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[quote=Anonymous]I coached many years of rec, and had all sorts of players, including kids that went on to play ECNL. Caveat that I never coached past U8.

How athletic are the non-former-travel players?  How aggressive are the former-travel players?  Do you know why they are no longer playing travel?

First priority is always for the kids to have fun. Second is to improve, third is to win.

One key for me was to play lots of “games”, but not to scrimmage much at practice. Scrimmages always lead to the kids focusing on winning, which invariably leads to the ball on the feet of the best players.

Instead, everything was competitive (in small teams and keeping score), was a mixed of skilled and less skilled players,  and the least skilled players were cycled out one at a time to work with a coach on fundamentals.

We never pulled the best players into the one-on-one sessions with a coach, and no one ever complained. It was obvious to everyone what we were doing, and I think everyone appreciated it, including the families of the less-skilled players. They all improved quickly, at least to the point where they could trap and pass the ball proficiently.

The last key is equal game time, and not just letting your best players play hero ball. Do that, and everyone will respect you.  [/quote]

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