Coaching Ideas for U8s

Sounds miserable.
The 45 minutes of talking is a pet peave.
Hate seeing the kids standing around.

 

That's awesome. I think I'm going to share this one with the kids.

 

I am not impressed with that site.

 

I think with age u8 we are let the children play the most natural way. So that they can promote their creativity

 

A simple head fake or shoulder dip goes a long way Easy to teach too.

 

Great post, and irrefutably correct. No one develops into a great soccer player by just going out and playing in a vacuum. The kids who seem to develop by "just playing soccer" without any formal training, are still receiving some form of "coaching" even if it's not in a formal player-coach relationship. Maybe they are watching what the other players are doing and copying them, maybe they are getting it from TV, or maybe they have a relative who is teaching them what they need to know behind the scenes. But things like close control dribbling have to be "taught" in some way before they can be learned. You can't just trot out an entire group of know-nothing 7 year olds, throw them on a field to scrimmage and expect them to develop high-level skills. What you are going to get instead is a lot of kicking the ball really hard and virtually no dribbling, because kicking the ball is simple and dribbling is hard, and there are no role models to show the value of dribbling.

That's not to say that "just playing soccer" isn't a great way to learn the game. Case in point, the other day my U11 team was playing a game against another team and the this team had one of the most amazing 10-year-old players I've ever seen. The kid was doing things that you just don't see from 10 year olds, like perfectly chipping the ball from midfield over the entire defense and into the path of an onrushing forward. And it wasn't a fluke. This kid hit about 6 absolutely stunning chips over my defense. My kids had simply never seen this...and guess what happened? Next practice, my two best players start chipping defenders left and right. They weren't "coached" to do that, they just picked it up from seeing a peer execute it to perfection in a game.

There's clearly value to be gained from "just playing the game" that transcends what we can provide the players in a training session. But the kids still need a base level of skills, whether that base level of skills in acquired from formal coaching or otherwise.

The coach of a U8 team first and foremost must teach the players the technique and value of close control dribbling. That's the building block of everything else and it's not going to come through divine intervention in a scrimmage among novices.

 

I agree. I am going to be working with 5 to 7 year-olds next fall for the first time and dribbling will be the top objective of course. How do you teach "close control dribbling?" I have always thought of it as a degree of skill rather than a technique (unless you are talking about the "shovel" technique for bringing the ball closer when approaching pressure while dribbling at speed).

http://www.wasasoccer.org/documents/u8_practice_activities.pdf

This is a pretty good example of club U8 practice plans. (Hurrah for the internet.) The first two pages are focused on dribbling. "Keep the ball close" is a suggested coaching point. Are these activities the things you would do with 6 and 7 year olds?

 

Yes, that's the kind of activities I would focus on. I don't think it matters all that much what bells and whistles you attach to the activity, though some groups require things to be dressed up a little more to keep them interested. The key is to emphasize "lots of touches."

I'm assuming you'll have 8-12 kids in your group. I'd put them all in a 20x20 yard grid and have them dribble around inside that space and instruct them not to run into anyone else or let their ball go out of bounds. Merely imposing those two requirements will place a priority on keeping the ball close to their feet. Give them instructions like "keep the ball close to your feet," "take lots of touches," etc. Stop them after a minute or two and give them a really quick demonstration, like 20 seconds total. In that 20 seconds, quickly show them what it means to kick and run. Bop the ball forward and chase it till you go out of bounds. Looking a bit silly won't hurt in making your point. Then say something like, "Let's not do that! Let's do this!" Then demonstrate dribbling with lots of touches and keeping the ball close. Quickly get them back started dribbling around, praising the ones who are doing it right. "Look at Timmy! He's taking tons of touches and keeping the ball right on his foot!"

You can then progress to showing them "inside, outside" dribbling (i.e., alternating between inside and outside of the foot, taking a touch with each step of the dominant foot) and what you describe as "shovel dribbling" (by which I assume you mean simply taking a touch with the laces of the dominant foot with every step of that foot). Set them back loose using these new techniques.

Once the kids have gotten fairly adept at keeping the ball close with no pressure on them, you can then turn one or more kids into defenders and turn them loose to try to dispossess the dribblers. Make sure and emphasize that the goal of the defenders is to dispossess the dribblers, not to simply kick the ball out of bounds. (The defender kicking it out should result in the dribbler getting the ball back, as happens in a real game. Be very careful to avoid rewarding a player for kicking the ball out.) If a defender takes the ball from a dribbler, he becomes a dribbler and the new defender must go after someone else (otherwise you'll have two players who just keep going back after each other). During this phase of the drill, continue pointing out kids who are doing it right and look for teachable moments. "See what happened there Timmy? You didn't keep the ball close to your feet and the defender got it!" or "Great Timmy! You kept it close to your feet and the defender had to work really hard to get your ball!"

Then you can progress to a scrimmage, with a continuing emphasis on close control dribbling. Don't expect the kids to pass the ball, and I wouldn't even bother mentioning the possibility of a pass until the kids are adept enough at dribbling to keep the ball for a few seconds and get there head up. In these scrimmages, make sure you have plenty of soccer balls on hand and keep a ball in play at ALL times. Goal scored? Immediately drop a new ball on the field. Out of bounds? Immediately drop a new ball on the field. Shout something like "New Ball!" every time you give them a new one. This keeps the action going and keeps the kids interested. Just as importantly, by keeping control of the new balls, you can pick who gets it when you put it in play. Got a kid who isn't involved? Give him the next five new balls. Got a kid who just blew an easy goal? Give him the ball right in front of goal and let him score. I've even put a new ball on the field right in front of a timid player while the original ball is still in play, allowing Timid Timmy to get an easy goal while no one is watching. The confidence boost they get from this is amazing. The kids don't care that you're "cheating". They won't even notice.

For scrimmages, I would keep it to no more than 4v4 on a 15x20 yard field. If you have too man kids, make two fields side by side. You can use Pugg goals or just a couple cones spaced maybe six feet apart.

I have literally spent entire U5 and U6 seasons using nothing but what I describe above for 8-10 45 minute practice sessions. 20-25 minutes of close control dribbling (with an without defensive pressure) followed by 20-25 minutes of scrimmage. After 6-7 sessions, all the kids can dribble and keep the ball close. You've then set yourself or their next lucky coach up with something you/they can build on.

 

Thank you both for the replies. Juggling is all about soft touches. I know this helps in controlling a flighted ball, but do you think juggling helps with dribbling soft touches too?

 

In my view, 5-7 years old is too young to spend much time on juggling. I've coached some incredibly coordinated kids, many of whom have gone on to become great players and excellent jugglers, but I haven't come across a single kid who could find any modicum of success juggling before age 9. There are certainly exceptions to the rule that you can find on YouTube, but I think you'd be wasting your time hoping for that.

 

Further to my last post, keep in mind that your time with the players in finite, and probably around 45-60 minutes per week. So it really becomes a cost-benefit analysis on each activity and you have to use your time wisely. Five minutes spent on unproductive juggling is five minutes not spent on highly productive close-control dribbling. Will it kill the players? No. But it's not the most effective use of limited time.

 

I agree that group activities involving pressure should comprise most of the training time, but part of what we do with U-Littles is to inspire them to play on their own. Showing them at the start of the season how to juggle, to play against a wall or rebounder goal, and to set up a SSG may prove to be the most effective time spent for long term development. That and making training fun! So there is some value in having a street soccer session.

 

You can give it a shot, but:

1. 5-7 year olds with limited soccer experience are going to have zero success with juggling. They will hold the ball in their hands, drop it down to their foot and kick it aimlessly with absolutely no hope of getting a second touch on the ball. They have no clue what it means to lock their ankle and 90% of them are pretty much incapable of doing it. So their foot will be flexed, making juggling all-but impossible. It's simply not an age-appropriate activity in my experience. I don't even think this is a debatable point with 5-6 year olds (YouTube prodigies excluded).

2. A "street soccer session" with a bunch of 5-7 year olds with limited soccer experience is just going to be a "kick it real hard session" with little-to-no dribbling, reinforcing all of the wrong things. If you're planning to step in and correct this behavior, well, that's an organized scrimmage, not a street soccer session.

3. You can demonstrate to these 5-7 year olds how to set up a SSG, but there is absolutely no chance that they are going to learn from this and go out into the world setting up cones and goals for their own scrimmages.

4. Having 5-7 year olds kick a ball against a wall or a rebounder seems like a bad idea to me. We want them dribbling the ball, not kicking it. Not to mention that kids this age don't tend to go home and do this stuff on their own anyway. Believe me, you will learn quickly that the kids are hard-wired to kick the ball rather than dribbling it and you will need to put work in to break them of this habit. I'd save passing and striking technique for a bit later in their development, unless you happen to get handed a bunch of experienced kids who already have a good grip on dribbling skills.

Not everyone buys into the notion that the nearly exclusive focus at age 5-7 should be on close-control dribbling. In fact, in my experience I am firmly in the minority on this point. Most coaches encourage the kids to pass before they can dribble and spend a lot of time on shooting. I haven't seen any have success with it though.

 

Like ball mastery exercises, juggling gives a lot of soft touches in a very short time. I am not a big believer in dong repeated keepy-ups. What I think is useful is movement between different surfaces, left/right and up/down. I don't care if the ball bounces on the ground or how many times a player has to restart the sequence. If the players use their feet to restart the juggling, then even the mistakes are useful training.

Having said that, I didn't use juggling a lot during training sessions and never more than 2-3 minutes. When practicing on my own, I would spend a lot more time juggling treating it like a wall-passing exercise where gravity is the wall.

 

You see it a lot at tryouts. As the groups are going to the field. You see them juggling, and then pass to each other and more juggling. If the kids can't do it they look inept. Some coaches are watching everything they do. Bad touches are not the way you want to be remembered at a try out. Take three touches to control the ball instead of one or two you are not likely to make a top division team.

That is why before a tryout the player should get at least three hundred touches. Your three hundred touch will be better then your first 50 touches.

 

Just to be clear, I don't deny the value of juggling and don't have any problem with introducing it at formal practice to give the kids the techniques they need to work on it on their own time. However, I would not expect the kids to find even a modicum of success until they reach 9 years old.

I have experience with my own three sons (currently aged 8, 11 and 14), with whom I emphasize juggling outside of formal practices. My oldest is on the extreme high end in terms of coordination and he had virtually no success with juggling until he reached age 9. At age 10, he had an explosion of development with juggling and quickly progressed from 10 juggles to 20 to 30 and up to over 100 before his 11th birthday. My middle son is about average in terms of coordination and athleticism among travel soccer players. He is just turning 11 now and still has found almost no success juggling (granted, he doesn't work as hard on it as his older brother did). My 8 year old is off the charts in terms of coordination and can perform just about every dribbling move that's been invented, but he can't get five juggles to save his life. I think the key is the ability to intentionally lock your ankle, which is just very tough to comprehend and master for kids under the age of 9.

For me, I don't like asking young players to spend time on things that are beyond their abilities, so I'd rather not frustrate them with juggling before age 9.

And, just as a pet peeve that I have to mention, if anyone is juggling without a locked ankle, that's a massive waste of time in my book. Juggling with foot flexed, toes pointed up and back-spin on the ball does little-to-nothing to improve your touch, even if you are able to achieve an infinite number of juggles.

 

Pass the ball in the air to your son and see how many touches he needs to control that pass. That is why juggling is important. They are not always going to get an on the ground pass.

 

First, if you read above, I clearly stated that I acknowledge the importance of juggling, so your attempt to convince me of it's importance is confusing. Again, since my attempt at clarity was still my clear enough, my quibble is with the AGE at which juggling is emphasized. Second, although juggling is a good way to practice touch on the ball, it's not the only way, and a player can have an excellent first touch without being a proficient juggler. My 11 year old son actually has a great first touch and ability to settle the ball with all surfaces despite not being a proficient juggler. So your litmus test implying that the ability to settle the ball is dependent on the ability to juggle is simply inapposite. It's certainly possible, and even common, to have a good first touch without the ability to juggle.

 

To my thinking, the value of juggling is, like playing against a wall, both are good solo activities for when you don't have someone to play with.

 

Funny you mention that -- I saw my U11 son today juggle a couple of times and then turn past the defender. Better believe I reinforced that move with praise!

 

I would not try to convince you of anything. It has been my experience with parents that those who do not think juggling is nescessary even at a young age even if their kids are good have never played the game seriously themselves.