I have done a few things coaching kids.

First, you are not just teaching soccer, you are teaching teamwork, emotional regulation and paying attention.

Don't wing it, have a plan and make it close to the same each week. It does not have to be the same drills each week but they know 1st we run, then we have drills, then a small side game, then water, then run again, then .....

I am going to assume that on the scale from 1 to 10 the child you are speaking about is a 9 or 10 on the H scale.

If that is true, what I did is I asked if there were any teens that wanted to earn service hours and I had a teen shadow this child every practice. That is 8 SSL hours. He would run the drill with him the 1st time because often these children can't hear/understand/comprehend verbal commands as quickly and easily as other children So you say jump and he jumps 5 seconds later than the other kids and you will be frustrated... but it's 5 seconds. The shadow child helps him run each drill or provides more instruction when he doesn't get it the 1st time.

When you explain a drill I had 2 kids run through as an example and usually I used the child who was having issues paying attention (not always the ADHD child).

This is true for all young kids... you need to repeat drills weekly so after week 3 there is not instruction. We are doing sharks and minnows and they know what that is.

I would stay away from "punishment" and use distractions. Joe, go shoot on the goal with <name of goalie> to warm him up.

You can't possibly be running practices with no assistant, is that the situation?

I broke the kids in smaller groups so there are more touches to the ball which keeps them engaged.

Kids need to change what they are doing every 10 minutes.

Talk to the child one on one, about anything, find out what he is interested in, connect with him. He will be much more likely to do something for you if he thinks you actually know him/care about him. BTW, this is true about every.single.child you should actually get to know them.

Our DS wasn’t diagnosed until age 16, but was definitely unfocused as a youngster on the field. However a lot of kids with ADHD have serious sports skills that develop as they get older. It really wasn’t until seventh grade when our son started focusing in on his sport and now will probably play it at the D1 level at college. Sports are awesome for kids with attention issues but the younger years can be challenging. You’ve gotten some good ideas here so I would run with those.

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately I think you do need to have another adult focused mostly (exclusively) on him though this may be short term.

I am an educator an a parent of soccer players with ADHD (though mine are the spacey type, not bouncing off the walls types) and I think the number one thing is:

*Make your expectations CRYSTAL CLEAR at the beginning in an authoritative (can be as friendly as you want, no need to be harsh, just very clear and simple). "We are doing X and Y. I need everyone to listen and participate. Anyone who doesn't listen is going to run laps until they are ready to participate." When kid goofs off, you can give one warning, but then impose immediate consequence. Best consequence for kids like this are things that keep him moving and away from others: laps are obvious ones. I make my kids do jumping jacks/sit ups, too.

*a lot of kids like this respond REALLY well to rewards. It can be a silly reward related to your practice. It can be something really small. But having something extra to stimulate good behavior is very effective.


Other things:

*keep drills very simple and clear

*not a lot of waiting in line. that is when they are going to start causing problems

This PP has good advice that worked well with my DS with ADHD--with a GIANT H. Luckily he had the same coach through several years of rec soccer (fall and spring from ages 4 to 7), and she wasn't afraid to call kids out for misbehavior. Very clear expectations, call him out when behavior is unacceptable, and very clear consequences (she would send kids off to sit with parents if they were misbehaving or make them run laps). My DS reacts well to all of those, particularly being called out by an adult other than his parents. Sometimes he really just doesn't realize that his behavior is out of bounds so someone just needs to tell him.

I stayed at every practice to ensure he wasn't being disruptive, and she knew that I would back her up anytime she sent him off, which was actually very rare because he understood the expectations and consequences. I don't recall her using a lot of rewards, but I would provide rewards after practice for good behavior (and giving his best effort--another thing ADHD kids sometimes struggle with), like maybe we would get an ice cream or he could stay up 30 minutes later or whatever.

DS is 9 now and plays on a travel team. One of the reasons we stuck with it was that he loved it and he's actually very good. I still go and sit at every travel practice, usually in the car so I can see his behavior but not really be present. His travel coach doesn't put up with any nonsense, but I still like to monitor and ensure that he is not out of control and is giving his best effort.

Lastly, to be very honest, all of this would have been much, much more difficult if DS was not medicated, though at practice times meds are wearing off or have worn off. That's a personal decision for every family obviously and lots of different factors affect whether a kid might be medicated.

This happened to me a few times as a rec coach. My mom also had to stay with my sister at practice - same issues.

Here is what worked:
talking to mom and finding out what works at school
getting mom or dad involved in practice - parents have to be at practice
sending kid over to mom or dad when practice was too much
talking to the rec director or age group coordinator for ideas - they have been there/done that and were super helpful. They can even come observe practice and give you some ideas.

What didn't work:
drills requiring sharing balls or standing around
everyone needs their own ball for the most part
standing around giving instructions for more than a minute
long practices - keep to around an hour depending on kids age

Anonymous wrote:If he is as disruptive as you say (e.g. stealing all the practice balls and throwing them into the woods) just ask that a parent stays and handles his behavior during practice.

I agree with this 100%. Mom or dad or caregiver should get their sneakers on and be alongside him at the field redirecting until he gets the point. It’s not fair to you or the team that the kid is pulling the focus. I say this as a parent of a kid with adhd who had anxiety/anger issues with meltdowns at soccer (at a younger age) so instead of sitting on the sidelines and chatting during practice or dropping him off like others do, I came along and kept an eye on him and if he started melting, I pulled him to the sidelines so the coach could keep coaching and the other kids could keep learning. He’s older now and doesn’t have these meltdowns and I feel comfortable dropping him off. Don’t hesitate to ask the parents to be active members during the practice, op.

What age?
Is this travel?

If he is as disruptive as you say (e.g. stealing all the practice balls and throwing them into the woods) just ask that a parent stays and handles his behavior during practice.

Unfortunately I think you do need to have another adult focused mostly (exclusively) on him though this may be short term.

I am an educator an a parent of soccer players with ADHD (though mine are the spacey type, not bouncing off the walls types) and I think the number one thing is:

*Make your expectations CRYSTAL CLEAR at the beginning in an authoritative (can be as friendly as you want, no need to be harsh, just very clear and simple). "We are doing X and Y. I need everyone to listen and participate. Anyone who doesn't listen is going to run laps until they are ready to participate." When kid goofs off, you can give one warning, but then impose immediate consequence. Best consequence for kids like this are things that keep him moving and away from others: laps are obvious ones. I make my kids do jumping jacks/sit ups, too.

*a lot of kids like this respond REALLY well to rewards. It can be a silly reward related to your practice. It can be something really small. But having something extra to stimulate good behavior is very effective.


Other things:

*keep drills very simple and clear

*not a lot of waiting in line. that is when they are going to start causing problems

You have some good advice on keeping the child moving, avoiding too much wait time with drills and keeping active with scrimmages. Having an assistant coach or another adult would be helpful if you could find someone. They could work with everyone, not just focus one on one. Really I wanted to say thank you from another mom of a son who was like this. He had a lot of rough younger years when he was forced to sit out which made everything worse. As for growing out of it, he still has ADHD but was able to be on a team and not distract others by 5th grade. It got a lot better.

I've been that kid's mom and came to the conclusion that soccer was just not for us. It was added stress and no fun for anyone involved and my kid wasn't getting anything positive out of it. I commend you for trying. PP's suggestions about keeping them moving and mixing things up are good.

For players with ADD, try to avoid drills that involve lots of standing around and waiting. Best to keep an ADD kid active all the time. And avoid highly repetitive drills. They benefit from mixing things up and continually having new challenges. Many are competitive and like clearly laid-out objectives. They are often better in scrimmages than drills. You'll have to be blunt and direct with them. If they are out of line, give clear and immediate consequences that are active (i.e. running laps or chasing down balls rather than sitting out).

What age kid are you talking about? If they are young, be patient. They may grow out of it and direct that energy more productively soon. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:The best thing you can do is work recruit more kids that have the same issues

That is an interesting comment. Can you expand?

Op here, and I’ve googled and read some articles about this topic. Ha, guess I should have done that before dcum. So far they’re quite helpful, and I may print one and share with parent so we know we’re going to work together and improve this situation.

The best thing you can do is work recruit more kids that have the same issues

I’m open if you want to tell me it sounds like I’m doing something wrong. In my opinion, I’m doing exactly the right thing (besides, as I said above, maybe having one not-his-parent-parent focus solely on him.)

Again, I’m open, because I just want what’s best for this kid. But I’m thinking about the other players too. They don’t deserve wasted minutes because he takes the one scrimmage ball over to the trees, and will not give it back. (And apparently we cant keep extras out because last week he repeatedly threw all of them into thorns)

Soccer and ADD?

Advice on coaching/parent relations when a child is very, very unfocused during practice? And not only unfocused (I could deal with that) but doing things that take away (a lot) from the teammates.

I may be ok at coaching, but I’m not a teacher in a classroom. We have one hour, and I do have easy-going consequences for actions that take away from others. It’s not “working.” And you can’t say just get them physically running because the kid can’t even focus on that without running into other people etc.

I’m so sympathetic to the mom because she seems so nice, and based on his own comments, he gets into trouble at school too. So she’s dealing with him at home, getting calls from school, and now he is getting into enough trouble to get sidelined at practice. I want to keep him on the field with us as much as possible.

Your best tips, please? Just an extra coach body on the field to focus on that one player? Letting stuff go?