should 8-year-olds be capable of focusing & following directions across a 45-minute practice?

[Anonymous]

OP here. I've implemented some of the ideas that all of you shared with me. I now have an assistant that helps me, and the assistant enables me to break the kids into 2 smaller groups. In addition, we try to flow quickly from one practice drill to the next. Finally, we play relaxed, fun games in the final 10 minutes as a reward for a productive practice.

After these changes, the practices are going very well, and we are also playing much better in our weekend games.

So thanks for the feedback. It helped quite a bit.