The Game Within the Child

The U10 game is the first one that incorporates a referee, player passes and a game card. It is also the first age group that keep tracks of results. When I first started working with the Impact, I observed lots of U10 games and as a result, I came up with a couple of modifications to emphasize skill and possession. There is NO PUNTING in U10.  When the GK gets the ball under control, the last thing we want to have him/her do is to kick the ball away. When the GK does punt the ball, the other team gets possession about 80% of the time. In addition, players have a hard time judging the speed and direction of the ball, so when the ball is in the air, they either cower from the ball, try to play it with their head or let it bounce over their head. None of these results makes it easy for the attacking team to retain possession. Instead of punting, the GK can throw the ball, roll the ball to a teammate or put it on the ground and pass it to a teammate. the GK's most important job i...

The U6 game has evolved quite a bit from 20 years ago when we played them 11 v 11 with goalkeepers and positions because it was "like the real game." Today, we play a game that the players can understand, develop skills and enjoy playing the game because it is more appropriately scaled to their understanding of the world. In addition to the national federation rules regarding U6 games, we have added some modifications to improve the player experience and increase our likelihood of achieving our player development goals. Use a size 3 ball.  Sometimes, kids come to practices and games with larger ball sizes (4 or 5). Check that out and see that you have a size 3. We play 4 v 4 Having fewer players on the field decreases the complexity of the game. There are no GK's at this age group either, so as a coach, all you have to do is manage how long each player plays before taking a break. Plan the game matchups with the other coach before the game.  We want to challenge ...

Taking they National Youth License course way back in 1999 was a transformative experience for me. I learned so many things, I have trouble keeping track of them all. In addition, it allowed me to more fully develop my personal coaching philosophy centered around the developmental stages of the children and what appropriate activities are for each of the different stages. We know that the worst thing you can do to a player who has come to practice is not let them play. However, we employ lots of activities where that exact thing happens. How can we eliminate that element of our practices? One of the most popular dribbling games around is sharks and minnows. You know the rules. A couple of sharks chase the players as they dribble around and try to keep their ball away from the sharks. When a player has his or her ball kicked out, they are eliminated and sit out until the game is over. The last couple of players with their balls get to be the sharks in the next round. The problem wit...

One of the reasons why I have stayed in this game so long is that I am constantly learning new things and I get excited about trying them out with the teams and coaches in my club. The exercise I am going to describe today was one I learned from a State Instructors Seminar run by my state DOC, Jacob Daniel, back in 2010. From the title, it sounds like a typical 3 v 3 game, but over the years, I have expanded it out to 7 v 7 and even larger. The great thing about it is that it can work with a U10 rec team as well as a high level select team. The setup is simple, 3 players on a 15 x 25 yard grid with a 5 foot goal at each end. Depending on the size of your team, you can have up to 3 grids going at once in the first level. In a typical 3 v 3 setup, all of the players are moving and switching positions. In this game, there is one designated player who is the nominal GK. In a real game setup, this would be your #6 (defensive mid or holding mid), or possibly your #4 or 5 (center backs) pla...

Here are some notes for game play in the U8. In addition to the small-sided game rules, we have made some modifications to our U8 game play to make games more competitive for as many players and teams as possible. Starting Fall 2016, we play 4 v 4 with no GK Impact Recreational program used to play 4 v 4 prior to 2007. While the US Youth Soccer Association recommended a 4 v 4 format for the U8, we incorporated a GK and turned it into 5 v 5 games with a GK and 4 field players. With all of the changes, USYSA reiterated that U8 should play a 4 v 4 format. As a result, we will now be in line with the recommended format. It may be that you play a pre-academy team and choose to play a man up with the 5th player in goal, but that is up to your discretion. UPDATE FOR SPRING 17 Just so we are clear on this point. You are playing 4 v 4 without GK's. That is where you start. If, in your discussions with the other team's coach, you mutually decide to vary from 4 v 4 to make the gam...

I got the opportunity to coach a U10 game this weekend. The coach was out of town and asked me to step in. They were a very good group of kids, especially for this level. We were playing a team that had been together for a long time with a coach who has been in the program for many years. The game went well, it was close throughout and the level of skill exhibited by the players was higher than you would expect to see at a recreational level. Basically, everything I would hope to see from the players was on display in this game. As the coach, with little knowledge of the players abilities prior to the game, I just broke them into two groups and substituted the entire team other than the goalkeeper every 7-8 minutes. As the DOC, I tried to model the behaviors that I want my coaches to use every game. I sat behind the players on the sideline and talked to them about the game. I asked them to help me organize who would be playing what positions when they re-entered the game. I did hig...

When I observe a practice, the most common thing I witness is the coach working hard, the players sometimes working hard and the parents relaxing in chairs or milling about watching the action. Obviously, the first improvement in this scenario is for the players to be working or playing hard. However, the next improvement is to get the parents involved as well. While we have seen a tremendous growth in the number of players whose parents also played soccer, we always get lots of parents who have little or no experience in soccer or even in sports. Even those parents who do have experience playing soccer probably didn't have a very good developmental environment when they did play (lots of standing in lines, huge numbers of players on the field, inexperienced coaches). It is very accurate to say that we should be teaching our parents about the game as much as we are teaching the children. That is very hard to do when the parents aren't paying attention or are absent from the...

The use of video can be a powerful tool for both the coach and the player. As a coach, you can save yourself hours of time and energy with one good video segment. Let's say that you are trying to show a dribbling move to players and only one player can do it. When you stop the practice to have that player demonstrate, they almost always fail to do it well. If you catch them on video, you can use that to show that player to both himself and his teammates. Players love to see themselves on video and it can be a powerful motivator to the other players to push them to try and get it right.  An even more effective use of video occurs in game situations. I always counsel my coaches to focus on individual players during the game even if it is only for 2-3 minutes. That way he has something specific to say to each player as opposed to talking about things that only apply to some players on the team but not all the players. Video is a great way to show the player what s/he is doing and...

Among the most successful activities for U6 players is this game that requires the parents to chase their children as they try and score a goal as quickly as possible. "Don't Let the Bird Bite You in the Bootie" works on three key skills for U6 players: dribbling at game speed, vision and shooting. The setup is very simple. Line players up on a line about 15-25 yards from a small goal. Have their parents line up behind them and act like birds (trust me, they will do it). On your command "Don't let the bird bite you in the bootie" players dribble as fast as possible to a point where they can take a shot on goal. Their object is to get the ball into the goal before they get "bit." Obviously, this one works because you sell the kids on the risk of getting bit by a bird. In an earlier iteration, it was "don't let the bird bite you in the back." I observed several kids dribbling while putting their arms behind them to keep from getting b...

I have used red light, green light as a dribbling activity on occasion, but have never been happy with it except for use with U6 players. I felt it was too static and didn't have many elements of the game that would challenge the kids. I have modified it by adding a goal at the end so that the U6/8 players are encouraged to shoot from longer distances, hence the name Red Light, Green Light, Goal!!! It worked reasonably well, but was not nearly as fun or intense as " Don't Let the Bird Bite you in the Bootie " which is an absolute blast and works well for even large groups of players. Having said that, I was working with a large group last night where the coach introduced colors other than red and green. He used the colors to denote specific moves that the players would have to perform instead of dribbling in a straight line. So, for example, Orange was a step over and Blue was a scissors move. This modification made the game harder and tied in more closely to the ...

If you have ever taken a Meyers-Briggs personality assessment, the first segment is introvert or extrovert. I am clearly an introvert. When given a choice between talking to a person or group of people or reading a book, I would choose reading a book every time. If you see me in the classroom or on the pitch, I don't appear to be uncomfortable. In fact, I look like I am clearly enjoying myself. The reality is that I am enjoying the interactions with players and students and I have discovered over time that I am comfortable with virtually any type of group, regardless of age or experience. So how is that possible? as Jon Lovitz used to say "Acting!!!" (with a flourish). I have mastered a teacher/coach personality that is energetic, excited, jovial and possibly funny as well. I can slip into this personality and modify it to the level of the group quickly. When I am mentoring a coach, I like to demonstrate the activities and behaviors that I want to see the coach use. O...

When introducing players to passing, I have always avoided the pairs standing 5 yards apart kicking a ball back and forth. Instead, I want kids to focus on how the ball moves after you strike it. If a ball is rolling along the ground and didn’t have spin, then the kid could know that he or she had struck it pretty well. Most coaches focus on body shape, balance and leg swing, endlessly emphasizing the mistakes that players are making. While the information they are passing on is correct, it is at such a high volume that kids very quickly tune out the coach. Additionally, coaches often don’t take passing exercises past the fundamental phase or have the passing skill as a focus of the small-sided and expanded small sided activities. Even as players mature, they don’t think about what kind or quality of ball they want to give their teammates. They are more focused on giving the ball away than about the quality of the ball. I recently came up with an analogy that I used with my U1...