First Youth Soccer Game This Fall and Coaching Jitters…

First Youth Soccer Game This Fall and Coaching Jitters…

So it’s your first game this season tomorrow, and you are worried because you are moving from 4 v 4 (U7) to 5 v 5 (U8) or 8 v 8 (U8 & U9)?

By coach Dan Stratford

I often hear “I can’t get my girls to spread out.” Or “We play bunch ball.” Or how do I get them to play position?

Here is what you need to do to be successful your first few week-ends of fall youth soccer:

Why not call the them “Four Rs of early season coaching”…

Relax:

The first thing you need to know most every one of your opposing coaches are having the same struggles you are having. The ones that are not struggling are the ignorant ones who have been recruiting teams since their son or daughter was 5 and they think that trying to win a regional or national championship at 7 years of age is a good thing to do.

Realize, Remember & Reinforce

Realize that the game is another opportunity for the players to learn. While you do not want to over coach them, you can help them continue to discover soccer during the game by encouraging them to do the following. Remember what your priorities should be:

In order of priority…

Encourage them to go get the ball. Yes, marking up is good, but I would rather struggle with getting a kid to mark up because he or she is trying to go get the ball, than have a player mark up and just stand there because they don’t really want to go get the ball. So let’s make sure our players are willing to go and fight for the ball before we start telling them to mark up. Marking up will improve gradually as time goes on and your opponents get better at passing. If your opponent’s U8 team is already really good at passing, well, “shame on them” for focusing on the wrong things and “good on you” for focusing on going to the ball, dribbling & shooting.

Encourage them to control and dribble the ball…
Controlling the ball and losing it is better than kicking it to the other team. Encourage them to keep the ball and go for goal, or at least keep the ball to dribble away from trouble as they are looking to pass or shoot.

Shoot!
Encourage them to shoot whenever they have the chance. Help them discover their goal scoring opportunities and not be afraid of going for goal.

Passing?
Sure, as they get older encouraging passing becomes a necessary and vital part of the game-but even the object of soccer is to score, not to pass. Passing is absolutely necessary higher levels of the game, but would you have wanted to be the one who had been yelling at Michael Jordan, Coby Jones, Messe, or Ronaldinho to pass the ball when they were little?  So as they get older encourage them and teach them to spread out and pass, but not too early or it will inhibit their opportunity to learn to get the ball, dribble and shoot.

No matter what…
Encourage effort, reinforce even the smallest successes, without being patronizing (if that is even possible with the little guys). Encourage and challenge, encourage and challenge, encourage and challenge, encourage and challenge…
If you follow these steps, you can sleep well at night knowing you are doing the right thing-even if you “lost” the game.