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U6 Coaching Article
Attack the Play of 5 & 6 Year Olds….
Or You Can Sit Back – Relax – and Have as Much Fun
as They Do!!!!!
By Mike Parsons
It’s good to know that some things never change in
life – like the play of 5 & 6 year olds on the
soccer field. We can all agonize over how to
discover the special training techniques that will
enable them to score more goals – certainly those
who have been in the game for a long time must
know the secrets! Or we can stay up late at night
and draw diagram after diagram that reveals in
precise detail where every player should be in
relation to the ball – that will solve the
bunching up problem and it will look like real
soccer! Or one might infiltrate the marketing
department at Mickey D’s to figure out why the
Happy Meal is more important than the score!
However, Mom and Dad (especially Dad - he’s a
winning machine!), the game of soccer at 5 & 6
years old remains a game – with the thrill of
winning taking a back seat the excitement of
merely chasing the ball!
Anyone… and I mean anyone… can look at a situation
and tell you the problems. Instead of that
approach, I’m going to make some suggestions for
possible solutions to some of the common problems
coaching the very young in
“chase-the-ball-no-matter-where-it-goes-until-I-need-a-break-and-then
do-it-again-‘til-the-game-ends” (that’s what
soccer for 5 & 6’s should be called). Here we go;
Bunching Up Around the Ball. God forbid that all
of the kids chase the ball – that would mean that
every child would be having FUN!! You see, that is
what every player at this age likes about the game
– they can run anywhere they like – no adult is
going to tell them to walk – and they love the
challenge of touching the ball all by themselves!
We tend to forget that there is very little
organization in the mind of a 5-6 year old and
that sharing is not on the top of the list of
their favorite things to do. (Do they share their
favorite toys with their brothers and sisters???)
Remember … It’s my ball !!!!!! Soooooo…..let them
chase the ball!! They will spread out as they
learn to play with their teammates.
Scoring Goals … is an accident most of the time at
this age. Let’s be honest-that clump of grass has
more to do with the direction that the ball
travels than the one who kicks it (at this age
shooting and passing are merely “kicking”).
However, scoring goals should be the only thing on
their mind at this age. Remember this…we can all
focus on one thing at a time – focus the young on
scoring goals – that’s the object of the game!
He/She is a Ball Hog…. Which brings us to the
question – Are Ball Hogs good or bad? As a parent
the answer is (like it or not) bad if the
neighbor’s son/daughter won’t give the ball to our
little cherub – good if the ball is always with
our “talented little child prodigy”. Wrong!!! This
age is the beginning of individuality – flair for
those who really want to exaggerate. Encourage
them to dribble the ball and try to beat other
players – my best friend boldly told his son at
six years old…“ don’t pass the ball until you are
eleven – and don’t worry about the coach when he
screams at you to pass. His son can’t dribble!”.
In fact, all training sessions at this age should
be based around each child and a ball. Acceptance
of failure (it’s OK not to succeed at first …try
again) and the encouragement to try again will
help the learning process.
Practice Sessions...the longer the better! What a
great way to turn play into work! Ever try to play
golf every day on your vacation – double rounds if
possible? It gets old fast. So why do we keep 5-6
year olds at the practice field for an hour or
more during training? Mom got some more shopping
to do? Or is Dad feeling a win coming on after 90
minutes of practice? More is not better at this or
any age. Train them for the same amount of time
that the game will take on Saturday. Thirty to
forty minutes will be long enough to wind them up
…then give them back to their parents to calm them
down. The excitement of the soccer experience will
then remain fresh.
WINNING … it’s why we are here… Wow, I hope we all
have had childhood experiences that were fun and
not necessarily based on winning. Everything in
life is based on winning… Do we really want to
emphasize the down side of competition – losing -
to 5-6 year olds? They are not concerned (except
for that Happy Meal) what the end of the game
brings – so why should we? Remember that youth
sports were started so that kids could have fun.
So, bring a chair and your favorite beverage to
the next game and save some room for a Happy Meal
of your own afterwards!
Work on the Fundamentals in Practice… While other
sports work on fundamentals (and soccer’s numbers
keep getting larger) we have found that the most
important things to teach at this age are motor
skill development – the ability to control my body
– and an appreciation for the fun aspects of the
game – me and the ball - look at what we can do!
We tend to forget that soccer is not a hand-eye
coordination activity like all other sports in the
U.S. In addition the kids are presented with an
incredible challenge to make their bodies do what
they want them to (kind of like Dad playing in the
over forty league in any sport – he gets it going,
you better get out of his way cuz’ no one knows if
he’ll be able to stop). As a result, the objective
becomes one of making my body and the ball work
together as one.
Mike Parsons is the former Director of Coaching
Education for the National Soccer Coaches
Association. He presently directs W.I.N.S.
Nationwide Education and Consulting Services. He
can be reached at – mick@finesoccer.com
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