Co-Ed U06 Program Design

Goals for Age Group
Our pre-K and Kindergarten program is meant to be a very low pressure and accepting introduction to the game of soccer for our youngest players.  We introduce the basic skills of ball control, participating with other players and working within the rules of simple games designed for this age group.

Ball control is the major concept we emphasize through all age groups.   Each time the player comes in contact with a ball we want the player to attempt to control the ball as opposed to kicking it away.  Once under control, the player should attempt to dribble through or away from the other players in an effort to make a pass to a better positioned player or to move toward the goal.  Controlling the ball with one touch is a key fundamental skill for all soccer in later years and we begin to shape that skill as early as possible.

Passing and Set Teams - Our Approach
In Pre-k, K and the first half of the year in 1st grade, we de-emphasize passing, positions and set teams.   At this age, passing does not make any sense to a 5 or 6 year old.  The player only understands why s/he should score and not why another player should do so.  So we try to make sure all the players are working with the ball, scoring lots of goals and always, always, always keeping control of the ball. 

Adult concepts such as passing and positions can easily be taught when children are older and better equipped to understand the nuances of how and when to execute either.  For now and the next several years, we want to focus on individual technical skill development.  This will build an extremely important foundation for future years.

Session Design
This program is run very much like a “camp” environment.  It is OK if you cannot attend any given weekend.   We work with whoever shows up on a particular day.  This means are no set teams.  You show up for Saturday, Sunday or both.  Players arrive at the field and have an unstructured free play environment until the Lead Coach calls all the players together to start a warm-up.

Initially, players will go through some simple warm-up activities to begin to condition their expectation that it is necessary to warm-up before participating in a training session or match.  The volunteer coaches will then break the players into smaller groups to play on separate fields and guide the players through skill-based activities and games for about 20-30 minutes.

The last 20-25 minutes will be devoted to the children playing 3v3 soccer on their field with a volunteer coach substituting players (if necessary) from the sideline every 2-3 minutes.

Dynamic Grouping
When we group the kids for smaller activities, we introduce the concept of "dynamic grouping" to our coaches.  Dynamic grouping is an effort to group the children using different objectives for the session.  For example, sometimes we will randomly group the players.  Othertimes, we might group all the aggressive players together and the passive players together.  Sometimes, we will separate by boys and girls or the older kids and the younger kids.   The purpose for doing this is that it creates numerous situations that are unique for each player week to week.  In this subtle way we are introducing the concept of change and hopefully helping our players start the process of internalizing their own techniques for managing that change.  There are different challenges each week the player must overcome.  There is continuity with the larger group of coaches and players but the smaller groupings each week are what changes.  This is a common theme that runs through the entire program and it is intentionally done to help our players learn how to adapt as they  face bigger challenges later in life.

Playing Style vs. Ability
There is an important distinction between playing style and ability in this age group.  There will be some players that are very aggressive and some players that are very passive.  The former group is resolute in taking the ball, moving around and through the other players with a high degree of intensity and physicality.  The latter group will be far more timid and reserved.  These players are cautious and will observe the action from the periphery as they try to figure out whether they should participate or not.

Be assured that in 10 years time, there will be just as many players participating at a high level in the game of soccer from this passive group as there might be from the more aggressive group.   Playing style at this age should not be mistaken with ability.  It takes many years and hundreds of thousands of mistakes before a player begins to perfect those skills that will allow them to play at a higher competitive level in high school and beyond.  The trick with this age group is to calmly keep reminding the aggressive group to be more patient and to keep encouraging the more passive players to feel free to jump in when they are ready.

Physical Play
There will be physical play.  Children will be knocked down sometimes deliberately and most of the time it will just be an accident.  Players will cry.  Players will look to parents to adjudicate the disputes.  As coaches, we must be thoughtful about this.  30 years ago, these situations arose on the playground and parents didn't even know about them.  Yet the kids learned valuable lessons as they worked it out.  As coaches we can help suggest to kids some of the tools they can use to manage through these situations but it is important not to transfer our adult views of fairness or competitiveness onto the situation.  We need to be more clinical and remember that each of these events is a learning experience for each child to begin to shape his/her own approach to problem resolution.

Coaching - Our Approach
Our approach to coaching is to depend heavily on volunteer parents but utilize professional coaches to recommend curricula, model appropriate training/match behaviors and to serve as on-going resource for those coaches who decide to stay in the role through later years.

We follow this approach for two reasons:

First, there are no organizations out there watching over the optimal youth athletic development for each child.  This will fall upon each individual family to to perform.  Therefore, we see an opportunity to educated parents on many of the proper program design and behaviors they should be looking for as they are required to make different decisions in later years on what is best for their own child.   When a parent volunteer coaches, s/he begins to internalize much of the learning that will help better understand what they should be looking for down the road.

Second, if we hired professional coaches for all levels of the program, the cost for the program would be much higher than it is currently.  As a program, our fees go to field maintenance (we are not supported by the municipalities and bear the full cost for field acquisition, maintenance, etc.), equipment, insurance and professional coaching fees.  If we had to increase the latter, our PK program cost would double or even potentially triple what it currently does today.