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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.
