Basic Motor Skills
Very young children (four and five year olds)
are learning to coordinate and control their body movements and dynamic
balance, and are generally not very nimble or agile. Practice activities
that develop these basic motor skills, with and without the soccer ball
will be beneficial and fun for all young children. In addition to
soccer-specific activities, practice activities for five and six year-olds
should target directional sense, spatial awareness, and basic motor
patterns, such as hopping, skipping, jumping, bounding and running.
Contacting the Ball
There are six surfaces (inside, outside, instep, sole, toe and heel) used
for kicking, dribbling or controlling a soccer ball. For most U-5 and U-6
players, the toes and the laces are the most commonly used surfaces.
Practice activities should encourage these players to experiment with
different surfaces and ask them to “imagine” new ways to kick and dribble
the ball. Games that cater to discovery learning and imitation are the
recommended approaches to “teaching” new skills to young children.
Dribbling the ball is arguably the most important soccer skill at any
level, and practice activities should encourage all young players to
dribble and stop and turn the ball with different surfaces and to move in
different directions with the ball under control.
Players as young as five will look to pass the ball to teammates, and they
will do so with purpose if they are given enough time and space to
consider their options. In many cases, young children are still learning
how to coordinate their perception of a game situation with the muscle
actions necessary to make contact with the ball. It is important to
encourage beginners to take extra touches when controlling the ball so
that passes (or dribbles) are attempted with a purpose in mind, rather
than as a means of kicking the ball to safety.
player’s first thought in possession should always be “Can I score a goal
from here?” Goals in practice should be wide and high enough to encourage
shots from various distances and angles, and coaches should reinforce to
players through their practice activities that the objective of the game
is to score more goals than the opponents in the time allowed. Soccer
games and other activities with no stated “outcome” are less motivating
than activities that provide a way to win.
Time, space and repetition are the most important elements for improving
comfort level and reducing the number of touches necessary to control the
ball. Small-sided games and complementary one-player/one-ball activities
provide opportunities for young players to begin to associate the
techniques of dribbling and controlling the soccer ball with the three
tactical applications of dribbling: moving away from pressure, running
into open space, and dribbling towards goal. Beginning level players will
rarely try to control balls coming out of the air, and bouncing balls
present another very difficult coordination and emotional problem for five
and six year-olds. The secret of good ball control is a soft first touch;
the most damaging coaching advice to give five and six year-olds is to
kick the ball away.
and six year olds will not head the ball.
Young players should not be restricted in their movements on the field and
moving should become a natural extension of passing. Passing to other
players should be expected and encouraged at this age, although dribbling
the ball is the most likely method of advancing the ball. Instruction that
limits players to a particular area of the field does not allow for the
natural emergence of supporting positions and angles that become so
important for positional play in later years.
Spaces versus Positions
all players under the age of eight, positional coaching of any kind is
irrelevant and detrimental to their fun, enjoyment and progress. Rather
than be told what position to play, young players should be encouraged to
“find” new supporting positions away from teammates so that passes can be
young players have little or no visual awareness of their immediate
surroundings, and, in particular, the proximity of teammates and opponents
not directly in front of them. Receiving passes when facing away from the
opponent’s goal is a difficult skill, even for accomplished players, and
most children will not look up until they have received the ball, secured
possession, and turned to face forward. Often, young players will simply
let the ball run past them into what they hope will be open space.
at this age should be no more complicated than encouraging the children to
try and win the ball back when possession is lost. Players will often
naturally transition from attack to defense and recover towards their
goal, but it is also true that young children will often stop playing when
the ball is lost. While these players should be “gently” encouraged to
participate in the game, they should never be scolded for their decision
to “take a rest.” When the ball comes their way they will become involved
again. Because players should be encouraged to move forward when
attacking, there will be many situations when no one is at the back of the
team when the opponents gain possession. This should be anticipated as a
natural aspect of play for young children and one reason why scores are
generally much higher in small-sided games.
the ball turns over from the attacker to the defender or from the defender
to the attacker, the game offers chances to demonstrate awareness of two
very important concepts: immediate recovery of the ball and immediate
counter-attack to goal. Players should be assessed on how well they
understand these concepts and encouraged to react as quickly as possible
to any change in possession.
Because five and six
year-olds are learning to coordinate ball manipulation with body control,
“creativity” is more likely to appear as good ball control or faking or
feinting movements. Players who can change speed and direction and retain
control of the ball are applying their techniques in a creative way.
Players who can move their bodies from side to side in an effort to
unbalance a defender are showing signs of creativity. Players who
experiment with different parts of their feet or control the ball with
different body parts, are showing signs of creativity. At this age,
allowing children to think and to fantasize and to create their own
solutions to the game’s problems is a critical element of coaching.
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