Yeah, I volunteered for this, and now that the first day of practice is upon me, I'm terrified. See, I'm managing M's soccer team this fall. I'm to teach 10 4-year old girls (and their parents) how to play soccer. Yeah, I know it's just 'herd ball' at this age, but I still have to teach them something and at the same time make it fun and please the parents who had to shell out money for this sort of professional instruction from a complete n00b.

So, I need lots of vibes today in hopes this goes well. I laid in bed until 12:30 last night mulling over and over what I should do. I think I have it figured out, but I still have to pull it off. Also, if anyone has any suggestions for coaching 4-year olds, I'd like to hear them (and no, quitting now is not an option).

Y'know, I'm also not entirely sure if I'm more terrified of the kids not having fun (and not listening to me and not getting my skills games) or of the parents expectations.

forget about the parents as much as you can. there'll be some who want you to push their kid until they cry, and there'll be others who want you to protect their angel from anything and everything. just have fun and focus on teaching the kids what you want them to learn.

(when I work with kids that age, I mostly just want them to learn how to treat each other. show a little respect, take turns. and I want them to try to do things. if the kid can't make contact with the ball to save his life, he's got to learn to try anyway.)

I played soccer for about 12 years growing up. Give me a call or PM if you want to discuss. The parents will always be the biggest problem, but probably not too bad at this age. As long as everyone gets to play, I doubt parents will care about results. Just make sure everyone gets about the same amount of playing time. The kids will be more interested in the orange slices they get after the game. You'll be fine.

And if you need some ideas for practices or drills, let me know.

Expect no grasp of logic and quite a lot of lying on the ball, if four-year-old boys are anything to go by.

- Lots of circle games to start, gets them to know each other, gets the concept of aiming into heads.
- Low, low, low expectations.
- Have the most flexible plan in the universe. If they're enjoying on thing, keep doing it for a while, even if it wasn't the plan.
- Relax, enjoy it.
- Get your round rules down early, and stick to them, whatever you do

You'll be grand.

(Ignore the parents. Preferably send them away. Definitely ban them from interrupting.)

I think a decent exercise at that age would be to put them all in a big circle (say at arm's length from one another) with one kid in the middle, and the kids in the circle have to pass the ball around, while the one in the middle has to intercept it (or take it from anyone who dawdles) when a ball is intercepted, the kid who had it last goes in the middle.

Good passing practice, good defensive practice, and not too strenuous.

That said, it might be frustrating to the kids who suck.

Well, as I was lying awake last night I came up with a practice plan, tell me what you think of this:

a) Introductions - introduce myself, then have the girls get into a circle, I've got one ball in the middle, and I kick it to one of them. Have them tell me their name and one thing about them (favorite color, cartoon, animal) and kick the ball back to me. Once we've gone through the group, then I tell them I'm going to quiz myself. I'll kick the ball to one of them, say her name, if I'm right I'm right, if I'm wrong I'll impersonate whatever animal they choose. I'll be sure to get M's name wrong

b)Once we've done introductions and had a little fun (and I've seen the girls kick the ball back to me) I'll sit them down for a quick talk about my 4 FAST rules for the team: F(un) - always come to have fun, I'll do my best to make it fun; A(ttitude) - come with a good attitude and with listening ears on and wanting to learn something; S(portsmanship) - ask if anyone knows what it is, then talk about treating teammates, coaches, the other team fairly and playing by the rules; T(eamwork) - we're a team, and everyone will learn things differently, and rather than picking on someone who can't do something right away, we should encourage and support each other as a team. This should only take a few minutes.

c)Then I'll get them up and playing Simon Says. Do a quick few things without the ball, then tell them to get their balls. When they all pick up their balls with their hands I'll say Simon didn't say, and then go into the last rule I forgot, which is no hands on the balls during practice. You only plan soccer with feet (at this age, no heading) and if your hands go for a ball they might get kicked. Hands only for Goalie Time (which I'll work into next week's practice somehow). Then we'll do some Simon Says with the ball.

d)See if anyone needs a quick water break.

e)A little instruction on dribbling - keeping the ball close, out in front of you (so you don't step on the ball, which they'll all do repeatedly if M is any indication), under control. Show them how to stop the ball.

f)Red light Green light - first without the ball, then with the ball, talking about the dribbling skills we discussed.

g)They get a break and I talk with the parents about some housekeeping issues like names on the backs of shirts, shorts and socks for uniforms, etc.

Practice Over!

What do you think?!

they get a break...at the end of practice? also, you may want to be prepared for that water break to turn into a bathroom break.

eta: I think that sounds awesome, though. lots of fun!

Some drama games might help too - the kind you use for learning to be alert to the other actors. Zoom is a good one - where you clap hands as if passing the Zoom around a circle, but you can change driection if you fel the urge, so everyone has to be alert. You could do it with a ball, I should think, too.

Also, my mate who teaches music says the key thing with little ones is to make sure by the end of the first lesson they can do something even in this case if it is just learning that you kick the ball with the side of the foot.

One thing I've heard recently, although I'm not sure it applies with them being so little, but girls are very different to boys physically, and far more prone to injury becasue as they're growing they're not naturaally building so much muscle etc. So it's just something to watch out for - in older young girls (11-14) knee and ankle injuries are something daft like five times as common as in boys. I'm sure it won't be an issue with little ones, though!

I don't know how much effort this will be for them, and if it will be necessary, but I'd get into the habit of doing stretching exercises at the end of practice.

Sounds solid though.

quote:

Originally posted by FatOigeon:
I don't know how much effort this will be for them, and if it will be necessary, but I'd get into the habit of doing stretching exercises at the end of practice.

Sounds solid though.

All the stuff I've read so far about this age (and I spent hours looking for stuff, it's all hit and miss for usefulness) is that at this age they don't need to stretch or warm up really, so I haven't built that into the practice yet. I don't think it's a worry for another couple years, and even then it's more for habit than real need (until 3rd grade? I'm totally guessing).

*reads title*

Its like herding cats!

Good Luck JP, I'm sure you'll do great. I'm not good for advice though.

good luck, man. my 5 year old nephew plays soccer, and I wouldn't want to be his coach...

er yeah - know where the bathrooms are and not just for the kids. can't tell you how many times I've had to pee at Dev's practices.

Dev was about 6 when he did soccer, so that's a bit different from M, but to reiterate what others have said - let every kid have a go. Trust me, parents notice this. I guess for 4 year olds it's not so much learning about rules, but during Dev's baseball practice the coaches would always say, you did really well doing *this* but *that* needs a bit more work. And all the coaches from all the teams praised any player when they got a good hit/made a good catch - even if it was a play against their team.

Yeah, I doubt you'll get into that much, that's just a parent's observation. So far I liked baseball, this football practice is like friggin boot camp. But... he likes it. And ya know, I don't have to, he can actually do things I don't really want him to do.

Are you organising snacks? Will there be snacks? If so find out about allergies.

um. all I can think of is - to try and work things around a 4 year old's attention span. I like the circle idea, it sounds like fun.

i'm afraid i don't have any advice, but good luck!

Each girl is supposed to bring her own ball and her own water bottle. I might try and throw a few into a cooler if I remember, just in case. I don't have any snacks for practice, but I hope to get the parents involved in a snack rotation for games (starting in 3 weeks) - orange or apple slices, something. We'll see.

We've got port-a-potties at the other end of the field though there might be actual bathrooms associated at the park right next to the fields, I just need to get there early enough to get a field close to them.

My real frustration right now is that while I have e-mail addresses for all the parents, and have send 4 e-mails, I'm only hearing back from a consistent 4 parents, which sort of irks me. So while all four have expressed the desire to have names printed on the backs of the shirts, there is no agreement among the four of color for shorts and socks. I initially proposed black shorts with black socks (our shirts are purple) and two of the moms said why not let the kids pick their own color for socks, so I found (and M bought a pair) tie-dyed soccer socks of all sorts of colors, and proposed we do black shorts and let the girls pick their own tie-dye color socks. Well, so far the same mom has said "I like black socks" ... while 2 of the moms liked the tie-dyed idea. So ... *shrug* It's actually this sort of thing that bothers me more than practicing with the girls out on the field, that I think I can figure out

oh dear. I'd be inclined to not give them options - you'll never get them to all agree!

quote:

Originally posted by Maeve:
oh dear. I'd be inclined to not give them options - you'll never get them to all agree!

You're in charge, just tell them what you've decided and end discussion there.
-----

It's good that you've structured your first session to get things off with your authority firmly established. However...

Transitions: Think about a standard transition instruction. Such as "Every time I blow the whistle three times, line up in front of the goal." This indicates you've terminated one activity and you're going to begin something different. I cannot stress how important this is. All the best teachers of kids that age have something that acts as a transition action and the "herding cats" aspect of dealing with kids can be dramatically minimized by this.
Practicing this the first time should come just before you do the introduction circle and then do it again between each thing.

Think about how you are going to explain the instructions for each activity. Each time you rehearse it, try to remove 25% of the words you used the previous time. You'll need to be really, really, really concise and specific.

Your FAST acronym might be lost on kids who don't really read yet. It's not going to act as a mnemonic for these kids.

It looks like you have more activities than you need. They are all appropriate, but don't be afraid to skip one and save it for next time.

Don't forget to add unstructured play time. Let them scrimmage. Embrace the chaos!

JP from what I have gathered from you I think you will do great. Like Lady K, I have no advice as as to how one would organize a group of 4 year olds.

Advice I would give would be....
Don't put so much pressure on yourself and don't expect things to go exactly according to plan.

*sends all purpose guaranteed fresh vibeage*

the whistle-blowing thing is a good idea. and, if they can hear you speak, it really is amazing how well kids respond to a countdown.

quote:

Originally posted by ɯʇ ʎoq ǝɥʇ:

quote:

Originally posted by Maeve:
oh dear. I'd be inclined to not give them options - you'll never get them to all agree!

You're in charge, just tell them what you've decided and end discussion there.
-----

It's good that you've structured your first session to get things off with your authority firmly established. However...

Transitions: Think about a standard transition instruction. Such as "Every time I blow the whistle three times, line up in front of the goal." This indicates you've terminated one activity and you're going to begin something different. I cannot stress how important this is. All the best teachers of kids that age have something that acts as a transition action and the "herding cats" aspect of dealing with kids can be dramatically minimized by this.
Practicing this the first time should come just before you do the introduction circle and then do it again between each thing.

Think about how you are going to explain the instructions for each activity. Each time you rehearse it, try to remove 25% of the words you used the previous time. You'll need to be really, really, really concise and specific.

Your FAST acronym might be lost on kids who don't really read yet. It's not going to act as a mnemonic for these kids.

It looks like you have more activities than you need. They are all appropriate, but don't be afraid to skip one and save it for next time.

Don't forget to add unstructured play time. Let them scrimmage. Embrace the chaos!

That's some great stuff. I have a whistle, but for some reason I feel like an ass using it. It seems too Drill Sergeant-ly for my personality, but I suspect you are right and should just get used to using it, and do it from the outset to save myself some headaches down the road. Thanks for reminding me I actually have a whistle

Today I think my nerves are because it's my first time, and about the ONLY rehearsal I've done is in my head last night (and this morning and all day til I get there, no doubt). But yeah, short verbal instructions with lots of demonstration, then letting them try with one-on-one and group correcting. At least in theory, right?

I'm not worried about them getting the FAST thing right off, but it was a) a way for ME to come up with a few basic rules and b) if I stay at this, the athletic association we've joined will try to keep the girls together as they progress, so I could have these same girls for years, who knows, so I figured I'd start with something now to have for later.

Practice is supposed to be 45-60 minutes So I was thinking 10 minutes for each would be about right and get me to the end of my first practice with some time to spare for the housekeeping stuff. Certainly I'll cut it short if things aren't working out well Oh, and I told parents they didn't need shinguards tonight, that we wouldn't be kicking AT each other at the first practice, so scrimmage is out for tonight. I'll embrace the chaos next week

Great advice, TheBoy.