They do a half hour of strength and conditioning (which the kids seem to actually have a lot of fun doing). It's a lot of stability/balance kind of stuff, seems to be variations on hopping/skipping/running, some lateral movements. And then 1.5 hrs with the ball. Which seems to be a mix of footwork (dribbling around and mixing in stuff like sole rolls, step-overs, etc); various drills that work on whatever concepts the coach is trying to work on, seems to be a lot of 1v1, 2v1, 2v2 stuff that works on positions, rotations, covering, pressing, etc. I think they do some passing drills; some simple "build out of the back" stuff. And a good amount of scrimmaging. I think from time to time there is a bit of goalie training but not a whole lot at this age. We have a very simple and effective pressing system. The 9 presses and the wingers cut off the passing lane; very easy to force an error. Or if the winger presses the 9 covers him. Quite effective at this age (easy to force an error) and 7v7. Lately we have been really winning the possession game. The coach is really focused on developing soccer IQ. He does a good job of prodding them to not just blast the ball but to have a real idea, to make a good decision. And they like to build comfort with the ball so that they kids can then look up more.
In the past I would have really questioned this for younger kids, but several years ago I had a conversation with a youth coach who did a lot of strength & conditioning--his logic was that kids today don't get much of the unstructured play that previous generations did. They're not riding their bikes for hours on the weekends, climbing trees, playing tag and other playground games, etc. Their bodies don't get as much natural stretching and light exercise that they really need--and then their parents drop them off at practice, where their bodies essentially go from zero-to-60 without warming up first. So when I told him that I thought maybe doing strength and conditioning was unnecessary for such young kids, his response was that in a perfect world, it would be.
That's an insightful discussion you had with that youth coach and it makes sense. Some of these kids probably get enough free play on their own... BUT... these kids... at the S&C session they are doing maybe 25% of what the instructor is directing them to do... they are being silly, goofing off... to the instructors frustration I'm sure... but.... I sit and smile... I just love hearing the laughter, the giggles. I know it won't last for long.
I will add... I don't have a good view of the practice field, so I can't tell exactly what they're doing... but I know the coach tries to make it fun. He sets up drills that are little games in their own but that work on concepts. He said "they don't realize they are learning the concept but they are learning it" because it's a fun game, similar to how kids do "cops and robbers" or "red light green light" when they are just starting. I remember coaching U6 and they wanted to do that stuff non stop.
We've played 19 games to date and have something like 7 or 8 more before year end. Making my head spin
When did your games start? August? 25 games over five months doesn't really seem too bad to me. I'm also guessing the four game weekends are spread out.
Our 1st team started playing in mid Sept. So it's been about 2 months so far. Wow... feels like it's been 3 or 4 months of games. We did have a couple friendlies before Sept that I'm not counting. So... I'm guessing we'll play till mid Dec... so 3 months total. This is our first outdoor season after U6 rec haha. That was 10 games in the fall of 2019. (between then and now he had several indoor seasons, but each of those was only 8 games long).
More info... I think I figured out how the U9 age group worked. They try to structure it so that many teams can end up getting medals, I guess to maximize the fun? The 1st round started with 3 tiers. And based on those results the teams were reseeded into 6 different tiers for the 2nd round. Then based on those result the teams were seeded into groups of 8 teams... across 17 tiers total. So 17 tiers of 8 teams each for the playoff portion. Something like that. The results: Tiers 1 - 9 were won by U9 teams. Tier 10 (our tier) was won by us (U8). Tiers 11-15 were won by U9s. And finally for tiers 16 and 17, U8 teams took home the gold. So... The U9 group must have started with something like 136-ish teams total, resulting in 17 "champions" of their respective tiers. I think it's a good system as the seeding rounds help shuffle teams into appropriate competition.
Assuming CA North, it looks like they have a LOT of levels... State/Premier is a single level to start, but then it looks like they break down to State, Premier, and Premier 2 just from those teams. Looks like 24 teams (at least at U9) between those three groups. To say nothing of their Gold/Silver/Bronze divisions. I don't think our state has 24 teams at ANY age group.
What exactly is the concern about kids playing a couple hours of organized soccer per day? Will they tear an ACL? Get mentally burned out? I'm really wondering what the problem is. To me it would only seem a problem if the parent is forcing it and the kid doesn't like it.
Every day? Yes to all of the above. Kids need down time away from a sport (any sport). Both for recovery time as well as mental wellbeing. 2-3 days per week is plenty, especially at a young age, IMO.
"Organized" is the word setting off alarms. If they coaches are just letting the kids play without being pushed to play harder, faster, etc--if it's just supervised open play rather than structured, high-intensity play--that would be fine; kids should be playing a lot more than contemporary parenting standards often allow. So I guess it depends on what you mean by "organized"--is it just the presence of coaches keeping an eye on things and maybe managing subs, while allowing the kids to play as freely as they wish (and that includes letting them play however slow or low-intensity they feel like)? Like I said to you before--your situation reminds me a lot of how my son made the transition from rec to travel; it was a fun year or two, but once they went U9 and were on a 'real' travel team, that constant hunting for scrimmages, extra games, back-to-back tournaments, etc.--that all stopped. They had two practices per week, one league game per weekend, no more than 2-3 weekend tournaments per season, winter 'training' was just pickup indoor, and they took most of the Summer off. The frantic pace your kid is currently at COULD be a great 'apprenticeship' situation...as long as the coach dials back to a more sustainable pace once they've entered the travel/comp system.
Oops I think I meant to post this in the other thread where there was discussion on hours. Anywho yeah maybe everday is too much. But I think on some days it can be non-strenuous stuff like juggling and basic ball control, or watching soccer and analyzing it. idk... I kinda think if you just make it a part of your life, like work/school/etc... that it just becomes more a lifestyle thing. I guess I would prefer that. I think soccer is inherently time consuming so better to let it seep into all parts of life? live, eat, and breath it. isn't that how it is in other countries?
My kid is becoming quite a consistent scorer. He has scored in each of the past 9 games. He has scored in the most # of matches. No he's not the best kid on the team. Maybe in the middle of the pack, though on this team the margin between top and bottom is much smaller than say a random rec team where you might have one or two studs and a few kids who've never played. All of our kids are good in their age group.
I wish there was a "high volume/low cost" format for kids soccer. Basically the volume of comp, but the cost of rec. Rec just does not offer enough quantity of games. 10 games over 10 weeks out of the year. I think a lot of kids want to play more than that but are put off by the cost of comp. I think for kids say 4-9 yrs old they could just be playing all the time, without the expert instruction you'd get at comp. But perhaps this just wouldn't be sustainable since the rec teams are coached by volunteers and it would be too difficult to find people to do this over a higher quantity of games. But, it could be more like pickup games, where you don't need coaches per se. We go to a pick up game and basically there's just a "facilitator" who just makes sure the sides are about even and kids are rotating. But there's no coach and no ref.
So what's stopping you from organizing it? I have a fairly large (60ish people) mailing list that I alert when I'm organizing a pickup game. We get anywhere from three to twenty people generally. Sometimes it's just kids, sometimes parents and kids together, and sometimes parents versus kids. It's a lot of fun and the stakes are non-existent. The kids usually start by playing World Cup until one of us grouches who wants to play organizes a game, afterwhich the kids go back to playing World Cup.
What's stopping me is time and energy. Though I guess if it were just a casual mailing list that would be do-able, but I was envisioning something a little more organized (eg regularly scheduled times, week in/week out.)... would I need to get permits from parks and rec? We adults have a contact list for our adult pickup, and I have thought of doing this for kids. I kind of poked at it with other dads in our group but no one seemed that interested. I have also got my kid into playdates with kids but my kid is competitive and I think turned those kids off. There is a particular park where there's always immigrant kids hanging out and everytime we go it turns into a great kids pickup game, but the park is a bit far. We go to an indoor pickup kids game. Basically something like that but outdoor would be great. The indoor thing also I would say is not cheap. May I ask - what is World Cup? I guess, yeah I did sorta of explore this idea with neighborhood dads, but yeah... they just weren't all that gung ho... I think our neighborhood just has more kids that aren't into soccer too much. Just Rec soccer. Reflecting back, this is one of the reasons we went to comp - I wanted to connect with more like-minded people on soccer. What's interesting is... the kids on his comp team... none of them live in our area. They are in other neighborhoods. I guess I'm just unlucky in where we live. Seems more of a baseball community.
World Cup: https://www.soccerxpert.com/drills/details/world-cup-soccer-drill I would think that the issue with your idea is whether or not fields are readily available. Around us, most soccer fields are by permit only and are usually pretty booked up most of the time. Add in whether or not you would want referees for your games - if the answer is yes, you're probably screwed, as there's not nearly enough available referees to cover all the leagues that are already out there.
Thanks for the link. There are some parks that are sprawling. We adults play on them sans permits. We just show up and set up puggs and play. We've done that with kids for practice a few times but just with a few kids. I think if the number of players go to be over say 20 then it might be problematic. But if there's enough open field then should be able to just setup puggs and create an ad hoc pitch. Maybe I just need to start it up once a week and keep going for a few months to determine interest. (but we are quite busy now with club soccer)
I think that's a good idea. Our leagues are over for the fall (you complain about only 10 games, we get only 8), so I'm holding weekly pickups right now. It doesn't make sense once the snow arrives. We have plenty of parkland and even goals that we don't have to reserve. But the challenge for me, like you, is that most of the dedicated kids live 30 minutes or more away, so if it's in the 30s or inclement, it's hard to get good turnout. But we have to try.
So far this season we have never been shut out (21 games). We have 8 clean sheets. That's kind of amazing to me.
Sounds like they need more challenging competition. It's hard to motivate development when the games are that lopsided.
True. I believe we will play up next season (spring). We'll play teams a year older. So then we'll probably finish mid table or maybe even have losing record, but I think that's ok as long as they are having fun and learning.