I’m one of three people coaching my daughter’s soccer team. They’re all four-year-old girls, and, as far as I know, none of them have any prior experience with organized sports.
If anyone has done this sort of thing before, I’d appreciate any advice you might have, both with respect to practices, and conduct of the actual game. Are there drills appropriate for this age? Does it make sense to assign the kids to specific positions, aside from a goalkeeper?
For what it’s worth, the parents are a laid-back group, and aside from having fun, our goals are modest. Basically, I’d like to have some semblance of actual soccer-playing, rather than just total pandemonium
IANACoachofanything, but I suspect with 4 year olds, you’re going to be lucky to get much more than the very basics of the game down. I’d concentrate on safety and sportsmanship at that level. Let the kids have fun, and maybe learn a little bit about the game as you go along.
Bah! They need to learn a win at all costs attitude, complete disdain for the opponent, arguing with the referee, sneaky ways to commit fouls without getting caught, getting upset with the coach for being substituted out of a game and a nonchalant attitude toward practice.
“Now, Jennifer. If you don’t get out there and BREAK YOUR OPPONENTS I will personally call Santa Claus and tell him to call off Christmas. Go for the knees.”
There’s a reason they call youth soccer “herd ball.”
This is the ball, that is the goal. Don’t use your hands, you want to kick the ball into the goal. The other team will try to get the ball away from you. Now, go run up and down the field for a half-hour.
Don’t forget cursing at the ref and rude hand gestures. If you don’t teach them to do it properly they will learn poor techniques from their own parents in the next few years.
Hmm. Right, first thing you need is a small pitch. About the size of a tennis court is plenty for wee ones. It’s a bit of a cliche, but “jumpers for goalposts” is all you’ll need . Next is to just let them play with a light ball - a full size football is far too big for bairns - get something smaller and light enough for kiddy toes.
Next thing: let them play in groups of four. They’ll just want to run about like daft things, but establish a rule that there are three outfleld players and one goalie. Try and make it clear that being goalie is important. If the goalie makes three saves, or an outfielder scores three, they swap positions. Admittedly this can be a tricky sell to a four year old. If the kids get into it when they are a little older, limit goal-scoring to a header or a volley. This is the way that the Scottish national side has swept all before it.
Of course you could burden your four year olds with a hundred pounds in weight of body armour and just have them stumbling around a park in amusing fashion. Seriously though, minimal soccer is great for kids at that age. We used to play rounders at that age (which is basically baseball), and that’s a lot of fun if you can get a paddle-shaped bat.
Soccer is a wonderful sport for kids from 4 to 14. It gets them moving, building up their endurance, muscle mass, and hopefully teaches them about teamwork and strategy.
But I have an aversion to any sport played by grown men in shorts.
It’s supposed to be fun. Make sure the parents keep their yaps shut- even at this age, yes. There’s been a few threads here about over-involved and angry/violent parents at organized sports events for kids.
Fun. They’ll get bruised and dirty and sore and sweaty and have a blast. Good on ya for stepping up.
This is the most important thing by miles. Let the bairns enjoy themselves - there is nothing worse than a Competitive Dad to totally fuck up a childs enjoyment of a sport.
Thanks for the replies. Shelbo, that’s a good link.
And I agree about having low expectations at this age. Honestly, my number one goal is to avoid having any kids wander off, so that we end the game with as many kids as we started with.
