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Under 9's Footy management

Run a Junior Reds side in the Selkent B league, won 3, lost 3 and drawn 1 so doing ok.

Biggest challenge is to get them up and ready to go from the kick-off. They always start slowly and it takes them at least 15 minutes to get going. Pretty good team with aspirations of promotion but would welocme any tips and ideas to get them to start games faster.

Ta

Comments

  • Red Bull

    Or a similar sugary drink should get them going
  • Presuming you do a warm up routine and threaten to sub them ?
  • I play in a "social" team and we have the same problem. Though we have the excuse that we only have a handful of matches a year and half the team are still recovering from hangovers.
  • [cite]Posted By: Scoham[/cite]I play in a "social" team and we have the same problem. Though we have the excuse that we only have a handful of matches a year and half the team are still recovering from hangovers.

    Sounds familiar! :L
  • Do lots of warm-up routines, stretches, passing etc - but they still seem to start slow.

    I'd be happy to give them some sort of stimulant but it may be against league rules

    The problem is the first goal, if we concede we're in trouble, score they tend to kick on -

    Come on lifers, they play in red with the Charlton badge on their kit, I need some ideas
  • Must say it depressess me when any importance is put on the results for an under 9 team. At that age it is about developing skills and being gencouraged to try things and express themselves as well as support each other. Develop their techniques through drills and short games where you can stop proceedings and make points to them, play a few friendlies and leave the competetive stuff for 11 to 12 year olds.
  • Something my son's manager does which may just help a bit is he gets them in a line and throws the ball at them. If he shouts header, they have to catch it and if he shouts catch, they have to header it. I doubt it makes that much difference but it does seem to switch their brains on and get their reactions going because to start with they can't get it right at all and after a few minutes they can. Causes a lot of laughs as well and just generally wakes the brain up as well after the body has warmed up.
  • [cite]Posted By: MuttleyCAFC[/cite]Must say it depressess me when any importance is put on the results for an under 9 team. At that age it is about developing skills and being gencouraged to try things and express themselves as well as support each other. Develop their techniques through drills and short games where you can stop proceedings and make points to them, play a few friendlies and leave the competetive stuff for 11 to 12 year olds.

    good to do both - you can do all of this as well but in training. The match is where you put it into practice and there's no substitute for proper competition.
  • Agree with you Dan, I support and encourage the team, win, lose or draw. The focus is always on playing well, doing your best etc rather than 'winning'. However, life is competitive and its interesting to watch how different youngsters respond to 'competition'
  • [cite]Posted By: Les Berrys Tash[/cite]Agree with you Dan, I support and encourage the team, win, lose or draw. The focus is always on playing well, doing your best etc rather than 'winning'. However, life is competitive and its interesting to watch how different youngsters respond to 'competition'

    Exactly - i never give my boys or any other a hard time if their not playing well but if you're not doing it, there's always a sub to come on or ultimately a lesser team to join. Harsh but true and that is what sport is about - playing at your level - otherwise, as a manager, your nothing more than a babysitting service and all the best players will become frustrated and leave.
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  • Make sure the parents are not feeding them up just before a game.

    Take a supply of Jaffa Cakes or Jelly Babies and hand them out before the game just to gee them up.

    Do your warm-up (space permitting) to the side of the pitch so that when they get on the pitch, it is new to them (away games anyway).

    Simple passing routines so they get a feel of the ball and light running.

    Good luck with your promotion aspirations.
  • I had a similar problem with a youth rugby team I coached.What I found worked was a couple of games of bulldog,this wound them up nicely so they started well.
  • Mate we had the same issue but ours are u10, What i got them doing was small 3 on 2 for half hour before kick off

    Use 1 goaile and 2 defenders

    have the midfielders and attackers in groups of 3 stating that each player must have had a touch on the ball before they can shoot on goal, Put an emphasis on looking after the ball not just shooting and getting them to only shoot when it is the best decision open too them.


    Tell defenders and Goaile that they have to get the ball and put it out of play or wait until the keeper has the ball in his hands.


    Our u10's league operates that we have to have 2, 7 aside teams totalling no more than 10 players in each team so this drill keeps the boys active for 30-40 mins prior to the Kick Off and gets them thinking about their passing and decision making leading into the game


    We also give them 10 mins where they are lined up, they decide if they want 1 or 2 touches prior to shooting on goal seperate them by that decision and get them to shoot on goal just gets them smiling before kick off


    Good luck it is a truely rewarding task that you have i love it
  • Yes, it is good to hear that you encourage them. Just my view - which is just that - is that under 9 is a bit too young for competetive football. My problem with it is that it can inhibit - too frightened to try something in case they make a mistake - mis matching boys who develop at different rates e.g. playing a kid who is built like a brick you know what house up front doesn't help him or the kids playing against him. It doesn't help him as when the physical advantage goes he doesn't have anything to bring to the party. You don't need to teach a kid to be competetive- look in Italy where they don't play serious games until they are 13 or 14- nobody can say they aren't competetive.

    I don't believe in academy football either at too young an age. That may sound hypocritical as my 9 year old son is in the Spurs academy but I'd be happy if he wasn't - they asked and I let him decide. It doesn't clash with the important things that actually teach him football skills and make him comfortable with the ball so I can put up with it. The statistics of academy boys who make it through to the first team are pretty damning. The clubs basically play a percentage game and kids are better off out of it until they are 14 or 15. At about 15 - that is when professional clubs should mould them. I think players of ability like Rooney and Gerrard would be the same players if academies didn't exist.

    He wants to join a team now but for me the Brazilian Soccer skills programme he is on is the priority. I've had a few people come up to me about him playing for them but they lost me the minute they talked about the success of their team. Winning games is irrelevant at that level, I'm more interested how they will develop him as a footballer.

    I know some will agree with me but most wont - but I am quite pasionate that this country needs a bit of a revolution in developing talent so excuse my forcefulnes on teh subject.
  • Used to co-manage my son's team when he was that age ... our 2 top scorers always used to have a can of cola before the game and it never failed to hype them up!
  • edited November 2010
    Have a kick around with a rubgy ball, great warm up and have a look at the other team's faces.
  • Agree with you Muttley about acadamies, I've been doing it a couple of years now and have seen players lost at under 9 to academies. I'm not convinced it works for them and it also creates the 'my son is academy standard your lucky he plays for you' attitude from some parents.

    Like the rugby ball idea and the bulldog, may try that Sunday
  • [cite]Posted By: nth london addick[/cite]What i got them doing was small 3 on 2 for half hour before kick off

    Half hour ??? Bloody hell !

    With Muttley, not a fan of competitive football at 8 years old. Should be purely about enjoyment and development at that age IMO. Find it crazy that from 8 years old a kid is a left back, or a striker etc.

    Just coach them technically well, get them not just doing routines but thinking why they are doing them and how they can adapt them into a match situation, but above anything else, make it fun and emphasise the importance of teamwork and friendship. This is a huge huge social development time for an 8 year old.

    In terms of warm up, i'd suggest a couple of passing drills coupled with some form of fun / sharpness element. I'd suggest a game of handball which involves short sprints, ability, teamwork and communication.
  • Yes, they take young kids in a big net in the hope they catch a Rooney or a Gerrard but they don't produce a Rooney or a Gerrard who would IMO still have turned out as they have if they were not part of an academy at an early age. Clubs sort of have too as they are competing for talent but it doesn't benefit the kids. If it doesn't get in the way of anything else it is nuetral which is the best I can say for them.

    Taking my son to his Brazillian class tonight - part of Cambridge United Academy play on a nearby pich. Well they just play matches - don't learn anything. It is a fascinating contracts watching kids learning fantastic skills on one pitch and just running after a ball on another!

    If you naven't heard of Brazillian Soccer or Futebol de Salao - What do Pele, Ronaldo or Rivaldo have in common? Well the game of is cited as being what made them the great players they were and are today. Brazilian Soccer is an exciting and fast moving 5-a-side game of South American origin, played on a court-sized pitch using a small, weighted ball. Over a million children are enrolled in this soccer academy worldwide and already graduates are making their way into top flight clubs. The central aim of the Brazilian Soccer Schools is to encourage boys and girls to spend longer working with the ball, practising and developing their skills, rather than jumping straight into a game. The training sessions will involve pupils spending almost all of the time working with the ball at their feet learning skills.

    During matches, Kids are encouraged to try things and not be put off if what they try fails. If anybody has a youngster and subscribes to this philosophy - Google your local brazillian soccer school.
  • sounds good but i still think there's room for this and competitive games - a bit like working and going to college on day release - you learn the theory in training and 'go to work' in the matches. AFKA - I know what you're saying but just ask your friend Martin's boy Harry how much he enjoys the matches. In fact, ask any of that team - my boy much prefers the matches to the training in fact although i accept training and learning is also important. We have to remember, it's not all about producing the ultimate player - kids love playing matches and your only a kid once.
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  • edited November 2010
    smudge it works if you think we would have 5 groups of 3 and then the 4 defenders in groups of 2 plus a goalie. The boys don't wear themselves out. They would've done 15 mins warm up stretching and jogging.

    We have won the 4 of the last 5 since we started that and are now top of the league with a plus 16 goal difference averaging 6 different scorers in the last 3 games. Been told by separate managers that we have played against that we are the best passing team they have come across.

    You must remember that you are coaching any mistakes made in those 3 on 2 games and they are only lasting a min or two each group.


    Excellent little rountines to do to focus on passing spacial awareness and encourages good control.
  • Yes I agree there is room for the odd competetive game but not to the exclusion of ball technique. Brazillian soccer have competitions with other Brazillian schools across the south east once every couple of months and another example is recently the local Brazillian skills coach decided to enter a team at the last minute in a competiton consisting of local boys clubs. I think he was trying to drum up interest in the scheme from parents of boys from the other clubs. He just managed to scrape a team together after despearte texting due to the short notice and it was missing some of the most able boys -they were a year younger than the other teams and reached the semi final. they lost to a team that had a boy who was literally a man mountain up front - who eventually went on to win the competition. This was the first competetive match these boys had played together whilst they played against boys playing with each other every week. There wasn't an expectation that they would do so well as they are not coached to win games but it sort of confirmed to me that this approach was right - I do question it sometimes.

    Les, sounds to me we share similar views, only differ in the fact that I think the least important thing for you is to get your boys winning but rather to get them to be better footballers, not necessarily now but in the future has to be the prime aim.
  • A technique I have used is to split them into 2 groups and have a relay race between the 2 groups. You can put half of each group on the halfway line, and touchline respectively - or use the 2 sides of the pitch as the start/finish lines.

    If an odd number of players is present, then a coach or a parent has to even up the sides.

    Best of 3 races.

    Race 1 - carry the ball by hand (harder than you think)
    Race 2 - carry 2 balls by hand
    Race 3 - dribble with 1 ball.

    Trust me - they will go straight into the game fully switched-on !
  • Have a 6 or 7 a-side match 20 minutes before kick off. All up to speed by kick off then. Also tell them how they perform is how you'll be picking them team so that should get them working.
  • "Also tell them how they perform is how you'll be picking them team so that should get them working"

    I don't recommend this for 8 year olds, it causes more problems than it solves.
  • I dont think that the emphasis should be on results more on development and enjoyment, However a team that loses every week is not an enjoyable team to be playing in or managing so there has to be a balance.

    Our boys are in their last season before 11 a side so this year the emphasis has been on performance, concentration and willingness to listen that has resulted in performances turning into results


    you can then focus on the result when you get your boys together at training midweek

    The other thing i was advised to do by a well respected acadamy man from west ham was to get the boys heads thinking like a pro footballer (although as adults we know that the top pros dont do this).


    Make sure they have cleaned their own boots, do a check first thing when they arrive get them all in a circle and get them to show you their boots before they kick a ball.

    Have a minor punishment like push ups or a lap of pitch for those that have not done it, tell them you will be asking their mums and dads to help them clean their boots but not do it for them

    Make sure that they have folded their tracksuits and kits the night before and put them with their boots.

    Make sure that if the club supplys the drinks bottles that the boys have brought it with them and it gets put in the bottle holder.

    Keep them away from their parents as much as possible on a saturday morning from once the time you have asked them to be with you the only thing they are thinking about is what you say not what their parents or sibblings have to say.


    all of the above helps focus their little minds on playing football on a saturday morning not the ps3 or xbox.


    You do see a big change in attitudes of the boys when they start to understand that Football is about Fun and enjoyment with an elemant of self discipline

    you are asking them to have the discipline to do what you have asked them and the enjoyment and freedom to express themselves on the pitch.

    keep using motivation and encouraging words and focus on the positives but work on the negs.

    reminding players about their positions is better than shouting mark number x or y constantly.

    Never tell your keeper to come for a ball let him decide and make his own choices and tell any parent taht does do it that you dont want that to happen or be said again.

    There are some great websites for coaching out there find them join them and get your badges not just level 1 my mum could do that get as much coaching for yourself as you can.


    I have Tottenham development and Arsenal Development contacts and i just go and watch and listen to their coaches at every spare opportunity it is amazing what little things they say and do can have such a big impact on your team.
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