So I was recently hired to oversee a FREE soccer program (free and after school) we soon found that volunteer coaches were very hard to attain, and I stepped up to the plate to coach a team and practice sessions so the kids could participate. Unfortunately I (and many of our volunteers have never played soccer before), but I will just focus on my team for now. To say the least its straight out of hollywood movie, a band of 12 rug rats (6th grade), out of shape, dont like to run, zero team work etc. But we are not getting the hollywood good ending. So far, we start our practice with the following: 1. 4 laps (ends up being up to 8-10 as horseplay never ceases to end). 2. Setting up 4 cones and the players kick/pass to each other, as everyone revolves around the square. 3. 1 vs 1 trying to get the ball back to their cone 4. traveling down the entire field passing 1 on 1 5. Passing drills at a distance, throw ins, toe taps as quick as you can on tapping the ball 6. Scrimmage, offence vs defense Our games: Game 1 we lost 8 to 3 Game 2 we lost 10 to 1 Observations: we play 90% of the game fighting against goals against us, our last game our goalie stopped about 8 goals. Positions: Player 1 (striker) - Power, precision, speed, one of our few athletic players, will score goals Player 2 (striker) - Filler for now, no hustle, no running, but has potential Player 3 (mid fielder) - small fast, great foot work, wont pass the ball, weak kicker but 2nd best on team. Player 4 (mid fielder) - small fast, some foot work, but wont get passed to as does not play nice with player 3 Player 5 (mid fielder) - shows hustle, some what lazy, but one of the more active players Goes down hill from here Player 6 (mid defense) - zero ball control, but not afraid of the ball, I can one good kick max out of them. Disrupts the team, does not care about the sport (often a lap runner) Player 7 (mid defense) - Best mid player on the team, hustle, for the most part not afraid of ball Player 8 (mid defense) - zero ball control, not afraid, can give me one good kick at best (non runner) Player 9 (last line of defense) - again no hustle, Player 10 Player 11 I will not discriminate against any player, but these two have physical or mental disabilities that do not allow them to compete competitively, but are still on the field full game. Player 12 - jokester uses his lack of skill to entertain the team, with his follies, often yelling at the top his lungs complaining, also the one who is doing the most laps. Player 13 - my most heavy set on the team, great goalee, will not dive or jump for the goal, but for the most part stops ALOT of balls coming his way. If we go up against any team with formal soccer training, we can not contain them, no running, talking on the field, jokes, laughing at each other, seems like they are making light of most of it, but its reflecting badly on me especially since I am running the entire program. I am thinking of reversing my team, and placing the best as defense, and the not so great on offense, till we can contain the ball, and get it on the other side. As a team, they are not coming together and its making my job rather hard. Any help would be appreciated.
Don't take this wrong. You were hired because you are a school teacher right? Your not doing it for love of the game. School teachers don't do anything for free. Your more there to supervise them for insurance purposes. They are not going to learn much from you. Better to hire teenagers instead who are good current players then you. You can watch them for insurance purposes. If you ever actually dig the game start playing yourself first.
Hey noobsoccercoach, First of all I think it is great that you want to help this kids out. Volunteer soccer coaches surely do fill an important role for young kids. Your team sounds like a normal team around that age, (I'm not from the US so I guess 6th grade means about 11-12 years?). A few good players, a few bad, a few jokers. Also, the fact that they don't like to run is normal too. Almost no soccer players like to run! Anyway, they are there playing so there must be something that motivates them. The game of soccer itself is probably their motivation. If the kids are getting realistic 'soccer resistance' on the field, and a chance to play, I am willing to bet they will play. Don't take this the wrong way, but I think the #1 problem is the practices. They are not set up for team work, and I honestly don't think they are much fun. Let's run them down: 1. 4 laps -- The players don't like this to start with. The objective is for the players to get warm. This could easily be achieved with 10 minutes of rondo. That way the kids improve their team work, passing skills. Also, they have to stay focused if they want to avoid being in the middle chasing. 2-5. In all these drills, the players can make zero decisions for themselves. That is not motivating. With no realistic 'game resistance', and no chance to score goals/get points, young players naturally lose focus and start joking around. If you want to practice technique, you could spend 10 minutes at the start of every practice doing this, and then give the players homework. Valuable practice time should be used to practice playing in a game realistic environment. At the practice, try to set up drills where the players move, pass, and play as a team. This could be done by for example playing small sided possession games (3v3, 4v4). For other fun drills, check out these basic Coerver drills: http://www.fourfourtwo.com/performance/skills/master-technique-speed-ball#:pht73VnlezcNzA 6. Scrimmage: Offence vs defence. Separating the team into offence and defence may make the scrimmage feel like just another drill, an assignment from the coach. Players, especially young players, need to look forward to the scrimmage during the practice, and enjoy playing it. This is achieved by just letting them play. The will to win and the freedom to make their own decisions when in possession of the ball will motivate your players. Also, you could play small sided 5v5 games (Goalie + 4 outfield players) with big goals. Players LOVE these games. For example, you can make 3 teams of outfield players. Two teams are playing for 3 minutes. The winning team stays, and the losing teams get to rest. The players will always be motivated to win to get to continue playing. Here is what a 60 minute practice might look like now: 1. Rondo, 10 minutes 2. Coerver drill, 20 minutes 3. 5v5 'games'. 3 minutes each, winning team gets to continue. In total 30 minutes. And 90 minutes: 1. Practicing technique, for example passing, 10 minutes. 2. Coerver drill, 20 minutes 3. 5v5 games, 30 minutes 4. 6v6/7v7 game, all players participating. 30 minutes. Try this out and you will see motivation rise among your players. Trust me. Good luck!
Borneo gives good advice, but the op is not going to be able to teach them basic fundamentals. It is not a matter of using the right exercises; it is how you coach the exercises. Borneo could list coaching points for each exercise, but, without experience to provide a context, the words won't mean much. Bringing in a good teenage player to teach the fundamentals is the better solution. Teaching fundamentals is tough even with many years of playing experience. It is pretty much impossible without any playing experience. Otherwise you teach them what you know that is age appropriate, e.g., general athletic skills, and make the program a positive, fun experience. Do not, however, turn it into fitness training. Soccer is a fun game.
As a coach who started from the exact position you're in, here's what I can offer from the start - Every kid needs a ball. Drills destroy skills. Avoid the three L's: Laps, lines, lectures. Every kid needs to have a ball. If they're not moving with the ball, they're completely out of it. You need to keep your practices consistently flowing. Don't stop the practice for breaks because it'll be hard to corral them later. Work in the breaks as you're practicing. Have one kid at a time dribble with their ball to the water and then come back as quick as possible to rejoin. A constantly stimulated mind discourages the need to act out. In terms of practices, the best thing you can do is just let them kick the ball around. Let them get a feel for the ball. Let them dribble to the fence and come back again without losing it. Encourage them to keep the ball and never give it up. Put the responsibility on them that their ball is their responsibility. Tell them that their role as super spies is to protect the ball at all costs. Young kids like being given responsibilities like this. It makes them feel more mature and important. Never use lines. Always use circles, and never stand in the middle of the circle. Stand with your players. Always take part in what your kids do, and accept that you will probably fail or get really winded doing it. It's OK. So will they, but at least they won't see you as a dictator. If they see you doing it and enjoying it, they'll want to do it, too. When it comes to practices, look at what your kids need work on, then try to find fun ways to implement it. We can do stretching where we tap the ball with the bottom of each foot, then name a body part, and that body part has to bend down to touch the ball. It's silly, but it's the best stretching exercise, and it teaches kids how to get a feel for the ball. If you want to teach players possession, play "Fruits and Nuts". Start with a group of three kids in the middle (The nuts) and have other kids (the fruits) try to dribble from one end of the field to the other without getting stripped by the nuts. The kids who are fruits have to name a fruit each time they avoid the nuts. The winner at the end is the last fruit standing, and that fruit is the king fruit. This encourages healthy eating, as well as soccer skills. You can learn more about stuff like through Soccer for Success, which is a program that my club (Kensington Soccer Club) has used for the last couple of years. There's good stuff going on there, and they can even help you out. http://www.ussoccerfoundation.org/our-programs/soccer-for-success Good luck!
would decrease the number of drills and include more small sided games roughly 12 players so one group goes off and plays 3 v 3 and the other group goes off and plays 3 v 3, coaches and assistants (if there are any) plug in holes for kids who are absent. 4v4 and 2v2 are good too. If there are some kids who really need to develop teamwork having 3 2v2 games going on at the same time and rotating players/opponents is not a bad idea, lots of touches, lots of passing situations, opportunities to dribble 1v1, shoot and so on. They probably won't have illustrious soccer careers, but they may get the idea that it's fun to play and it will pass on to another generation (they will likely coach their kids teams at some future day) best thing I did as a n00b coach is started playing soccer. the #### is harder than it looks, when I play I have people with college and semi-pro experience as well as pro trainers bossing me around telling me what to do and it is very humbling and when a parent gets on their kid about mistakes I let them know that it is harder than it looks. thanks for volunteering and welcome to coaching. If my kid decides to play lacross or some other sport I know nothing about, aside from some backyard tossing, he's on his own, not putting myself through another break-in period. nope.
also, on the bringing in of high school players, would go talk to the high school coach pronto. the best assistant I ever had was the goalie for the local high school. I paid him 20$ a practice and it was more beneficial than a steak dinner. hopefully someone will do it for free, but you get what you pay for. my guy had to be paid because he worked for his dad and it was time away from the shop.
There's a book called 'Developing Youth Football Players' by Horst Wein that is excellent. It sounds more intense than it is. His idea is basically centered around playing 3v3 with 4 goals. It's about a 25x20 yard area with goals in the corners. There are also 5 yard endzone in front of each set of goals. Players must be in the end zone to score in either of the two goals their team is attacking. From there he has all kinds of variations on the rules/conditions to bring out different elements of the game. For example, you can only score from outside the end zones, promoting longer range passing. Or the team can score on any of the 4 goals, which makes players scan the entire field to always find the least defended area. In his book he has a number of basic games/drills to develop skills and to extend the 3v3 game (called mini-soccer or FUNiño) so that it connects to 8v8. They build up in complexity from individual skills to games with 2-5 players. It's been a big part of my development as a coach and I've seen a lot of progress from utilizing the games. With your situation where you have a free after school program, it's basically to entertain the players with a soccer ball. I would try to use small games whenever possible because the competition keeps them focused and motivated. Some kids will probably be difficult no matter what, but the majority will be entertained and will be improving. If they have trouble with the game due to lack of technique you can make the space larger so they have more time to control the ball and figure out what they're doing next. Of course you can give everyone a ball too and use different games to work on technique as others have suggested. One of the ones I like for inexperienced players is the 'skittle game.' Players in partners each with three 6" cones set up a few inches apart. The pairs are separated by 10-15 yards depending on ability. One player takes a stationary ball and tries to pass it to knock over his partner's cones. Then the other player goes. First to knock them all over wins. If you're doing it with a large group, you can change up partners every time someone in the group wins their game so players aren't waiting around. This is good for working on mechanics of passing the ball and players really enjoy the competitive aspect of the game.
Training plans are not an either or choice. Every player should have a ball regardless of the aspect trained (if for no other use than juggling or dribbling during rest periods) and SSGs can be used to train both tactical and technical aspects at the same time. Regarding Horst Wein, his message is not found in the exercises he suggests, but in how he recommends coaching them. So as Matt recommends, the op should read the book to understand the method.
I will only add a couple generalities as I was not a soccer coach but a successful lacrosse coach and many of the concepts are the same. 1. As written above, no conditioning without a ball. You can incorporate conditioning into "drills"- which at this age and this type of group you are talking about should be games. For example in lacrosse I used a game where the defenders, outnumbered, would have to sprint down 3/4 of the field to the defense. Five seconds behind I would release the attackers who would also sprint down attacking. 2. I prefer triangles to circles, but same concept. In soccer (and lacrosse in my case), games are rarely played in straight lines and the basic offensive shape is a triangle. 3. For this reason, as pointed out by others, I preferred 3v3. I rarely did full scrimmages. 4. There is a tendency to put the best players in offense and it seems that this is what you did. If you look at the great teams the best athletes are often the backs, especially the wing backs. Keep the score low with good defenders and you have a chance.
Had a situation recently that gave me a conclusion that might help. Invite coaches with some experience even if for one practice Invite an authority figure within the school to assist if you can. key here is to have a narrow defined objective or just to help you keep order (when Principal Smith says boys stop goofing off it carries some weight even though Smitty can't run from here to there without wheezing) Attend other practices of other coaches if possible and even see if you can participate somewhat. Of course in all 3 cases be sure to carefully select and be clear about why you/they are there. Situation - I was given the task of running a drill with the team sitting out to keep them engaged and productive while the other 2 teams scrimmaged. (We rotate the team sitting out every 10-15 mins) The drill was indirect free kicks. I know the positioning, I know how to keep them attentive, I know the correct mechanics etc etc. but lack of experience resulted in my unable to put it all together. I realized quickly I was losing effectiveness (boys were focused enough, I was the problem) so i called for another coach to help and he quickly had them moving like a well oiled machine in no time. my point is get experience where you can and bring experience in where you can. that experience might be only for organizational purposes. just be sure of what/why/where you are bringing it in.