You could even use 2 + a sweeper in the 7v7 (+1) format. Also, the defenders must have some sort of athleticism right? If not fast, they must have some useful combination of strength, agility, balance, height, determination that can be developed to some effect against fast players? By U11 each player should have mastered himself in duel situations - 1vs1 in a small space - both attacking and defending. Slower players should have learned by then to: jam the faster player runs early, sit in the passing/shooting lanes, benefits and drawbacks of loose marking vs tight marking, among 0ther things. When I made my living as a trainer, one of my most important skills was to quickly assess which concepts the club coach was not teaching so that I could be of value. The first place to look with the "play-the-right-way" guys was defending technique and tactics, individual and in a group. Also general competitiveness. These coaches tend to oversimplify the art of defending and under-value the importance of red-blooded competitiveness.
This is really interesting, my DS's coach responded to a loss , U9 level , by having them run various competitive sprint type things for two hours. I thought it was awful coaching because really the other team was just a smarter soccer team and our team will only get smarter by playing more soccer, not sprints. But maybe they do need that type of thing for competitiveness every once in a while? please respond, that practice had me rethinking the coach.
The main issue with this is that they are U9. Doing sprints for two hours, especially if it was right after a game, is nearly abuse, even if it was at the HS level. To do it to 8 and 9 year olds IS abuse. Why not ask the coach what his thinking is? If he thinks particular players are not fit or don't have stamina, he should talk to them about outside SAQ training and running. But seriously, these are 8 and 9 year olds? Coach has a screw loose - two hours?
It was the next practice, and it was explicitly a punishment for not playing hard enough in the prior game. The kids are in great shape. Sounds like my first reaction was right- trouble is he really is a good coach, they play some nice soccer, especially the working out of the back he has emphasized. But I'd like to hear from other knowledgeable folks, I am not sure if this is just what highly competitive kids soccer is.
Hard to tell from a second hand account. One would have to physically be there to observe and see what was really going on. But at U9 I would take competitiveness as an idea to be taught/developed. I wouldn't expect - in this country anyway where most/many soccer players are middle class - that players this age are ready for this type of sharp "reinforcement" of a concept that probably hasn't really been shaped yet in the first place. Even so, it may have been an isolated mistake.
If he has them running at any point without a ball at U9, NOT a good coach. Seriously, what U9 kid is always focused, they are going to have good games, bad games, and both in the same game. He can certainly address it with them, but come on, running for two hours, that is abuse.
This bit is a major fallacy. SAQ/running technique is an extremely important part of developing young players in affluent (comparatively speaking of course) Western cultures. Those exercises lose effectiveness when done with a ball. I get your point overall, but I say this for any parent reading this thread who has no background in training young soccer players.
I feel like that some just consider SAQ and fitness as the player's business to work with on their own. I do see that the top DA programs in my area run a lot of laps (but not at U9 and U12 runs fewer laps before practices than U14 and so on). Laps for punishment is NOT the same as laps to mimic fatigue during a game. Laps for punishment before high school is quite questionable. I have seen coaches tell U12s to do 30 push ups or sit ups for a punishment, but I have not seen U9s punished in this way. I would be interested to see what the kids thought of it. I know my kid might quit, or on the other hand, he might just laugh at the kids who don't have great stamina like him - neither is good in my opinion and teamwork and fortitude is not taught using this form of punishment on such young kids.
IMHO, they're too young for that sort of thinking. They're kids--they're going to show up less than optimally focused from time to time. Now it's likely that at least some of them will dread the next game, and their play will suffer. I could be wrong, maybe he's got a better report with them than I realize. But I doubt it.
The U17 England coach with a comment I fully subscribe: (https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/43994944) Cooper does not view success this month purely through the prism of whether his team win the tournament for the third time in their history, after triumphs in 2010 and 2014. "Of course, we want to be successful but we are not so short minded to think even if we lose, it is not still a good experience for the players," he said. "It is about the lads spending a long time away from home, feeling what knockout football is like, knowing how to manage their bodies in a hectic physical period.