Coaching very young kids

[rymannryan]

I'm only 16 so I won't be coaching any time soon, but I'm amazed that anyone can coach kids as young as 5 or 6. They have very little attention span. But I was just wondering what exactly coaches teach them and how they teach them?

[Elroy]

Originally posted by rymannryan
I'm only 16 so I won't be coaching any time soon, but I'm amazed that anyone can coach kids as young as 5 or 6. They have very little attention span. But I was just wondering what exactly coaches teach them and how they teach them?

There are a ton of things beginning with which way to run on offense versus defense. Kids can be caught dribbling for speed and to change direction, passing, collecting ( try to avoid calling it trapping ), tackling, and shooting. In fact they can be taught just about anything older players can except possibly offsides.

Coaches at this age need a lot of games/drills to keep things moving and you should remember that learning is cumulative, so lots of repitition is necessary.

Once when we had practiced running shoot outs as a tourney tiebreaker, my six year old GK stopped two breakaways clear out at the penalty line. After congratulating her, I asked how she made her decision. Her reply was " It looked like a running shoot out, so I decided to do what we do on those. "!!!!! That was one of my most satisfying coaching moments in a twenty year career.

Be patient and have fun!

[GPK]

I think you really need to make sure you're the right person for the job.

I did first year U-8's after 5-6 years in the U-12 and U-14 levels and didn't enjoy it.....I liked the teaching aspect of it, but often felt like a babysitter more than a coach....

I spent most of my time focusing on the proper techniques of passing, shooting, receiving and throws.

[dsheon]

I have five year old twins - boy and girl. I think they do best with my instruction to just the two of them rather than playing in a larger group. They like it and frequently ask to go play with me - which is fine with me! Lately I play monkey in the middle with them. My main point to them is to realize they are more important when they DON'T have the ball than when they do -- they need to run into open position to get a pass where the monkey won't intercept. It works great and I can tell that when they get to team play within the next year or so their little brains will be programed to move to the open space and pass to the open space. I would love to read other suggestions!

[Elroy]

The best suggestion I can make is lots of demonstration, lots of encouragement, lots of questions, lots of repition, and lots of fun. Minimize lines and lectures.

I like keepaway as a basic learning tool. I also had success putting them in formation and making them react to my running around the field with the ball. I would then throw the ball and ask the players who was to make the play and what the other players were to do. I did this for 4-5 minutes per practice and encouraged the kids to think for themselves ( b/c I made them answes ). The question/answer format was very successful.

[Richie]

"I'm amazed that anyone can coach kids as young as 5 or 6. They have very little attention span. But I was just wondering what exactly coaches teach them and how they teach them?"

Be surprised what they can learn. But there are some that like to just play with the grass :-)

Session no longer then an hour. Try to run the session when the field is deserted so less outside things to distract them. Everyone has a ball and gets a lot of touches,

I did my youngest sons team when he was 5. it was a blast I had a lot of fun.

I practiced once a week for about three months as soon as I got the players names. Nothing mandatory I just called the parents that I was going to take my son out to play Saturday mornings at 8 am and invited them to join us. I had a great turnout once they saw their kids had a good time and that they had a good time.

I made sure the parents had a good time helps get a good turnout.

I really taught their kids and the parents at those practices.

Most important thing I tried to give those kids and the parents was my love of the game.

When the season ended those kids could trap the ball, they could all dribble and change directions with the ball. They could tackle and win the ball and dribble, they knew the different parts of the field, they even made a pass or 2 I think some of them were even intentional. They could pass with the laces and do the push pass pretty accurately. I got them to dribble comming to me while running while I was moving from them and while making minor changes in my directions. I would have them do that till they reached me or I would tell them to pass to me. Could not do any of this if they dribbled with their head down.

Oh, even the diggers and pullers of the grass became even better diggers and pullers :-) I even got to be a good digger and puller.

Some of those kids had pretty good attention spans.

End every practice with some candy for each player. Use the parents to help in your practices. Kid is not interested work with him still not interested join him do what he likes to do dig with him. Make games that he can score on and cheer him when he scores or does something good.

Be patient very patient. Rome was not built in a day and neither is a player.

One of the best notes I got was from a Grandfather. He came to the practices with the boys mother. The boys father would fight with the mother they were going through a bad divorce. Even he started to show up at the practices I made it a point to get him into it.

At the end of the season he was civil to his soon to be X wife and her father, and got into the game as well. They actually looked happy altogether at those games. I think that was probably the best thing I did for that little player that year.

[dsheon]

These are great comments and this may well become my favorite big soccer thread. I hope others will contribute ideas.

[Paul Nasta]

I 'coached' 4 year olds this past fall, and will do so again in the spring.

I'm with GPK, kids that age have very short attention spans and you can't really coach them in the traditional sense. They just want to run around, wrestle with their friends, chase butterflies, go the sideline and get a snack, etc.

Keepaway worked pretty well. Dribbling and shooting drills worked with some of my kids.

[Richie]

"I 'coached' 4 year olds this past fall"

Which leads me to ask is there an age that is to young to actually coach a player?

I don't think so, I would even go as far as trying to teach the player while he or she is in the mother womb. Teach the mother to dribble and the fetus will have it in his subconcious mind. :-) I could not resist.

[rymannryan]

Originally posted by ds39heon
These are great comments and this may well become my favorite big soccer thread. I hope others will contribute ideas.


Yeah, these are some great posts. I've always wanted to teach kids soccer from a young age and perhaps someday I will.

[dsheon]

While I didn't ask their mother to dribble the ball, I did take a balloon and bounce it off their heads when they were less than a year old. I did that over and over. I know there's all kinds of press about heading the ball at an early age and I won't encourage that for quite a few years with the soon to be six year old twins. But I will do anything I can to get them to never be afraid of the ball.
One more thing: the twins are boy girl. The boy has always been bigger and stronger and the girl is petite. But she's a better player because she listens and takes direction much better. He uses his size and weight though to take control of the ball from her on loose balls. Very interesting to watch this. I make them keep their hands at their sides at all times on loose balls.

[Elroy]

Originally posted by ds39heon
While I didn't ask their mother to dribble the ball, I did take a balloon and bounce it off their heads when they were less than a year old. I did that over and over. I know there's all kinds of press about heading the ball at an early age and I won't encourage that for quite a few years with the soon to be six year old twins. But I will do anything I can to get them to never be afraid of the ball.


I wouldn't teach heading directly out of the air until they are 10-11 years old. But, kids can be taught to head a bouncing ball at a much earlier age. Nerf balls are a good way to start. Kids will pick it up when they are ready.

[Richie]

"One more thing: the twins are boy girl. The boy has always been bigger and stronger and the girl is petite. But she's a better player because she listens and takes direction much better. He uses his size and weight though to take control of the ball from her on loose balls. Very interesting to watch this."

I am leaving coaching young kids thread a bit here because I feel something interesting was touched on here.

That is the difference between the boys and the girls game in general even with the National teams in my view.

I think it is very important to have a coach for each group that brings more of the others game into the mix.
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Watch the backs in the mens game. They don't just pass when they have the ball all the time they dribble, the women backs basically pass when they have the ball to start the attack most of the time.

The men will dribble to start the attack even take on a player before they pass. Women don't do that, and they are not encouraged to do that by their coaches because they feel it is risky.
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I think a back taking on a player is not always risky. Take on a player beat the player you created space because someone has to leave their man to pick the back up.

So you have more room to play even when playing close until you can make the breakout pass. Women because of lack of space close and since they always pass can't always make the break out pass.
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Why isn't it a risky play. The reason is in some cases the defenders angle on the back is poor and he can easly be beat the defender just by stepping up and then moving away from the opponents defender.

How do you know when to do it? I like putting defenders in grids at different positions and comming from different directionsin each grid against a dribbler moving through each grid. You can have a free space grid in between each defenders grid, but no wasting time in the free grid you must move forward.

So now the dribbler has a gauntlet type exercise trying to beat different defenders comming at him from different directions and positions.

If he loses the ball in a grid you stop play and show him how to better take on on the defender until he can beat that defender.

That gives a back confidence in his ability to take on and beat the defender or when not to take on the defender.

You want a girl to have this kind of coach not one that is afraid of her making a mistake. You learn from mistakes. You want a coach that thinks she can do anything well in the game. I have seen women coaches that discourage them from taking any risks. Take no risks you can't be inventive and then you are ordinary. Ordinary is a dime a dozen.
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A boy has a tendency to do it already so he needs more discipline in their game especially concerning his off ball support. So he needs a coach more into a more discipline approach to his off ball positioning and a knowledge of how to eliminate exposed space within a team concept.
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On heading in the girls game it is weak because a lot of womens coaches don't expect or teach decent heading skills in the women game,

When the National team beat China and the rest of the teams in the WC it was because the opponents could not dral with Akers in the air. When they tried to beat her they caught a beating from that girl. She was my MVP in that WC.

Richie

[hermsoccergrl]

always bring them candy...

[jdonnici]

Originally posted by Richie
Which leads me to ask is there an age that is to young to actually coach a player?

I coach a U12 boys team, but have a daughter who just turned 3 last week. She loves to go to the U12 games, as well as to the Rapids games we have tix for. She loves anything with a soccer ball on it and is quite the "Daddy's Girl".

In any case, it's surprised me the things that she is able to learn. When the weather is nice, she wants to get outside and kick a ball just about every day... so I show her things like where her feet should be when she kicks it; how she can kick 'under' the ball to make it pop up; how she can use the inside of her foot to stop a ball that's rolling to her. And especially how we don't use our hands. :)

We often use a lawn chair or something as a goal, or play games where we run backward or on our knees. Mostly we goof off and laugh when we're running around, but it holds her attention for about 20 minutes and she has a blast.

Our local youth program lets them start playing at 3.5 - 4 years, so we'll see...

J

[CUS]

I started coaching my oldest nephews when they were 3. The oldest scored 6 goals his first practice.

I'll disagree with a lot of what is being said here. The most important thing to teach kids that age is comfort with the ball. At that age, even the ball (and yes, sometimes your teammates) are obstacles to overcome. Most kids that age don't recognize what a 'team' is.

For each practice, lots of dribbling games, I'll do relay races (with the ball) and co-ordination excercises.

[Michael Russ]

I developed this short manual for the u-6 coaches in my club's house league:

http://www.geocities.com/ldpanthers/manual/index.htm

Any comments or suggestions are welcome

[FreedomFan526]

I have never visited the coaching forum before. But I recently decided that I would like to coach at the middle school level once I graduate college and start teaching (one more year). So I decided to check out this forum because I assume I can find some very good stuff.

I have really enjoyed reading the comments on coaching young children. Like I said in the above paragraph - I would like to coach at the middle school level. But coaching young children is interesting to me as I hope I will have children who hold some interest in soccer.

I have baby sat/ worked in daycare / worked as a nanny for years. There are some basic rules that are needed for working with young children. And they would also apply to coaching young children.

1. Be patient. Children are not always ready to learn or able to learn what you want them to. Sometimes you might have to repeat yourself or wait and try again at another time.

2. Give in sometimes. When a child does not want to do something they usually will not give in and do it. So sometimes it is better to back off and allow the child to have a break.

3. Be ready to learn. Children are always teaching adults. You might think that since you are the coach you should always be the one teaching. But if you pay attention you too will learn.

I think one of the hardest things about soccer for young children is the variety in ability. For example I am the nanny for a six year old boy. He loves soccer and he is very good at it (I am not just saying that - He really has a lot of skill). He loves to practice and he loves to play. He goes out and scores 5+ goals a game. He often gets bored at practice and at games because the other children are not at his level. However when his parents requested he be moved up an age group that could not be done.

Anyway. I have rambled enough. Keep posting. I have really enjoyed what I have read so far.

[Richie]

Originally posted by Michael Russ
I developed this short manual for the u-6 coaches in my club's house league:

http://www.geocities.com/ldpanthers/manual/index.htm

Any comments or suggestions are welcome

It is good Michael, but on encouragement. Should we encourage play in general even if the player made what you would consider a bad play in a game. If you encourage the effort on a bad play so will the parents, and those little guys will think what they did was a good play when it was not.

Isn't better to encourage good play, and just be silent when they make what you consider a bad play. Then take notes on what that player did wrong, then correct that flaw in the next practice.

I think you should not verbally encourage all play. Encourage all play they can get confused. Plus, the parents will see what you do and encourage a bad play as well. So you will see a lot more bad play then you would normally. So teach players what a good play is and teach the parent what a good play is.

Richie

[Bill Archer]

Some good stuff here, but I think some of it is overcomplicated.

From years of working with littler kids just a couple hard-won, hard-learned non-complicated suggestions:

Avoid the "alright, form two lines, first two kids run down the field doing "X", then the next two" stuff. Please don't ask little kids to stand patiently in line. Reject "drills" that ask you to do this. They don't stand in line well, and they need MORE TOUCHES on the ball.

Don't do drills. Do games. Find a way.

Don't make them sit and listen to you for more than 30 seconds. Trust me, they won't hear you and you'll only be wasting your time and theirs. Don't believe me? Ask a teacher.

If you've worked hard, done your homework found the perfect thing to solve all your teams' problems, gotten there 15 minutes early to set up the cones and flags and then they JUST DON'T GET IT...stop. Explain it again, try again. If it still isn't working, shrug your shoulders and move on. I've seen way too many coaches spend half a practice trying to get the kids to do some drill right. If it ain't working, it ain't working. Give it up.

None of your players will play for the USA someday. No, not even that kid you really think has talent. Trust me.

The fathers want you to make them winners. The mothers want you to love them.

Above all, remember: being freindly is a great thing, but kids have LOTS of freinds. What they need is a coach. Teach them to love the game and you've done your job. You can't make a player. Players do that for themselves.

To long, I know, but one more: I have had lots of teams: some undefeated champions, some teams that were lucky if they won one or two games. Now, I know everybody sits around saying "I really don't care if we win or lose, blah, blah, blah"

Horsehockey. You care. The parents care. The kids care. And you should care. It's OK. I mean, what the hell is the point of playing a game if you don't care who wins?

But watch the kids. They like winning, they ARE unhappy when they lose, but they get over it in, like, two minutes. Gone. Forgotten. While you and the parents are still standing around bitching about how the referee robbed you, they'll be out chasing each other around the field laughing hysterically.

Learn from them: it's OK to care, but only for two minutes. Then go chase each other around. Being a kid is the coolest thing in the world. Try it.


PERSONAL WISH: Someday, on my personal planet, I will abolish the post-game "line up and slap hands and say good game" ritual. Meaningless, stupid and, frankly, degrading. Just something we force them to do and pretend it's "good sportsmanship".

It's a crock and they know it. The only people who don't know it are the idiots who run leagues and insist that the kids do it.