It doesn't work unless at least one player gets to the ball to make the throw in and another player runs into space to receive it.
You've got to learn not to worry about that. You are the coach and you decide where people play. Your job is to make sure that they all get as equal playing time and touches on the ball as you can. I.e., you set them up, but if they sit and pick their nose instead of kicking the ball, you've at least tried. Most people would also say that you need to make sure that they get a chance to play all positions. My response is that you want to make them successful. That doesn't mean that your team wins, it means that the kids get a chance to do things right. Where you do get a chance to make sure all of the kids try every position is in practice. When it comes down to it, you are the one who decided to volunteer to coach. If someone else wants to decide where to play the kids, whether to use a stopper or not, or whatever, then they get to volunteer next season. Oh, they still camp at 3v3 and 4v4. I know coaches who tell you you need to start teaching them this tactic at U5. Yes, they may get beat at that age, but when it counts, they will have the tactic down pat and win all those U7 and U8 games. I'd say that if you are comfortable not playing with a sweeper, then teach the kids your way. The advantage that they get with a sweeper evens out a bit when you outman them. Or play a rover, one who is a stopper but also is expected to play up on the offense. Yes, they have to run. And later on when you teach them what a midfielder is, it makes it easy. Just make sure they don't fall back into goal. We had a rover at U8 (4v4) and the only team we couldn't beat was the cherry picked one. I.e., the ones who could dribble, pass, and make some space.
We did a fun drill yesterday. I set up 4 cones in a square, about 10 yards by 10 yards, and starting about 10 yards out from goal. I had 2 teammates going against four defenders. I had the ball. The rule was I had to stay in the square and couldn't shoot so long as someone was defending me. I teach the kids to have only two players pursue the ball. This worked nicely. At first, it was clusterf'ish. But pretty quick, my offensive teammates were making diagonal runs, checking back for the ball, etc. There were even a few effective passes from me to a "teammate" and back. (The teammate didn't take the open lane, but at least they figured out 2/3 of the give and go. We'll get the last 1/3 soon enough!!) The two kids staying back learned positioning. The two kids defending me figured out effective ways to pin me in. Attackers learned that if you get a through ball, and you're near the goal, you have to one time it. And the kids were squealing with laughter too. So I think that was a good drill for tactics. A 7th player arrived after we started, so I had another adult pass back and forth off to the side. She (yes, she) coaches at her elementary school, so she knows what she's doing. The thing I messed up was, I meant to ask after how each player did. I have one player who, bless his heart, lacks the technique + size to kick it more than 5 yards most of the time. We also did a drill where the 6 players who arrived on time got into an oval, and I had two balls, and they passed it around the oval clockwise, then counterclockwise. Little Ben's passes didn't get to their target. So I halted the drill and talked a little technique. He got a teeny bit better. But then I said, is there anybody at your school that you don't like. He said yeah. I said, OK, that's their head. He reached the target the next time. We also did a dribbling drill for a pretty long time that I do with my son. You start by walking, and you touch the ball with every step. Then move up to fast walk, then slow run. (For them, that's as good as it gets.) It sort of exaggerates the need to keep it close while dribbling. First, they dribbled from one end of the field to the other. Then I put them in a 16 yard by 16 yard area, so that they had to look up to avoid them or their ball running into someone. I learned we need alot of work on that. I think it was a good mix of technique and tactics. Most of those lessons showed up in the scrimmage...at least for the first 20 minutes. Since there are no subs, this has been a repeated pattern...after about 15-20 minutes of scrimmaging, the kids are so amped up they play like 5 year olds. But that's about when practice ends so I let 'em go on like that for a few minutes and call it. Anyway, the dribbling was tighter, "team" defense was better, "team" offense was better. There weren't the wide open breakaways despite me not assigning a defender. I think I wrote this in season 1, and about this time too, but damn, I really wish I had 'em twice a week for practice. I really think i could reinforce things better.
May I brag? We played great. We DIDN'T assign positions, even tho we played against a team that played the 1-3. (At least the "1" wasn't assigned to be a goalie without hands. He moved, or was supposed to anyway.) The thing is, my team was tactically brilliant without assigned positions, so we were outnumbering them 2v1 or 3v2 all over the place. See, I don't assign positions or even roles to each player, I just tell them to be balanced. So if you let them indulge their natural inclination to chase the ball, but get them disciplined enough to maintain balance, you're way ahead of the game. It's just so darned hard to do the latter. But we did it BEAUTIFULLY!! Not that the score matters, but we won 10-3. But even when it was 4-3, I was really stoked, because WE WERE PLAYING THE GAME RIGHT. Our defensive balance was fantastic, and our offensive spacing very good, and improving all game. I don't know what made it sink in. Was it me talking about it? Was it the drill where I was the "passer" with two teammates against 4 defenders? Was it a cute little thing I did before the game? You'll love this. I had four players line up shoulder to shoulder. Then I pushed my son in the chest, and of course he fell back. Then I put two of 'em behind the other two, with their hands on their backs. And then when I pushed 'em, they didn't move. I was like, see, when you have support behind you, you're stronger. And on offense, alot of the same story. Except for one kid, who just can't break the habit, if Player X had the ball, the other players didn't chase the ball. One or two would get wide, one or two would go toward the goal, and normally one would stay behind for balance. We even scored on a corner kick, which is very difficult at this level, and came close another time. That was the direct result of practice time we devoted to corners. The more the kids supported each other, the more they got excited about playing and the smarter they played. It was such a positive feedback loop. As well as we were playing in the first half, our 2nd half team would have soundly beaten them, because the kids were EVEN BETTER at all the things we've worked on. By the end of the game, I was almost never having to say, Greg, I need you back for balance, or Little Will, run to the goal. They were just doing it! One thing we've worked on aLOT the last two practices is dribbling. And one of my points of emphasis, besides technique, is that dribbling should be your FIRST option...dribble it until it's time to shoot or a defender comes up to you. Unless you're right in front of goal, just blindly booting it isn't your first option. Dribbling is. And oh my gosh, we had players dribbling out of our own end like Brazilians. And we had players making good support runs. Two players scored their first ever goals as U-7s, including my son!! Two kids who have been very passive were fighting for the ball like little Robbie Savages. (Well, maybe not quite. ) All in all, a wonderful, wonderful morning that made up for so much of the bullshit.
Congratulations. Now you can reinforce the good play with positive comments instead of trying to explain how to do it to them. They will still experiment. Don't worry about the dumb offensive plays that don't work. They learn by trial and error. And variety in offensive play is important. Now that they know playing as a team works great, they will fall back to it. You will also see them start to develop more as a group. Just because we say young kids are not socially developed, doesn't mean that they don't interact! It just a comparison to older kids.
EJDad, going back to this because it bugs me as well, but for a different reason. I think SuperDave's point is that he teaches them a play in practice and whether or not they implement it in a game is up to them. Whereas what he was complaining about was the on-field coach who took two minutes every time to place the kids just right. As you correctly ask, with SuperDave's approach, the kids have to read the game. They have to relate what they practiced to what they are seeing. And with the other coaches, they read the game for the kids and take all the time in the world to get it right. When I'm out on the field, I want the extent of interaction with a deadball play to be calling out the name of who is next to get the ball in play. Either we work on the restart in practice or they figure it out for themselves.
I'm really working on dribbling alot in my practices. As I've mentioned, the field is marked in 8 yard by 8 yard squares. Because we don't have a match until April 14 due to spring break and Easter, only 4 kids showed up to practice on time. So I did something I think is a different way to practice dribbling and keeping an eye on what's around you. I marked off 4 squares to make one metasquare. Each boy took his ball and got on the edge in the middle of one of the squares. They were told to dribble to the other side and back. Of course, 2 boys are going N->S and 2 are going E->W, so they keep crossing each others' paths, so they have to avoid each other. Which means they have to be aware of what's around them. I think that was an OK drill. Then I marked off 2 squares, and had them dribble around inside the square. On each drill, I kept an eye out for heavy touches or walking. "Good job keeping it close Freddy." "You can go a little faster Freddy." "Good speed Freddy." "Keep the dribble close Freddy." I'm always saying stuff like that. I've taught them that the goal is to move fast and keep the ball close, and I've emphasized that it ain't easy, because those two things are kinda in opposition to each other. Anyway, we don't play positions, so there's always the risk that we'll end up with 4 players within 5 yards of goal, which makes us vulnerable to giving up supereasy goals on breakaways. So I told the kids that if I said "Will, get back," Will was supposed to stop the ball with his foot, pick it up, carry it to outside the rectangle, then run back to a cone that was 8 yards outside. This was to simulate a game situation in which I notice we have zilch balance and need someone to come back. That worked really well. IMO it was a good combination of tactical and technical practice. Definitely a keeper. I need some advice. Here's a situation that happens alot in games. Good Player X gets the ball. He starts dribbling, but the D is back so he can't go directly to goal. He goes kinda diagonally, then runs out of room. What I want is for that player to learn to just gently dump the ball in front of the goal, and teach the other players NOT to chase their teammate with the ball, but to run to goal, or give him back support, or give him wide support. I tried having them start ~25 yards from goal and dribble to a cone on the right and "cross" it, then go to the other side. But they weren't really getting it. What I'm looking for is a way to teach them to just lay the ball into the danger area for someone to bang home. Thoughts? I also spent a really long time on the technique of kicking the ball hard. Of the 5 kids who were there, it was a real collective weakness. I think it was kind of a drag, but it was necessary. It was just teaching the fundamentals of approaching the ball at an angle, turning your foot so that you hit the ball with the right part of your foot, how to swing the leg properly, etc. I told everyone to practice that. It was a happy coincidence that the two smallest kids "got" it first, so that I could tell the bigger kids, see, it's not about strength or size, it's about doing it the right way.
First point: you've got young kids, that just doesn't come easy. I've always had to model the play. I frequently play in small games, so that I can be the guy who runs in support. Before you can teach your strong player to pass, he has to learn to see who is there to offer support. He won't miss you, so you make the run, and they you can offer the positive feedback when he does dump it to you. I coach girls, and spend a lot of time playing various forms of wall ball. It's got to be really demoralizing to try to kick the ball hard and then it not go anywhere. Kids have to learn that they can impact the ball, and the game, for their confidence to be built up. Part of that is ball size, seems we in America have kids playing with too big a ball. At U8s in my area, they start playing with a size 4, and after two years of listening to myself talk, our league is going to go with the size 3, and that'll help. Next up, getting the league to allow size 4 for U12s...
Plus, the smaller ball will make them better dribblers. I have a full size ball I bring to practice, and all the kids are whizzes dribbling it. It's too big for them to give it too heavy of a touch! I'll try that, having me be the runner/scorer.
Good, if they can't dribble, it is gonna be hard to do much else. I don't play positions either, expect I ask my boys to play with 1 in the back, 1 on each side, and 1 up front (4v4). If the other teams scores a few goals on through balls because no one providing cover, I mention it to them and see if the can solve the problem. Sorry, I just can't figure out how having a player pick up the ball and carry it to outside the rectangle before running back some predetermined distance is related to soccer. It is also based on you telling the player to get back, rather than the player thinking on his own, recognizing the situation and getting back on his own. If you teach him to dump it in front of goal, what will happen when the other team figures it out? My advice, start by playing 2v1 games and let the players learn all the different ways to beat the defender, then see if they try it in the game. Once they understand 2 v 1, then move on to 2 v 1 + keeper or 3 v 2. Just like you mentioned doing a lot of dribbling, start with the very basics and go from there. Whatever the situation, figure out a small sided game that will present that situation repeatedly so the players see it as a problem they have to solve. If the players don't see it as a problem, they won't try and solve it.
Right now, the kids either get flummoxed and lose the ball, or try a 20 yard shot from an angle. I'll take my chances. Maybe. I've got such a disparity of athleticism on the team though. I'll think about it. I was thinking of having myself play the defender. That way I can be sure the defender will act the "right" way to create the right problem to solve. (Actually, my idea was to make the two of them take the ball from me to start the drill, which is more game-like. I'd put up a bit of a fight, but not too much.) I've had success going back to U-5 having 3 players try to score on me. I just force myself to chase the ball rather than play angles. IOW, if player A passes to player B, I run in a straight line from where I am at player B. I don't try to cut off the pass to player C.
I have to admit, I don't have a clue what "flummoxed" means, I will look it up and reply later. edit (looked up flummoxed) OK, so they get confused or shoot from 20 yds out. I wouldn't worry about them getting confused, just work on different options. Yeah, dumping it off to an on coming player would be one option and there are many, many others especially when you factor in all the different things the other team might do. Again, play a lot of games that present the situations over and over and let them learn how to handle it. As for 3 against you going to goal at U5, I guess we'll just have to disagree here. I just don't think a coach should focus on anything beyond dribbling at U5 and U6 and playing small sided games so they learn how the game is played.
I don't know if this was a good idea or not, but here goes. We didn't practice last week--Spring Break. Practice last night was pretty ragged. Kids weren't focusing like usual, things I was trying to teach were forgotten 5 minutes later, etc. So in my after practice talk, I told the kids, hey, I'm not mad or anything, but we didn't have a good practice today. I say this so that when I compliment you guys you'll know I really mean it. But when we play Saturday, let's play harder and pay more attention, OK?[/speech] Was I being a dick?
We played a horrible, horrible game. Teamwide suckitude. The kids were to the ball as paparazzi are to Brangelina. We got beaten decisively by a clearly inferior team playing a strict 1-3 formation. I give. We're going to the 2-2. I'll have one of the "backs" go forward when we have the ball so nobody's stuck at the back. And I'm gonna call the director of the league. Either take out the friggin' guideline/rule, or enforce it.
New season started so far so good. It's amazing at this age how much kids change in 4-5 months. All the kids have gotten bigger and their personalities haven't changed much. Some of the kids who previously looked like they were always going to trip over their feet are now graceful, others who were previously elegant look so awkward. The most effective player last fall has now become tentative. I think I've over coached him. He is so desperate to please and do what I've asked that he's now thinking too much and not using his overwhelming physical superiority (stronger and faster than just about anyone we've encountered). While I think it's great that he's trying to learn to play soccer, I'm afraid he's getting frustrated because he's not scoring much. Any ideas on how to get him to loosen up during games? We had our best play ever this past weekend. The least engaged player on our team digs the ball out of three players, dribbles through traffic and to the endline, picks his head up - cuts back! and kicks it as hard as he can across the six yard box (well six yards from goal - we have no box), his teammate one-times it into the goal - HARD!. It was beautiful - I don't think the kids were as impressed as I was.
Stop coaching him.... I'm not being flip, what I do mean is that you should not set any new expectations. Let him absorb everything you have taught him and catch up until he is comfortable. Praise him for doing other things right. Find something and start to build up that confidence. I had a couple of boys in baseball who couldn't get a hit - their dads would over analyze their swings. So, before they went up, I'd ask them about boogers. Blue ones, purple ones, etc. The whole point was to get those 1000 suggestions out of their minds and just let them see the ball and hit it. You can't do that coaching soccer, I'm sure the parents would look at you funny whenever he got the ball and you yelled "Blue Boogers!". But you can set the stage before you send him in with a relaxed attitude. You need him out there seeing the ball and reacting to it.
I just found this thread and it is a great one. I'm only half way through it from the start but one thing I noticed is the lack of discussion about basic player skills such as: 1) what part of the foot to use 2) using BOTH feet 3) stopping the ball (sounds basic but the biggest difference between Wayne Rooney and some guys in my rec league is his first touch) 4) using your body to protect the ball I've been assisting coaching my kids at U6, U7 and U8 this year and I've struggled to incorporate these basic skills. Coaches, myself included, tend to jump ahead to passing, spacing and other relatively more advanced concepts and skipping over this basic stuff and I notice the same tendancy in this thread. One-on-one with my son I help him have fun with these basics and it really shows in his game but when coaching a group I struggle to find a way to teach these basics. Any ideas?
Which is because we skip all over the place with regards to age level, etc. I find it best to start with them at U6 with getting them used to this type of stuff. At that age, about all I try to teach is how to make contact with the ball. The practices are all about games designed to stress those points. And by games, that might be red light/green light, or contests to see who can kick the ball through a hula-hoop. At times there might be lines (but no lectures or laps), but that is okay because they need natural breaks and they need to watch how the other kids are doing it. When I talk to a parent about their child, I dwell on mechanics and not points scored or wins. If I talk about a goal scored, it is about how the kid managed to do it. And you always have to be prepared to break down a kid's game into 3 or 4 positive things they did correct that day. And if you are focused on the basics, that is easy to do. I.e., the kid may have been the only one not to score on the team, but if you are watching and ready to break it down, you can always find something they were doing right. With the kids who were scoring, you also need to talk about what they were doing such that they know you were focused on them and not the fact that they scored a goal for you. I also make sure that is what the kids hear from me. We always have after game pep talks and there is always time to point out the sweet things they did in a game. And speaking of parents, they get the speech at the start of the season that I am concerned about learning fundamentals, keeping it fun, and not about winning. If I get the parents to buy into fundamentals, if I constantly reward the kids with praise about doing fundamentals, then they'll work on those areas.
I find any discussion of "winning" at the U7 level to be nuts. My kids' league doesn't keep score. Yes of course some kids do sometimes but actually tracking victories seems nuts to me.
asdf2, in the fall, I made the mistake of working on dribbling and passing/receiving about the same. The team is improving more now that it's like a 3-1 ratio. I ran into YET ANOTHER team running the 1-3 formation, so I e-mailed the proper person. He replied that positions were allowed, which kinda contradicted his advice at the fall coach's clinic. Here's what I think happened...this is the first year with CASL playing this way, and he intended for there to be no positions. But teams that played with a dedicated defender dominated, and that style permeated throughout the U-7s, so rather than try to fix EVERYone, he just said, meh, it's allowed. He did state that having a kid camp out in front of his own goal is verborten, and invited me to work with them this summer as they go over the rules/guidelines and refine them. My best player, the guy I was saying should be playing up, has turned to shit. IMO, he's trying to do too much. I've tended to put him out there with 3 weaker players. Further, his mom really wants to challenge him, maybe move him up in age, whatever. We've been talking, and I've told her that I want to see Elliott dominate at this age group. I told her if he were my son, I'd keep an eye on him, and if he can make that small step forward, I'd try to get him in a more challenging environment. But he's started to pretty much suck. Him trying to do too much, I don't know if it's because he's been out there with weaker teammates, or his parents pushing him, or some combination. Probably both but mostly the latter. So this Saturday, I'm going to pair him some with our other big goalscorer at times and see if he's more patient. We played a 2-2, but with the idea that when we have the ball, one of the backs should get forward. That way, no player is stuck at the back. On one really sweet play, a defender got the ball, and as I've taught, he looked up, saw space, dribbled, the other team reacted, he "passed" it forward, and Little Will pounced on it, took it to goal, and scored. Perfect. Unfortunately, the guys weren't familiar enough with the new system. In general, the 2 "backs" were staying way too far back, so really, we were playing 2v4 in one part of the field, and then 2v3 in our defensive end. I'll work on that Thursday. Plus, Elliott, formerly good for 3-4 goals a game, didn't score and didn't really come close. But we've got 3 games left, I hope we can play well. The boys seem happy. Accentuating the positive...I designed a drill for last Thursday that would get the boys who dribble close but slow to dribble faster, and the ones with the inverse problem to exercise closer control. 16 yards by 8 yards. The dribble gets a 4 yard headstart on the defender, and has to dribble to the end. The defender has to get beside or in front of the dribbler and kick it away. Meanwhile, I would stay about 5 yards in front of the dribbler, and if he touched it too heavy, I knocked it away. The players showed tremendous improvement in the game Saturday. Like I said, the 2-2 is fine, we just need to refine it. All the other teams have been playing their formations all year, for us, it's brand new.
Well, the season's over. In one sense we weren't any more successful than in the fall, in terms of wins and losses and goals scored and conceded. But, we did play under a bit of a handicap, as every team played positions, and we didn't switch until halfway through the year. But more importantly, the kids very clearly improved. We had alot of kids who hadn't played before. And of the 9 players on the team, 6 are definitely coming back, another one I am pretty sure will (but wouldn't mind if he didn't, as he has some serious concentration problems and is probably unsuited for soccer. One will be back if his family doesn't move to Alabama. The 9th player, his mom made him play. He was a real disruptive influence at practice, and about halfway through the year we had it out. I told him very quietly he could be silly if he wanted to, but he'd have to be silly over there (pointing at the sideline.) From then on he was wonderful. But he really wants to play hockey, and can't swing that AND soccer in the fall. So, yeah, I'm proud of how I did this season.
