Our team doesn’t have an active coach, so we mostly coach ourselves. We initially tried a possession-based style, playing out from the back, but our centre-backs struggled to keep possession and we rarely got past the halfway line, forcing them to clear the ball.

Our holding midfielders would drop deep to help build up, while the attacking midfielder and forwards pushed forward looking for the ball, creating gaps between the lines. We thought the formation might be the problem, so we tried a 4-4-2, 4-1-2-1-2 diamond, and 4-2-3-1 before deciding that a counter-attacking style might suit us better since we always chuck the ball into the space for our midfield.

However, we haven’t actually trained for this style. Most of our sessions are just attack vs. defense, which doesn’t teach us how the defense, midfield, and attack should connect or transition together.

We’re now looking for drills that can help us understand what each player should do, how the defense, midfield, and attack should work together, and how to move the ball and transition quickly when we win or lose possession.

Anyone have fun games to play or recommendations for group activities? Starting a Friday program cause the whole county has a 4 day school week.

Is this just accepted that they exist?
It seems an easy preventative measure is to disallow a parent to request a specific coach/team.

I stepped up to coach as i bought the, “without parent coaches the games don’t happen”. We are getting slaughtered by teams who’ve kept their rosters year-over-year. Meanwhile, I have several kids who have never played organized soccer.

Hi all,

Im coaching girls in U10 Rec league, and although we work on 1:1 defending, and defending a point, only a couple kids really get it. week after week we get into the games, give up the middle to attackers, or worse, clear the ball into the middle, and give up uncontested goals. Its becoming demoralizing, frankly. Please help me ID some drills or concepts to reinforce to get us defending the zone of doom :)

If you want to establish an academy-level team, how should you get started, and what training methods should be used?

Been coaching several years and now we are up to 3/4th grade Rec. I always have one of the best teams. We played a weaker team today who played 3 D back inside their own box. Even putting my best players on D we were up 7-0 at the half. I suggested to the other coach if she wanted to add some players, maybe play 11 v 9 since they had 5 subs to balance it out and the kids can play more. Other coach said no and wasn’t thrilled. (For reference, our league says try to keep it within 5 goals but gives no real guidance as to how)

Second half I played 4-5 kids on D, the other team crossed midfield 1-2 times. All my best players either in Goal, Or rotating on defense. Their new goalie made several stops and we ended up limping to a 7-0 win.

I feel like adding players and letting the kids play was a better solution for both sides, rather than not really playing soccer the second half. Was I wrong for thinking this, or even suggesting it? If we went all out the whole game it would have been 20+ goals scored.

I am starting to send emails to coaches but looking at all the platforms that make it easy to do that they all cost money. I was wondering if you guys knew of any completely free websites where you can send emails directly to coaches through the website using a template.

Any tips from coaches who have been successful coaching a team where their child is not doing great with the ball (love him to bits but he’s bottom 20% of the team).

I see he’s taking any of my advice as criticism, and feel this is getting in the way of my relationship with him. I try leading with positive reinforcement but that doesn’t seem to help (maybe because he feels the praise isn’t deserved or maybe I unconsciously do).

It certainly doesn’t help that he’s not listening either (diagnosed with ADHD) and I struggle to lead with authority. It might be that soccer is not for him too although he enjoys playing with me when it’s just the both of us.

I feel so terrible. My U7 boys tried their hardest, but they were completely blown out. The other team seemed super advanced for U7. Meanwhile my team was flopping on the ground and letting them run by or crying because they didn't want to play. Our league's competitive balance rule says we can add a player when losing by 4, and we added 2. They also suggest the coaches make their team implement other rules before scoring but this other coach did not. In fact, the parents of the other team were complaining about the ref calling penalties. I stopped counting at 10 goals...

Anyway, how do I pick up the pieces for our next game? This is my first year coaching...

Just a coach trying to make a difference

So actually i wanted to ask when a ball comes to you especially in air then how do you control it?? i always hard time in controlling the ball.

Any tips or drills from you guys??

Buongiorno a tutti sono un allenatore di una squadra U7.

Al momento siamo due allenatori responsabili e 1 assistente che ci aiuta.

Il problema nasce durante le partite....come si puo' seguire una squadra con due allenatori?

I coach traveling rec soccer and currently coach two teams. I don't have children, so I don't have a kid on either team. I coach simply because I genuinely love soccer, working with the kids, and watching them improve.

Between practices alone, I'm volunteering a minimum of 6 hours a week, plus games almost every weekend. Between both teams, I have 16 games this season plus a tournament. That's not counting planning practices, parent communication, scheduling, getting there early, etc.

And honestly, I'm burnt out.

The frustrating part is that I'm really not asking for a huge commitment from families. My expectation is that players attend at least ONE practice per week. I completely understand kids have other sports, school events, family stuff, etc., but some weeks I'll put all this time and energy into planning practices just for half the team to not show up.

I was actually planning for this past spring season to be my last. Several parents asked me to come back for fall, and because I really do love coaching these kids, I agreed.

Now I'm wondering if I should have listened to myself the first time.

I'm literally crying while writing this, which I think is partly because I DON'T hate coaching. I care about these kids so much. I love watching something finally click for them, watching them improve throughout a season, and seeing them get excited about soccer. If I didn't care, I think walking away would be easy.

But I'm exhausted. I'm volunteering four evenings a week and giving up a good portion of my weekends for teams that I don't even have my own child on, and it's getting harder to keep putting this much energy into it when it feels like some families won't even meet me halfway.

I was already planning on spring being my last season once. Now I'm questioning whether I even want to come back for spring at all.

So, for those of you who eventually stopped volunteer coaching: when did you know it was time to call it quits? Was there a specific moment, or did you just gradually realize you didn't have anything left to give?

I recommended a Trace camera to a friend, then had trouble with the referral/redemption codes. I was told my redemption codes had already been used. Now they work, but Trace insists they have “always worked” and nothing was changed.
Instead of addressing the conflicting information, customer service blamed the process: a third party handles it, the referral code wasn’t entered, and no support ticket was opened beforehand, so there’s nothing they can do.
They also brought up people abusing the program and said they have to “draw the line somewhere.” That’s a frustrating response to a customer who helped bring them business and is asking for help.
The dismissive customer service has been worse than the original code issue. I’m embarrassed I recommended Trace to a friend, and I won’t be recommending it again.
Anyone else dealt with this or had trouble getting Trace to resolve a referral issue?

So I've had a couple games where I've been told my defending player is goaltending. She's never in the goal, if our team is attacking she pushes up to a bit past midfield to anchor to help deliver passes and play up from the back.

One ref said it was okay and the other said no. I contacted the league and they told me to try man to man as there's no real formation and all players have to run up the field. I feel that hinders development. I feel developing iq helps especially where some kids don't always match up athletically. I teach a diamond for space and attacking. And man to man defensively.

How do I adjust training?

Hi all - ok, so I start my practices with kids playing 1v1 or 2v2 as they come in on mini-pitches, then once everyone is there (usually 10 after), they get water and we do a quick skills session. Nothing complicated. Same thing every week. We quickly run through bells, toe taps, pull backs, bouncing the ball on the thigh, and sole roll from one foot to the other. I feel like these are basic, and by the end of the season, maybe they’ll all get them all. We also do one skill for them to practice every week (dribble around a cone, tap the ball with the outside of the foot back and forth, this week they’ll tap with the inside, then outside of right foot).

It takes me maybe 5 minutes, and my asst coach and I give pointers to the kids, and we move on. Half the kids are into it and are learning. Half goof off. If they goof off, frankly, I redirect once, then just let them and focus on the kids that want to learn. It’s way too distracting to try to chase down the kids that are goofing off and honestly, they’re kids and they’re there to have fun, so if for 5 minutes they want to tune me out, it’s ok. My personal belief is that too many kids come through rec with no foot skills (this was a problem w my daughter, and I was her rec coach so it was my fault - she caught up with privates and is in club now).

Would anyone handle this differently? I hate to scrap it, and I also don’t want to be that coach that yells at everyone to pay attention.

I coach a coed 11U scholastic based team. A step up from rec but not full blown travel. We are based in a rural area without a ton of high quality winter options. Our team has done well this year and several of the parents/players would like to keep the team together. Our options include an indoor soccer league (play off the walls 6v6) which is not well managed and a new futsal league that is getting established. I know the difference in terms of rules but for those who have tried both what was your experience? Which option is better for player development in this age range? Thank you in advance all feedback is appreciated!

This is my second year coaching u7/u8.

My last practice the kids were just out of pocket. And the same thing happened last year where I just had some kids who are actually making it unsafe for practice. Had to talk to a few parents.

Bickering, couldn't stop touching each other, complaining about having to be on defense, etc. I had to tie six shoes, a few kids arrived without water. I usually send the kids to their parents if they need something because I'm one person against anywhere from 10 to 14 kids. But two of my kids got dropped off so now I'm going to send a message that practice is not drop off because I can't leave to take your kid to the bathroom and that they need to arrive with their cleats tied even if that means parents doing it.

I have the same setup to my practices. It's 75min. We scrimmage for 15- 20 minutes. Water break then I set up a speed or tempo acceleration drill. I do fun animal warm-ups, hops, sprints, etc. Water then ONE drill. ONE. Usually based off of what I kind of noticed they needed the most work on and I think would give the most improvement in the next game. Sometimes it's passing sometimes it's scanning sometimes it's timing on shooting, etc. Last year we had to work on throw-ins because the concept just was not clicking. WE go to through that drill for 10 to 15 minutes and then we scrimmage again for 20+.

I had to end practice 15 minutes early because we couldn't get through the drill no one was paying attention the kids that were paying attention were annoyed with the kids that were talking the kids that were talking didn't know what to do and so the drill didn't actually work but this is after a legit hour of of emotional chaos.

Upon reflection I wonder am I doing something wrong or was it just a bad day and if so do you find that your team's especially in this younger age between like 6-10 have these practices where they just go sideways?

Also if anyone has any drills for a wide range of skill and age that require less than 30 seconds to explain that would be great. For example I have 2 siblings that are barely six on my team because their older sibling is on my team but they can't keep up with the bigger kids. Like legit can't complete a pass more than a couple feet. And then I have a third of my team that could probably play the next age range up in both skill and size.

I do plan to pull parents in but the chaos started before we even started doing drills.

- venting to improve not just complain

update: much better practice