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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm coaching a girls rec team composed mostly of 8-year-olds.

They are great kids, but sometimes the practices feel like herding cats.

For simple exercises, I can get them to focus -- for example, running down the field in pairs while passing back and forth.

But if we attempt something more complex -- say, a 4 vs 4 scrimmage -- order begins to break down after just a few minutes. There will be complaints about the team (a player might want to switch sides), complaints about wanting to switch positions (say, from goalie to forward), complaints that they are not receiving enough passes or getting enough touches on the ball, bursts of negative emotion and self-criticism ("I'm no good"; "everybody else on the team is better than me", "this game is unfair"), and, every now and then, a child will storm off the field with tears in her eyes.

What should I realistically expect from kids this age? Are the issues I am experiencing a reflection of poor coaching? Or is this a normal situation for a team of 8-year-olds?  Or do I just happen to have a group of kids that are lagging behind other 8-year-olds in maturity?

Is a more forceful and strict coaching approach is required? I feel OK coming down hard on my own kids, but I'm uncomfortable acting like another kid's parent. But that seems to be what they need. They need me to lay down the law, and to make it absolutely clear that I won't accept any nonsense. But is this OK for such young kids? And in a rec league? I'm not sure.

Not that the team is very small and we lack subs during games, so I can't punish a problematic kid by making them ride the bench.
 
My daughter is on the team, and she follows directions perfectly, and can maintain focus not just for a 45 minute practice, but for much longer if necessary. I'd say about half the kids on the team are capable of this level of attentiveness and "professionalism" (for lack of a better word). But the other half seem to lack the necessary maturity.

Looking for any suggestions and feedback. Thanks.[/quote]

I wouldn't suggest forcefulness or strictness - but "no nonsense" is fine.  You definitely shouldn't be making anyone ride the bench at this age - any negative feedback needs to be much smaller than that and more immediate.

At this age I had a team that generally would pay attention but one or two were difficult.  I would make it quite clear what we were doing and that those who wished to play would so so, and if anybody didn't they could sit on the side and rejoin when they wanted to.  They usually didn't sit out for very long.

I generally found that if all the kids were acting up then I was either not planning enough different activities or I wasn't making them fun enough.  I think I used to aim for at least 6-8 different drills/practices and nearly all of them were organized as some kind of game rather than just a drill.  I know you say that you can keep the kids focused on the drill and it's the scrimmage that's the problem - but I'm guessing you are running the drills first and the girls are getting bored so that they are acting up when the scrimmage happens just because they've had enough by that time.

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