Coaching U6 absolute beginners

I don't really know what fundamentals you're going to get across to such young kinds beyond dribble, pass and score. I think you're correct in just trying to make the game fun for them. I would have them working with a ball the entire time. Don't have them run, just have games with balls. I don't even know what games I'd play with such youngins'.

Good luck!

 

I absolutely LOVE coaching this age, the kids are great, they don't yet have attitudes and they are flat out fun! My goal for a season with these kids was simple. If at the end of the season they wanted to play again next season, then I did good.

Games to play:

- NO HANDS ALLOWED. Get em use to this now, when the ball needs to be moved, they dribble it.

- teach em to dribble. Have them simply walk with the ball at their feet. Pick up speed teaching the proper way to touch the ball ahead.

- red light-green light. the same old kids game we all played, except use a soccer ball. when you say "red light" they have to stop AND stop with their ball.

- Have them dribble towards you, you yell out a body part (foot, elbow etc) they have to stop the ball with a foot trap, then put that body part on the ball. Get creative with the body parts, use ear, nose, butt etc.

- put em in a circle and they have to dribble inside the circle, when you yell out, or blow the whistle, they have to trap the ball. Blow the whistle again, they have to leave their ball and get someone elses.

- Clean up the yard. toss cones randomly around the field. Kids have to dribble to a cone so the ball touches it, then they pick up that cone. Whoever gets the most cones wins.

- Ducks and hunters. Kids inside a circle WITHOUT balls, they are the "ducks". Pick two "hunters" who have balls. When you say go, the "hunters" have to go into the circle and "shoot" the "ducks" with a ball. When a "duck" is hit, they are out. One VERY important thing, we all know that ducks QUACK, well make the ducks quack the whole time, adds to the entertainment.

- shark attack, sort of reverse of ducks and hunters. Everyone except 2 "sharks" in the circle with balls. Send in the sharks, whose job it is to get the balls out of the circle.

always finish with a scrimmage. Ya, it will be mob ball, don't worry about this. Line the "field" with parents, keep the field small. Parents job is to keep the ball on the field. they just redirect it back in when it would have gone out.

Keepers officially don't exist at this age, so your "keeper" will not be allowed to use his hands.

things to avoid like the plague: DO NOT HAVE THE KIDS STAND IN LINES!! This is just asking for trouble.

use LOTS AND LOTS of water breaks. Their attention spans are very short, some will want to go see mom or dad, let them. Use Water breaks often, like every 10-15 minutes. Gives them a chance to go say hi to mom or dad and keeps them from getting bored.

No matter what happens, you have to keep smiling, keep talking and keep laughing. The kids will feed off this.

HAVE FUN! At this age it isn't really about soccer, its about fun with a soccer ball.

 

Here are two resources. Get a copy of Bert van Lingens Coaching Soccer, go to pages 91-94, the City Game.

Get Tino Stoop's Coaching Under 8's from the KNVB Academy.

Keep in mind that these children aren't playing soccer. They are learning socialization and motor skills in a soccer setting.

Best of luck.

 

reinforcing what others have said...just work on dribbling really. You can do a tiny bit on how to strike the ball but they'll have no attention span for instruction.

If you can't explain it in 20 or 30 seconds, don't even try it.

One more game that was always a hit...everyone in a marked area (20 yards by 20 yards or so), all but one or two without a ball. Players with a ball dribble around, those without tag dribblers who are then frozen, until an un-frozen player player dribbles or passes through the players legs. I would start with 1 player without a ball and then move to two players who must hold hands/link arms (to limit mobility).

Have fun, relax, and take the view that you're going to trick these kids into loving soccer when they thought they were out having fun.

 

Good stuff guys.

When they are dribbling around get them to look up. I use the how many fingers do I have up and have them all shout it out.

 

Great thread, some great ideas, it is all about fun.

Bobby Clark's The Baffled Parents Guide to Coaching Youth Soccer has been a lifesaver for me coaching my son's U-6 team. It's a terrific book.

Get the kids' parents involved, don't try to do everything yourself.

Tony

 

that is probably some of the best advice here, have you ever heard the phrase: "Its like hearding cats", impossible to control them all alone!!

 

I'm in the midst of this right now with five year olds. Attention spans are brief lots of work with the ball is a must. Repitition, repitition, repitition is the key. Also, about 1 assistant per every two players with lots of individual encouragement. These are some games that are working for me.

Dribble chicken: Two lines facing each other. On "Go!", players dribble as fast as they can to the other line's position. As they dribble through each other, they must try to avoid collisions. Preface this with some walking emphasizing that each dribble is a push rather than a kick. You can also have them dribble into each other and turn back just prior to collision.

Sharks and fish: Start with tag, then have the players hold their ball and require that they tag each other's balls. Then introduce protecting the ball from a tag. Then ball to feet and the same game. Then players with balls in a box with one player w/o a ball (shark) who then tries to kick everyone's ball out of the box. Players whose ball is kicked out also become sharks.

Circle Keep Away: Put them in a circle with one player in the middle to chase. Change middle people every minute, if they get the ball it is a point for them. Work on adjusting movement and accurate passes. This is really popular.

One touch collection: Several small lines. serve balls off the direct line for the player and have them collect and turn on the first touch. Give them a goal to shoot at and return ball to coach. Have an assistant chase them gently for pressure.

I got it: two lines as before except two players served at once. Vary serves from no brainers to 50-50 and talk quickly about who should collect and who should support. go to goal.

Turning: First, place three players in a widely spaced line with one in the center. First player serves center, who serves third and then play goes the other way. Have them trap and turn, then let the ball run through and turn. Five year olds can do this. 2. Make a 10 yard box and place players on each side. Player in the center passes for thirty seconds with each of the outside players in whatever order they wish. One point per completed pass, player with the most points wins. Then 1v1 with off and def roles, each player gets 30 sec in offense and count passes. We did this today with good result. I'll be doing variations of this for the rest of the season.

Thunderdome: Two cone goals fifteen yards apart. 1v1 with each player trying to score by knocking a ball off the cone of their goal with the game ball. Vary serve to personalities of players. You can play this 2v2 or more also although you may want more distance on the goals.

Lot's of other things, but they like these.

We also do some Coerver drills free form. Sole of the foot, chops, turns. This makes a good warm up.

These players can learn much more than you think, you just can't predict when they will learn it. Be patient and have fun.

 

A very popular one is tail tag. Have everyone tuck a pinny in thie pants. then spread out the kids in your practice area. At the word GO, everyone has to steal another player's pinny without his being taken. If someone's pinny is taken, then they continue to play. Last one with a pinny is the winner.

This teaches balance, changing directions, manueverability, and also craftiness - your smarter kids will hide out along the sidelines.

WARNING: coaches should never tuck in the pinnies. If a kid cannot do it, have their parent do it.

 

hmmm.., 4 and 5 year olds....

set up two goals and just let them play.

 

I too have agreed to coach the same age group this fall (including my twin 5yo girls). I'm originally from Ireland and didnt play organised soccer until about 9 or 10. But I still played every day from the time I was 4 or so out in the back yard. ack to the subject, I think at this age it is very difficult to hold 5 year old attention spans too long. I not sure how much real coaching can be done. My girls are able to trap and relase the ball quite well now and can dribble quite well for their age.
I think the goal is to make it fun for them

 

We had our first match this Saturday. 4v4 with no keepers, no offside, no throw in's, and 8 min. quarters. We did really well, I don't remember the score but we scored all the goals, including four or five where a kid went the wrong way and scored on ourselves. We had some passing, and the kids showed me that they can learn a good deal more soccer than I originally thought. Both teams had fun, and our format of two simultaneous matches allowed the less aggressive players a chance to play kids of similiar ability and pick up a little confidence on the ball.

So far, so good.

 

Thank you BigSoccer

Add me to the 'OMG I have to coach 5 yr olds!!' group. I volunteered on my daughter's sign up sheet to be an assistant, and got called last night to see if I'd be a coach instead. It's great to see so much useful information in here, the practice games sound great.

 

The U-6 league I coach in sounds similar to Elroy's (kick ins, 8 min quarters, no keeping score, no goalies), except its 3 v 3. With 12 players on the team, there are two games going simultaneously (groups of 3 alternate quarters)

Last night, we were playing 'red light-green light' dribbling game, and one of the kids says "Coach, you forgot yellow!"

Tony

 

One last thing for this age group and U5. Teach them a simple cheer for before the game and 2nd half. "1..2..3..Kickers" is perfect. The kids love it, especially if the other team doesn't do this.

The cheer and orange slices at the half are what these kids look forward to the most.

 

Get rid of the orange slices, they attract yellowjackets. Treats are fine after the match, but have a parent canvass the other parents for allergies and no-no's. For example, some parents won't allow pop.

 

If you are looking for more info, I highly recommend doing a search on Dr. David Carr. I had the good luck of working with the guy for several years. He is a National Staff Coach and his focus is all about how to teach youth players.

 

I coached Under 6's last year,have played soccer all my life and coached older kids but had no idea what to do with U6's. My goal is for them to kick the ball in the right direction(any part of the foot,it's impossible to tell kids to kick with the instep at this age,some of my players don't even have the run up to kick the ball and just push the ball), get the throw-ins right,and the want to play another season. A really good website with animated drills that helped me is
http://www.joesoccer.com/

 

My kids kick with their insteps. We taught them how to hold their foot by calling it a " foot fist " and individually placing their feet into the proper position. Sometimes they finish toe up, sometimes not - but they get it right more than 50% of the time. We also taught the kids to dribble with the instep.

I have an assistant coach from Mexico who, last night, was teaching some of our players to head a tossed ball. I think that it might be a little early to be doing this, but they did it so well that I'm reconsidering.

We still bunch up a bit, and some players almost never pay attention, but we are seeing some passing. In practice, the players can receive with a self pass and turn the ball to pass to another player. We can also play "windows". We have another nine matches in front of us to get better.

Oh yea, the kids are having a lot of fun. The proof of that is a 90% attendence rate at practice and the fact that the kids were upset when I cancelled next week's practice.

Don't sell your kids short, they may not learn all that you show them this season, but your efforts will place those skills into their data bank and help next year's coach.

 

I'm trying to teach all I can but the league only allows me 1 hour a week practice time. Heading the ball would be impossible with these kids as they still want to touch the ball any time it bounces

 

I'm not certain that I would introduce heading either. But when it happened, the kids seemed ready. Fortunately, heading situations do not arise in our matches.

Your practice limitations are probably not unusual. Our program wanted to limit me to three prcatices per week during the non-school summer practice period. This was after they ran a 2-3 hour camp for four straight days. I also pointed out that these kids would be attending school 5 days a week for 3-4 hours. Prior to school, we practiced four times per week for three weeks, we aren't practicing at all this week and then we're going once a week until the end of the season. I told the parents early on that if their child needed to miss practice for any reason, that missing practice was not a problem. We still had 90% attendence. I don't know where these "do gooders" get their ideas.

I firmly believe in working hard while enthusiasm is high and then giving the kids a rest and opportunity to assimilate. This is a formula that has worked for me for many years.

 

What a day! We played our fourth match Saturday and the kids are getting it together. Our first goal involved four passes, and they meant to make them. We had kids shielding when they got stopped and bringing their heads up to look for a pass. Kids were yelling " I'm open! ". They were creative with the ball, including back passes - which cost us a couple of goals until the kid in back figured out what to do.

There are still times when we bunch up a bit, but the defenders generally hold their positions and everyone came back on defense. We are a long way from Man U, but they've far exceeded my expectations.

Weekday practice is so difficult b/c of school that we've moved practice to thirty minutes prior to our Saturday AM matches. It's really just an extended warm up, but we can make corrections and work on new things.

We are doing just fine competitively, but the real fun has been seeing the kids pick up the things we've worked so hard on in practice and the creativity that they are applying to them.

Don't sell them short. My kids have learned even more than I expected!

 

First - under no circumstances should kids this age be heading the ball.
Very unsafe.

Lots of great ideas on this thread. I would add that you can play lots
of "playground" games. Red light green light, lots of kind of tag, as mentioned, sharks and minnows etc. I usually do them without ball then with balls.

I tell new coaches to think of it as planning a birthday party. have lots of fun activitives you can have them do.

I very much believe that kids this age you are mostly trying to help them get some exercise and have fun. If they begin to associate soccer with being fun, you have done your job.