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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No they can’t behave for 45 minutes.

But you can structure a practice that changes every 5-10 minutes with each child having many touches with the ball during that time snd the practice will work.

Are you a bad coach... no.
Are you a good coach ... no.

You should have a very specific plan laid out and it should be somewhat repeatable every practice so the kids understand what is expected.

You should use a timer, you should have multiple “stations”.

You need assistants.

You can find plans online.[/quote]

OP here. The practices go OK when I focus on simple individual skills and simple passing drills. But scrimmaging seems to result in chaos. Perhaps I should just forget about scrimmaging, or limit it to just the final 5 minutes.

In any case, I'll try to have better structure, and I'll see if a friend can come to assist me.[/quote]

At this age you should be doing small games- 3v3, sharks vs minnows, etc. If you scrimmage with more kids, kids who are not immediately involved get bored. Every kid should have a ball on their foot as much as possible....so no line with kids waiting to do a drill. [/quote]

^^^ this

Also you need every kid involved so if you need to run 2 3v3's at a time, you need help.[/quote]

I actually disagree with this slightly. These are 8 year olds, not 5 year olds.  They should certainly be able to scrimmage 5v5 or 6v6 for 15 minutes without problems.[/quote]

No keep it small with lots of touches. Doubling the group size decreases the touches by more then halves. It also encourages ball hogs. Most kids do not start to develop spatial awareness till u13/u14 with it really developing at u15-u18. Below u12 it should be lots of touches and small size games to develop touch and skill while having fun. Remember 75% of the kids will stop playing by 13. Your goal should be to keep as many playing as possible in to their teens. [/quote]

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