with it better and don't retaliate and do it themselves?

Should the players alert the ref themselves when it gets out of hand?

On a larger point, thanks to everyone in this thread, I am coaching U8's this season and have learned a lot from this thread.

 

My $0.02, acknowledge that it is happening and tell them that the ref cannot catch everything. Challenge them to figure out how to play through it, but do not accept this behavior.

Basically, the kids are going to need to learn how to handle rough play. Whether we like it or not, it's a common tactic. Figuring out how to still play soccer through against this opposition is difficult, but worth it. They will not always be successful and will need your support, guidance and encouragement.

One thing to definitely avoid is the players arguing with the ref. This gives them an excuse to not try because the other team is not playing fair. Instead, they should accept the decisions and keep playing through it. Alerting the ref, calling foul, etc will only make matters worse because it undermines the authority of inexperienced refs - which is the only the kids will have for several years.

 

At this age level, you'll typically have refs that are in their early teens and are learning to officiate. Many will also be reluctant to call some fouls because they may may feel intimidated by adults (a bigger problem in youth soccer.)

So there will be some fairly obvious fouls that won't get called because the ref is unsure of the reaction of the coaches and parents should he or she make it, especially if the game is touchy anyway (again, a parent/coach problem.)

When my kids come tell me that so-and-so is pushing/grabbing/tripping, my response is, "Did the referee call it? If not, then you have to keep going as best you can."

One thing that helped with my son when he was getting frustrated: There's a compilation video on YouTube of Lionel Messi being hacked and fouled during games, and he keeps fighting through it. I showed it him (he loves Messi) and when he saw that it happens to the pros, he understood it better.

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate your answers and everyone seems unified on how to deal with it, which is good.

 

I started coaching my sons U8/U9 team and I found the advice you wrote very helpful. In the first game before reading this I did assign positions (sort of) I assigned 2 defenders and the other 4 as offense. The offense were not given a spot on the field.... the only direction I gave them was to play offense. The 2 guys on D did not participate in the game the same way the 4 offense did, and when ever the ball was near the two defenders they would just boot the ball away. And some of the offense would stop playing when the ball was with my defenders.

Using your advice in my latest practice we had enough to play a full side 6 v 6 w/coaches as keepers for the last 15 min and I did not assign positions at all. They bunched a ton at first, but on another site I found some advice to fix the bunching and this tactic coupled with the no position tactic worked great!

Basically in a practice SSG you make it a "foul" to bunch, and you award the other team a free kick. The kids picked up on this right away and the bunching became less of a problem. Using your advice mixed with this bunching foul rule worked great. I can not recommend these 2 tactics enough. I have yet to see if the kids will bunch less in a real game, but it sure worked in practice, and the best part the kids did not stop playing because they were not told to "play" any specific position. Thanks!

I just used the 5 second or lose possession rule and it worked great too... and it made my recent practice go much smoother. The SSG was more fluid with more kids touching the ball.

Thanks for the great advice!

Edit: I just realized this was an old thread, last posted in 2012, but the info in it is still relevant.