Tags : Soccer training for kids, for youth, drills, shooting, Football, Tactic, Tips, Training, defense, attacing, dvd, Coaching dvd, skills, drills , Passing
The Tip
So, what I do with my U12 team may not be appropriate for a U8 team?
Correct. As children grow and mature they go through developmental stages that affect what they are capable of doing physically, mentally, and socially. For instance, young children (for this example around 10) may lack the physical ability to lock their ankle; a skill that is necessary to accurately strike a ball. There is nothing that can be done to remedy this but let nature take it’s course and allow the kids to grow up. As a result, children under the age of 10 should not be subjected to a lot of passing activities. Socially, young children are not geared to interact with a large number of other individuals. Where do you young kids spend most of their time, at home! Look at kids in the sandbox, they can be right next to each other doing the exact same activity but they do not work together. Children are very egocentric; they see the world only from their perspective. As a result, young children are not going to pass the ball very well. As children get older they learn to interact with more people more efficiently, making teamwork a possibility. Children can work in pairs around age eight, groups of four around age 10, and groups of four to six around age 12. Mentally, soccer requires players to make hundreds of split second decision throughout a game. Young children, until they reach a certain developmental stage, lack the ability to “look ahead” and see what is happening. The point of all this information is that young children do not have the mental, social, or physical abilities that adults have (a soccer play will not peak till around the age of 27).
A common mistake that many coaches make is to not take into account how children differ from adults, thereby training children as if they are miniature adults. The after affect is usually disastrous. When designing practices coaches should take into considerations the different age characteristics. Activities should be picked that fit the developmental needs of the children, rather than trying to make the children participate in activities that are developmentally inappropriate for them.
A common mistake that many coaches make is to not take into account how children differ from adults, thereby training children as if they are miniature adults. The after affect is usually disastrous. When designing practices coaches should take into considerations the different age characteristics. Activities should be picked that fit the developmental needs of the children, rather than trying to make the children participate in activities that are developmentally inappropriate for them.
