Coaching drills for beginners

[Otto Katz]

Right, so I've voulenteered to coach a bunch of six-year olds starting tomorrow. Any tips on how to organise a one hour session are very much welcome. I know there are coaches on here and would like to benefit from your experiences.

I suppose the main concern would be to keep them all active and get their attention for long enough to be able to explain the drills.

Most of them have kicked a ball before, but this is their first organised training session. I guess the main focus should be on having fun, make sure everyone feels included and master the exercises, while trying to trick them into developing a little bit of ball control while they're at it.

[JtS]

Coaching drills for beginners

Fun run around game to start give 4/5 bibs to tuck a bit into their shorts/tracksuit bottoms, they have to run around inside the area keeping away from the remaining 1/5 who are trying to grab their bib.

Stuck in the mud: large ish area, like the above but the 4/5 have balls that the dribble, if one of the catchers touches their ball with their foot they dribbler stands still holding the ball in the air with their legs apart until someone nutmegs them.

[JtS]

Coaching drills for beginners

Maybe a bit of 3v3 or 2v2

[Toby Gymshorts]

Coaching drills for beginners

JtS wrote:

Maybe a bit of 3v3 or 2v2

This. 2v2 in a small area makes them think about finding space to receive a pass without even realising it. It's surprising how instinctive a lot of it actually is.

Incidentally, look into getting your FA Level 1 coaching badge. I did, and it's great fun.

Shame I hate kids, but hey, it was free at the time.

[Mighty Mudhsuden]

Coaching drills for beginners

Yeah, just have a game.

[Guest]

Coaching drills for beginners

Play "Catch, Head", get the kids in circle around you , throw the ball gently at them and shout either "Head" in which they have to catch the ball or "catch" in which they have to try and head it, good for concentration and listening to what coach is trying to tell them.

[Jorge Porbillas]

Coaching drills for beginners

DON'T make them run around the pitch
DON'T have drills that mean they stand around for a length of time.
DO have as many balls as possible - 1 between 2 at the very least.
As has been pointed out above make the session fun

Always try and finish your session with a game.

I have a spare FAW/Uefa Football Leaders cd-rom of coaching drills which is very useful. If you want me to send it to you drop me a PM.

[Jorge Porbillas]

Coaching drills for beginners

In the meantime ...

Use cones to mark out two squares and have 4 kids in each square. Give the kids in each square a number between 1 and 4 (so there will be a 1 in each square, a 2 in each square, a 3 in each square and a 4 in each square).

They have to keep the ball moving between them until you shout out a number - on hearing their number they must run to the opposite square and try and steal the ball.

They get a point for stealing the ball or the 'team' gets a point for completing 5 (or 6 or 7) passes.

You can vary the number of passes required to gain a point, the number of players in the square and the size of the squares according to ability.

[JtS]

Coaching drills for beginners

Buy (acquire) this book...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Developing-Youth-Soccer-Players-Horst/dp/0736003541

[Guest]

Coaching drills for beginners

1st off, welcome to the mad house!

The books by Horst Wein are excellent places to start. He has the right approach to coaching youth players; simplifying the games, lots of contact-time with the ball and most importantly treating them like children, not adults.

I would check out the F.A. Level 1 and 2 coaching courses, too. They are great for providing you with a framework for your coaching.

At this age a ball each, a ball between two, loads of variety within the session (suggested in Developing Youth Soccer Players) works very well. The Coerver coaching method is also very good for improving touch and technique.

If you need anything else, just give me a buzz on here. i have 10 years' experience as a coach, 6 of which have been in a paid capacity, working with young players.

Check out www.forsport.co.uk which is excellent for coaching resources, from books to DVD's, and www.finesoccer.com, which has a good forum (even if it is US-based).

[Otto Katz]

Coaching drills for beginners

Cheers everyone. Lots of good stuff here. Really appreciated.

Training will take place indoors unfortunately, until we move outdoors come springtime. The club is sending an experienced coach to help out in today's session, but after that I'm pretty much left to myself. I'm a bit nervous about the fact that the parents will be watching, and that the sheer noise generated by a bunch of excited six-year olds will make it hard to communicate.

I'll have a look at the recommended literature. The club does offer courses, so I'll learn more as I go along. For now, I just want the kids to have a good time and want to continue playing.

[JtS]

Coaching drills for beginners

The thing about the Coever stuff is that it is really boring, really.

The absolute key to coaching at that age is that the game is the teacher, and that it's fun and keeps them interested. All the coach needs to do is set up the games and correct some technical errors

[Bored Of Education]

Coaching drills for beginners

I just wrote a long post that got deleted but here are the main points,

Read this.It is interesting and funny.

Look at this site. Gives great ideas

Get organised as soon as possible. I am starting to using this site.Beware, it hastens the demise of football management games in your life as you tinker with formations of players that you can actually send out to play in real life. It has also replaced a load of paperwork in my house.

Get the club to put you on the FA course ASAP, you are doing them a favour by volunteering, the least they can do is do this. Don't,however, think that the course is the be all and end all and look at ideas from everywhere else whether it is other FAs or websites or books as the ones mentioned here.

Also try and get them to provide the coach on an ongoing basis, it doesn't cost that much and clubs always have more money than they make out. If they won't, get parents to help with reffing, setting out cones or riot control.

Get a freindly parent to give you the annual subs in cash so that you have money for balls (one for each player is really important and the club will try and give you three for the whole team) bibs and cones. Keep reciepts.

Lastly,stick to your guns with this "For now, I just want the kids to have a good time and want to continue playing".

To an extent , fuck the parents. You are the one that stepped up to do this. The best bit of advice I had was "If the kids keeping turning up and enjoying themselves, you are doing well"

They did with me and they will with you if you keep it fun - even if they lose a load of games in a row. I find that the kids barely remember the scores even on a Monday after they have been hammered

[dotmund]

Coaching drills for beginners

I really would advise psychologically deconstructing them all.

[Ball Comrade]

Coaching drills for beginners

dotmund wrote:

I really would advise psychologically deconstructing them all.

On here, preferably.

[Jorge Porbillas]

Coaching drills for beginners

Bored Of Discipline wrote:

... if you keep it fun - even if they lose a load of games in a row. I find that the kids barely remember the scores even on a Monday after they have been hammered

True enough - we lost our first under 9 match by 20+ goals! Of that squad of about 12 players only 2 of them no longer turn up - and one of those moved to Cyprus!

I'm pretty glad to be running a team within an enlightened Area FA who refuse to print/collate league tables - under 9 and under 11 football should be about playing not winning. Hopefully you will have a similar situation although there are some horror stories out there of coaches collating their own scores and rewarding their own players.

[Jorge Porbillas]

Coaching drills for beginners

... just got back from one of those horror story type matches.

We lost 10-0 ... not really the bugbear as we half expected a similar scoreline beforehand as we are effectively an under 10 side in an under 11 league.

Unfortunately we were playing against a team with a merciless coach who kept all his best players on for the whole match despite the scoreline and above all gave dodgy decisions galore with countless corner kicks and strange 'handball' decisions against us. The thing was, there was no need as his side were far superior.

To cap it off two parents were laughing at the mistakes made by some of my players - people like that shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a junior football pitch and I'm afraid I said as much tonight!

[Bored Of Education]

Coaching drills for beginners

Hopefully you will have a similar situation although there are some horror stories out there of coaches collating their own scores

Oh, I do that but that is only because I am a statto with OCD.I never share it with the kids.

On a serious point, it is useful as you tend to remember not to try out some newer kids in a match against a team that hammered you last year. Tends to put them off somewhat.

With regard parents, I have had everything from other coaches moaning about us fielding an over-aged player (my very much 8 year old son) to last week some incredibly vocal opposition parents jeering our player and having to be threatened with being sent off to the car park

I have just today recieved an e-mail from a mum who thinks I am making an example of her little precious because I got another coach to have a calm word (much calmer than I would have done) about him continuing to slide-tackle on astro after he had already injured another of our players 5 minutes before in a training match

There are downsides as well, Otto

[Otto Katz]

Coaching drills for beginners

Well the first session went pretty well, although some of those kids had a hard time grasping the finer points of a midfield diamond and the offside trap.

Thankfully someone from the club turned up with 10 balls, some cones and vests so we had everything we needed apart from a whistle. I've got two other parents who'll be sharing coaching responsabilities, and yesterday one of the parents, who coaches his 8-year old's team, voulenteered to take charge of the first session so we basically helped him organise things and made mental notes of the do's and don'ts.

There were 18 kids and we had a fairly large gym which we split accross the middle and played 4v4 and 5v5, as well as a couple of passing exercises.

I guess at some point we'll split the group into two teams if all of them continue playing. Games are played as five or six-a-side at this level so 9 or 10 players per team is about enough.

I asked Otto jr. if he had enjoyed it afterwards. "Mostly boring, but a bit fun." I asked him what he had found boring. "That we lost both our games". Kids, eh. They keep scores even if we don't.

[Bored Of Education]

Coaching drills for beginners

I am assuming, with them being 6 year olds, that the first paragraph is a joke. I can't get them to understand midfield as a general concept even now (not that it is particularly neccesary)

Your situation sounds fine especially the coach of the older team helping. I have got two of those and it is great but make sure that they aren't of the competetive type

I wouldn't split the group now. You can never count on everyone turning uyp. Keep the group together and just pick two teams the week before the match.

That way, you get children constantly playing other children of differing abilities and this, more than anything, improves their play.

You also are covered if you only have 10 kids to cover 2X6aside matches, a couple can cover both matches (your son being one of them as he will invariably have to be there for both matches.

I would look at possibly having smaller sided games if you have the space e.g. 3 games of 3v3.

Your last paragraph reminds me of the "coach's son" syndrome. Your son will probably be the worst to coach. I recomend that you get someone else to cover the drills that he is doing. Believe me, you don't want to spend the whole session disciplining your own son and he will react better to being coached by someone else