is it just me, @TreatyStones , @Juhniallio@twiceasnice97 and my uncle who are at this?
ok
ill start
where are we with getting 7 year olds ( senior academy) to learn to play out from the the back?
Ive added the retreat line now to our games , we only revert to positions when the ball goes dead and goalkeeper must play ball to a defender, attacters cannot encroach beyond retreat line until defender has received the ball and defender must play it forward…
When the ball in play they are all chasing it… but when it goes dead (goal kick) , i call positons and we revert to the 5 - keeper / 2 defenders / mid / striker…
is it way to early for this carry on
these fellas all have basic ball mastery and are good
We are meant to have started that, but the kids have missed so much football that we are still just doing skills and normal matches.
Kids are starting to be streamed the last few weeks and it’s made a big difference. Club are currently faffing about putting kids into leagues for next year.
best of luck to anyone involved in coaching leagues starting tomorrow night
My U7s range from fellas who can hit top bins from 12 yards to lads who miss the ball and yet we are playing a 1-2-1-1 from restarts and retreat line
anyway…
straight thru now till October BH weekend… ( summer football, etc)
Memo sent out to all Dad’s on the group to keep the mouth shut for the 45 mins
GoGames Sat at 0930 @TreatyStones … same fellas - same ability
you dont have to give every kid equal time to keep the kids happy you just have to give every kid that turns up substantial time (a full half or whatever)
its also a good idea not to start the same players every time
finally never start your best team
you say its 5 a side then start 3 or 4 of your best and keep back one or two that way when you are rotating in you are swopping strong for strong weak for weak
you dont want to be ending up with 4 lads who cant kick it out of their way getting stomped on by a team with a manager who thinks they are running man city
in the long run as kids get older its far easier to manage a group where good players are used to not starting every game and staying on for the full match every time
The lads first ever game today. Juhy junior was up at 6 buzzing about it. At home v Shamrock Rovers. A glamour tie. Great support out on the hill at pitch 5. 2 sensational matches and 2 wins. Every one of the kids scored.
Lads, do youse have refs for these games? We dont and the rule today seems to be that you let it go unless there’s something serious but the rovers boys were pretty cynical today. Like the end of an all Ireland football final if a fella got by them. Cc @mickee321@twiceasnice97
My eldest played her first game today too, was just asked to come along by the coach who I play spud hockey with as they were short on numbers. Turns out she loves it, huzzah!!!
Football is a great game for kids to get into, it’s straightforward enough, all you need is a football and off you go. They also get to see plenty of the ball which is not always the case in spud hockey or bogball
@Juhniallio , ok this is how the set up is
For coaching league games ( u7 to u10) - we play 5 aside on the astro , 45 min game, roll on / off subs every friday night , you have a “facilitator” who is usually a young lad/ girl from the 16s/18s and they get 6 euro from each team
Now they are learning as well and some are quite good at keeping the play going, main job is to enfore retreat line and the general rules of the game. these games are very friendly affairs.
Then you have tournaments - now scores are counted and published for these and they can get very very competitive, we won one out a few weeks back, we sent over one team, very very strong and beat all around us including a two DDSL clubs who would be reasonably ranked at 12s level so its a reasonable baseline- once you get to the SF stage of a tournament even at 7s things can get very heated especially on the line with parents…once parents know their young lad is playing for a stronger team they can get very very involved and things can get heated.
Now we have a very good side when we pick the top 8, the improvement in these lads is huge, playing out from the back, holding a position and they can organise each other on the field and they are not afraid to hit either… on fridays then we go back to the 4 mixed teams and you begin to see after a while that its more important to stream out the stronger lads which we will do by 8 years old
We train now twice a week game friday, 7 of our 32 still dont have basic ball mastery and are lost in the drills- im not sure where we will go with them really but right now they are holding back sessions a little… the kids are fully awaere as well who the “crap” kids are , i cant really seperate them out even tho they really need extra tuition on basics as they simply cant handle any 2v2 or passing/shooting drills with stronger players …
here is a tip i use with my stronger lads, if we are hockeying a team on a friday ill make them to a max 3 touch where third touch is a pass, youll see them get thick then a little
soccer coaching tho and GAA is night and day
im utterly sick of gogames on saturday at this stage, @TreatyStones its a complete mess , we’d be showing up with 4 teams , the opposition will have two and we’ll have travelled half an hour at 9am to play our own teams.
In gaelic as well - jesus the strong lads absolutely dominate - like you try to match up with the opposition strong v strong but then you have fellas who can kick a point from 30m and fellas who cant kick the ball…tackles as well- my son throwing right hooks at lads to get a ball of them with tears then - ah there is no structure to the shagging thing at all tbh… lads just shouting “go on eamon”… no skill, fuck all
I’d agree the go games is a fucking shambles of a set up. Do they use the same rules everywhere… The few blitzes Iv been at they allow them to throw the football instead of handpass, and becuase that’s so easy they never kick it. It’s rubbish. It isn’t even as enjoyable as a game of mini Rubby because there is no means to tackle the opposition
it encourages to play out from the back on a kick out
dived the pitch into 3 thirds
so - on a kick out , keeper has to pass the ball to a team mate who is within their retreat zone, the opposition cannot encroach until the player has received the ball
i usally have x2 defenders LHS and RHS inside retreat line, keeper passes to one of them, i am then looking for my attacker to move over to that side to look for the pass and my midfielder should hold the middle, side on with the game
this takes time- but they have to know this by 8 years old
if the ball goes for a goal kick, i shout “positions” they gotta get ready then
There’s no rules really. You have a mix between 5 - 7 where they are all at wildly different stages of development. If you stick to the 5 v 5 it does give you an opportunity to coach the lads who are throwing, over carrying etc. It’s messier than soccer or rugby because there are more skills to master (and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way). 3 extra skills may as well be 20 to some kids at that age.
we have go games every two weeks home and away, sometimes they are ok but i see no progression om some of the weaker players at all
i have no idea how it works for hurling but id say its an absolute catastrope
like ,dimesnsions of pitches, change club to club, i try to play 7 - keeper , 3 backs , 3 forwards - i tell the strong lads you gotta stay in your half, pass the ball up to the forwards, they just end up rampaging thru kicking points… and they are getting sick of it… some kids need competition… this friendly fooling about dosent work for a the good ones
You are obviously involved with a big club so maybe it’s different but we would generally have around 20 children. 4 teams of 5 with mixed ability. Matches last 10 or 12 mins and then one team moves on. Have found the games competitive enough that players aren’t bored.
I would also try to pick a skill and focus on that in each game. “Johnny you gave a great hand pass in the last game, the aim for this game is for everyone to give a hand pass, Johnny you show us how it’s done”.
Johnny gives a terrible demo of a handpass, I play a handpass which player and then we move onto the next game.