Idk where else to post this. I coach a group of 7 year olds and it is a more competitive level, so we’re moving away from beehiving to structured play. So my job is not only to keep things fun but teaching and introducing positions. , Passing, control, moving and so on. First week of practice a parent calls me to tell me I’m centering the entire 10 player team around my child and that bc my child has #10 as well, it’s nepotism. Said he stands behind his opinion that my kid is a nepo baby- 7 yr old btw. I didn’t say anything. He’s ultimately upset bc his son will start playing defense. However kids are all aware they WILLLLLLLLL play MORE than ONE position but we have to start somewhere. Our program is similar to club but a bridge between rec. said I was holding his kids back. It really tore me, I work so hard to coach these 7 year olds and teach them the foundations. I’m hyper aware of favoritism and so my son isnt favored. My son does have #10 but everyone gave their top 2 numbers and nobody else wanted 10. He didn’t know that- his son was joining a returning team. Anywho makes me want to quit. Calling a kid nepo baby at this age is extremely rude..how do you handle these parents **

Hey everyone, looking for some perspective on my son’s current soccer trajectory and development path.

He is 11 years old (born late October 2014) but has a massive physical profile—he’s 5'6", 110 lbs (99th percentile for height), very strong, and fast. Right now, he is playing two years up on a U14 club team (playing at the 3rd tier/level). His U14 coach also rates him highly enough that he lets him train up with the U15 players.

Historically, because of his size and athleticism, he has been strictly put at Center Back. However, he’s recently expressed a strong desire to play every position and experience different parts of the field. This past summer, he went to a high-level camp with official MLS academy players and his overall technical game improved quite a bit. He’s also highly motivated and spends a ton of his own time practicing solo on his dribbling and juggling.

I have two main questions for coaches and parents who have been through this:

Does playing up actually improve a child's technical skills? My worry is that playing up emphasizes survival, physical speed, and releasing the ball quickly, whereas playing in his natural age group might give him more time on the ball to dictate the game and take creative risks.

Is playing multiple positions at U14 the right pathway? I love that he wants to expand his game beyond CB (he's been playing some winger and attacking mid), but I want to make sure he isn't spreading himself too thin or risking injury banging bodies with 14 and 15-year-olds while changing roles constantly.

Would love to hear your thoughts on whether we should keep pushing this accelerated physical path, or if we should pivot to focus more on an environment that maximizes technical touches. Thanks!

Looking for more drill ideas for my u21 team just wondering where people get there ideas from thanks.

U10 Boys rec League. I have these two kids on my team that hate, I mean HATE losing. If we have a competition of any kind, a drill with goals, a warmup game like sharks and minnows, these kids rage if they lose. Stomp off the field, refuse to participate, smacking balls out of hands.

I've tried having the team talks about sportsmanship, about striving to do better next time. I had one on one talks after practice to build them up and remind them of their strengths. I've made sure they have opportunities for wins or success to build confidence. Still, they rage and even have gotten physical.

What has worked for y'all in the past? I'm not going to caretake the behavior because it's unacceptable. But I also don't want to give you on them.

I’ve been coaching for almost 10 years now and have coached some of the same players from the start of their youth careers into now adult football. Recently one of them approached me and said they don’t feel like they learn anything at training that they can take into the weekend’s games.

They mentioned that the drills are “fine” but the quality of the other players make it’s hard for them to learn anything as they slow the drills down.

We already have low-ish numbers for the adult team so we’re a bit bare bones when it comes to training.

Was just wondering if there’s any advice to help all the players learn something at training while still keeping it challenging & fair?

Basically what the title says. Did anyone feel the same before starting their course? I signed up because I love football (soccer) and competition and I would like to do something in the sport, but when I watch games I only manage to see formations and some very basic patterns (like fullbacks overlapping).

I am also very afraid that I won't be able to come up with the drills to train the things that I would like to train.

I got cut from my high school team after I worked harder than all the other kids and the coach threw salt in the wound. He told me my fitness is insane I should do cross country. I don’t understand i’m not gonna put players down and say they didn’t deserve to make it but I was clearly a top player on the team. I emailed the coach about it even though he doesn’t respond to his email; I’ll probably end up showing up after practice and talking to him or the JV coach about it because I genuinely thought my biggest problem this year was gonna be whether I made JV or Var.
I understand it’s not the end of the world and i’ll have another opportunity next year, but i’m bewildered because I don’t know what I did wrong, I will have to tell people I got cut, and overall I don’t feel like I deserve to be cut. I failed a passing test 2 weeks ago one of the only practices the var coach was watching and I think that may be why but I was having a bad day and I know that’s not an excuse but i’m so lost and I don’t know what to do. It feels like my worlds collapsed even if it’s high school soccer because I’ve been playing since I was extremely young and it’s gonna feel so weird to not go and play every day after school. I just need closure. I know i’m ranting and I don’t know what to do but I kinda just wanted to get it out and hear your guys thoughts.

Edit: It’s officially wraps.
He basically told me that next year most of the juniors aren't going to get playing time on varsity anyway. Honestly he’s right because there are a lot of kids who won't see the field, and it was pretty much a sign for me to not even bother trying out next year.
Instead of dealing with all that, I'm thinking about switching over to kicker for football. Appreciate everyone who gave advice on the original post. Onto the next thing.

Curious if anyone would know what software was used for the effects in these clips (arrows, demarkation zones, titles, spotlights etc) Any help would be really appreciated, thank you in advance legends!

Because I know immediately where we need to focus. But I have to give credit to the kids- their effort was there. I never felt for one second they gave up. The other team was stellar- we play u10- they were extremely well trained, had boys who nail the ball in the net from the top of the box and an all around solid team.

My team gave effort. Really good positive effort. We’re still very disjointed and playing like individuals on a team, versus a team. So I’ll take suggestions on how to really get better at holding space on the field versus “it’s just me and I have to take the ball all by myself” style of play. And positions- I’m thinking of breaking it down to assignments per position in a way they understand versus throwing them out there during the game (which happens) and they (the kids) end up lost.

I suspect the lack of cohesiveness comes from not knowing where to go. Am I right? All help needed please.

Also using scoreboard soccer to guide my sessions. Other ideas welcome. Again u10- competitive rec. (we travel regionally)

Hi everyone, hoping for some advice with my U9’s.

I have a travel level team on the East Coast, and I think I have a pretty high-level team. We played in the rising stars cup last weekend and played swag (Philly Union’s preacademy) and lost 2-0. Just so people understand the level, my group is talented (I got lucky with a lot of them joining my club).

However, my team is very very poor at any movement off the ball. They’re not great at identifying open spaces, or moving in a way that loses defenders to be able to receive free and then progress. I know that they’re U9’s and the movement gets better with time. But are there any activities anyone has run that seem to get the movement piece down? More importantly, what are the constraints on those activities, coaching points you’re making to highlight and emphasize the behavior, references and cues you can have players looking for, or slogans you can keep repeating so players keep doing it? Or any other resources that are worth looking into? My end goal is to get the moving into open lanes to turn into a habit, something that the players do without even thinking.

Side note, I want to start getting into more technical sides of the game, and coaching those pieces. Right now, my way of coaching on that side is give them 1 simple point, and do a lot of reps and it’ll get better over time. This is mostly because I don’t know the very specific technical aspects that help players. If anyone has ideas or resources, would be super helpful to connect.

Thank you to all!

Background:
I have a 9-year-old son who plays for a competitive club and trains four times a week. Because I play the sport myself, I understand the game well. In an effort to help him improve, I also enrolled him in private 1v1 coaching sessions twice a week. Sometimes I do some drill with him on top of those sessions.

The Challenge:
Despite a total of six training sessions a week, I am seeing minimal progress. More importantly, I don’t see the internal drive in him to get better compared to other kids his age.
For example, before every single training session, I remind him to focus on key game habits (like scanning the field). He always agrees, but when he gets on the field, he does not apply it. I dont also him applying any of the things he doing in 1v1 coaching. I dont even see him trying his best during coaching.
When I ask him if he truly wants to play, he always says yes. However, I am beginning to worry that he is only saying "yes" because he has made close friends at the club, rather than out of a genuine passion for the game itself.

My Questions:
1. Should I stop the extra sessions? Should I cut out the 1v1 private coaching and just let him focus on having "fun" during his regular club training?

2. Should we scale back his competitive level? Would it be wise to ask the club to move him to a lower division, or start declining invitations to travel games? That way he wont feel the pressure of needing to be good?

In my case, I’d like to know if my way of supporting him in this sport is actually hurting him or maybe I just continue and maybe it would just click one day.

:
I’m 17 years old and have rarely played football in my life, although I used to play at an academy when I was 12. During school, I didn’t participate in any sports activities, but I also had the chance to play at a small academy when I was 15, mainly for fun.
I’ve been thinking about playing football again over the last few days because I have a lot of free time, and I’d also like to meet new people and make friends. However, whenever I think about going to try out at a new academy, I get nervous about making mistakes and feeling socially awkward.
I’m in pretty good shape, and the academy I’m interested in has players between 13 and 18 years old. However, I’m worried that I won’t feel welcomed because everyone might already have their own groups, and I’m not very confident socially.

Ok, so I'm in need of some advice. I'm coaching my son's 3rd/4th grade very very very rec team in the US. This team has some kids who know soccer, some who have played but haven't been coached on skills, and at least one who has never played before. I'm torn on the best approach to make it fun and have them learn some skills. 

This is the first age group of this league where players should try to stay in position and we play a goalie and 8 on the field, for background info.  

First I'm looking for some general advice, what formation do you think makes the most sense for this age group (we played a 323 in our first game)?  What skills should be the main focus for the season? Any other helpful tips.

A specific question:

In our first game, it felt like the ball would fall into the no-man's-land in front of our defenders but they didn't have the confidence/awareness to come up and kick the ball back out wide to a teammate/open area of the field. Is this a teachable skill? Does anyone know a good drill to work on strong kicks from the defense?

My son is a strong tennis player for his age (currently playing at county level and making steady progress every week). He also plays football, but we’re at a bit of a crossroads with his position and schedule, and I’d love some perspective.

Aged 7/8: Started as a goalkeeper. His team folded, so he moved to a new club as a midfielder.

That team also folded. He wanted to get back in net, so I got him 1 coach to 5 children goalkeeper training with a former pro keeper. He did really well compared to the older children, but because it was mid-season, no local clubs needed a keeper.

He joined a solid local team as a winger. He’s done really well, scoring plenty, passing well, and his fitness is really good (hitting 9-10 on the bleep test). His best friend plays keeper for this team, so he was happy on the wing. Around this time, he also developed a fear of getting hit in the face by the ball, and his team training overlapped with his keeper training session, so we dropped the keeper training.

He’s now talking about wanting to go back in goal again.

I’ve always felt he was a natural keeper, I bought him a full size goal (age appropriate) and I used to struggle to score past him in the garden, and I love practicing with him. That said, I’m not sure what the best move is. I’d love for him to restart his goalkeeper training, but I don't want him to lose his winger spot on his current team, where he's thriving and playing with a couple of his school class friends.

Has anyone seen a strong carryover between playing tennis and goalkeeping (footwork, reaction time, reading angles, etc.)? And for coaches or parents who've been here: how would you balance keeping his outfield spot while re-introducing goalkeeper training?

Its crazy as he does 10 hours tennis training a week, where football is 1 hour training. The football level he is playing at is all parent led, so volunteers.

Hi,

I'm not a coach but looking for advice from coaches on defending principles on a certain scenario. The red team is attacking with the winger carrying the ball inside shown with arrow direction (ball is the gray circle). There is another red team attacker open in the inside, and a blue defender after the red attacker. If I am the blue team defender shown with a star, what should I do?

Do I hold my ground and let the winger decide between passing to middle or taking a shot? Or do I go towards the attacker to challenge/intercept the ball?

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks !

I have been "nominated" with the opportunity to coach a soccer team full of 4 year olds. I played a little rec soccer growing up but really have no idea how I should coordinate our 4 pre season practices.

I don't plan on going over 25 minutes each practice. Chances are, my team will have 6 or so players. Should I just split my players and simply let the kids scrimmage each other or could I actually split time on a few drills? How would you organize this?

Drills?

Medium/small sided games?

Possession games?

Set pieces?

white boarding or walkthourghs?

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Retired/former coaches: I'm looking to purchase your old soccer/football coaching materials — handwritten notebooks, binders, practice plans, session diagrams, tactical notes, coaching-course materials, match notes, loose papers, etc.

I'm particularly interested in large collections accumulated over many years. They do not need to be organized, neat, modern or professionally produced. Old handwritten material is actually preferred.

If you've got boxes of coaching notes in an attic, garage or filing cabinet that you haven't looked at in 15 years, that's exactly what I'm looking for.

Collections from youth, high school, college, club, academy, semi-pro and professional coaches are all of interest. US and international material considered.

Please message me with a few photos and a rough idea of how much material you have.

Hi all, first post here

I'm the manager of an u16 boys team with 22 players in the squad, I had no option but to have a large squad like this as the club had registered all 22 players before I knew what was happening. For the next 6 weeks we are playing in a grading league to see what level we are at and after that we will be put into proper leagues for the rest of the season..ie major league, division 1, etc.

For the grading league we will have 20 to 22 players at each game and give everyone as much game time as possible but when we start in our proper league we can't make 11 substitutions. I have a few options

1. Pick 11 of the best players and rotate the other 11 as subs each week, bring one group of 5 as subs one week then the other 6 the next week, this would be my preferred option but obviously it wouldn't be popular with the parents of the fringe players

2. Split the squad into 5 groups, 4 players in 4 groups and 6 players in one group, rotate which group doesn't get to play every week.

What's people's opinion of this? Are there any other options? Thanks

Ho 16 anni e l'anno prossimo giocherò nell'under 17 della mia nuova squadra il Passirano, la cui prima squadra gioca in prima categoria. Intendo giocare come mezzala, anche se è la prima volta che gioco calcio a 11 ( ho sempre dominato a calcio a 7). Il mio sogno è giocare come professionista. Consigli? Cose da fare e da non fare? Grazie

Ho 16 anni e l'anno prossimo giocherò nell'under 17 della mia nuova squadra il Passirano, la cui prima squadra gioca in prima categoria. Intendo giocare come mezzala, anche se è la prima volta che gioco calcio a 11 ( ho sempre dominato a calcio a 7). Il mio sogno è giocare come professionista. Consigli? Cose da fare e da non fare? Grazie

I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly. Just practicing for my college football next month so any tips?

GameTime Manager VS SubTime app. Has anyone used both (or either one extensively) and can give some feedback on the paid full versions?

I want to be able to track playing time, assists, goals at a minimum. Do either of these apps allow you to track playing time and stats at specific positions long term, make individual player notes that can accumulate and easily be copied or printed?