What do your kids actually do at soccer practices?

[bdubmd]

My 10 year old son's MSI Classic team almost exclusively scrimmage during practice. Virtually no drills, no instruction. He loves his friends on the team and loves to play but he's definitely not learning anything new. I'm not sure if we should supplement with individual coaching or find a new team.

Is this normal? What are your kids doing in practice?

[greypanther]

My U10 ds is at a top club on a top team. They do mostly technique drills focusing on their footskills. They also do lots of cones, passing, defending and attacking drills. They will often do scrimmage for the last 1/4 or 1/3 of practice which the boys love and is their favorite part but sometimes they do not get to scrimmage at all.

He has been on a team in the past where the coach mostly scrimmaged and IMHO it led nowhere. This method from our current coach teaches much more.

[Mdmom22]

Regardless of age group, my kids do all drills one day, mostly scrimmages another day, and if there is third practice (depends on age group), there is a combo of drills and scrimmages. It was also like this at another club they were at, although at that previous club, it was usually drills, then scrimmages at every practice. Like the previous poster above, the drills consisted of both individual technique development as well as drills to develop team play (pass, defend, attack, etc.). Occasionally, some fitness training seems to be incorporated in (suicides, etc.) but at the top levels, it seems as it's a given that the kids are maintaining a certain level of fitness outside of soccer.

[realdmv]

bdubmd wrote:My 10 year old son's MSI Classic team almost exclusively scrimmage during practice. Virtually no drills, no instruction. He loves his friends on the team and loves to play but he's definitely not learning anything new. I'm not sure if we should supplement with individual coaching or find a new team.

Is this normal? What are your kids doing in practice?

What does your son want? If he's more interested than his peers, then i would suggest travel soccer. There are several options for boys in the county. Also tryouts are starting this week or next.

[DCUdad]

bdubmd wrote:My 10 year old son's MSI Classic team almost exclusively scrimmage during practice. Virtually no drills, no instruction. He loves his friends on the team and loves to play but he's definitely not learning anything new. I'm not sure if we should supplement with individual coaching or find a new team.

Is this normal? What are your kids doing in practice?

It maybe normal, but it is not good for development. Scrimmages, or more likely scrimmage-like drills, have a place. But especially for younger age groups, and especially if they practice only a couple times a week, most of their time should be on technical development. That doesn't just mean solo dribbling and touch, but passing, moving, receiving, defending, etc. As they get older, this can expand to more tactical development; but a lot of that is just more complex drills (which may increasingly look more like scrimmages).

But if your son's practices are mostly just unstructured scrimmages, that's really just recess or recreation -- which are fine if that's what you want. But it's not soccer training. And it's a sign that the coach either doesn't know what they are doing, or doesn't care that much.

[GKDad]

I tend to agree. At 10, they ought to still be developing/working on footwork skills. Strategy and use of space should be a part of it, but when I watch my daughter's 2nd level team, I am constantly amazed by the lack of technical (dribbling, shooting, and passing) skills that these kids who have been playing for 8-9 years have. I saw it myself, when at 10-11 practices consisted mainly of rondos and scrimmaging, and now at 15 many still don't have strong and/or accurate legs.

[anonimouswon]

At the top team level (MLS Next/ECNL) before U12 the focus should be on technical skills and learning to use both legs to pass and kick the ball. Tactical training/teaching begins at U13 so if your player hasn't developed technical skills they most likely never will unless they get that training from an outside source. Because kids are growing at U13-U14+ it's an awkward age and by U15 coaches are looking at more athletic bigger players even if they don't have the technical skill, but when the technical players catch up to those bigger players you'll see them taking their starting positions back.

For your son I would suggest he focus on technical skills and fundamentals on his own. There is a lot on youtube for technical drills he can work on. You might want to ask the coach things he needs to work on as well to provide some guidance.

[bdubmd]

This is all super helpful. My son wants to be a professional soccer player and at the very least play in college. He's very competitive but isn't developing enough technical skills for sure. Anyone love their U10 team for technical development so we can look into tryouts? I can talk to our coach/director but really don't see how it could all change all of a sudden.

[greypanther]

bdubmd wrote:This is all super helpful. My son wants to be a professional soccer player and at the very least play in college. He's very competitive but isn't developing enough technical skills for sure. Anyone love their U10 team for technical development so we can look into tryouts? I can talk to our coach/director but really don't see how it could all change all of a sudden.

If those are your sons goals, msi classic at u10 or u11 is not the right place for him. Our top trams have outstanding technical skills for their age. When you go to try out, ask for the schedule of the top team you can watch them play.

[DCUdad]

bdubmd wrote:This is all super helpful. My son wants to be a professional soccer player and at the very least play in college.

If this is true, you need to take action ASAP. He's not remotely on a track for doing either of those things, but there is still time. You need to move to a larger club that has spectrum of teams, so he has the ability to move up over a season or two (e.g. Bethesda, Arlington). He probably won't make the top team the first year, but that's ok. Next, he needs to supplement official practices with ball work on his own (or with an outside coach). Juggling, dribbling, first touch, both feet -- it almost doesn't matter what it is if he's got the ball on his feet. Also, watch real soccer: watch Premier League, but also college soccer or your club's top U15 team. He needs to see the level required to get where he wants to go (and learn some tactical stuff by watching better players who are already good technicians). To reiterate, technical skills on the ball is 80% of what will determine his path over the next few years. Focus relentlessly on that.

By U12, or at least U13, he needs to be playing for the top ("academy") team on one of those bigger clubs. After that, it's harder and harder to break in to the top teams; but at U12-U13 there's still a lot of movement. Ultimately, only that top team is sending anyone to D1 soccer, probably even D3. And only the top 2-3 players on that top team have a shot at becoming a pro, probably by switching to a professional academy by U15.

Obviously, his priorities might change over time, which is fine. But if he wants to be a pro or play in college, you've got to change the trajectory right away. I didn't know a lot of this stuff for my older son, but my younger son has benefitted as we learned from our mistakes.

[twdc1]

This is one reason why we decided to move our daughter into travel. The rec coaches we've seen are simply bad. My husband is a coach for two other sports and he's very professional.

Our kid's current soccer team doesn't even do drills at practice and half the time kids don't show up for games. It's too laid back and no one learns anything. My husband ended up spending days learning soccer and then doing drills with our kid at the park after school.

[clt-dad]

It is true that rec coaches are a mixed bag and you'll struggle to improve if you don't move past it. Especially since both the teammates and competition will be weaker and there will be far fewer overall opportunities to play.

However, note, like the poster above noted, a huge amount of improvement is on his shoulders alone. He needs to practice at home and in the back yard. Someone who wants to be a pro has the ball at their feet all the time every day and watches games and commentary in their downtime.

[PotomacPete]

Skills are developed at home thru repetition. Knowledge of how to play the game well is thru good coaching but also being a student of the game. Watch the pros. Look at their spacing, off the ball movement and positioning relative to the ball and the other players. It all matters.

[Ossalt]

Which clubs actually drill during practice? Most seem to only scrimmage...

[DCUdad]

Ossalt wrote:Which clubs actually drill during practice? Most seem to only scrimmage...

This probably isn't true. I would guest "most" clubs have drills at practice. But you are probably right that *way too many* teams/coaches spend way too much practice time scrimmaging. The best teams and coaches spend very little time with unstructured scrimmages, especially at early ages. Now, some drills can evolve to look more scrimmage-like (i.e. there may be defenders and goals), but that's not the same thing. If your youth team spends most of their practices just scrimmaging, you should find a new team or coach -- all the more so if your child is younger or not on the top team. All coach training and education is about how to plan and execute training sessions around technical or tactical development, building up from individual basics to more game-like scenarios.