A good friend of mine has recently delved into the puzzling world of youth coaching. He his long term plan to me, about how he would take pride in developing these players over 5 or more years. He said for the first three years that he would focus on individual skills and would leave passing for when they are older. I was confused by this. Then I took a brief look around this forum and found that most of your advice would have been similar. That we should teach individual technique first and anything else later. But why shouldn't we teach the children how to pass. These are my thoughts. - If they learn how to pass properly here they will be better at it when they are older. Learning how to pass at 10 or 11 may be too late. - Passing means that all members of the team get touches on the ball. - Passing leads to an improved understanding of the game. If you teach players to only dribble, will they gain any tactical knowledge at all. - Children naturally will get creative. First you teach them the through pass and suddenly, all by themselves, they will teach themselves the reverse through pass. - It will improve their technique as well. If you teach them to look for the best pass each time they will begin to get their heads up and be composed on the ball as they take their time to find the right option. This, taking of time will teach the player composure and close control. - It discourages simply giving the ball to the biggest, strongest and fastest player and letting him breeze by the other kids to score is 50th goal of the season. - It should produce the results to please the parents too. I also can't help but think that this individual development philosophy isn't working. It is certainly implemented firmly in America, who have never produced a world class player, and it is implemented in England too; who although they have produced many great players, it hasn't been nearly enough for a country of our facilities, passion and population (and most of them were street footballers anyway). Your thoughts?
I don't think anybody proposes not teaching different methods of kicking a ball. A pass is, merely, a certain kicking technique we use to get the ball to another player. And players at a young age should be taught the different kicking techniques, including the best way to pass a ball. However, I think what your friend may be getting at is that he will not be teaching when and where to pass the ball. Tactics for that should be left to later stages of their development.
I think that the problem is that in America it is very rare for players to be together for a long time. In England many young players join academies and such. They play with many of the same players their whole youth career so it is important to teach teamwork before individual skill because players will be with each other for several years. In America it is different because players are constantly playing for different teams. I agree that your friend should teach passing first because it seems like he has a long-term project going on.
Passing is a technique and a ball skill. While you will find all kinds of opinions here, some of us are discussing where the emphasis should be placed. Not teaching any passing technique is not a majority opinion from what I have seen. Collecting is also a technique and usually is practiced in combination with passing. What I take away from the discussions is that the emphasis should be on ball skills until U11 or so. Dribbling should be encouraged. Dribbling should also be emphasized at first as its the foundation for passing and shooting in game conditions. A certain amount of confidence on the ball is needed in order for the player to look up. At really young ages social development limits what most kids can learn easily. Which is another reason for the emphasis on dribbling.
When a player is very young and just learning the game. Ball touch skills have to be first. Like dribbling, have to be able to dribble before you can pass. When you pass it is not with a stantionary ball. You pass off a moving ball off your dribble. You have to be able to dribble with your eyes up so you can see the ball and you can see in front of you. Can anyone pass well when your head is down? The head has to come up to pass. So dribbling comes first. What kind of passes will the player be makeing? When you pass it has to be accurate. What part of the foot will the very young player be passing with most of the time? You have the outside and inside of the foot and the laces. The most accurate passes are made with the inside of the foot. The body position is very aukward for the very young player. Can you teach it yes. But it is not pretty to teach with very young players. The push pass is a lot like the foot and body position for the block tackle. Which is your normal stand up tackle position. So once they have the correct foot position for the push pass they also have the correct foot and body positon for most tackles. You can teach a five year old to do. But, it takes them some time to get and the lace pass is better to learn first before the push pass. Because it is all used as a shot. Back to dribbling learning first to beat the opponent off the dribble makes everything else easier including passing. Beat someone off the dribble that creates more space for the dribbler when he passes. Chances are more team mates will be open. Because someone has to step up and take that dribbler. A big problem with the girls game in my eyes. Is they are afraid to take on the first defender especially from a back position. So they pass even whern there is no one to pass to. Do have to wait three years to introduce passing abosolutely not. But you have to have what I mentione d above first. You can work on passing in the same season. Good way to do that is first be confortable with the ball and the dribble. Then work on beating the first defender then look to pass. Young coaches put what they feel is their worse player in stupid places like as backs. Then that back get's the ball they yell out pass. I would rather yell out dribble to get them use to doing it. I hope I made my case.
You didn't say what age the players are. In my experience at u7 and below there is no point in introducing passing. Once the smallest kids get the ball they don't want to give it up to anyone, teammate or not. They worked hard to get that ball, why should they give it away? I teach my u8s passing technique, but it makes up less than 20% of our practices. One big reason America has never produced a world class player is because not enough youth coaches are doing what your friend intends to do. Too many cave to the pressure from parents to make the youth game look more like "real" soccer.
Passing is so easy to coach, it is in most aspects of the game and when coaching individual skill you almost always need to pass the ball at some stage. Even when coaching shooting it is just a variation of a long pass. Passing doesn't have to be tought on its own but it is good to have one or two sessions just to make sure everyone is ok at it.
The problem is when you have U-6 coaches sitting there with the kids in two lines as they pick their nose and attempt to have some sort of concentration when they kick the ball 1 foot in overgrown grass. That is the scenario most of us coaches don't want to see. But older players, yes passing you can teach. But, you also want to teach players how to maintain possession (and most of the time, possession is lost at younger ages when players just boot the ball for no reason). So, as much as you want to teach passing, teaching the players to maintain possession and dribble effectively is a great tool. All done in moderation of course.
-physically, most 5 & 6 yo's hip sockets/muscles haven't fully developed. They physically do not have the ability to simply open to receive and pass a ball like an older kid or adult can. -Order of thought progression: players should be taught when they get the ball (1) Can I shoot? (2) Can I dribble? (3)Pass. It really should be the third option.
IMHO the problem isn't so much whether or not to teach the players about passing, but that it becomes the focus for the coaches and the kids. The idea not to teach passing for young kids is a new concept in the US and one that is meant to improve the fact that the US hasn't produced a world class player. It was the focus to soccer development for a long time. My son's U6 session is coming to an end and just yesterday we faced the same team we did at the beginning of the session. The other team is filled with kids who are older, bigger and faster than my players. My son was the only one to score a goal for us the first game and he was the only 4 year old on the field with a couple of kids who were about to turn 7. The oldest on our team are some 5 year olds. The other team's coach taught the kids plays which involved certain positioning and quick passing to move it up the field. I did not bother with teaching positioning at all and only spent about 10% of our practice time on any passing. Anyway in the game yesterday, all of the kids on my team knew how to get the ball and what to do with it -- dribbling. We scored a bunch of goals and we had 3 out of the 5 players score (one other just missed a few times). For the other team, the players were confused on what to do with plays, were not able to execute the precise passes or runs required and did best when the big kids would just take the ball and try to dribble through. Of course this is an example of them at a young age, but I strongly believe that teaching my players at age 5 how to win the ball and then look up while dribbling is more important than how to look for the open man to pass to. I do believe in teaching some passing as it is a necessary basic skill, just as receiving a pass (first touch). Out of our 8-45 minute practices I think we spent at most one game per practice that involved passing. The remainder involved dribbling. I used a ton of games/drills from insidesoccer.com. It has become my primary resource to find good games to work on different skills. I don't take what they have directly, but rather use it as a starting point to develop activities to use in practice.
I tend to teach 10-16 year olds, with a large range of abilities and feel passing is very important to teach - but not as much as other skills or exercises. I concentrate on the technique of how to pass as this is what they need to know. Emphasising using the inside of the foot, as well as using it to control the ball.
By maintaining posession you usually need to pass to maintain it as a team so really as I said you don't have to specificall coach passing as it is in most aspects.
When I was coaching younger players, the biggest challenge with passing was movement off the ball, this is WAY beyond young players ability to figure out. Before a team can posses as a team through passing, they have to be able to trap, dribble, kick and run.
Everything you said is a valid comment, but you are discussing tactical considerations, not technique or skill development. That younger players do not make effective use of their skills like an adult player would should not be a concern for youth coaches on a developmental team. Therefore the discussion about encouraging dribbling in matches when tactically its ill advised, sacrificing results for development. We need to teach technique and develop skills with the younger players, and worry about proper tactics later.
That being said, please please please encourage these young players to look-up while dribbling!!! A player needs to be comfortable with the ball at their feet while surveying the field for options -- not only passing options, but dribbling (open space) and shooting (open goal) options as well. This can be incorporated with many different dribbling games/drills. Use different colored cones for red light/green light instead of talking. Play shadow dribble where the kids need to watch you and copy what you do. etc.
With my U8 girls (rec), we practice passing sparingly. In the Fall I'm trying to get the sixes more comfortable with dribbling and control, as most come from a mixed U6 league where the girls don't engage as much as a whole with boys in the team. Once we get into the spring season, we focus on it a bit more but I try to emphasize beating the defender first, then if they want to pass they can make that decision. I see so many coaches yelling to them to pass when they only have one on them to beat, and then they pass to a teammate with two or three girls on her, or wait too late to make the pass and lose possession. I want the players making that decision, not me. I may see a passing opportunity, but I have the benefit of being on the sideline. They need to learn how to assess the situation themselves. We had a lot more passing during games this Spring than in the Fall. Team building and trust has a lot to do with it as well. If they're not comfortable with each other or they don't want to give up the ball, passing effectively won't happen.
Passing is the most important aspect of soccer. It is never too early to teach a child to learn how to pass properly. Initially you should work on the techniques of passing (i.e. using the inside of the foot, the shoe laces etc...). Once that has been mastered to a reasonable degree, it is time to start teaching more complex movements without the ball in order to receive the pass (one of the weakest areas in the sport and one that the best teams in the world do flawlessly. Think recent Barcelona). I try incorporate any kind of pass and move drills including some overlapping drills. After players have the idea in their head that they should never stand still after letting go of the ball they will be much better for it. Passing is the number one way to maintain possession and gives your team the ability to control the game. Soccer obviously requires more than simply keeping possession but without it you are somewhat at the mercy of the other team. At top levels it is an absolute must to be consistently good.
You are right that passing is extremely important, but it really comes down to the group you are coaching. When I've got a new group of U9 and above players, the majority of practice is spent on passing drills and movement. In contrast, that cannot be the case with a group of U4 or U6 players, who don't have much experience controlling the ball. These younger players need to get comfortable with the ball at their feet. Passing is not ignored at this age, but it is also not emphasised. One example that I use in many practices is a little 2v1 game against coach where the player with the ball is encouraged to dribble with their head up and decide whether or not to pass. The player without the ball gets instructed on where to move to receive a pass. Teach the young players to be comfortable surveying the field with the ball at their feet and they will make better decisions with it as they get older.
Yes it is. If you are using practice time to teach U6's how to pass, you are wasting their time and yours.
When I coach the younger kids, passing is a part of drills and practice, but not emphasized. Individual technique needs to come first. You have to master walking before you can run. I also coach high school and often get players whining about my 'back to the basics' practices. Individual ball control (coerver type moves), dribbling, heading... They want to do all the fancy stuff they've read about or seen on tv. Simple answer to them is that we can practice all the fancy plays you want, but come game situation you'll never get to use them because you're too busy coughing up the ball under the slightest pressure. You need good individual ball control skills to create the time for the best passing opportunities. Without the foundation of individual skill, I found kids were just panic kicking the ball away before the opponent takes it away.
I disagree. My kids have been in two strong U-6 academies when they started playing and they learned passing in triangles and with accuracy. It spilled over into friendlies against other academies that attacked in "bee-hives". We passed around those kids and scored often because we were spread out and passed accurately. Yes, these are 6 year olds. Granted, it was messy most of the time, but there were several moments of passing that was accurate due to the introduction of passing at an early age. The key is learning the first soft touch, then redirecting the ball. Both very easy to teach at the 5/6 year old level. Please do not speak in absolutes, especially when it's just an opinion and not a fact.
You put your kid in a strong U6 academy? Wouldn't it be cheaper just to play with your kid in the backyard or at the park?
Yes 26, but how would the kids learn how to beat the offside trap and switch the point of attack then?
It's a soccer coaching forum. Pretty much everthing posted here is someone's opinion - that goes without saying. Soccer "academies" that teach 5 year olds to pass are interested in making it appear to parents that they are teaching their kids to play "real" soccer so you will continue spend your money there. They should be spending their time working on dribbling and ball control instead of "messy" passing drills.
