U-10 Rec. 6 vs. 6 Formation

[Kevin8833]

Any ideas for formations in 6 vs 6 (5 on the field plus goalie) I am thinking 2-1-2 for now.

[Val1]

I wouldn't worry too much about formation, the whole point of SSGs is to focus less on the coach's tactical planning and more on the kids playing.

However, without knowing you or your kids, I'd recommend the 2-2-1, just because your lone striker (in the 2-2-1) is going to get more support from midfielders moving up to support in attack (much easier to run forward) than your lone midfielder (in the 2-1-2) is going to get from 2 forwards tracking back.

[Twenty26Six]

Why play 3 lines? Is the field that big? 3-2 usually works nicely with 5 outfield players.

[goyoureddevils]

I am the director for an Academy program that includes a few very talented U10 teams. My first instinct is to tell you that worrying about tactical setups for 8 and 9 year olds is the reason why I have 260 kids in my program working on skills development instead of "team building". But I have to admit, I think that having the proper set up can help kids be adventurous and creative on the field of play.

Ironically enough, my program had its first game day yesterday (Sunday), and as director it is my pleasure to walk around the park all day watching kids play a game they are passionate about. Of the 5 or 6 really talented U10 teams, I can honestly say that at least four of them played a 3-2, with only two lines as the previous poster mentioned. The best team of the bunch attacked with all 5 players, and defended with all 5... I am not so sure you can convince 9 year olds to do that with a three line system.

We are taking Labor Day weekend off, but if you would all like, I will take some video on Sept 9th of the best teams playing, and then set up a link to the vids on my website.

[rca2]

Good comments above. I have little experience, but I think I would try teaching some principles of play rather than a system and positions. For example width and depth attacking, and immediate pressure and cover defending. You would end up with a total soccer look. I think of it as a line of 5. It would be similar to teaching a flat back 4 defensive line with the keeper added in.

It may be too ambitious and in the past I did the opposite: taught positions directly and indirectly principles of play. But that was U10s playing 11v11. They needed a system with sides that large. On the other hand 5v whatever (including a keeper) would be how I would teach flat back four, so it might work.

[Kevin8833]

I am not going to harp on position play don't worry, I realize this is rec I will keep a fun and light atmosphere and try to teach the kids the game the right way and not just worry about results sorry to sound like I am trying to be to tactical I definatly will not be, I want to teach the kids skills and make sure that they are having fun the only reason I was asking is for myself I will not be preaching tactical play to 9 year olds it is supposed to be fun I was just wondering how I should set up the field on game day that is all.

[Twenty26Six]

I am not going to harp on position don't worry haha I realize this is rec I will keep a fun and light atmosphere and try to teach the kids the game the right way and not just worry about results sorry to sound like I am trying to be to tactical I definatly will not be, the only reason I was asking is for myself I will not be preaching tactical play to 9 year olds it is supposed to be fun I was just wondering how I should set up the field on game day that is all.

3-2. Call them "backs" and "forwards".

You can, but don't have to teach...
* Defensive depth
* Pressure and cover
* Combination play
* Transition
* Penetration
* Functional forward play with 2 forwards.

Obviously, you don't really do much of any of those things. BUT if you spend a minimal amount of time explaining the formation w/ something easy like 3 backs, 2 forwards, you can start to ask questions of the kids that help them figure out the other stuff. And, all the stuff listed above works with small [1-2] changes in their position respective to each other.

Ex: To create defensive depth, the central back drops out off the line and covers behind the other backs.

There's no right way, but I think that's how I would do it.

[goyoureddevils]

There's no right way, but I think that's how I would do it.


But there is... and you hit it right on the head! By putting them in a system that actually allows the game - and the coach - to teach them about width and depth, pressure and cover. I think that this is an approach that works with kids no matter their level.

As an example, I use the same set up for 6v6 games when I am coaching for Indiana ODP. These kids are the cream of the crop, but they are still in need of reinforcing lessons they may or may not have learned when they were U10! Kevin, if you teach your kids this sort of stuff now, using a formation that allows them to put it into simple and effective practice, then you will be putting your kids a step ahead... all while not stiffling the fun out of the game!

[Kevin8833]

Ok so 3-2 it is and I will teach the kids to play the game the right way and have fun but one more question before I head out, what do i do when the ball is in the middle of the field? The two forwards should work back correct unless it is more towards the defense then they should step up? Also, should I use my middle defender as a sweeper or center defender?

[Twenty26Six]

Ok so 3-2 it is and I will teach the kids to play the game the right way and have fun but one more question before I head out, what do i do when the ball is in the middle of the field? The two forwards should work back correct unless it is more towards the defense then they should step up? Also, should I use my middle defender as a sweeper or center defender?

They shouldn't be separating so far as to create a gap between them where you would say the ball is "in the middle".

If they are without possession and the ball is past your forwards, a defender steps up to challenge and the other defenders should move to get behind that player in cover (i.e. - pressure and cover). That creates you "3" lines of depth that you might forcibly construct with a 2-1-2.

If you have possession with your right back, the center back gives support in negative space [behind the man in possession] and one forward checks while the other stays high. That creates more lines of depth, also.

[Twenty26Six]

But there is... and you hit it right on the head! By putting them in a system that actually allows the game - and the coach - to teach them about width and depth, pressure and cover. I think that this is an approach that works with kids no matter their level.

As an example, I use the same set up for 6v6 games when I am coaching for Indiana ODP. These kids are the cream of the crop, but they are still in need of reinforcing lessons they may or may not have learned when they were U10! Kevin, if you teach your kids this sort of stuff now, using a formation that allows them to put it into simple and effective practice, then you will be putting your kids a step ahead... all while not stiffling the fun out of the game!

Well, I certainly think 3-2 is the most appropriate formation [dependent on field size] for 5 outfield players. When you go up to 6 + keeper, I can make equal cases for both 3-3 or 2-3-1. BUT... that's another topic.

[rca2]

Goyoureddevils: Are you teaching them about shape or do you assign positions? Just curious. I am not a fan of assigned positions at that age with small sides. I think it stifles creativity and makes play predictable. And as you can see from the discussion (3 defenders provide pressure and cover), you can end up with 3 defending instead of all 5.

Keven8833: I wouldn't use a "field player" as a sweeper. I would give that role to the keeper to get him more involved in the play.

[Twenty26Six]

I don't feel that assigning positions is bad at higher U-10 levels, as long as you rotate the kids through all positions equally and teach responsibilities of general positional play (i.e. - backs, forwards).

However, with U-10 Rec, you might be better off _just_ letting them play - which would mean not assigning positions - which would mean not having a formation - which would nullify this discussion.

[goyoureddevils]

Positions help define responsabilities.... love it or hate it, the fact is that kids do well with structure when trying to learn to play a game. And remember, we are not talking in terms of right back, left back, stopper, sweeper, ect... what we I teach is a 3-2 line up where the back three and the front two are linked in everything they do. I wish I had video of our best U10 boys team and also the best of the U10 girls. The leading scorer for both teams was a back! That's what I call fun and functional!

As for involving the keeper as a sweeper/keeper, I think the idea is great... just so long as everyone understands that there are gonna be some silly mistakes made. In my program, we keep standings so that we can seed the end of season tournament, but otherwise we don't post scores or any other stats. Although the kids and the parents know exactly who won and by how much, we keep striving to focus their attention on creativity and freedom to make mistakes without the fear of criticism.... so far its working with all but the complete asses :/

[ranova]

...And remember, we are not talking in terms of right back, left back, stopper, sweeper, ect... what we I teach is a 3-2 line up where the back three and the front two are linked in everything they do....

Thanks for the explanation. Just assigning players to a line is an idea that I like.

[Kevin8833]

Thank you guys for all of your help I have tons of experiance playing soccer but I am pretty new to coaching, plus I don't care what level I get to I am capable of doing things wrong so all of your advise is great this forum is a great idea and should really help the kids. Again thanks for all of your input, and one more thing I have a list of around 10 drills so I may have enough anyways but are there any favorite drills people have for kids this age that are fun but teach them skills of the game?

[goyoureddevils]

Two things I really like:

1v1 Cone Soccer - At this age I keep the kids focused on the idea of being able to "Keep the Ball" during this rather than learning a ton of "Beat Them" moves. To that effect, I have them train for about 10 minutes doing a series of intensive but simple touches. After that, I have them grab a quick drink, and come back with a partner and a ball. Each pair will grab a set of cones that I have laid out already - 15 yards apart. Each player has a cone to attack, and one to defend. Play 90 second games, no boundries, no stoppages whatsoever, even if a player scores he or she may keep the ball and continue attacking. A point is scored by shooting, passing, or dribbling the ball into your opponent's cone. At the end of the game, have the kids switch partners to play someone new - play 3 to 4 rounds. In between rounds you can teach short lessons about defensive stance, tackling, shielding and turning, ect. The kids love this game as it is challenging, but at its core just alot of touches on the ball.

4v4 plus a target player - We have all probably used this one for older kids, but if you want a game that is a great teacher all by itself, this is the one. 4v4 small goal game with a target player that is free to roam the field, but not allowed to score. The condition is, after a team wins possesion, they can't score till they make a pass to this player.

Variation 1 - Use wide target players that have to stay in "safe" zones outside the field of play along the sidelines to teach your team to look for wide outlets.

Variation 2 - Use sweeper/keepers as the target players, forcing deep defenders to get comfortable under pressure by playing the ball early, and helping the team in possesion get used to thinking in terms of more than just one direction of play. Also a good way to teach kids how to play a drop pass and then open up.

Variation 3 - Pick the kid who just does not get as involved as you like in the attack and make him/her the only one allowed to score for either team. I have even used this with older kids as punishment of a sneaky sort... having to sprint up and down a 40 x 60 field for 10 to 15 minutes with teammates screaming at them to hurry up will usually cure even the most dedicated of smartasses. With the little ones, on a 30 x 40 field, it can be a great way to bring a kid out of his shell or to reward a kid who likes to shoot.

I think both of these activities are adaptable to alot of situations, and can be set up easily for a wide variety of teachable moments.

[Kevin8833]

Good stuff I will add these to my collection, much appreciated!

[Val1]

This is what I wrote up for another site:

What the girls in this league need is repetition, since we are still talking girls whose soccer entirety has been playing in this league (very few seem to play by themselves or even during recess). I've got maybe 10 exercises that I'll do all year long, usually in different permutations and with some elementary progressions, to give them that repetition.

1st Exercise
The first is very basic, coming from the very first lesson in Tony Carr's book, How to Coach a Soccer Team.

X ..........................> Y
( o ------------ o )
X <........................ Y

There's two poles/cones, and two players on either side, X and Y. X passes the ball to Y, who doesn't trap the ball, but pushes it across the pole and passes back to X. X comes across the pole to receive it and in turn, pushes it back across the pole/cone to pass back to Y. Very simple, very basic, very needed by the girls in my league. But this is designed to keep the girls from trapping and stopping the ball and to encourage movement. Do this as long as needed until you can direct your players to pass the ball amongst themselves in pairs and they are naturally moving the ball about and not just trapping the ball.

2nd Exercise.
Get all the kids in a slightly smaller grid than you might normally use, for me with my U11 girls, that would 20x20 for 9-10 girls. Each kid with a ball. Basically, they're going to dribble around the grid, not going out of bounds, keeping control, not allowing their ball to hit anyone else's ball. Lots and lots of progressions here (meaning different things you can emphasize). Easy things: when you blow the whistle, every kid has to stop the ball. Or when they have to run to another ball (and this can become a sort of musical chairs game, where the last kid to find a ball or tries to take his/her own has to sit down). Or, when you blow the whistle each kid has to execute a turn with the outside of his foot, or if you've been working on turns, whatever turn you've been practising. One I just made up last night, when I blew the whistle, the kids had to look at me and see how many fingers I was holding up. This makes them have to dribble while looking up to see me and avoid other players. After a couple of weeks, I'll make the grid larger and put in several pairs of cones (or gates) and when I blow the whistle, have the kids dribble through a gate. You can also add a lot of tag games to this format.

3rd Exercise.
A real favorite that I've described here before. But two large goals with two keepers in each goal, maybe 20, 25 yaards apart, like so:

| ___________________ |
.................X............X




....................Y...............Y
| ___________________ |

One player from team X dribbles the ball down and shoots on Y's goal. If Y makes the save, Y advances as fast as possible to shoot on X while the one player is maybe still out of position. If Y scores, X gets a ball from behind the line and advances quickly as well. Really a great game. This game is great for shooting practice in general, advancing on goal quickly especially if after a turnover in the defender's half, retreating while running backwards, and goalkeeping. Last year's team would have been happy to play this all practice long. Very easy to fit in a couple of extra players as they can be shagging balls.

4th Exercise
I've done these previous exercises alot in previous seasons. What I am going to do more of this year is the Ajax game, made famous of course, by the Dutch team Ajax. The game has three teams of 3, so the game is abbreviated 3+3 v 3. You really need pinnies for this game. Each team has their own color, and you start out with two teams versus the other playing keep away. So it is 6 vs 3 in maybe a 30x30 grid. The team that causes the turnover, whether it is the bad pass, or losing it out of bounds, or getting caught in possession, goes on defense. You'll have to help your players recognize the change of possession and which team has to drop back to defense, but this is a good game to play.

5th Exercise
Get Out of Jail. Less of a skill game and much more of a fun game. Good to have if you've gotten beat hard or if you want to get players enthused about the season early on.

Coach starts in goal (after playing this a couple of times, you can let the kids play keeper as well). Everyone is in a line, maybe 30 yards from goal. Have a very small (2x2) grid off to the side, which is jail. Each kids dribbles down and shoots. If he scores, he gets the ball out of the net and goes back to the end of the line. If he misses, he gets his ball and goes into the jail. Posts count as misses. If the keeper saves the shot, he punts the ball in the air. If the player catches the ball, everyone is freed from jail. If he drops it, he goes into jail. Start with easy drop kicks until you know how good your kids are at catching.
This game is just a lot of fun and good for building team spirit as your kids in jail really cheer on the kids trying to catch the punts.

6th Exercise
Bomb Ball. Have two teams of players lined up across from each other across a relatively narrow channel, say maybe 10-12-15 yards. Put a ball in the middle, something that will stand out from the other balls. Sort of like marbles, kids have to drive the ball across the other team's line, and when it does cross the line, the "bomb" has gone off and everyone on the losing team has to die a loud and glorious death (at least up until U12 or so). This gives players lots of reps striking a ball with some pace.

7th Exercise
I am going to work more on dribbling this year than I have in the past. While it is fashionable to to quote the No Lines No Lectures No Laps thing, I have never had a problem with laying out cones in a line and having kids dribble around them. Seems to have worked well enough for Best and yes, even Cruyff. What I don't like is having to set up the cones. So the way Stanley Matthews learned to dribble was along a line on the field. Standing on the line, your players dribble down the line, having the ball cross the line with each touch. Depending on the skill level, they can start out using the insides of their feet, but then advancing onto using just one foot (which means every other touch of the ball is with the outside of their foot). And to change things up, you can have your kids dribble a little faster by keeping the ball ON the line. But the real reason for this is that this is a great lead-in for teaching the Matthews turn: as you dribble and approach the defender, you push the ball with the inside of your foot across your body. So if you are dribbling with your right foot, you push the ball with the instep of your right foot towards the left side of your body. The defender should move his body to his right (your left). As your right foot continues it's step forward after the initial push, move it to left side of the ball and push the ball right with your outside foot. Explode right into space that the defender left because he was moving to your left. This is about the only turn that I have successfully be able to teach young U10 - U14 players. I've got three players on my team now that I would expect to be able to execute a Matthews turn in a game by the end of the season.

8th Exercise
Very simple one, actually, and one that frequently gets forgotten, but let the kids scrimmage. Two years ago, especially, I always seemed to get bogged down with too many over-talkative kids and some discipline problems, and it always took longer than I thought with getting through my program. The lesson is that the game is the program and if your other exercises are taking too long, cut them out so the kids can play. Many coaches will say that coaches shouldn't play with the kids and that they should just have a chance to play without adult interference, and there is merit to that. But I like to play because I like to play; it is rewarding for me. But more importantly, the girls I have are usually more intimidated of me than boys. When I can convince the girls not to run away from me they'll start to learn to challenge everyone of the field. Yesterday I made that point to my best player when she started a knee-jerk withdrawal from me. Three minutes later, she caught my misdribble in my penalty box, took the ball away from me, hit it first time and scored. She caught my error, I wasn't playing easy at that moment. Hopefully, she'll take this out on the field with her and not back down from anyone.

[Val1]

And since I couldn't post all this in one thread...

9th Exercise
Wallball. Great game for developing leg strength and power. You need a big wall (I've had people tell me that a couple of benches laid on their sides work as well, but they're never tall enough for my kids and we spend way too much time chasing balls). Players line up maybe 10-15 yards from the wall, first player in line has one ball, He dribbles once and then strikes the ball firmly and goes to the end of the line. Next person in line has to get to the ball and hit it back against the wall before the ball stops. If that player can't get to the ball or his strike fails to hit the wall, he gets the letter W (for wall) and goes to the end of the line. You get an additional letter for each miss, until you spell out WALL, and then you have to sit down. Last person standing wins. Progressions: get a total of 2 touches and then move up to 1 touch wall ball. Once the kids get the hang of "being difficult": trying to have the ball softly hit the wall or strike it at an extreme angle, so to make the following player really have to run, this becomes the most cut-throat game. Lots of fun. I will move my 2nd practice to a different location just to find a good wall. This is also one of the few games that I've been able to have my kids play without me for long periods of time.

10th Exercise
Good passing movement and communication here. I use the following as my pre-game warmup. Big circle or square (the center circle works well for this). 2/3 of your team lines up outside the circle/square, with the remaining players inside said circle/square with a ball each. They each look at a person outside the square, call his name and pass the ball to him. Then they run to space to receive the ball back, and then go look for another person to pass to. This game teaches movement well, good receiving motion, and it seems to be the one game that I can use to get the girls to talk and communicate.

11th Exercise
This is a game that I call Wimbledon, so of course no one in America knows the geography... But a good game to teach players because sometimes they'll play by themselves. Best for small numbers, say maybe four or five players max. One keeper, everyone else out in the field, but the game is like the basketball game 21, everyone against everyone. Keeper plays the ball out, and it's a free-for-all. First player to score two goals sits, then the next player to score 2 sits, until there are only two players left playing 1v1. Loser sits as everyone else goes into the next round. Now it is the first player to score three, and the elimination continues. Each subsequent round, another person sits until you have the winner. Winner goes into goal for his well-deserved rest. Lots of 1v1 play is emphasized here and each player gets a break, so you can play this all day long. Which brings me to...

12th Exercise
And lastly, 1v1. I have done 1v1 drills before, but never down at the U10 (U11 for girls) ages before. I dunno, just seemed too advanced, but obviously I was wrong. I'm going to do a lot more of this. Fairly simple to set up a 10 yard wide channel maybe 15 yards wide. One player serves the ball to the other, than he plays defense -- approach the ball/player quickly to slow the player down, then move in control to challenge the ball -- while the receiving player is going to try to beat the defender and stop the ball on the opposite end line. For younger kids, keep it simple. I only teach two or three moves: the aforementioned Stanley Matthews move, the push and a simple stepover (maybe because those are the only three I can do). But the best progression comes from the defensive side of things in that you can teach approaching the ball and start to work on first-man defense.

And that's it. Most practices will be a combination of these drills. I haven't had to teach offsides lately, so that is missing, and I've found my girls especially need the repetition, so there's not a lot of time spent on formation or tactics here, just lots of touch, lots of pass and receive.