6 replies to this topic

[Anthony]

Last night I had my first U-8/U-9 practice with my team. I wouldn't qualify the chaos that ensued as close to "controlled." I had them doing simple pass/dribble/receive drills between cones, and then some mixed 3-on-2, 2-on-1 and other scoring drills.

By the end of the one and a half hour practice, I was exhausted. I had coached 4 through 8 year olds before, but now with girls mixed with boys at this age, and my son not taking me seriously, I was having a really hard time commanding the children's respect at the outset. I have an opportunity to practice one more time between now and our first game and I need to quickly establish respect from these kids. I'm just not used to these older ones!

Any advice would be great.

[Michelle]

I coach 1st through 8th grade soccer for a small school. One of the first things I set straight with my kids is that they are a team, if one person gets in trouble for stupid stuff, the whole team suffers their consequences. ie: Jr. keeps running around when told balls in and down, Jr. and the rest of the team lap the field however many times. This creates a peer pressure to behave, and also lets them know what a team is. They are all in it together. After that, consequences differ, but this is usually an attention getter. I never really have any problem after the TEAM suffers the consequences of a single team mate.
good luck

[Doug]

I think that the children should be disciplined at this age. The ones who are creating the distractions are not being fair to the ones who are there to learn more about the game. I wouldn't hesitate to get the parents involved. If you have a few children who are the cause of the problem ask to speak with their parents and let them know. I am sure they will back you up.

[Bobbo0212]

What is the age of the children, 7 to 8. You know what, I bet you ask them what the game of soccer is to them and they don't know. It's because they are too young to realize what they are doing. At the age they are at it is totally indivdual. These kids don't have any idea of team concepts and will not understand these concepts until they get older. So you have to be focused on dealing with each of these childrens individual needs, because they have to focus on their individual development before anything else. So when it comes to discipline they still need individual attention, if any at all. You need to make the game fun to them, because if it is not fun, they will not want to learn, and you will still have the same problems you are having right now. Get their attention, make it interesting, and don't assume that every child learns at the same pace, because they don't. You are teaching them the game of soccer, its no different than teaching them Mathmatics or English. I have been a director of the Modesto Youth Soccer Association for the past two years, and that has been my philosophy I have passed down to all my instructors, as well as many other coaches. I know that you want control so that you can teach, but lets not forget who we are teaching and why we are doing it.

[g_rixxx03]

For me coaching the young ones, when they start to goof around in a finishing drill, i simply step in line and take a turn, when they see you crush a ball harder then they've ever seen, they seem to shut up and respect wut your saying. But if your old or havent played in awhile u may want to just run them. Push the whole team mentality and if one person starts to mess around, send the whole team for a lap or a couple sprints. You said ur son was on the team, Probably for the first slip up to send the kids for a run, us him as the blame taker, but dont continue using just him, cuz that will hurt him, but show the kids that even he will be punished for a lack of respect.

[Mark]

I too struggle with keeping my U10 boys soccer team under control. My first practice this season was totally out of control. On my second practice I tried some new things that I learned from other coaches during the hockey season, and it totally changed my soccer practices. Here's what I did. When running a practice, I limited the number of balls used during practice. If a drill only need one or two balls, I bagged up the rest of the balls. And the kids only touched the balls while doing the drill. When a young players is standing around with a ball, soon he's trying to juggle the ball. Then it drops, and soon 2 other kids are chasing after it. And before you know it, you've got total chaos. So bag those loose balls.

Of course the other tip is that you have to keep the kids doing something. Let them stand in line for more than a minute, and you've got chaos. When I do need to explain something for them, I make them all sit in the net area (I only have 10 kids) and explain things to them there. Just keep your explanations short.

If you find that these ideas work for your youth, please post back here as I think everyone would be interested in your results.

I also find that making all the kids run laps don't work. The troublemaker often thinks its funny that the whole team has to run. I often make the troublemaker run laps by himself, or just set them out. I also tell the troublemaker that if behavior doesn't improve, you won't get to play the positions that you want to play. Sometimes that helps, sometimes its a lost cause.

Those are my ideas. What other 'specific' ideas do you do that work? What do you do for punishment?

Mark

[sonnyrobinson]

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