Oh those U5 Kiddos

My U9 girls are coming along.  But my U5 boys present quite a different challenge.  It probably doesn't help that 1/3 of the team consists of my own twin boys.  It is always difficult to coach your own children.  I think people assume I do a lot of coaching at home as well.  It couldn't be farther from the truth.  Sometimes I struggle to get them to participate in the activity we have at practice.  At home, (if I tried), it would be 100x harder.  Anyway, enough about frustration.

I have noticed something in the boys that is very obvious at this age.  Its an observation pertinent to the argument about coaching the skill with a drill and then trying to apply it in the game or learning the skill while playing the game.  I catch myself using both methods.  I certainly think that for recreational soccer, learning while playing is much more fun compared to drills, so this is where I put my emphasis.  However, opportunities to use a certain skill can be few and far between during small sided games.  Even if the opportunities are frequent, at these young ages, they seem to go purely on instinct.  

The example I have in mind with my U5 boys is dribbling under pressure.  I want them to dribble the ball, but instead they just kick the living daylights out of it.  In a drill environment, they'll dribble all day long, but put them in a match and legs and cleats are flying all over the place in an effort to put a permanent dent in the ball with their toe.  If they dribble even once, I drown them in at-a-boys.  Every time they boot it into the adjacent team's area, I point out that they need to "keep it close".  But in the heat of play, all coaching seems lost.  I'm told by a 3rd grade teacher, that you just have to expect to repeat yourself a thousand times and it will eventually sink in.  Once it does, they've got it.   I prefer to think that if I can create the "right" game, the realization will come around much more quickly and with more of a true understanding.  

I'm half way to 1000 and still trying to think of the "right" game.  I may get to 1000 first.

-Bill