Coaching pre-school kids

the Guru

Folks I have taken on a task coaching 3 - 4 yr old kids on Saturday mornings, have any of you done this before and do you have any tips.

I don't have to worry about controlling them as there parents will be there, but any easy drills would be a great help.

Cheers Dec

FatherTed

I havent coached that young, but have coached 5 year olds. You'll need a lot of patience! Lots of it. What worked for me was doing mini games for just a few minutes and make sure EVERYONE is involved. Make the games funs, giving them names like "Power Rangers", "Nemo" or whatever is current with young 'uns.

Also check out this site: http://www.decatursports.com/drills/manuals.htm
I dont know if they have drills for 3 & 4 yo but maybe you can modify the U-6 drills.

Also, check out the coaches forum over at bigsoccer: http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=40
Good luck!

Pepe LeFrits

Go a bit Frank the Tank on their asses.

TheDoc

Teach them the basics basically, to receive the ball with body open and to pass with inside of the foot and how to pass. And try to get them to kic kthe habbit of running the pitch for the wondergoal, try to instill a theory of everyone moving so they can receive the ball.

Thats how i was taught and developed a very good passing game and a very young age which made me stand out.

Dont do what some "dads" do and go mad into the technical side to 4 yr old kids, at the end of the day they jsut wna kick a football around.

godtabh

The most important thing is not to lose thier attention. If you lose their attention you wont be able to do at thing with them so make sure you all set up and you know exactly what your gona be doing after each drill.

I used to do coaching for local team. They usually wouldnt take on any one younger than 5 simple because their cordination hasnt fully developed which makes things a lot harder to teach so be aware of that.

DaveH

Do people not think this is rediciouls to coach youngster at such a young age, and thus resulting in a drop off with young soccer players? If your not that good and cant get your game at 5 or 6 or younger, then youngsters lose interest in the sport. Also children should be developing only their motor skills at this age. The ball is nearly bigger than the children. When I was a young fella I think under 9 was the first age you could play at. I know Baldoyle United had trails for their under 8 team, I think it is disgraceful to reject children from a sport at such an age.

I would like to hear people's points on this, Im involved heavily in athletics and I see this treatment in athletics, I will make another point regarding this, but i am in work.

emc2

Get them to kick with both feet as well. Keep the drills simple and don't be too focused on the more difficult rules of the game (offside etc). I've help train a few young team (but not that young under 8's and under 10's) a few years ago.

TheDoc

i play for swords celtic at the moment and never did we turn a player away cause he was a bad player.

WE held" trials" but it was really jsut to pick the first team and rest was givin to the second or third team.

At a young age we were taught how to control and pass properly along wtih receving the ball and how to move into space. I learned this when i started at age 7.

We started coaching early enough, and pretty much walked every league we played in until a stage wehere you reach everyone is getting good coaching.

But defo try to keep it interesting, they just wanna kick a bal labout at age 5.

FatherTed

I think 3-4 year olds is very young to start with. As I said before I started 5 year olds 2 years ago (my kids were 5 at the time). I loved the coaching part and got into it.

We had 1 practice during the week and then a game on Saturday morning. Practices were good because I kept the exercises short and fun for them. The games themselves were not as enjoyable. Some times the kids would just wander off, or others would pick flowers. One time there was a kid who started crying when I tried to sub him in. The other thing is that tend to bunch up and play follow the leader. Not much you can do about that as they dont understand the concept of passing yet.

However is it rewarding when you see some players applying in games (e.g. trapping) what you taught in practice.

the Guru

Cheers folks for your help and replies, yes the kids are very young, for most of them its too develop there motor skills, but also in Florida where I live sport is huge, and the moms and dads want to teach there kids about sports and healthy active living from a young age, I have never coached kids or been around kids that young except for my N&N, but they did need a volunteer coach at the local YMCA and I think it will be fun to do.

Seaneh

The only tip I can give for kids that young is not to use a football at all, use Futsol balls, and pitches for that matter.
they stick to the ground and develop passing and dribbling skills a lot faster than a normal football.
I have a few mates from Brazil and they all told me that it's normal for kids to play only futsol untill atleast 11-12 and at the big clubs untill maybe even 14 (Robinho, Ronaldinho, Kaka, cicinho etc all played Futsol untill a very late age) .
Don't get too techincal, just teach them the basics, pass and move, creating space for your self etc.
don't worry about defense at that age, that comes much later 8+.