[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.