Kids Grassroots Football - The good stuff!
Discussion
Following on from this thread, I thought i'd try and share my experiences of kids football so far and ongoing. I'd appreciate it if others could add to the thread with the hope that it become a bit of a pool of knowledge and experiences, i'm always eager to learn from others, particularly where football coaching is regarded.
Firstly, a bit about me. I've been involved in kids football for 7 years now, starting as an occasional helper at U6s to what was to become my sons U7s team, our local club is Charter Standard and once I had agreed to manage the team I was told I needed to complete the Level 1 Coaches Qualification. Despite not wanting to do it, I had a fantastic couple of weekends in glorious sunshine with some great blokes, many i'm still in touch with now. Roll on 7 years and I'm Secretary to a club of 230ish kids across 15 teams, I've completed the level 1 and level 2 coaches qualifications, Youth Award Modules 1 & 2, Coerver Youth Diploma 1 and the Futsal level 1 - of which i'm a great advocate of. I coach between 7 and 8 hours a week now across various age groups, helping others where I can and doing my best to develop players. Needless to say, I get a huge amount of enjoyment from it.
Over the years I've had various run ins with parents and coaches, both within the club and from other clubs. This season though my main problems are coming from leagues who think it's ok to automatically fine clubs for every slight infringement on the rules instead of working with them to help things run smoothly and pitch allocation problems from our town Council whom we lease the pitches from.
Firstly, a bit about me. I've been involved in kids football for 7 years now, starting as an occasional helper at U6s to what was to become my sons U7s team, our local club is Charter Standard and once I had agreed to manage the team I was told I needed to complete the Level 1 Coaches Qualification. Despite not wanting to do it, I had a fantastic couple of weekends in glorious sunshine with some great blokes, many i'm still in touch with now. Roll on 7 years and I'm Secretary to a club of 230ish kids across 15 teams, I've completed the level 1 and level 2 coaches qualifications, Youth Award Modules 1 & 2, Coerver Youth Diploma 1 and the Futsal level 1 - of which i'm a great advocate of. I coach between 7 and 8 hours a week now across various age groups, helping others where I can and doing my best to develop players. Needless to say, I get a huge amount of enjoyment from it.
Over the years I've had various run ins with parents and coaches, both within the club and from other clubs. This season though my main problems are coming from leagues who think it's ok to automatically fine clubs for every slight infringement on the rules instead of working with them to help things run smoothly and pitch allocation problems from our town Council whom we lease the pitches from.
Gargamel said:
Good idea,
I will post ,ore but you can see some of my background on the other one if you have read the last page.
Who runsthe futsal course?
I did, and thanks for the info. The Futsal course was an FA one, which covers the rules and some basic drills, but i'm fortunate enough to live close to Loughborough Uni so get to see their Futsal team a lot and pick the brains of some of the coaches. Our club also had a chap from Spain with us for a few years, UEFA B qualified but Futsal was his passion and he was more than willing to share knowledge with anyone willing to listen when he had time.I will post ,ore but you can see some of my background on the other one if you have read the last page.
Who runsthe futsal course?
Edited by WildCards on Sunday 29th November 23:08
j4ckos mate said:
Great idea,
wont be in here for a while 17-1
Oof! your lads team would be better off withdrawing from the league, but continue to train weekly and play friendlies every now and then against teams who would agree not to hammer them. When confidence is so low, some times you just need to cut your losses.wont be in here for a while 17-1
mark2705 said:
Its these same boys (3 - 4 of them) that can sulk, moan and mess around even more if I try to play them out of the favoured position. I've tried starting them on the subs bench, sitting them out at training, but nothing seems to work long term. Unfortunately, with a squad of 14, and the common situation of other players not being available due to illness or other commitments, then I end up having to play some of these boys more than their behaviour warrants. I'm now in the situation, where I am looking forward to the end of the season already when I can recruit some new players (not sure from where !!) and not invite these trouble makers back to re-sign.
Sorry if these seems negative on a "good Stuff" thread ... I don't mean it to be !! But if anyone has come good advice, I'm all ears !!!
I'm assuming you're U13's/U14's? - If you can recruit some new players you'll have the luxury of picking the players who will play at the weekend based on behaviour at training. Once they're all behaving, just put a rota in place so one or two lads miss a game every 10 or 12 weeks. Sorry if these seems negative on a "good Stuff" thread ... I don't mean it to be !! But if anyone has come good advice, I'm all ears !!!
No match tomorrow due to waterlogged pitches, but we had our first games of the new year today in our Futsal league. Another two wins today mean we're top of our league with 8 wins from 8 games.
We've been doing Futsal for 3 years, training and matches and it's so nice to see all our hard work finally paying off. I only wish I could get more of my squad involved as only 7 lads want to do it and the others are getting left behind.
We've been doing Futsal for 3 years, training and matches and it's so nice to see all our hard work finally paying off. I only wish I could get more of my squad involved as only 7 lads want to do it and the others are getting left behind.
Gargamel said:
What surface do you play on for Futsal, is it astro only?
It's indoors on basketball courts/4 court badminton halls. Loads of stuff on YouTube if you want to see more. It's the ideal thing for this time of year, all our younger age groups are training midweek in school sports halls and we've supplied Futsal balls for them all and some basics rules & sessions plans to get them going, but all of the L1 sessions will work just as well with a Futsal ball indoors as they do outdoors with normal balls.The weather has meant all our clubs games were called off today, so it was nice that we had the Futsal games yesterday, at least it got them moving again after the Christmas food frenzy.
j4ckos mate said:
Does anyone know if your allowed to wear the long under armour leggings in kids footy for games?
looks a cold one this weekend
Almost all of the lads in my team wear black leggings during the winter. We do have black in our colours though, so it's not a foreign colour. I doubt many refs would argue a kid being cold to uphold a ridiculous ruling.looks a cold one this weekend
My lads had their first game in 6 weeks yesterday, I expected them to be rusty but it seems regular training and Futsal games have paid off, we won 5-2, going 4-0 up by half time. I was a little disappointed not to win the second half, but I made changes and swapped players around at half time severely weakening the team so have to take responsibility for it.
I've been looking into the Midlands Nerf league with a view to getting my lad into a team to play on Saturdays to aid his development. Does anyone have any experience of this?
I've been looking into the Midlands Nerf league with a view to getting my lad into a team to play on Saturdays to aid his development. Does anyone have any experience of this?
This season winning has become important for the kids, we're at U12s and I've had roughly half of the team tell me now that they want fixed positions as they see that it will make us more competitive, to be fair they're right. I fully agree about development but realistically it's very unlikely you'll have a team of equal ability players at Grassroots level.
Gargamel, our leagues are similar but we're the last age group for competitive football in Leicestershire, this seasons U11s and below won't have league tables until they're U14s, all fixtures for them are 'non-competitive'.
Our current league has 10 divisions with 10/12 teams in each, we're currently in div 6 near the top, we're a team of school mates but naturally some of the lads are better than others, my son being one of them. He still wants to play on Sundays with his mates, but would like to test himself in a tougher Saturday league, the closest however are around Birmingham or in Nottingham.
Gargamel, our leagues are similar but we're the last age group for competitive football in Leicestershire, this seasons U11s and below won't have league tables until they're U14s, all fixtures for them are 'non-competitive'.
Our current league has 10 divisions with 10/12 teams in each, we're currently in div 6 near the top, we're a team of school mates but naturally some of the lads are better than others, my son being one of them. He still wants to play on Sundays with his mates, but would like to test himself in a tougher Saturday league, the closest however are around Birmingham or in Nottingham.
Today we played bottom of the league, they've not won a game all season, despite, in my opinion not being a half bad team. My main concern was that my lads wouldn't take it seriously and bad habits would make for a poor performance. This was partly true.
We didn't play badly, but we still won by 9 goals. I tried to mitigate this by rotating positions, altering formations and setting challenges during the game once it was clear we were going to win, it helped in so much as we 'only' won by 9 goals, it could have been a lot more. I had 10 players at the match and 8 of them scored today.
Everyone one of my lads agreed at the end during our debrief that it was a boring game, I struggled to find any positive learning outcomes for us or the opposition and found myself apologising to their manager for such a drumming.
I hate this feeling, a wasted fixture, a pointless match, the kind of game infact where lads decide they no longer want to play football.
We didn't play badly, but we still won by 9 goals. I tried to mitigate this by rotating positions, altering formations and setting challenges during the game once it was clear we were going to win, it helped in so much as we 'only' won by 9 goals, it could have been a lot more. I had 10 players at the match and 8 of them scored today.
Everyone one of my lads agreed at the end during our debrief that it was a boring game, I struggled to find any positive learning outcomes for us or the opposition and found myself apologising to their manager for such a drumming.
I hate this feeling, a wasted fixture, a pointless match, the kind of game infact where lads decide they no longer want to play football.
I took our U15s for their first Futsal games on Saturday. We played two and lost two, not by a big margin but enough for the lads to realise they need to put more effort in, which i'm very pleased about. They need to realise training requires effort and commitment, not just turn up and have a jolly.
My U12s had an away game against a team who beat us earlier in the season, I spoke to the lads and they agreed that sticking to positions and working hard would mean a probable win rather than our usual modus operandi of rotating players through positions during a match regardless of run of play or result. It worked, we won comfortably and secured a higher position in the league for a week.
At what point do others stick players to positions each week?
My U12s had an away game against a team who beat us earlier in the season, I spoke to the lads and they agreed that sticking to positions and working hard would mean a probable win rather than our usual modus operandi of rotating players through positions during a match regardless of run of play or result. It worked, we won comfortably and secured a higher position in the league for a week.
At what point do others stick players to positions each week?
I've been in discussions with our local council about our pitch allocations for next year. A most frustrating endeavour!
Currently we book pitches for each of our teams on an annual basis, i've been asking for a more substantial contract allowing us more say in what happens to the ground and potentially giving us access to greater funding for building projects are larger scale improvements. The council are telling me they have to be seen to offer equal opportunities to all users.
There's us, a junior club with 250 kids across 16 teams, the majority of which come from the local area, then 3 adult teams with 16-18 teams in each. I really don't understand why they are being treated as equal to us.
Frustrating!
Currently we book pitches for each of our teams on an annual basis, i've been asking for a more substantial contract allowing us more say in what happens to the ground and potentially giving us access to greater funding for building projects are larger scale improvements. The council are telling me they have to be seen to offer equal opportunities to all users.
There's us, a junior club with 250 kids across 16 teams, the majority of which come from the local area, then 3 adult teams with 16-18 teams in each. I really don't understand why they are being treated as equal to us.
Frustrating!
Edited by WildCards on Friday 1st April 22:11
We've still got 3 games left, the lads are still trying but I can tell they're ready for a rest. I know I am!
Development this season has been good, i'd say all of the lads are better players now to varying degrees than they were at the beginning, not just because they're bigger and stronger but also more skilful. I'm quite proud that many teams in our league have commented that despite results, they think we are the best team they have played this season. I think if I had played the strongest team every week we could have easily won, as things stand we sitting 4th out of 12 and are unlikely to move from there.
Development this season has been good, i'd say all of the lads are better players now to varying degrees than they were at the beginning, not just because they're bigger and stronger but also more skilful. I'm quite proud that many teams in our league have commented that despite results, they think we are the best team they have played this season. I think if I had played the strongest team every week we could have easily won, as things stand we sitting 4th out of 12 and are unlikely to move from there.
j4ckos mate said:
Tough one last night, so tough he didnt get a run out, :-(
it wasnt a rough tackling one so much just a very fast pace one
its understandable i suppose hes only been signed on since the new year and played 10 already.
You paying the same subs as everyone else? If you turn up to a game, you should play at least half the game, i'd be fuming!it wasnt a rough tackling one so much just a very fast pace one
its understandable i suppose hes only been signed on since the new year and played 10 already.
48Valves said:
The only problem we have is that we have 12 players and are only allowed a squad of 10. So 2 are going to be disappointed.
You could try to add another 3 or 4 players and enter two teams, or ask the players to continue to train with you and arrange friendlies on the inbetween weeks to give them some game time.In our U7s league every player has their own player card, they can only play for the team they're registered to play under, even if we have 3 teams, the players can't play for the other two. Our league also stipulates a max squad size of 10 players, the reasoning is to ensure all children get equal playing time.
Like I said above though, at 5 a-side, teams could get away with 6 players so i'd be going down that route in your shoes and look to bolster both squads over the summer with a few additional players.
Like I said above though, at 5 a-side, teams could get away with 6 players so i'd be going down that route in your shoes and look to bolster both squads over the summer with a few additional players.
Kinky said:
Same in my league. It costs £10 to transfer to another club, or £6 to transfer to another team within the same club; both of which take a week to process, and limited to playing 1 game per day (although that rule applies to all age groups).
While I agree that players should be registered and they should limit teams to 10 to help promote more playing time, I don't agree with charging clubs to transfer players. Other than the affiliation fee, I don't think leagues should charge or fine a club for anything once a season is underway, it's counter-productive for a club to be raising money for the benefit of youth football to then give it all to leagues so their committee can buy new ties.We have Leagues here who's bank balances put some small companies to shame come AGM season, which is imminent.
We jumped a few divisions this year going into 11v11 football at U13s.
I'm working as a part time football coach now and have learnt a lot from more qualified and more experienced coaches i'm working with, it's been quite an eye opener. Can't say it hasn't rubbed off though, having bumped up into a higher division this year with largely the same team, we now sit top having outplayed every team so far. I'm very happy with how the lads are progressing and despite the league position it hasn't been easy. Almost every game they've gone into half time losing and have had to really pull their socks up, as much as i'd like a clean sheet, it does ensure the keeper stays on his toes and give the defence a lot to learn from.
Overall, i'm very pleased with our first season at 11v11 and the players seem to be too.
I'm working as a part time football coach now and have learnt a lot from more qualified and more experienced coaches i'm working with, it's been quite an eye opener. Can't say it hasn't rubbed off though, having bumped up into a higher division this year with largely the same team, we now sit top having outplayed every team so far. I'm very happy with how the lads are progressing and despite the league position it hasn't been easy. Almost every game they've gone into half time losing and have had to really pull their socks up, as much as i'd like a clean sheet, it does ensure the keeper stays on his toes and give the defence a lot to learn from.
Overall, i'm very pleased with our first season at 11v11 and the players seem to be too.
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