I've found with a lot of the kids I've coached that their ball control suffers because they're completely uncoordinated. They really do struggle with simple things like getting the ball out from under their feet. I thought about using an agility ladder to get them thinking about where they're putting their feet and moving them quickly. Has anyone tried this with some success for a U10/U11 group?
Rather than do adult like exercises, I suggest you stick with game-like activities that require basic movements--stopping, starting (accelerating), turning, skipping, jumping, even crawling. Games with a ball that mimic tag, red-light-green-light, mother-may-I, or navigating mazes (follow the leader) during the initial warm up period work well. It combines really well with dribbling and juggling. 1v1 (scoring by crossing lines, entering zones or gates) is a great agility exericise. Works players with movements both on the ball and off the ball. Agility training is skill training so it needs to be performed while fresh with rest times and relatively short durations so that it doesn't turn into an endurance exercise. If players are tired, their technique suffers and you don't want them to practice bad technique. Perfect practice makes perfect. The best way to get better on the ball is to play with a ball. Ball mastery exercises are appropriate for that age. To improve their ball skills, they need to practice independently outside of the training sessions. 10 minutes every day is much more efficient at developing skills than 70 minutes once a week. Here is a link to Dennis Mueller's handout http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~dgraham/daily_drill.html
Thanks man. Link saved. We do spend a lot of time plugging away with close control exercises and games that involve rolling and dragging the ball. They just can't get it. Maybe I'm expecting too much from them?
Each generation has become more sedentary than before. I played four sports in high school, and I was a bookworm, not an athlete. I walked three miles delivering newspapers every morning before walking a mile to school. Half the kids in my school lived on farms (and did farm chores). We were required to play outdoors in our free time instead of watching TV. For fun we played various pickup sports year round. Rode bicycles all over town. Played in parks and woods. Jumped rope and played hop skotch. Climbed trees. Swam in the river. Had a part-time job at a store that included unloading delivery trucks. Kids today and their coaches talk about learning to play soccer by playing computer games, and not in jest. It is little wonder that your 10 year olds lack basic movement skills compared to your experiences and expectations.
My two cents, and my only qualification is having coached first my niece and now my son beginning at age 4, is to focus first and foremost on having fun. What RCA2 suggested above is all great and do everything with a spirit of fun and lightness. Every goal wins the World Cup, every move deserves praise. At that age the biggest thing is to have them wanting to come back for more.
current league is upward soccer (age 7-8, co-ed) 4x4 60x100 no goalies. special rules for younger divisions like backing up to half way on goal kicks, no 'own goals', no standings or scores recorded. Is much more relaxed and less competitive than the 7v7 with goalies u8 league we were in last season, no parents carrying on and screaming at the refs, coaches, and their kids (the parents of my players say they haven't seen anything of the sort for 2 years) my sons appear to be having more fun with it as well.
We're trying Upward this summer. I'm coach and my kid just turned 6. It's tough because of the massive gulf between a 6 year-old and a 4 year-old makes it difficult to set up practices that stimulate and challenge everyone. Last year I found my kid learned more after practice when he wanted to keep playing. He's beaten me by exactly one goal for about 200 consecutive matches now.
This call back into my memory what a Dutch soccer coach (it has been decades ago, so I donot know his name anymore) with a knick of sometimes doing something unexpected with training his pro players. He confronted his players with a slender female ballet dancer. She was going to do her exercises for physical strength and stamina and they were expected to do what she did. The to be expected reaction was what could that thin woman teach us, strong men? So they started to follow her in her practicing and after an hour they didnot joke anymore, but had the highest respect as they struggled to keep up with her.
I thought that I would come back to this since my kid has now played in two different countries. In Costa Rica, it was pretty much futsal, although some rule modifications. 5v5 with a keeper and we rotated keeper between 3 kids who were interested in the position. All in all, very informal and no official score but the kids always kept track. I loved it with the exception that a futsal pitch is too big for 7 year olds. Now in Guatemala (he is almost 8) it is 9 v 9. Very formalized with a table and a larger pitch. We didn't have enough players one match and we played 2 v 9 and were beaten 17-0. Ridiculous. So far, the best instruction he has received was actually back in the US. We paid little extra and he was invited to a more advanced group. So far, and by a huge margin, the best players were the Costa Rican kids, most of whom have one or both parents from Argentina. There is a huge Argentine community in that part of Costa Rica and they are nuts for futbol!
I've been given permission to change our 6U division from playing 4v4 on 30x20 fields to playing 2v2 across those same fields (so 20x15 effectively). The idea is we have half as many players in each game so each player should get more touches and score more goals. Team coaches referee the games at this stage. We will still schedule two teams for one 30x20 field on game days. I'm wondering what I should do for timing the games and rotating players. In the past we've done 4x10 minute quarters for 4v4. Team size is usually between 6 and 8 players. Do we keep the periods at 10 minutes and have the coaches rotate players at breaks? 2v2 would be much more intense than 4v4 for older players, but I don't know whether that carries through enough to 6Us to matter. On the field, we'll have goal kick spots in front of each goal, and I'm thinking we'll have a build out line at midfield across each half. Thoughts?
For our U6s we play 4X8. To me that seems like a long time to keep focus and a long time to sit. I'd think about rotating players at the 4 minute mark. I would add the buildout line as well. Have you thought about using a continuous play model instead (coach tosses ball in when it goes out of play) instead of goal kicks?
No. I hadn't thought about this, but I do see a benefit to doing it that way. I also see a big downside with the potential for coaches to abuse it. Thanks for the other points too.
The idea is that you roll the ball into the open space. We have 2 coaches on the field and they take turns doing it. I coached kindergarten this year for the 1st time in a long time and I will say it did take a game or so to get the hang of it.
Here is the link to the Arlington Soccer kindergarten rules which contain a good explanation of the mechanics. https://arlingtonsoccer.demosphere-...n/rules/Kindergarten-Rules 19 11 new logo.pdf
I can't imagine a U-Little game, at least at U6 and U7, that doesn't have coaches tossing the ball back in. Everyone's on the same page and no one's keeping score, so the coaches sometimes toss the ball in favor of a team who's overmatched or a player who hasn't had a chance to touch the ball yet. At U8, we kept doing that but also had some inter-club scrimmages that more closely resembled real games.
You'd be surprised. I coached against some rec coaches that wanted to do throw ins and corners for U6 even though our league rules said kick/dribble ins or continuous play (each coach hold an extra ball and throw it in when the game ball goes out of play). Heck, I even let the ball go over the line as long as they were making an effort to bring it back in........
We kind of left it up to the coaches. For my side, we let the kids throw it in usually. Why not? They didn't have to do it perfectly, but I don't see the harm in letting them try. But yeah, some kids can't do it and in that case the coach can throw it in, or have the kid kick it in. (this was U6)
The harm is the stoppage in play. The idea of continuous play is to keep the ball moving as much as possible
I see. Yeah you have some stoppage. We'd usually let the quarters go a bit longer if there was a lot of stoppage.