It's a good start for that team and something to model. We are still at the level where the only time you see decent soccer is when you have an individual coach who really knows the game and how to teach younger players.

We are not at the point where most clubs have a curriculum from U9-U19 that the coaches follow. Every coach works with their own team individually and probably does not do too much with other teams.

So regardless of who coaches, whether it's an ex-pro or a recent college player, the curriculum and the philosophy is the same and consistent. In the best youth programs in the world, the coaches come and go from year to year too, and teams switch coaches... but they go of a club curriculum.

Very, very few clubs in this area have any such thing, except MAYBE at the younger ages.

[quote=RantingSoccerDad][quote][quote][quote]

This is a U9 team from Sterling. Coached by Omar Ismail.

Pay attention to their positioning, decisionmaking, confidence to play out of pressure, individual skill and confidence to take players on when appropriate.

This is what good coaching at this age looks like.

If your kids coach isn't trying to get them to play this way, keep looking.

https://youtu.be/6EZ5WPwsgFA
[/quote]

You're kidding right?
Pretty sure any team can look great from a manufactured highlight reel.
Put 15 minutes of raw footage on there, then we'll see.[/quote]

Watch the video again but stop ball watching this time.

This thread is about what u9/U10 coaches should be doing.

Look at this team's shape off the ball. That doesn't happen by accident. And with 7/8 year olds it doesn't happen without a ton of work and attention by the coach.

Yet, they aren't robots. They are using individual skill and showing confidence in 1v1 situations, but they are able to see and pass to teammates when players are in better positions.

Yes, it's a highlight video. It's their best moments from the first 1 1/2 months of travel soccer.

I'm sure this isn't how they look for 60 min every match, but that wasn't the point. The point was that this is how coaches should be trying to get their teams to play at this age.

The reality is there are very few coaches at U9-U12 whose teams EVER look like this, let alone for a 15 min highlight video.

[/quote]

There is no team that goes through an entire season without coming up with 15 minutes of highlights.

As for gameday coaching -- at U9, you have to let kids make mistakes. You can take them aside when you rotate them in and out to explain a few things. Yelling across a field *sometimes* sinks in but is often lost in the general hubbub of a game. (Particularly when parents are yelling things, too.)

The goal is to get players to make decisions on their own. Some coaches take it to an extreme and never correct anything, so you see U12 players who still dribble into the center of their own defense and lose the ball. But the other joystick-coaching extreme is more common. It impresses gullible parents.[/quote]

actually what i noticed about that video is the orange team trying things which is good, and at the same time I notice at 1:35 of the video and 2:07 of the video the orange players try nonsense moves and both times were unable to shake #34 on the blue/white team. I liked that kid, just sat there, did not stab, rode his player to the outside and did not get beat.

its impossible to look at a set of video and tell how good a coach is, without knowing what the coach's objectives were etc.

are the kids smiling, having fun and want to return to soccer? if so then the coach has done a good job. Beyond that tactical and technical knowledge and teaching ability will help as they hit U-13.

kind of OT but is yelling 'look up' from sideline fine or even effective for 2nd graders? i do that a lot (at practice scrimmage too) but don't see real changes.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is a U9 team from Sterling. Coached by Omar Ismail.

Pay attention to their positioning, decisionmaking, confidence to play out of pressure, individual skill and confidence to take players on when appropriate.

This is what good coaching at this age looks like.

If your kids coach isn't trying to get them to play this way, keep looking.

https://youtu.be/6EZ5WPwsgFA
[/quote]

You're kidding right?
Pretty sure any team can look great from a manufactured highlight reel.
Put 15 minutes of raw footage on there, then we'll see. [/quote]

Watch the video again but stop ball watching this time.

This thread is about what u9/U10 coaches should be doing.

Look at this team's shape off the ball. That doesn't happen by accident. And with 7/8 year olds it doesn't happen without a ton of work and attention by the coach.

Yet, they aren't robots. They are using individual skill and showing confidence in 1v1 situations, but they are able to see and pass to teammates when players are in better positions.

Yes, it's a highlight video. It's their best moments from the first 1 1/2 months of travel soccer.

I'm sure this isn't how they look for 60 min every match, but that wasn't the point. The point was that this is how coaches should be trying to get their teams to play at this age.

The reality is there are very few coaches at U9-U12 whose teams EVER look like this, let alone for a 15 min highlight video.



[/quote]

OK Coach Omar, we get it.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is a U9 team from Sterling. Coached by Omar Ismail.

Pay attention to their positioning, decisionmaking, confidence to play out of pressure, individual skill and confidence to take players on when appropriate.

This is what good coaching at this age looks like.

If your kids coach isn't trying to get them to play this way, keep looking.

https://youtu.be/6EZ5WPwsgFA
[/quote]

You're kidding right?
Pretty sure any team can look great from a manufactured highlight reel.
Put 15 minutes of raw footage on there, then we'll see. [/quote]

Watch the video again but stop ball watching this time.

This thread is about what u9/U10 coaches should be doing.

Look at this team's shape off the ball. That doesn't happen by accident. And with 7/8 year olds it doesn't happen without a ton of work and attention by the coach.

Yet, they aren't robots. They are using individual skill and showing confidence in 1v1 situations, but they are able to see and pass to teammates when players are in better positions.

Yes, it's a highlight video. It's their best moments from the first 1 1/2 months of travel soccer.

I'm sure this isn't how they look for 60 min every match, but that wasn't the point. The point was that this is how coaches should be trying to get their teams to play at this age.

The reality is there are very few coaches at U9-U12 whose teams EVER look like this, let alone for a 15 min highlight video.

Say that U9 team actually plays like that consistently, is there a disconnect with the older teams in the club? Because I’ve seen Sterling’s older age groups play and they are not very good. Lots of long ball and deep lines with sweepers. Practically anti-soccer.

[quote=Anonymous]This is a U9 team from Sterling. Coached by Omar Ismail.

Pay attention to their positioning, decisionmaking, confidence to play out of pressure, individual skill and confidence to take players on when appropriate.

This is what good coaching at this age looks like.

If your kids coach isn't trying to get them to play this way, keep looking.

https://youtu.be/6EZ5WPwsgFA
[/quote]

You're kidding right?
Pretty sure any team can look great from a manufactured highlight reel.
Put 15 minutes of raw footage on there, then we'll see.

This is a U9 team from Sterling. Coached by Omar Ismail.

Pay attention to their positioning, decisionmaking, confidence to play out of pressure, individual skill and confidence to take players on when appropriate.

This is what good coaching at this age looks like.

If your kids coach isn't trying to get them to play this way, keep looking.

https://youtu.be/6EZ5WPwsgFA

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our u9 boys play much better when their coach is vocal. Many of them don’t see the field the way an experienced player does... they need to be told to back up, go back to their position, spread out etc.

Of course they do...that's not the point.
What's going to happen the first year they don't have a vocal coach? Will they be able to make any decisions on their own?

Different poster, but I have to ask what you think will happen? Is your idea that a kid who at U9-U11 has a coach who reminds them of positioning when they are in a game will get to a silent coach at U12 and just...stand there? Unmoving and unable to make any decisions on their own? Because that's absurd. What will actually happen is that they will slowly obtain greater mastery of the game in the first few years, helped along by coaching instruction in practices and games. They will require less instruction each year as they go along (other when they are working on new tactical patterns), though if done right, it is still appropriate and should be welcomed throughout their playing career.

Anonymous wrote:Our u9 boys play much better when their coach is vocal. Many of them don’t see the field the way an experienced player does... they need to be told to back up, go back to their position, spread out etc.

Of course they do...that's not the point.
What's going to happen the first year they don't have a vocal coach? Will they be able to make any decisions on their own?

Our u9 boys play much better when their coach is vocal. Many of them don’t see the field the way an experienced player does... they need to be told to back up, go back to their position, spread out etc.