This topic contains 32 replies, has 19 voices, and was last updated by 
-
Posts
-
Hi,
I have usually coached at the older age-group, (u12-u14) but this year have taken on a brand new u-9 boys team in the Southern California Developmental Soccer League (SCDSL). Gary and Brian have mentioned they don’t usually work with players this age. Our first two tryouts/practices were last week and I already see that it will be a great challenge (which I look forward to) to try to implement some of the techniques/tactics G & B are talking of. Just introducing receiving across the body was like I speaking in Latin. Kids this age do have younger mind and will take extra creative training to implement some of G&B’s ideas. Am I wrong?
Would anybody else working with this age group be interested in keeping this “Under-9 Focus” topic as a way to share ideas for this age group in implementing the G&B way. And if Gary & Brian would like to add in suggestions, that would be great too!
Thanks
Chris
I too coach kids this age and begin the basic concepts at U7. There are some very simple Rondos and three man drill sI use to get them use to the concepts that are displayed here. I found that at U7 and U8 they get the basics in about 3-4 sessions. Then I just continue to reinforce the concepts during SSGs. I have a rule in practice that you must receive across your body in all situations, in games they can do where appropriate but again try to reinforce this where applicable
Coaching u8 girls myself; started with a pure rec team that is morphing in a development team. Will gladly contribute to this thread.
Really glad you started this topic Chris.
We haven’t dedicated ourselves to the young ones U9 or under, and I’m certainly curious how well it can be done.What would be awesome is if you – and others – could periodically film over the coming year, and post here!
Great! Will try to get video over the season. I look forward to exchanging experiences.
Stephen, besides basic keep-away, what simple rondo is simpler than the 4v0.
Thanks
I remember when my son was in U9 one of the first drills to introduce receiving across the body was to position the players at the corners of the square. The receiver would have to check away from the cone to create space. Passer passes to the back foot of receiver. Two touch. Reverse direction after a while. I think the boys did this particular drill only 2 or 3 practices before the coach was satisfied they understood “across the body” and “back foot”.
Very similar to what Dana stated. I break down even the 4v0 Rondo into its components and then layer them on top of th previous skill until we get to what you see here. Depending on the skill level I work on just receiving on the back foot, then I may add in to movement and communication to receive the ball, then Ill add in the checking each shoulder during movement and to communicate direction of the pass after yours ie tell the receiver who is open. Once they have these down and it takes on average for my boys 3-4 tries I will add in the passive defender
Hello fellow 3four3ers: I have a daughter in the U9 age group and will hopefully be involved with her Comp team soon. I will keep up posted on how things go. I believe that they can do handle the basics like receiving across the body and rondos.
Great, I currently coach U8’s (born in 2006) so I too am interested to hear from other coaches in this age bracket. I have not done any posseion based drills yet. At the moment we concentrate on encouraging dribbling and taking on the defender on 1v1. We do lots of ball skills, tricks etc however I plan to introduce the 4 v 0 receiving across the body in the next week or so. I will post our progress.
I have been coaching U4 and U8’s since 2009. Kids are sponges and they will absorb everything you. I can get my U6 team to receive across their body. It’s repetition and you must stay with the plan! My business partner gets frustrated and goes to something else (not going to get results). You have to wait it out and build repetition. With that being said don’t treat the kids like babies (no sponge bob) be firm but fair. My sons U5 team had a few kids that were not ready for soccer so I moved my son to a more focus team that were like minded. You can’t spend 30 minutes teaching one kid while others pick up the technique in 7-10 minutes.
It can be done but you must create the right environment and expectations. Here is my u6 team passing.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201459275778294
This one show 15 passes in a row.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201502314014223
My U8’s move the ball well and keep their shape! We just played in a u10 Futsal tournament and it exposed our weakness, but it was good to see. It showed me how lazy we have become in our own age group.
Case and point, my u6 team played my old U6 team that I move away from and the old team was still struggling on which direction to go in the second half.
Most of the content/activities provided and discussed on this site have premier/select/travel teams in mind where all the kids participating are relatively talented. However, U6, U7, and U8 rec teams are a mixture of kids that are ready and kids that can barely walk without tripping over their own feet. I am wondering how coaches would implement some of these activities for a mixed rec team? If at all.
I coach a U7Bs team with 5 kids that are probably in the top 15-20% of the U7Bs in the club (my A kids). My A kids do pretty well at rondo-type activities. Some of my other kids are iffy and some just have no focus, no coordination, etc to attempt these activities. How do you all manage these differences in abilities in terms of these activities during your rec practices? In our club, our teams are created to be relatively competitive and, on game day, we play 4v4 and a team’s 5 A kids against the other team’s 5 A kids, and the team’s 5 B kids play against the other team’s 5 B kids. Moving my 5 A kids to a different team is not an option as Aaron seemed to have implied in the post above.
However, my club offers training (invite only) for the top 20% of the U6s, U7s, and U8s (divided into groups by age, sex, and ability) one day a week for close to 2 hours. 30 minutes is spent at the passing/receiving and possession station. The U6s have a lot of success playing 3v0 where the focus is on completing the triangle based on where the ball is passed (i.e. moving without the ball to provide support). We then add a defender and they do well with 3v1 no touch restrictions. The U7s have been successful at 3v1, passing around the square and receiving across the body and following the pass to the next corner. We also run 2v2v2 with much success and 2v2 with 2 neutral wings and 2 goalies where the kids need the neutral wings need to touch the ball before the team can shoot. We spend a lot of time teaching the wings to open up and receive across the body. The U8s play a lot of 6v2 rondo and similar activities to the U7s but with different restrictions such as number of passes and instead of goalies they are target players and you must move the ball from one target player to the other to get a point while using the neutrals wings, etc. So I say this so others have an idea of what I’ve seen work for U6s, U7s, and U8s in the past year that I’ve been involved with coaching.
Another challenge I see is pure training time. Once again, these activities have premier/select/travel teams in mind that probably practice 3 times a week for 90 minutes a session. My U7Bs practiced twice a week for 60 minutes each session. I was one of 3 coaches to practice twice a week. All of the other coaches practiced once a week. Our rec season is 9 weeks I believe. If these kids start “getting it” after 3-4 sessions, that’s a huge chunk of the season especially for coaches that only practice once a week. When do you fit in dribbling, running with the ball, turning, shooting, 1v1 attacking, etc.?
Lastly, I am wondering if any of the coaches still have their old U7 weekly/monthly/seasonal training plans (the typical description of activity, organization, coaching points, etc.) and are willing to share and provide some thoughts as to what worked really well and what didn’t.
I’m starting with a U8 boys’ team tonight. I’ll keep everybody posted on how it goes, but the main question I have running through my mind right now is: what is the right balance of individual skill work (encouraging creativity and risk-taking in 1v1 situations) and passing work? I’ve heard multiple people talk about how some coaches will instruct their players not to pass, at least for the first couple of weeks, to create some 1v1 ability.
I don’t want to go that far with it, but I’m thinking my emphasis for the first two or three weeks (two sessions a week; no games until first weekend of March) will be individual skills. At this age, I want to create competence in individuals so that they can effectively work within the dynamic, possession-based framework I would introduce to older teams. After a couple weeks (and definitely before we start playing games), I want to introduce basic rondos with an emphasis on receiving across the body and taking a positive first touch.
I’m also going to invest in a video camera to tape training sessions and matches, so I will hopefully have video to share with everybody.
This is what I do.
My practice is 1.5 hrs
Spend 30 min on individual type skills, generally of the Coerver type
Spend 30 min of possession type play, focusing on passing and receiving moving into space etc
30 min ssg 3v3 or 5v5 where I focus on beating a single player but passing if confronted with more than oneIn games I give no instruction as to how they can play but discuss afterwards what worked and what did not and why
Well, had my first “real”training session with this new team. It is still being built so mostly rec players so far. After a small warm-up, I ran a circle drill..meaning half players in and half-out. Half-In jog and find an outside player with a ball and do a one-touch back and forth and quickly turn and find somebody else. They must count their passes. Switch inside without and repeat. Switch again and do 2-touch. At this point I stopped and clarified they HAVE to use 2-touch. I then explained receiving the ball across the body before they passed back. It went ok, but it was clear they favored their stronger foot right away, and still wanted to 1-touch. We switched a number of times and it slowly got better. Then I changed the exercise so the inside players dribbled withe and had to do a 1-tocuh pass to outside players. Upon receiving the ball back, they had to let the ball cross the body and then turn and dribble to find an open player. It actually worked pretty well.
Then, I decided to take on the 4v0 rondo. It was difficult for the players unless I was there constantly reminding them to support and receive across the body. Basicially, the better players could figure it out, and the “less-experienced” players did not do as well. But I can see the potential. After 1 minutes I jumped to 4v1 just try it out. Some of them got to concept very well but I had to make the defender go about 50%.
Ended with 1v1, 2v2 and 4v4. In the 4v4, they bunched up but I did see the better players sometimes receiving the ball across the body.
After practice, I questioned the kids about “across the body” and some understood, others didn’t, but not surprising with the mix of rec players.
So overall, I am very excited. When the team is finalized and I am working with fully committed players,I think this will workout well.
I will keep you updated.
I’m entering my first season coaching an U9 boys team. Coached them in a school futsal comp prior to Christmas and have managed to keep them all together for a whole season ahead.
There passing and spatial awareness improved greatly over a six game season. My main approach for this season is to have them passing out of the back to create 1v1s in the attacking half as most of the players have begun to realise when to attack and when to play for possession. Our season doesn’t start until April but good to know how others are approaching things.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.