Kids Grassroots Football - The good stuff!

[48Valves]

Zoon said:

s m said:

It’s all best endeavours etc and teams have to accept whoever volunteers to do it …… but having done it for my sons teams it was blindingly obvious that some parents doing the line don’t know the rules ( as well as a lot of spectators )

Agreed, we had a guy yesterday who put the flag up as soon as the ball was played forwards, it got so bad in the end the referee ended up overruling him most of the time.

We had a shocker Saturday.

Great through ball in behind their defence. My player ran from his own half through their defence on to the pass and scored. As soon as he was 1v1 with the keeper the flag went up. Young lad reffing gave the offside.


We were 2-0 down at this point and putting the other team under a lot of pressure. They scored from the free kick given for the offside to make it 3-0.

As soon as the other team scored, every time we go a throw or a dead ball, one of their players would go down pretending to fasten their laces. They were being told to do it by their coaches. One lad even undid them just to tie them again. Coaches encouraging that sort of thing at u14 is disgraceful in my opinion.

[craig1912]

Zoon said:

Agreed, we had a guy yesterday who put the flag up as soon as the ball was played forwards, it got so bad in the end the referee ended up overruling him most of the time.

My youngest refereed a similar game and had to ask the linesman to stand down as he had flagged when a player was still in his own half. I couldn’t work out if it was just incompetence or cheating.

[craig1912]

jodypress said:

Sorry somehow missed this reply. So my son is at Kinectic.

https://www.kinetic-foundation.org.uk/kinetic-acad...

They do these showcase games a few times a year where a lot of scouts come down. Unfortunately last month when they had one, my son was on a 2 week rest after a concussion and missed it. About 10 players got picked up for trials etc and one of them is trialing at Man City.

Ah right, do you pay for him to go there? There are/were similar in our locality and my view has been that scouts will pick up on them in everyday football, the showcase games tend to up the pressure on them unnecessarily although I accept everyone is different.
My lad was picked up at eight years old just playing for a local team in the usual summer tournaments.

[jodypress]

craig1912 said:

Ah right, do you pay for him to go there? There are/were similar in our locality and my view has been that scouts will pick up on them in everyday football, the showcase games tend to up the pressure on them unnecessarily although I accept everyone is different.
My lad was picked up at eight years old just playing for a local team in the usual summer tournaments.

No we don't pay. My son's been playing in Selkent till U12 then Kent Youth League. There's scouts about but he's not had much luck. A couple if years ago, he was coming back from a fractured thumb ( which he got in a summer tournament) his KYL team was invited to play at the Tottenham training ground pre-season. 3 of his team mates got asked back to train.
Kinetic seem good so far.

[essayer]

What’s everyone’s thoughts on next season’s rule changes for U7-U9s?

No more headers - indirect free kick if ball headed

No more throw-ins - replaced by a kick-in (opposition to be 5yds away, kicker can touch ball more than once)

https://www.thefa.com/news/2024/may/17/new-heading...


Interesting to see how kick-ins will work in practice. Will improve our passing at least

[Glassman]

essayer said:

What’s everyone’s thoughts on next season’s rule changes for U7-U9s?

No more headers - indirect free kick if ball headed

No more throw-ins - replaced by a kick-in (opposition to be 5yds away, kicker can touch ball more than once)

https://www.thefa.com/news/2024/may/17/new-heading...


Interesting to see how kick-ins will work in practice. Will improve our passing at least

At that age they rarely know how to head the ball anyway. Certainly with my lot, it was at 13 we introduced volleyball as the arrival activity and it helped them understand when they could head and what was needed to direct the ball.

[48Valves]

essayer said:

What’s everyone’s thoughts on next season’s rule changes for U7-U9s?

No more headers - indirect free kick if ball headed

No more throw-ins - replaced by a kick-in (opposition to be 5yds away, kicker can touch ball more than once)

https://www.thefa.com/news/2024/may/17/new-heading...


Interesting to see how kick-ins will work in practice. Will improve our passing at least

I think it’s a great idea. Although I’m sure some will try to exploit it. Kick ins and dribble ins work fine in games like futsal. People will say proper technique should be taught. But ask them what proper technique is and they can’t tell you.

Our U8s have been playing to these rules for a while now and much prefer them.

I’m not sure it will improve passing in any meaningful way, this age group should be focusing mainly on dribbling and ball control. Leave passing until they are older.