soccer coaching?

[DanBengalfan]

I'm pretty new to soccer (or futball if you insist) , and I'm coaching my kids team.
6 and 7 year olds.

I've been studying the rules and the info they gave me, went to a clinic, and been preparing to have a fun practice to keep the kids involved and not bored.

any advise?

 

[ugafan6612]

I've never coached kids that young but from what I remember half the kids would sit in the grass and pick their noses. I guess if I was the coach for little kids I'd just focus on the obvious of teamwork, passing, and teaching them where to be on the field

Good luck with that though

 

[757Hokie83]

yeah, fuck if i'd want to coach kids that young

but as ugafan said, teamwork for sure. passing, really no hope in teaching them correct shooting form at this point...and where to be on the field, 100% yes...dont let them play "herd ball", where you see the ball and everywhere the ball goes there is a herd of 20 tots just running around. try to get them to learn the positions and where they should be to play the positions

 

[beardown07]

yeah, fuck if i'd want to coach kids that young

but as ugafan said, teamwork for sure. passing, really no hope in teaching them correct shooting form at this point...and where to be on the field, 100% yes...dont let them play "herd ball", where you see the ball and everywhere the ball goes there is a herd of 20 tots just running around. try to get them to learn the positions and where they should be to play the positions

THIS^^^


You will prolly lose every game, lol...but so much what he said. Bunchball is what all the teams will do....it's useless....just try to teach them something, and where they are supposed to be and what their respective positions do, is a good start.

 

[DanBengalfan]

cool.

I have a really good forward, and the kid who scored all the points on my 6 year olds candy team is on the team as well. He's about a half a head taller than everyone, and he's only 6. I'm teaching him to play "stopper fullback", so he can score when he makes a turnover and make things easy on the smaller fullback and goalie defensively. Teaching defensive positions first, the offensively kids still have trouble wanting to give up possession to their own players, but some of them have started passing in scrimmages, they are K and 1st graders so baby steps are ok. I've been instructing goalies to "tackle the ball", teaching them to cover goalside on the other teams throw ins and kicks, most of the kids also have the concept of a "sweeper fullback" understood for the most part.

It's been a fun experience. They show moments of brilliance, and other times I'm lucky if they can keep their shoes tied and listen long enough to setup a kickoff.

 

[HuskerInSecLand]

At 6 and 7 years old you will never stop them from playing herd ball.

Work on that around 9-10 then U12s really start drilling strategies.

Kids brains can not handle the concept of strategy at that age. Teaching them to play positions at that age is pointless.

Work on fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. Dribbling, passing (in-sole) and shooting.


Start with suicide drills or a run around the track for fitness.

Then work fundamental drills. This is the most important thing to teach them now. The correct way to dribble, pass the ball, shooting and defensive stance.

Then scrimmage. During scrimmages you want each kid getting as many touches on the ball as possible so try to make mini-fields playing 3v3. Use cones for goals and play no goalie. (I think that age doesn't use goalies any way if I am correct.) No goalie makes the kids defend. They can't rely on the guy in the goal to stop it (or blame him)


If any have a knack for defending (aggressiveness) you can teach the basics of tackling, i.e. shadow in your defensive stance, watch the player until you have a chance to go for the ball then keep your eye on the ball when tackling. Also teach them tackling is only a small part of defending. Learning to pressure and make the offensive player make mistakes is much more important than tackling.

Games like dribble relays, lightning, and passing with their insole are good at that age. Always remember the more they touch the ball the more they learn and the more they stand in line the less they learn. Lines are bad. You will have no hope of keeping their attention once they get bored and they get bored fast.

Some good games

By the numbers: 2 (short) lines of players, make more lines if you are going to have more than 3 or 4 players on a team. Have them race dribbling the ball while you hold up fingers. Make them yell out the number of fingers you have up. Get parents to help holding up fingers. You want at least one person for each line holding up fingers. This makes them learn to dribble without watching the ball. Probably the most important thing to do later.

Lightning:
(I don't like this game because of the line but kids love it).

1 guy in goal, line of kids back from goal (distance depends on how strong their shooting is).
You have a good supply of balls to the side. Roll or pass a ball in between line and goal.
First player shoots on goal. If he makes a goal, goalkeeper is out and shooter goes to the back of the line. Next player in line runs for the goal.

If he misses the goalkeeper goes to the back of the line and shooter has to run to goal as fast as he can.
Next player in line shoots and on and on.
Keep the balls rolling and the kids running. Kids that are out can fetch balls and bring them back to you (no hands).
First goalkeeper is a freebie. He goes to back of line no matter what.

Put kids in a circle(size depends on their passing skills) One kid yells another players name in the circle and passes to him. (in-sole, you will have to preach to them no toes, no toes, no toes)

When they get better the player that screws up the pass or misses the pass (depending on who messed up) is out. You are the ref on this. Right or wrong your call stands. Explain to them this is how soccer works and you have to learn to play with bad calls when they happen. (don't do the wrong calls on purpose but they will happen)

Dribble relays. 4 players each team. 2 at each end of short field. First player one one end dribbles to first player at other end. Hands off. First player at other end dribbles to Second player at original side and so forth.

Shadowing, pair up in twos. All teams in a good sized circle. One player defender, one offensive with ball for each pair. Defensive player shadows offensive player trying to push offensive player out of bounds. He can not touch the ball though. He has to pressure the offensive player out of bounds. If he gets them out they switch.

Get some pinnies and cones. Look online for them, they are much much cheaper than at Dick's or something unless your league provides them. And each kid should have a ball. If they don't bring it to practice let them rent one from you. Rental is one lap.

Have fun with it. Coaching my kids teams is probably one of the funnest things I did in life.
And use google. It is full of free information for drills and games.

 

[DanBengalfan]

good advise, some of the things I do are similar already, and some seem like new ideas.

I'm trying to only introduce one new drill a practice, as sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't. If the kids aren't in a mood to listen, then sticking with familiarity is good.

lightening does sound good. on fridays we have a lot of goals to choose from, so i can send my assistant coaches with half the kids to one.

 

[HuskerInSecLand]

Have fun with them.

 

[huskers1217]

just tell them is hockey on grass...

oh yeah..and teach them to kick with the inside of their foot.

 

[757Hokie83]

when all else fails...take pointers from this guy:

 

[DanBengalfan]

ha ha, I think I had a few gym teachers like that in elementary school.

it ain't allowed no more.

 

[DanBengalfan]

the kids played hard, the other team had "andre the giant" playing for them though. My David's did their best to keep Goliath at bay, but eventually my players got tired of chasing the behemoth and I had to start subbing players in. "andre" played the whole game for the other team, no subbing that kid out I guess, which I think was an accomplishment for my team, if they had played a less prepared team, that coach would have had to sit that player out the second half. we hung tight, like 2-1, and we gave up 3 quick points to andre the giant in the last quarter.

What happened was this, my goalie would make a great stop, and then throw it right back to andre the giant, who would score.

help?

 

[757Hokie83]

make sure your goalie isnt color blind and knows what color shirts to throw it to?

 

[ugafan6612]

the kids played hard, the other team had "andre the giant" playing for them though. My David's did their best to keep Goliath at bay, but eventually my players got tired of chasing the behemoth and I had to start subbing players in. "andre" played the whole game for the other team, no subbing that kid out I guess, which I think was an accomplishment for my team, if they had played a less prepared team, that coach would have had to sit that player out the second half. we hung tight, like 2-1, and we gave up 3 quick points to andre the giant in the last quarter.

What happened was this, my goalie would make a great stop, and then throw it right back to andre the giant, who would score.

help?

LOL can he not distinguish colors yet? Maybe your goalie got bored and wanted to try and stop the ball again so kept throwing it back to the dude

 

[HuskerInSecLand]

First make sure your goalie is going right to the edge of the penalty box before releasing the ball. Then if your goalie doesn't have a strong foot to kick down the field have him roll it (not throw) to your best back who should be right outside the penalty box to receive it. That back hopefully has a foot to get it down the field. If not get it to a back with strong foot skills.

In my experience big kids seldom have the advantage as an attacker or wing. They are too big a target. A small quick player with good foot skills will run circles around a back.

Finally work with your kids to pressure until they get help, than go in for the tackle when the kid makes a turn or mishandles the ball. And only when they have help. If they don't have support he will 9 times out of 10 go right around or kick pass the back and have clear sailing to the goal.

Slow him down until you have help and then go for the ball. And work with your kids to get the next nearest defender in there to help quickly. 3v3 or 3v2 should give good opportunities to teach this.

 

[DanBengalfan]

First make sure your goalie is going right to the edge of the penalty box before releasing the ball. Then if your goalie doesn't have a strong foot to kick down the field have him roll it (not throw) to your best back who should be right outside the penalty box to receive it. That back hopefully has a foot to get it down the field. If not get it to a back with strong foot skills.

In my experience big kids seldom have the advantage as an attacker or wing. They are too big a target. A small quick player with good foot skills will run circles around a back.

Finally work with your kids to pressure until they get help, than go in for the tackle when the kid makes a turn or mishandles the ball. And only when they have help. If they don't have support he will 9 times out of 10 go right around or kick pass the back and have clear sailing to the goal.

Slow him down until you have help and then go for the ball. And work with your kids to get the next nearest defender in there to help quickly. 3v3 or 3v2 should give good opportunities to teach this.

well put, I had reached similar conclusions doing research on this and worked it in to my practice plan for the week. I see some details of things I didn't think of. This is encouraging to me.

I know my team is too good to be run over by one player (of course, that one player also ran over his own team)

 

[DanBengalfan]

LOL can he not distinguish colors yet? Maybe your goalie got bored and wanted to try and stop the ball again so kept throwing it back to the dude

Although I see the humor in this, I have been doing more research and finding out the referees were restricting him a bit illegally to the goalie box by allowing the opposing team to line up in front of him in the penalty box. he was afraid to walk past them to the edge of the penalty box as some of the parents were telling him not to leave the goal and other parents told him to move to the edge of the penalty box and throw it. At the time this happened, he was on the visitors side, which made it difficult for him to hear me and my assistants over the parents and referees. (which I didn't even know he was allowed to run to the edge of the penalty box, since I never played soccer, I thought it was just common slang to sometimes refer to the goalie box as the penalty box sometimes.) The kid really kept his composure and emotions together with all the chaos that surrounded him (which was my fault really), I'm giving him a leadership patch tomorrow just for keeping his head up and making several stops to begin with.

 

[HuskerInSecLand]

Although I see the humor in this, I have been doing more research and finding out the referees were restricting him a bit illegally to the goalie box by allowing the opposing team to line up in front of him in the penalty box. he was afraid to walk past them to the edge of the penalty box as some of the parents were telling him not to leave the goal and other parents told him to move to the edge of the penalty box and throw it. At the time this happened, he was on the visitors side, which made it difficult for him to hear me and my assistants over the parents and referees. (which I didn't even know he was allowed to run to the edge of the penalty box, since I never played soccer, I thought it was just common slang to sometimes refer to the goalie box as the penalty box sometimes.) The kid really kept his composure and emotions together with all the chaos that surrounded him (which was my fault really), I'm giving him a leadership patch tomorrow just for keeping his head up and making several stops to begin with.

Is this on a goal kick (ball went out of bounds by opposing team behind the goal) or is it when the goalkeeper gets possession of the ball?

In a goal kick situation the kick is made from the outside line of the goal box The ball can be placed any where on the line. Many people assume you have to place it on the corner of the box on the side it went out. It can be anywhere on the line. And any one can make this kick and it has to make it out of the penalty box. Use a back to kick and keep the goalie in front of the goal in these situations.

When the goalkeeper gains possession of the ball any one can be in the penalty box but he should run forward to the edge and kick or roll it to a teammate. At this age rolling to a back will be more beneficial. Most kicks will end up wild and a 50/50 chance of losing it. In this case there is no lining up though. He just gains possession and puts it back into play.

How many kids do you play at this age?

 

[ugafan6612]

Although I see the humor in this, I have been doing more research and finding out the referees were restricting him a bit illegally to the goalie box by allowing the opposing team to line up in front of him in the penalty box. he was afraid to walk past them to the edge of the penalty box as some of the parents were telling him not to leave the goal and other parents told him to move to the edge of the penalty box and throw it. At the time this happened, he was on the visitors side, which made it difficult for him to hear me and my assistants over the parents and referees. (which I didn't even know he was allowed to run to the edge of the penalty box, since I never played soccer, I thought it was just common slang to sometimes refer to the goalie box as the penalty box sometimes.) The kid really kept his composure and emotions together with all the chaos that surrounded him (which was my fault really), I'm giving him a leadership patch tomorrow just for keeping his head up and making several stops to begin with.

ahhh I see. The previous post sounded pretty funny describing how the kid was playing lol.

 

[DanBengalfan]

Is this on a goal kick (ball went out of bounds by opposing team behind the goal) or is it when the goalkeeper gets possession of the ball?



When the goalkeeper gains possession of the ball any one can be in the penalty box but he should run forward to the edge and kick or roll it to a teammate. At this age rolling to a back will be more beneficial. Most kicks will end up wild and a 50/50 chance of losing it. In this case there is no lining up though. He just gains possession and puts it back into play.

How many kids do you play at this age?

yea, the problem wasn't on goal kicks, we got that figured out for the most part and one of the more experienced kids even took charge a little on the field. I think they were listening, as they did what I asked, but who knows.

but yea, the problem was when the goalie made a stop and grabbed the ball, trying to figure out how far he could go, how to get rid of it, and who to aim at without taking too long (no 6 second rule at this age, but I think they have to encourage him to 'do something'). I didn't coach him to run up to the end of the penalty box, which I would have, had I known what I was doing.

One of the refs from our game is actually coming to our practice tonight to help us out with that issue. I asked the league admin if one of the refs wanted to conduct a clinic on it and they forwarded the email to her dad who is on the board. I talked with her dad, I asked what I should pay her and he said it was free.

we play 7vs7. 6 in the hurd and 1 goalie.