New to soccer - advice for a kid and coach?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have fun. Do not, do not allow any player to make fun of another. They are teammates and should support each other even when they mess up. Valuable life lesson. And most of all do not let parents dictate your actions. Enjoy.

If anyone laughs at someone else's mistake, have the whole team run some laps.

Rule #1: Don't ever make kids run laps.

[Anonymous]

There are some excellent suggestions above. Some suggestions of mine are...Remember no laps, no lines, no lectures. Keep them playing. If I was to do it all over again, I would include just some more general movement for the kids. It's incredible how uncoordinated some 12, 13, 14, 15+ years olds are. One idea is to have maybe 3 person (max) teams have relay races where you dribble with a ball doing whatever but add a cart wheel somehow, add a somersault somehow, etc. One super fun game is called stuck in the mud. You can google it but basically its like team freeze tag where everyone on one team has a ball and the other team does not. If the team with the balls pass their ball and hit an opponent below the knee, that player is "Stuck in the mud". Their teammates can free them from the mud by crawling through their legs but they have to be careful not to get hit while saving their teammate. Object is the team with balls to work together to get everyone on opposing team stuck in the mud. Works on dribbling with head up, passing the ball with accuracy on a moving target, spatial awareness, etc. It also gets kids running, cutting, for agility and crawling for general movement. It was my kid's team's favorite game by far! But relay races were a close 2nd. Lastly, during games, do not worry about winning, when I was coaching U6s I used to tell my kids to clear the ball and kick it out of bounds. That's horrible. Teach the kids to try to win the ball and keep it. When the kids have the ball. Don't worry about passing. Teach the kids to be patient and have the kid with the ball dribble and take players on 1v1. Then have the team win the ball back and do it again if he/she loses the ball. And always remember it's such a privilege to coach and work with such young kids especially your own kid. Enjoy it! Your goal is to try to get kids to love soccer at this age. Development is a marathon, so just keep them having fun and, in a few years, they can get more serious about it. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

One of the most important things at that age. Try to do as much as you can with every player having a ball at their feet. Even when scrimmaging at that age discourse 1 touch plays. Always have them work on the 1st touch and have them use the 2nd touch to either make a controlled dribble or an "accurate" pass. But basic foot skills and 1st touch by far the most important at that age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make sure to have the entire team clap for the kid who shows up late/last.

Yeah because the kid drove himself to practice. Dumb idea.

A kid loses one of his quarters because he's late, they will be bugging their parents to make sure they are early net time.

[Anonymous]

Don't be surprised when the matches start and the kids on the bench have no interest in watching the game. Try to force them, so they are not a distraction when they are kicking balls around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is 6 and is playing soccer this year. I agreed to coach his team because no one else would. I have never played soccer and don’t even know what equipment is used. My kid has never played a sport before. This is all new to all of us.

Any tips?

As a coach and former player go to ussoccer and look up the grass roots coaching education it will be very helpful.

Here is the link

https://learning.ussoccer.com/coach/courses/available/26/details/1547

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some excellent suggestions above. Some suggestions of mine are...Remember no laps, no lines, no lectures. Keep them playing. If I was to do it all over again, I would include just some more general movement for the kids. It's incredible how uncoordinated some 12, 13, 14, 15+ years olds are. One idea is to have maybe 3 person (max) teams have relay races where you dribble with a ball doing whatever but add a cart wheel somehow, add a somersault somehow, etc. One super fun game is called stuck in the mud. You can google it but basically its like team freeze tag where everyone on one team has a ball and the other team does not. If the team with the balls pass their ball and hit an opponent below the knee, that player is "Stuck in the mud". Their teammates can free them from the mud by crawling through their legs but they have to be careful not to get hit while saving their teammate. Object is the team with balls to work together to get everyone on opposing team stuck in the mud. Works on dribbling with head up, passing the ball with accuracy on a moving target, spatial awareness, etc. It also gets kids running, cutting, for agility and crawling for general movement. It was my kid's team's favorite game by far! But relay races were a close 2nd. Lastly, during games, do not worry about winning, when I was coaching U6s I used to tell my kids to clear the ball and kick it out of bounds. That's horrible. Teach the kids to try to win the ball and keep it. When the kids have the ball. Don't worry about passing. Teach the kids to be patient and have the kid with the ball dribble and take players on 1v1. Then have the team win the ball back and do it again if he/she loses the ball. And always remember it's such a privilege to coach and work with such young kids especially your own kid. Enjoy it! Your goal is to try to get kids to love soccer at this age. Development is a marathon, so just keep them having fun and, in a few years, they can get more serious about it. Good luck.

Most of this is good advice. Possibly except the "don't worry about passing" piece. Kids should be taught to pass once they are able to make the correct decision about when it is a good thing to do - e.g. when you can use a pass to beat a player or escape pressure. At U6 most kids cannot do this - sure they can be taught to pass but they can't correctly decide when to do it, nor whom to pass to. At U8 most can. At U7 some kids are able to do this - you will need to make the judgment based on the kids you have.

[Anonymous]

Cones and pinnies are basic equipment in addition to balls and pugg goals

[Anonymous]

when my kids were 7 - 9 a lot of the training was juggling and 1v1 / 2v2 with the little pugg goals. The kids loved the 1v1s and 2v2s so much I got pugg goals and put them in the front yard and they would constantly play with the neighbor kids. Even kids that didn't play organized soccer loved to come over and play.

[Anonymous]

I would appreciate your willingness to pitch in, but I can't help but say that you're really not helping any but trying to lead something you have no knowledge about. I would almost say the kids would be better off having scrimmages and the parents being more coordinators than coaches.

I think you may get more out of this experience than the kids you're coaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would appreciate your willingness to pitch in, but I can't help but say that you're really not helping any but trying to lead something you have no knowledge about. I would almost say the kids would be better off having scrimmages and the parents being more coordinators than coaches.

I think you may get more out of this experience than the kids you're coaching.

Nonsense. Most of the kids will have little knowledge of the game. The coach will learn a lot, but the kids will too.

[Anonymous]

At that age, just learn the basics of soccer but focus on the kids having fun. Only thing to teach is really that they need to try to kick the ball in the opponents goal and not their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't be surprised when the matches start and the kids on the bench have no interest in watching the game. Try to force them, so they are not a distraction when they are kicking balls around.

My son and his friends used to bottle flip at 6 and 7. LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't be surprised when the matches start and the kids on the bench have no interest in watching the game. Try to force them, so they are not a distraction when they are kicking balls around.

My son and his friends used to bottle flip at 6 and 7. LOL.

I mean on the sidelines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would appreciate your willingness to pitch in, but I can't help but say that you're really not helping any but trying to lead something you have no knowledge about. I would almost say the kids would be better off having scrimmages and the parents being more coordinators than coaches.

I think you may get more out of this experience than the kids you're coaching.

Love this arrogant and lazy response. Just love it …