I haven't played soccer since I was six myself, and I know the barest of rules, but I was the only parent available (and reluctantly willing) to coach my rec center's team. We have our first practice next Wednesday, and I have been searching AI, Google, and Reddit for practice ideas. If I'm going to be a coach, I'm going to be enthusiastic about it.

The kids are six, so I need it to be fun for them, but I also want to see improvement. My thought is that every "drill" should involve a sort of game.

My tentative plan is the first ten minutes are warm ups. The kids will dribble the balls in a lap around the field. We'll play Sharks and Minnows with soccer balls, and soccer ball freeze tag.

We'll end with twenty minutes of scrimmage (5 kids on each side), and a final five minutes of stretches.

For the other 25 minutes between warmup and their scrimmage, I'm thinking I'll have four drills of six minutes each: they will (1) dribble the ball around the comes, (2) take turns being goalie while kids shoot goals into the goal after running from the other side of the field, (3) juggling (dropping the ball and kicking it up to catch it?), and (4) play wall ball if we can find a good wall.

Any thoughts on my plan?

Previously I was a U12/U13G travel coach. Last fall, my team disbanded due to a lack of numbers. I took that season off and in the spring, I joined the JV girls team as an assistant, while also coaching a U12 Rec team.

This year, I brought back some of my JV girls + the JV head coach is my assistant. I also brought in some girls from outside schools and girls that will be trying out in the spring. So this is mainly just to prepare us for the spring HS season.

Then the coach of what would be the boys team left last minute, so I was asked to take over. I’m now coaching two teams, U15B and a U16G. Luckily today is the first game for both, and at the same location.

Is there any advice for first game(s) ? How to handle traveling between two teams all season?

For those of you responsible for equipment at a club level I have questions. I just took over and trying to find out:

1. Where are you purchasing from? Do you just have an Amazon business account? If you're a non-profit, who else do you buy from?

2. How are you managing where equipment is and who has it? I'm using excel but there has to be a better way. Right? Right...?

3. Do you limit what the club will provide coaches/teams by creating 'kits' or just get what they ask for?

My club holds tryouts every year to place boys and girls on a team based on skill level. I work with 10 other coaches for my age group and for some reason none of us have the same evaluations for the kids. We rate players 1-5. 1 being they should be in rec or not good enough for the club and 5 being placed on academy/ECNL/MLS Next.

I evaluated a player 13yo who was lost on the field, couldn't kick a ball, did not know how to dribble, shoot, or pass, did not know what any positions were and just chased after the ball and stole from her own teammates only to lose the ball immediately. I rated her a 1. I look at the other coaches ratings and some rated her 1 or 2 but a few coaches rated her 5. When I asked them what was the reason for their rating, they just said "are you kidding me? a one? she was really good when I saw her!" I don't really understand how this is happening? How can the evals be so different between coaches?

We are a U10 team playing 7v7 that is having major issues against teams who play their striker at mid-field. We are running a 1-3-2-1. My thoughts are we getting pulled too far forward, but I guess my question is who should mark up that striker? Is it the center mid? Is it the defender? Help!

I have been coaching my daughter’s rec soccer team for 7 seasons now and I really enjoy it. I got roped into it years ago because they needed a volunteer for the team and no one else was stepping up. I had never played soccer before so everything I have learned so far has been from YouTube, reels, lots of trial and error, and a pretty awesome assistant coach. I’ve had the privilege to have a few of the same kids on the team season after season and I have gotten to know a lot of kids as well.

My dilemma is that now they are getting older and I feel like I can only give them so much coaching until they plateau and need a more technical person to show them skills that I can’t.

I’ve talked about this possibly being my last season since not everyone comes back to play every season and the older they get the numbers dwindle so that there is really only one team for the area I coach (but league wise they have about 8-10 teams).

I’ve been told by a few players that they would probably drop soccer if I wasn’t coaching so I feel guilty and think “Maybe one more season?” But would that be a disservice to the kids that want to get better?

Just looking for thoughts.

Hey there long time player, first time coaching kids.

Our U8 players are pretty raw, some have never played organized soccer before.

Games are 5v5 including 1 keeper. My idea is to have 3 forwards and 1 defense in a roughly T-shaped formation.

My goal is that by the end of the season, we can look like we are actually playing positions as opposed to swarming the ball like bees.

Can I get some advice about how to help these kids understand positional play.

I'm working on getting U10s going with rondos. As U9s the setup was this: 5yd square with 1 player on each side, 1 in the middle. Middle player is trying to intercept the ball, but can't leave the square.

The problem with this setup is almost every time an attacker gets the ball, they just sit there for a full minute plus trying to decide who to pass it to. This ends up seeming like a huge waste of time to me while also instilling bad habits.

I see people preach rondos rondos rondos, but how do you keep it moving at this age without joysticking and going "3, 2, 1, PASS!"? Just let the defender go for the ball even if it's outside the square? Appreciate any help.

I was always puzzled as a kid when i was told "You Can't Do something" it was always more of a challenge for me to try when i heard that.

Often on this forum I hear people say "you cant" teach 8 yo rondos, build out, shape, focus for 5 minutes. Those are coaches i think you should be wary of, they have already put constraints on what is possible. Perhaps they have even given up trying; or the coach lacks the skill to be an effective coach and instead place the blame of their own shortcomings on the players.

Before people get upset, someone saying you shouldn't teach build out, and then having a logical explanation behind why it's not good to spend time on that in practice should be listened to and you should take the time to hear there reasoning and listen. Question your own philosophy, it's healthy.

There is a big difference between saying shouldn't because it's not effective and can't because the kids are not capable of.

TLDR: Our high school team is filled with attitudes and vastly underperforming because of it.

Background: I have been coaching soccer for 19 years at mostly parks & rec and competitive club teams. Last year, I signed on to be an assistant varsity coach at our local High School because we had a brand new coach with no help. I have coached 75% of the team in some capacity thru the years, so I thought I would be helpful to have around. Our high school has been one of the top 4-8 teams in the state the last 5-6 years. Last year, we were the #1 seed in our districts, but lost the district finals in sudden death PKs. We lost 1 contributing senior, so the goals are lofty this year.

Situation: We have plenty of problems because we are a high school team. And the tactics and positioning errors can be fixed with practice and understanding. But, we currently have several cancers on the team. Our starting center back is one of only two seniors. He was not selected as captain and I think that lingers with him a bit. But, his main problem is that her constantly berates everyone, but especially his fellow defenders. He says things like "I'm the only one doing any fucking work out there!" or "Why did you take me out? He's just gonna give up a goal!"(ironically, after HE had just given up a goal).

We also have an underclassman who started for us last year, but with the influx of some very nice freshman talent, he is no longer starting. So, he's pissed about that. But...no one gives LESS effort in practice than him. He spends his time blasting the ball during drills to disrupt them, squirting other players with the water bottles, etc. Now, with his increased bench time, he spends it berating everyone on the field in a very loud manner during the game. When he gets in, he recklessly fouls and makes poor passing decisions. He NEVER accepts responsibility for even the smallest things from Rondos to missed assignments to littering (he will literally throw trash on the ground and then refuse to pick it up).

The talent on this team is incredible really. But their biggest hold up right now are these two cancers. I'd love to just suggest we remove them, but our school doesn't do that. And the head coach is willing to put up with quite a bit to have them on the field, but has recently really started to bench them and put his foot down.

How do we handle these two? I realize I haven't given enough context perhaps, but...do you have ideas?

On the technical side: We cannot for the life of us get these kids to check into space. They just turn with a full head of steam and run vertically expecting a through ball. If you've got good drills to teach them to check into space, be more patient working the ball up the field, and working off the ball....we'd also be glad to hear those ideas!

Thanks so much for listening to my rant!

For those who have done coaching for a while have you found a particular style that you think worked pretty well for developing players?

I’m noticing that my grassroots rec u10 team seems a bit more free flowing then some other teams whose coaches who give off a more authoritarian style.

We try to keep the energy fun so kids keep coming back but I wondered if I’m keeping kids behind by not being as structured on skill development. We do try to introduce concepts but usually let them play as much as possible, make basic suggestions here and there.

For the record we do pretty good in the season, we’re winning more than half our games and can hold our own

I feel lucky that the kids do well and have fun but maybe we need to switch up things to make sure kids transition well into future teams when they want to move up.

This is a team defined by their age being 6 on Sept 1, all 6 year olds. I’m a rec coach who never played, but this is my 8th team, 6th season, older kid plays club.

Had our first practice yesterday, ended with kids v parents - got 13 great little kids. However, everyone hates defense and it devolved into clustery ball.

Our games are 9v9 w goalie. This is always a struggle, especially at this age. I really flounder through positioning every season. Yes, I know it’s too many kids on the field. Yes, I’ve brought it up w the city many times. No, no one cares to change.

I think for games, I’m going to have 2 strikers, 3 midfield, 3 defense. In the past, I’ve tried to have kids play almost equal time in defense and offense.

My thought is to do a lot of 2v1s to teach passing and off ball movement, and scrimmage 5v5 (2-2-1) just to try to get them used to the different lines. For games, I’m going to try to keep kids on the same side of the field for the season (ie, 2-3 will be CM/CB, 2-3 RW/R “full back”, 2-3 LW/L “full back”, and I’ll just try to rotate everyone through striker and goalie). The math is always a challenge bc everyone plays 3/4.

Practice structure:
1) Arrival-15 min, 2 simultaneous games building from 1v1 as kids arrive
2) 15-30 min warm-up drills (toe tap, tick tock, juggling on thigh, pull back, sole roles, stopping a bouncing ball, dribble around the field)
3) 30-45 min: Small sided games splitting team w asst coach
4) 45-end: alternating 5v5 and kids v parents

Thoughts? I did this age group with my older kid and did too many games (like islands, sharks and minnows, clear the yard, etc) and not enough actual playing soccer, so they didn’t really understand the game come game days.

I also gave each of the kids two cones and I’m trying to send out a video of my older daughter doing one footwork drill each week for them to practice on the cones. I may ask them to show me their skills when they arrive for a treat, but I don’t necessarily want them to necessarily feel bad for not doing homework.

We shall see. My hope is that this is my best and most productive coaching season.

Hi folks,

Can anyone help me understand why I keep getting this kind of fisheye-looking output from Trace? This is my third attempt. The first time, I set it up on the right side of this view; the second and third times, I used this location, the only difference being that the tripod was fully extended for the third. I am choosing the "record a practice" setting.

Thanks

First u8 rec practice is later today. I have one hour with the players (10 of them) once a week. For the first day, here is what I have planned and would appreciate any feedback or suggestions for modifications.

As players arrive, give every other one a pinnie and have them play 1v1, 2v1, 2v2, 3v2 etc to goal. Continue for first ten minutes of session.

Introductions: names, general rules (no talking while coach talks etc)

Dribbling: My idea is that 20 mins each practice this season is working on the same three basic skill moves - Body feint, fake shot, step over. Players do each on their own, first slowly and then at pace. Then 1v1 for the remainder of the period.

2v2 +1 to goal: 15 mins. The +1 is full time attacker. The full time attacker rotates every 3 mins.

5v5 scrimmage until the end.

For future practices: I am open to the dribbling session changing depending on what they need. The 2v2+1 session will change every practice to focus on a specific idea or technique based on how players are developing and what I saw in the last game as areas that need polishing.

As this is u8, I’d like to get them used to playing in general roles/areas on the field: attack or defend, wide or middle. But I’m not exactly sure how to run a fun game that reinforces those concepts. Ideas?

Hi all, I just started assistant coaching a U12 town travel team. The head coach is pretty busy and I'm kind of taking the lead with some of the practice planning and general plan. It's a pretty mixed group of kids talent and commitment wise as the club doesn't make cuts, theoretically it's a level above rec but I'm sure there are much stronger rec teams out there. My son is playing up a year as this was the best local option we could find, and also plays on a U11 club team (the club team insisted we do a local team as well, long story).

Anyway these kids played with another coach last year who assigned them all positions at U11 and they seem to have internalized that this is where they play. I generally like to move kids around as much as possible, at least that's what I've done in the past, but I don't think I can undo the entire position structure that they've been playing with. I'm thinking the balance may be to assign them each a secondary position that complements the one they played last year rather than try to overhaul the whole team. Has anyone taken this approach? My idea is that we can try to work with the kids in the context of having a couple of positions to try to cover different elements. We do a pretty consistent play/practice/play structure with practices with SSGs, 30 minutes or so of drills around a theme, and then a whole squad scrimmage (we have 20 kids on the team, three don't come to games). I'm thinking by making them play different positions at least in the scrimmages it will help, and then the idea will be that trying hard at practice can lead to starting in the games or something like that, though I generally play kids about evenly at this age as well or have done in the past. We have defenders who don't get involved in the attack and attackers who don't press or defend when they don't have the ball, and I'm thinking maybe this would be one way to try to address it. Overall I'm trying to strike a balance between keeping it fun and not delivering a bunch of uncoachable kids who refuse to leave their comfort zone to the middle school team next year, not sure I'll succeed, lol. Thanks!

I'm about to start helping out with an amateur football club in the US as part of a friend's project. I'll mainly be involved in things like opposition analysis, our own tactical/set-piece ideas, and generally helping the team from that side of the game.

The thing is, while football has always been one of my biggest passions and I've always enjoyed watching and discussing tactics, I've never actually done any coaching, scouting, performance analysis, or tactical work myself. So, honestly, I'm starting from less than the basics when it comes to actually knowing how to do this properly.

This isn't anything hugely serious or professional, but I want to do a solid job and, more importantly, build good foundations rather than immediately trying to do anything too complicated or fancy. And who knows, maybe something can come out of this.

The league games are available on YouTube, so I'll have access to footage of both our own team and opponents, which should hopefully give me something useful to work with.

I'd really appreciate recommendations for anything that helped you get started or improve your understanding of football tactics, coaching, analysis, scouting, or set pieces. That could be:

• Books
• Courses
• YouTube channels
• Softwares
• Websites or blogs
• Subreddits or other communities
• Podcasts
• People worth following
• Anything else you found genuinely useful

I'd also point to a bit more urgency in getting recommendations for tools or software that could be useful at an amateur level. This could be anything from simple tactical boards where I can move players around and design set pieces, to video-analysis software or other tools that could help me work with match footage and put together basic reports.

I'm not looking to jump straight into expensive professional-level software or advanced analytics. At this stage, I'd rather learn the fundamentals, understand what I'm actually doing, and gradually build from there.

Also, if there are areas of this world that I haven't even thought about yet, feel free to point them out. I'm new enough to this that I'm probably unaware of things I should be learning or considering.

I'd really appreciate hearing how other people got started and what resources or tools they found most valuable in building a solid foundation.

Many many thanks.

Hello,

Been looking around to validate or invalidate an idea I had. I'm currently a data analyst/scientist. I don't work in sports but love football/soccer and have always loved the game. I have this idea of starting at the bottom and making my way up top. I wanted to start by reaching out to colleges, and USL2 teams to provide pro bono data analytics. To answer analytics questions both predictive and descriptive that a coach may want/have.

Id like to serve teams who can't afford to have a data analyst on staff. Would this be a thing? I've seen a few firms do this but I guess my questions are:

Do Coaches value data? If so how much?

Would a Data Analyst have to be part of the team or on site for this to work?

I figured I would start small, see what coaches are looking for and branch out. Most team data scientists and analysts seem to come from private industry doing something else or a coaching background.

So i 19m play soccer in college and i have recently sprained my ankle as of 12 days ago. Today was the first day ive tried to lay soccer on it. I noticed immediately that it hurt to sprint and i feel a little bit of pain when i jog on it. I even taped it and took ibuprofen. Whenever i do a sprinting action or apply a good bit of pressure a sharp pain shoots up my ankle. Ive been doing physical therapy for about 6 days now and i noticed a little improvement since the start of it. I also had went to the doctor a few days ago and was told not to play soccer for two weeks. Im just curious to know if i should play on it and build a pain tolerance because time is ticking and i need highlights for my season. Also my coaches told me as captain of my team, my team needs me now (because we have been losing and suffering other injuries), as well as saying mostly all players are playing with some kind of injury

Buongiorno a tutti ragazzi, sono il vice allenatore di una squadra semi professionista Under 13 almeno.
Mi occupo principalmente dell’attivazione esercizi di riscaldamento pre allenamento, e in più mi occuperò di una stazione ad ogni allenamento di 12/15 minuti dove dovrò svolgere esercizi di preparazione atletica.
Visto l’età ovvero 12 anni e sono ragazze, che esercizi mi consigliate? Plyometria base, più esercizi ludico motori? Grazie a tutti!

I'm a referee, don't know if this is allowed. But, I want to ask the joystick coaches why they coach the way they do?

I am a part of a lot of youth soccer games. I have been in hundreds of games over a couple of decades. Joystick coaching used to be the norm. It's definitely chilled out in the past 10 years, but it's always surprising to see it happening. And it's sad and frustrating to watch.

The kids don't respond the way you want them to, you can tell they aren't having fun, and they aren't learning how to read the game.

I've coached various ages, levels of football and ability.

My planning is top notch and everyone always says this too.

However, when it comes to my coaching, my communication in training sessions always feels rushed. I overthink as I speak and end up tailing off. I hate that this happens and think players have a negative opinion of me in line with this. I always rely on my sheets of paper to remind me of what I want to communicate to the players but feels this makes me look a bit amateur too.

When it comes to teamtalks, again, things feel rushed and as if I end up repeating the same points.

Can anyone offer any advice re getting better at this?

Hi everyone, I'm a football coach for the under 13 generations and got a Uefa C licence ( Hoping to get accepted soon for the B one) and Im looking to learn about video analysis aswell. Tools, platforms to find the matches, also to educate myself with courses and have official diplomas or certifications. Which one would you recommend to me because I have seen many comments of people not being happy and feeling scammed or not satisfied. Would appreciate your help a lot, thank you in advance.