Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Anonymous wrote:Some 8 year olds can, and certainly those who choose to do travel soccer can and are expected to do so. But in a rec league, not everyone takes it as seriously so may lack the focus. The other thing I would caution is that right now, specific to pandemic-times, I think kids in general may have a harder time focusing. For a lot of them, this may be their only SOCIAL outlet, so may be more likely to play around than focus. If that is the case, maybe try to have a bit of just unstructured playing around time at the beginning of practice when they can let off some steam?

Anonymous wrote:Some 8 year olds can, and certainly those who choose to do travel soccer can and are expected to do so. But in a rec league, not everyone takes it as seriously so may lack the focus. The other thing I would caution is that right now, specific to pandemic-times, I think kids in general may have a harder time focusing. For a lot of them, this may be their only SOCIAL outlet, so may be more likely to play around than focus. If that is the case, maybe try to have a bit of just unstructured playing around time at the beginning of practice when they can let off some steam?