Following are several practice plans
formed from US Youth Soccer activities. The practices are designed for
specific ages. In general, activities that are designed for younger teams
can be used for an older team as well. However, it would not be a good
idea to take a practice designed for a U12 team and try to make it work
for a U6 team.
Often, activities for the younger children
can be manipulated or changed to make them more complicated and more
appropriate for an older age level. The game Ball Retrieval is a good
example. With 8 year olds, many of the tasks that the children are asked
to do are not directly soccer related (bring the ball back with your
elbows). In addition, the activities are done individually or possibly in
pairs. For 12 year olds, the activities require more soccer skill (bring
the ball back in six passes) and are done in groups of four rather than
individually. Something as simple as placing a restriction on the activity
like, “You can only dribble with your right foot”, would make the activity
more challenging and appropriate for an older team as well.
In addition, I have written down some commonly
asked questions many coaches have. I would suggest reading all of them as
they contain some valuable information. Soccer has some distinct qualities
that make coaching it different than any other sport. In addition, an
incredibly large amount of research has been done to find out what is the
best way to teach soccer to children. Some of the questions deal with that
concept.
As always, if you have any questions please do
not hesitate to contact me. Or, if you do not agree with something or do
not understand why something would be done that way, please let me know
and I will go into more detail why US Youth Soccer believes soccer should
be coached in that manner.
Thank you for all the time and effort that you put in
to be a youth soccer coach!
Matt Callahan
mattcallahan81@hotmail.com
