2 replies to this topic

[BamaDevO]

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!

[hollad6636]

BamaDevo,

I agree, I have some great memories from coaching the younger ages. This will test your patience, but if you approach it right and let the kids have fun it is also is one of the most rewarding ages.

A few of my favorite memories are following.

One game we only had enough players for one sub, as the game is progressing I am looking around and I notice that I am short one player. I only have one player on the bench so I can't figure out what happened to my other player. Well I finally find him sitting in the bleachers with his parent's talking away about how much fun he was having playing soccer!

Another favorite memory was when I had a boy who just wouldn't listen to me. We were doing a throw in and this boy was standing about 10 feet from me. I yelled his name as I wanted him to move to the line and up towards the goal and I didn't get any reaction. So I yelled his name a little louder and nothing and a little louder and nothing. Finally, I am yelling his name at the top of my lungs and I look up and the parents are just rolling because the little boy is standing there covering his ears and ignoring me.

The last one is about my own son. My older boys always enjoyed sports and were pretty competitive from a young age. My youngest son however could care less when he was younger. During most games he would player for a little while and then he would come and tell me that he was tired and going to the playground. Anyway, during one game he was out on the field doing his usual picking grass. He was down on the ground with his face to the grass when all of a sudden the pack started towards him. The ball went straight at him, bounced over his head and the pack of players went around him and kept on going. He never had a clue that the ball was even close to him.

Great idea for a post Bama!

Schann

[BamaDevO]

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.