Soccer Drills For U8
A coach is just like a school teacher, but instead of working with theoretical information, his goal is getting his pupils to apply what he’s trying to get to them. Working with kids has a lot of advantages and it really gives you a sense of accomplishment when you see those little guys’ eyes shining when you throw them a ball and tell them to perform a fun exercise.
But at the same time, it can be extremely frustrating trying to get through with drills for kids, mainly because kids have less understanding and concentration capabilities as a grown up, or a teenager (kids to make up for these shortcomings with their enthusiasm, energy and ability to learn faster).
So if you’re here looking for some drills for u8s, the first thing you should know is that anything that you do, absolutely must be “fun”. What your kids understand by fun might differ from team to team, so it will be your job to see what they like doing.
You can’t try and explain drills for young kids as you would for grown-ups. You can’t just tell them to give you 5 laps of the pitch, without a certain motivation in fun. Otherwise, you risk the youngsters losing interesting in training and quitting soccer.
When you ask a grown-up for 5 laps, you can tell him that it’s for his endurance, conditioning and so forth. Telling that to a kid will go in through one ear and leave through the other. So try to make everything seem like a game.
If you need them to run 5 laps, invent some sort of fun drill game, or just give them a reward afterwards, giving them a drill that involves kicking the ball (it doesn’t matter if it’s a half-field match, some short passes or some 5 versus 2 groups, as long as your drill
involves the ball, the kids will love it).
Another big issue you’ll be concerned with in your drills for U8 is not taking the fun away from the exercises. If you set up two teams and throw a ball in the middle and ask them to play soccer, the kids will all rush to it and chaotically kick it around. There will be no defenders, attackers or what not, it’s just a bunch of kids having fun.
Obviously, that’s not ok with you, because you want to infuse some sense of organization and tactics in them, even from such an early age. But if you just bluntly tell some of them to stay at the back, or not dribble, you’ll just take the fun away from them. What you need to do is, again, work around a reward-system that can help them understand why you want them to sit there and there, or not do this and that.
The rewards don’t have to be anything material. Even congratulating your guys when they manage to listen to your requests is enough of a reward for them. You’ll soon see them trying harder and respecting your requests not because you forced them, but because they’re striving for that “Good Job” congratulation coming from you.
