16 replies to this topic

[Barn]

Does anyone on here run any kids football teams? For this season I agreed to take on my eldest son's team - under 7's so their first year of matches. I agreed to do it on the basis that I had done the level one FA coaching badge, I love the game and think I know more than anyone else anyway, and if I didn't do it there would be no team for the lads.
So we started training in June and I've got to say I've loved it, the kids are great with a couple of really tasty looking players. The rest enjoy themselves and some are progressing nicely. We had a few friendlies in the summer, a tournament where we won 1, drew 2 and lost 1 so I was quite happy with how we're doing.
Our first game of the season was yesterday and we got tonked 6-1, fortunately the kids still enjoyed it (not sure how!) but we've got too many players that are scared of getting stuck into opposition that they don't know. They're fine if they know the kids they're playing against but yesterday most of the team just went missing.

How do you coach something like that?

[Andreas]

Hmm, guess you have got to teach them not to be scared of anyone, make them believe in themself that they can beat anyone no matter what! Tell them they are good enough.

Have you stuck them into positions yet? the earlier the better I remember how our coach never did that and we got tonked by the better teams all the time which had proper position play!

Good luck anyway, hopefully I can coach kids someday, would be fun.

[Gem]

I was going to mention positions too Andreas, I think if a lad or lass (even if he is only 7) knows their job is to score, defend or create, it makes it less congested. Thing is I'd imagine they're all chasing every ball, which is great, but obviously leaves you wide open. It might be worth mentioning things like Wayne Rooney stated at this level etc - might give them a belief that they can be like him too.

Thing with an under 7 team I'd imagine is that continuity is not going to be a main factor, they'll probably win their next game 8-0!

[Scooby Blue]

I've been coaching for a few seasons and all you can really do at such a young age is to let them enjoy it. Try and teach them the positions on the field. No 7 year old will want to play in Defence, they want to score goals, but along the lines of what Gem said, if you mention one or two star names that play in certain positions they'll be a lot happier. Switch them around a fair bit so they all get to find out where they play more comfortably. Another tip is to give the not so gifted kids a lot of encouragement and involvement, even if you put the least talented lad up front for 5 minutes he'll enjoy himself but expect some of the others to be a bit miffed by it. If they all get a good chance they'll learn the game far quicker. When I first started I was coaching an under 10 team and they played 7 a side. From under 12s upwards they start to play the full 11 a side game and that's when the real work starts. For now just let them enjoy it and remember the odd tonking is all part of the learning curve.

As far as your original question is concerned - All you can do really is keep training. There confidence should grow the more games they play. Work on some drills that include more tackling and make that the basis of an entire session maybe.

It'll come together eventually but it takes a lot of time and patience.

[Barn]

Thanks for the comments, I've calmed down a bit now and think you're right that they're very young and very inexperienced - it'll come as long as we keep doing the right things in training.

[Wolfy]

Your coaching under 7s I have to ask how many scouts have approached you?

I scouted an under 7s game once and counted another 9 who i KNEW all from different clubs.

[Barn]

None yet but it won't be long before they're sniffing round at least a couple of my players. The technique and ball control one of them has is outstanding.

[OtherShadeOfBlue]

Barn, on 29 September 2011 - 09:02 PM, said:

None yet but it won't be long before they're sniffing round at least a couple of my players. The technique and ball control one of them has is outstanding.

what size of ball do you play with? would playing with a smaller ball and learning to control it better and keep hold of it, surely that would increase player confidence as each player becomes more comfortable on the ball

[barak81]

At there age on that size pitch I think like others have said they should enjoy it and work on there skills. encourage show boating to a degree. They wont have many more chances for it (we push players on to full size pitches far to soon)

[The Moos]

When managing kids, the most important thing is to have a whip!

[Zola]

Solid encouragement for all, try talking briefly to each player to see if each one can somewhat understand their role :)

[dkw]

I wouldnt do this for all the tea in China mate. Me and a mate took over his sons team for a few months when their then coach was ill (even getting dispensation to do that was a pain), and it was a nightmare. We decided to use every player at the club as much as possible and move them into different positions to learn as much as possible. Our thinking was a right winger should understand what a RB is expected to do, a midfielder should understand a strikers runs etc. The stick we got from parents for daring to drop their son, or play him out of position, or for not picking the best team etc. We had 3 parents banned from watching the team for abusing a young ref who didnt give a penalty, and the final straw was when one bloke grabbed me in a pub when I was out with my mates and threatened me for not picking his son. the kids themselves were absolutely brilliant, and understood what we doing and how it would help their football develop, I loved the training sessions with them. So good luck.

[Barn]

Cheers all. At this age we play 7 a-side and use a size 3 ball. It's brilliant but I can see what you're saying about the parents, at the moment they're all excellent but I think it won't take too many years before some of that changes. As you say working with the kids is brilliant and individually they're all making really good progress we just now need them to take their new skills into the matches.

[dkw]

Barn, on 30 September 2011 - 08:21 AM, said:

Cheers all. At this age we play 7 a-side and use a size 3 ball. It's brilliant but I can see what you're saying about the parents, at the moment they're all excellent but I think it won't take too many years before some of that changes. As you say working with the kids is brilliant and individually they're all making really good progress we just now need them to take their new skills into the matches.

Are you doing the same as us and moving the young lads through different positions? We found loads of players who thought they were a certain position yet after playing somewhere different we found they were much more suited and actually enjoyed a totally different position. It was always something the kids really enjoyed doing, even if parents demanded their little Pele is a striker and thats it.

[Barn]

My idea was to teach kids to play football rather than to teach kids to defend/attack etc. but it became quickly obvious that firstly they do need to understand where on the pitch you want them to play. Once they've got that understanding I'll start swapping them a bit.

[jungbrunnenwald]

Winning or losing isn't important , fun is the thing , they need to play with the ball ,learn the first steps , dribbels and passes .The rest comes later!

[Eggy McMuffin]

jungbrunnenwald, on 05 November 2011 - 02:10 PM, said:

Winning or losing isn't important , fun is the thing , they need to play with the ball ,learn the first steps , dribbels and passes .The rest comes later!

This is pretty much what I was going to say despite being massively late to the party.

Football at that age is about development and enjoyment. Never put the focus on winning... in fact, it's that exact focus on winning from an early age which stops our youngsters from progressing as well as those in other countries. I read a few articles on this as I was looking at going into coaching when I was younger, I'll see if I can dig a few of them up.