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BamaDevO

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About BamaDevO

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  1. This is the reason behind making sure every child has a soccer ball. You teach them that the game is fun. You show them that it is fun. And they play it to have fun. I see where you are coming from, but you have to understand that the only way kids are going to see it as interesting is to see someone else interested in it! Here in the south (where I am) football takes the top spot. Little boys & girls know about football because their dads love it. I spend a little over an hour twice a week showing these kids that soccer is something fun and you can play it by yourself. I have 8 children on my team and all the parents except one had told me that their child has played soccer on the days they are off. I think positive reinforcement is the biggest way to incourage a child to play the sport. Mom & Dad aren't going to do this unless they played as a child. You may see different rezults, but I had two parents inform me that their children started soccer games during PE at their schools.
  2. I have to agree with your statement here. Yesterday we had a game and with the YMCA they have a devotion at the half. When the whistle blew ending the first half I had all my kids sit down around the center circle and get quiet for the devotion. The other team were standing up/running around/hitting/kicking/etc... during the whole thing. I was really proud of my team and glad that they acted as good as they did. As far as soccer skills go, I think they have learned a more important lesson that soccer is fun. They have the rest of their lives to be yelled at by a coach!
  3. Just wondering if anyone had a funny story to tell, I would like to read about it. I have had a few things happen and I will post them later, but I wanted to see if anyone else had some stuff that has happened to them.
  4. This is true, but I also believe that if we let them play early in life we could give them a spark that may get more kids into soccer. All of my team this year is wanting to play again. Heck, I have adults asking me if I would get an adult team up! The thing to do is get them interested early and it may stay with them.
  5. I agree, if you can just let them have touches with the ball it will help them alot. To do that you must have everyone bring a ball to practice. It not, someone will not be able to dribble/kick/pass/etc.. while the others are doing a drill. Also, as I said before, the drills should actually be games that teach them the game. Lastly, get to know your kids personally. All my kids hug me and run to me when they do good. I am trying hard to promote a positive atmosphere for each child no matter their skill level. You have some that can pay good attention and then you have some who never pay attention. The thing to do is make sure you are paying attention to them!
  6. I just wanted to let the few people who come to this board know that a great thing happened to me in our game yesterday! My Daughter scored her first goal of the season! I am so proud of her and I have really tried to act diplomatic about it! I am her coach so it is hard to be the coach of a kid and let them play without hurting other people's feelings. For this reason, I have kept her at halfback and played close to our goal. Because of this, she has had no opportunities to score and I have kept her back for defensive purposes. Well, yesterday (five games into the season) we did not have enough players to play and I had to place her on the front. She promptly took the ball to the left side and kicked it past two defenders for the goal! I am a proud Papa today!!!
  7. BamaDevO

    First Game

    I have several more now unfortuantely. This has been a really hard time for our kids because we have the youngest team in the league. They are now saying they don't like to play soccer so I am struggling in getting them excited about it again.
  8. BamaDevO

    Tripping

    I think it depends on the age group you are speaking about. Young kids may not understand the yellow/red card idea and then again it may be something they can grasp. I totally agree with you as far as the pushing and tripping goes. My team is 4 & 5 yr olds and they are getting knocked around in their games. I told them at the beginning that I would not tolerate them pushing other players and yet my team is getting pushed around like crazy. I spoke to the ref which was a kid and told him he needs to stop the pushing party and give the ball to the other team. To give an example, we played one team and when they scored I looked around to see four of my kids on the ground!!!(we play with five!)
  9. BamaDevO

    First Game

    I am coaching 4-5 yr. old children and we just finished our first game. As a coach I think I would enjoy hearing about another coach's ordeal in their first game...so here it goes... At the start of the game I set the kids up in their positions (coaches can be on the field at this age) and the other team had the kick. After they kicked the ball around and eventually out of bounds, one of my kids took off running from his place straight to his mother (who was sitting down) and got a big hug! He immediately turned and ran straight to his position again and everyone had a great laugh! I only had one handball called for the game! WOW! I was expecting more! The only one happened to be when a little boy grabbed the ball up, set it in front of our goal, and kicked it in! Our own goal! I also had one little girl who would not go into the game. She wanted to sit with her mother and not play. When I went ahead and picked another kid to play and the game got started, here came the little girl running up to me and saying she was ready to play! (yes, she ran onto the field and straight to me). I decided to put her in when the quarter ended and she played for a few minutes and then I looked over to see her sitting with mom again and not on the field. Whew! One boy let the ball hit him (yes, hit him!) four times, but he never got a foot on the ball. I told him to kick the ball and he just said, "I can't"! Then there was the kid who kept coming up to me and apologizing for players bumping into him! I told him it was o.k. when they bump into you so keep playing. The bad thing about the game is that the other team only had five players and four of them were there best players. I, on the other hand, had 10 and only four that were coordinated enough to play well. Needless to say, I played my best kids in opposite times to try and make up for this but I have to play ever kid half the game so the other team got two goals on us when all my "good ones" were out. We scored one goal and I set them up to do it. There is definitely a strategy in this game and a way to score. The only bad thing is I learned it with about three minutes to play! The child that scored was so excited he came to me and started hugging me! It was great!
  10. Try a whistle. It seems to get their attention well at early ages. Also, learn their names quickly so you can call them out when they are misbehaving. When all else fails it is time to call in the parents of the children and let them be responsible for their own heathens! Seriously, with ages of 6-8 you have to get them to realize you are the coach and what you say goes. Like I said before, try a whistle if you haven't already.
  11. Well, I have to come back here and post that I made a break through with this young boy! He has not cared at all about the game, and kicking, dribbling,etc.. hasn't even phased him. I thought there was no hope so I decided to try just praising him very creatively for the things he actually did right! Last practice I had them dribbling the ball around each other and scoring in an open goal. When he came through the goal box I told him to kick it as hard as he could. He looked at me standing in front of him and then looked at the ball. Just when I thought it was going to fail miserably I told him to see if he could knock me down with the ball. His eyes lit up and he put the foot into it! The ball grazed me but I acted as if it was a boulder knocking me to the ground. I rolled over several times as he laughed about it! That caused him to go get the ball and try it again! Needless to say, I told him to see if he could knock the goal down as well and he paid more attention during that practice than any other. I guess sometimes you just have to try weird stuff to get them to do what you want. Thanks for all the posts in this thread!
  12. I have been doing those things and have used almost everything I have read on the net to get this child to understand that he is supposed to kick the ball when I roll it to his feet, but so far it hasn't worked...
  13. AMEN! Fundamentals. Fundamentals. Fundamentals. You are not going to have a great team with this age group, just get those dreams out of your head. However, if you can teach them to play using fundamentals it will go a long way toward their development in the future. Also, keep it fun! Yes...that is the absolute first priority in the early age groups. If it is fun they will come back next year. If not....well...you know.
  14. By the way, if anyone can give me something to do with one of my kids. This child just doesn't get it. Nothing against him, he is just four and cannot catch on. I would like to get him to learn anything, but he won't even go after the ball when it is coming toward him. It is funny, but I would like to know I taught him something this year. Any help would be appreciated. I am working to let him be my helper and that has worked a little.
  15. I don't know how old your kids are, but if they are old enough to understand it you can set up boards covering up the goal and have them dribble in and try to shoot through the boards. With a little prompting from you they will understand that for better accuracy they need to point the plant foot in the direction of the kick and use the top of the foot instead of the point. Try giving them a reward if they are successful. But never penalize them for missing.
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