People work hard to build titles, collect licenses and build a collection of shirts and jackets with the logos of higher level programs. I am one of those people with a lot of clothing of that nature. I enjoy the programs I work with and I am fortunate to have met the people I get to work with. We also hope the higher programs are a destination for younger players to aspire to play in one day.
But that's not where the important work has to be done at this point in time. We are being called to bring
our skill set to the younger age groups. I do it because I like it, it's fun, challenging and I really really love the kids. But I also do it because people who are smarter and more experienced than me say it's what has to be done.
The one reason everybody should include for working with younger players is that it makes you a better coach.
A few times in the past I've mentioned the importance of staying in touch with the grassroots levels, regardless of what level you coach.
http://www.coachingsoccer.ca/2012/07/there-is-something-special-about.html
http://www.coachingsoccer.ca/2012/02/all-coaches-should-coach-u9-or-below.html
We continued our U8 boys program last night. We had 24 boys, the weather was nice, the fields were
Last night the boys also had Coach Chris and Coach Marco present. Both are teachers and really good with the boys. U12 District Player Coach Kennedy was also on hand to help.
The organization was a bit different. I have been doing this as stations, but I was not sure of our numbers during vacation season. But, for Week 4, no stations. We all worked together.
Reflection #1. This group, like many younger groups I've been with, leave me in a great mood for the rest of my day. You run into the type of things when you assemble 24 young players who might collide, etc , but it was all good.
Except for the Small Sided Games (SSG) , it was all 1 ball per player from start to end.
We started off trying to juggle, then breaking it down and showing them the building blocks.
- Rolling the ball back to yourself and flicking it up
- Rolling the ball back, resting it on your foot and lifting it up to your hands
- Rolling the ball back, resting on your foot for 2 seconds then flicking it up
- Trying to scoop the ball off the ground.
- Dropping the ball from your hands and playing it back into your hands from your feet.
- Dropping to thigh and back into hands
- Thigh-foot-hands
- Head to hands
- Head to thigh to hands
- Head to thigh to foot to hands
Then we worked a bit on playing a ball out of the air straight into a dribble. Meeting the ball on the bounce with the inside, bottom then outside of the foot. The goal was to get the ball settled and into a dribble ASAP.
Success levels varied with each sequence and sometimes didn't make sense, but everybody tried everything. By saying it didn't make sense, we had some boys who could scoop the ball up, but couldn't drop the ball and play it back into their hands from their feet. Or players who could play it back into their hands from their feet, after the thigh, but couldn't do it directly from their feet.
We then got them into three small sided 4v4 games, no conditions other than the usual no "one time" crazy strikes. They are getting better at that. That's HUGE pet peeve of mine that I look to eradicate as early as possible.
We then spent some time dribbling and turning in a marked area. Once they were in their groove we shrunk the area, reviewed and rehearsed our turns. After a few minutes the coaches turned into disruptive entities within the area encouraging the boys to use their turns to protect the ball. That went extremely well.
We then showed them two more turns followed by a few "Pirate" type dribbling games. Pirate games get easier as the kids get older. Even at U8 you may still get the occasional child who gets upset when eliminated, but the easy fix is to glamourize the role the Pirate (or Dragon, or Thief, or whatever you call it).
During the next set of small sided games more boys were using their turns. Every week, every SSG, one or 2 more boys develops the desire to use their turns.
We finished it off by racing the kids off in a couple of sprints. The same bunch of kids finished in the top 5. Next time I will race off the U8s then the U7s. We had a Tour de France type of pile-up halfway during the first race but those kids got up quickly and finished the run. :) They all survived the run.
Coaches Mark, Chris and I handled one SSG each. And we worked together during the ball touches. Neither of them is a passive bystander which is what I like.
Those boys got a ton of ball touches during the session. They moved like players, the got to play and hopefully they learned a few things. At the end, they were all sweating and smiling.
On Saturday Aug 17, we restart our Men's and Women's College program. That will be coaching on another level with great athletes playing to win. And I will miss the U8 program the entire time.