Kids Grassroots Football - The good stuff!
Discussion
Following on from this thread, I thought i'd try and share my experiences of kids football so far and ongoing. I'd appreciate it if others could add to the thread with the hope that it become a bit of a pool of knowledge and experiences, i'm always eager to learn from others, particularly where football coaching is regarded.
Firstly, a bit about me. I've been involved in kids football for 7 years now, starting as an occasional helper at U6s to what was to become my sons U7s team, our local club is Charter Standard and once I had agreed to manage the team I was told I needed to complete the Level 1 Coaches Qualification. Despite not wanting to do it, I had a fantastic couple of weekends in glorious sunshine with some great blokes, many i'm still in touch with now. Roll on 7 years and I'm Secretary to a club of 230ish kids across 15 teams, I've completed the level 1 and level 2 coaches qualifications, Youth Award Modules 1 & 2, Coerver Youth Diploma 1 and the Futsal level 1 - of which i'm a great advocate of. I coach between 7 and 8 hours a week now across various age groups, helping others where I can and doing my best to develop players. Needless to say, I get a huge amount of enjoyment from it.
Over the years I've had various run ins with parents and coaches, both within the club and from other clubs. This season though my main problems are coming from leagues who think it's ok to automatically fine clubs for every slight infringement on the rules instead of working with them to help things run smoothly and pitch allocation problems from our town Council whom we lease the pitches from.
Firstly, a bit about me. I've been involved in kids football for 7 years now, starting as an occasional helper at U6s to what was to become my sons U7s team, our local club is Charter Standard and once I had agreed to manage the team I was told I needed to complete the Level 1 Coaches Qualification. Despite not wanting to do it, I had a fantastic couple of weekends in glorious sunshine with some great blokes, many i'm still in touch with now. Roll on 7 years and I'm Secretary to a club of 230ish kids across 15 teams, I've completed the level 1 and level 2 coaches qualifications, Youth Award Modules 1 & 2, Coerver Youth Diploma 1 and the Futsal level 1 - of which i'm a great advocate of. I coach between 7 and 8 hours a week now across various age groups, helping others where I can and doing my best to develop players. Needless to say, I get a huge amount of enjoyment from it.
Over the years I've had various run ins with parents and coaches, both within the club and from other clubs. This season though my main problems are coming from leagues who think it's ok to automatically fine clubs for every slight infringement on the rules instead of working with them to help things run smoothly and pitch allocation problems from our town Council whom we lease the pitches from.
Gargamel said:
Good idea,
I will post ,ore but you can see some of my background on the other one if you have read the last page.
Who runsthe futsal course?
I did, and thanks for the info. The Futsal course was an FA one, which covers the rules and some basic drills, but i'm fortunate enough to live close to Loughborough Uni so get to see their Futsal team a lot and pick the brains of some of the coaches. Our club also had a chap from Spain with us for a few years, UEFA B qualified but Futsal was his passion and he was more than willing to share knowledge with anyone willing to listen when he had time.I will post ,ore but you can see some of my background on the other one if you have read the last page.
Who runsthe futsal course?
Edited by WildCards on Sunday 29th November 23:08
Hi
Similar to Wildcards, I started life helping another coach and attended the FA Level 1 course for first aid and safeguarding etc. Soon as I started trying to implement ideas from the course (and other coaches) the Manager told me I was wasting my time etc.... He used to leave me to run training due to his work commitments and then completely undo all the good work on match day with his "get rid .... hoof it" comments !! Before too long I got so frustrated that I quit to be a Dad again. Unfortunately, he then tried to get at me through my son who played in the team, using every opportunity to critisise his play etc. One of the guys I met on the FA level 1 course, then asked me to run a second side for his club. That was just over two years ago.
So first season,as a new team we were put in the bottom league .. won all our matches and although results weren't published, obviously topped the league and got promoted two divisions to the B league. At the time, we thought that it might be a step too far and aimed to have a year of consolidation and try and stay in the league. To our surprise, the results kept coming and we finished 2nd (by one point) and got promoted to the top division.
So this year, first year in the A league and now moved to 11 a side from 9 a side... an unfortunately the wheels have come off !! In fairness, I've made mistakes trying to find the right balance/formation to suit the players I've got, but all too often we are getting beaten by well drilled sides who dont seem to make as many unforced errors. My best defender from last year announced that he doesn't want to play in defence anymore and a boy that joined just this year as a defender has said the same thing !! So im left to play with a weaker defence, the midfield are not as good with these boys in it and I end up sacrificing my own sons game for the good of the team.
In the summer, I attended the Youth Mod 1 and in October Youth Mod 2. Prior to these courses I was very much in favour of competitive football, but as a result of these courses (and probably the poor results we are currently having), I can see that its just not doing the kids any good. In fairness, some of the kids don't care when we lose, but some do and typically so do their parents. The competitive nature of the "A" league means that some Managers are just setting their teams up to win in anyway possible .... get the big quick fella up top and pump long balls to him ... whereas I'm trying to encourage our boys to play good possession football. With the added pressure of winning, learning how to play football 'the right way' takes a back seat.
Its likely that we will be relegated this year to the B league ... which in all honesty will probably be a good thing as we can lick our wounds and re-group !!
Despite these results, we have had some success with so called 'weaker' players really developing and improving. Unfortunately, the so called 'stronger' players seem to think they know it all, train poorly, can be very disruptive and quite frankly have not stepped up to the higher league. Unfortunately, these poorly behaved kids are taking up too much time and their parents are very vocal about what I am doing wrong (ie not playing their boy in the right position) but fail be constructive or helpful on match days. Every time one lad gets the ball ... his father constantly shouts "drive at them .... drive" whereas we are trying to encourage them to get the ball to do the work.
Its these same boys (3 - 4 of them) that can sulk, moan and mess around even more if I try to play them out of the favoured position. I've tried starting them on the subs bench, sitting them out at training, but nothing seems to work long term. Unfortunately, with a squad of 14, and the common situation of other players not being available due to illness or other commitments, then I end up having to play some of these boys more than their behaviour warrants. I'm now in the situation, where I am looking forward to the end of the season already when I can recruit some new players (not sure from where !!) and not invite these trouble makers back to re-sign.
On the plus side, some of the boys have come on and some parents do appreciate the time and effort that I put in !! I ran a coaching session a couple of weeks ago where I 'removed' three trouble makers, but made real progress with the other 11.
For any coaches thinking of doing the FA Youth Modules, I can thoroughly recommend them. They are 4 days each, but worthwhile and really should replace the old FA level 1. Next year (assuming I'm still involved !!) I plan to do the FA Level 2.
Sorry if these seems negative on a "good Stuff" thread ... I don't mean it to be !! But if anyone has come good advice, I'm all ears !!!
Similar to Wildcards, I started life helping another coach and attended the FA Level 1 course for first aid and safeguarding etc. Soon as I started trying to implement ideas from the course (and other coaches) the Manager told me I was wasting my time etc.... He used to leave me to run training due to his work commitments and then completely undo all the good work on match day with his "get rid .... hoof it" comments !! Before too long I got so frustrated that I quit to be a Dad again. Unfortunately, he then tried to get at me through my son who played in the team, using every opportunity to critisise his play etc. One of the guys I met on the FA level 1 course, then asked me to run a second side for his club. That was just over two years ago.
So first season,as a new team we were put in the bottom league .. won all our matches and although results weren't published, obviously topped the league and got promoted two divisions to the B league. At the time, we thought that it might be a step too far and aimed to have a year of consolidation and try and stay in the league. To our surprise, the results kept coming and we finished 2nd (by one point) and got promoted to the top division.
So this year, first year in the A league and now moved to 11 a side from 9 a side... an unfortunately the wheels have come off !! In fairness, I've made mistakes trying to find the right balance/formation to suit the players I've got, but all too often we are getting beaten by well drilled sides who dont seem to make as many unforced errors. My best defender from last year announced that he doesn't want to play in defence anymore and a boy that joined just this year as a defender has said the same thing !! So im left to play with a weaker defence, the midfield are not as good with these boys in it and I end up sacrificing my own sons game for the good of the team.
In the summer, I attended the Youth Mod 1 and in October Youth Mod 2. Prior to these courses I was very much in favour of competitive football, but as a result of these courses (and probably the poor results we are currently having), I can see that its just not doing the kids any good. In fairness, some of the kids don't care when we lose, but some do and typically so do their parents. The competitive nature of the "A" league means that some Managers are just setting their teams up to win in anyway possible .... get the big quick fella up top and pump long balls to him ... whereas I'm trying to encourage our boys to play good possession football. With the added pressure of winning, learning how to play football 'the right way' takes a back seat.
Its likely that we will be relegated this year to the B league ... which in all honesty will probably be a good thing as we can lick our wounds and re-group !!
Despite these results, we have had some success with so called 'weaker' players really developing and improving. Unfortunately, the so called 'stronger' players seem to think they know it all, train poorly, can be very disruptive and quite frankly have not stepped up to the higher league. Unfortunately, these poorly behaved kids are taking up too much time and their parents are very vocal about what I am doing wrong (ie not playing their boy in the right position) but fail be constructive or helpful on match days. Every time one lad gets the ball ... his father constantly shouts "drive at them .... drive" whereas we are trying to encourage them to get the ball to do the work.
Its these same boys (3 - 4 of them) that can sulk, moan and mess around even more if I try to play them out of the favoured position. I've tried starting them on the subs bench, sitting them out at training, but nothing seems to work long term. Unfortunately, with a squad of 14, and the common situation of other players not being available due to illness or other commitments, then I end up having to play some of these boys more than their behaviour warrants. I'm now in the situation, where I am looking forward to the end of the season already when I can recruit some new players (not sure from where !!) and not invite these trouble makers back to re-sign.
On the plus side, some of the boys have come on and some parents do appreciate the time and effort that I put in !! I ran a coaching session a couple of weeks ago where I 'removed' three trouble makers, but made real progress with the other 11.
For any coaches thinking of doing the FA Youth Modules, I can thoroughly recommend them. They are 4 days each, but worthwhile and really should replace the old FA level 1. Next year (assuming I'm still involved !!) I plan to do the FA Level 2.
Sorry if these seems negative on a "good Stuff" thread ... I don't mean it to be !! But if anyone has come good advice, I'm all ears !!!
So, inspired by this thread and a need to get myself into gear, I have booked my Youth Module 1 - for next summer. Which I am looking forward to.
We are just starting a Futsal session, so we will see how that works for us.
As mentioned elsewhere, I am part of a club with over 200 kids playing in South Surrey and Hampshire area.
We train youngers (four and five year olds) and then move them into Mini's into league games at age 6/7 we then have sides up to U13 at the moment.
Currently the club has around 30 coaches, plus a committee to manage it, we are FA Chartered Standard. As a club we try to play good development focused football, rather than win at all costs, I find some coaches are more win orientated, but certainly well within normally accepted competitive drive.
Rocking up at training or onto the pitches and seeing 100+ kids enjoying sport is what keeps me at all the dull meetings on a Wednesday night organising the behind the scenes stuff. (I am Chairman - so its in the Job description to go to dull meetings)
j4ckos mate said:
Great idea,
wont be in here for a while 17-1
Oof! your lads team would be better off withdrawing from the league, but continue to train weekly and play friendlies every now and then against teams who would agree not to hammer them. When confidence is so low, some times you just need to cut your losses.wont be in here for a while 17-1
mark2705 said:
Its these same boys (3 - 4 of them) that can sulk, moan and mess around even more if I try to play them out of the favoured position. I've tried starting them on the subs bench, sitting them out at training, but nothing seems to work long term. Unfortunately, with a squad of 14, and the common situation of other players not being available due to illness or other commitments, then I end up having to play some of these boys more than their behaviour warrants. I'm now in the situation, where I am looking forward to the end of the season already when I can recruit some new players (not sure from where !!) and not invite these trouble makers back to re-sign.
Sorry if these seems negative on a "good Stuff" thread ... I don't mean it to be !! But if anyone has come good advice, I'm all ears !!!
I'm assuming you're U13's/U14's? - If you can recruit some new players you'll have the luxury of picking the players who will play at the weekend based on behaviour at training. Once they're all behaving, just put a rota in place so one or two lads miss a game every 10 or 12 weeks. Sorry if these seems negative on a "good Stuff" thread ... I don't mean it to be !! But if anyone has come good advice, I'm all ears !!!
Hi Wild, great idea for a thread. Hope you gain the knowledge you're looking for here..... 
Going to be lazy here and copy-and-paste my post from the other thread, sorry. But the best advice I can give you is to find someone like me for your team. I took my Level One badge and quickly realised that coaching wasn't my forte but admin and organising stuff was. It sounds arrogant but it's not meant to; make sure you get yourself someone like me who will deal with the training schedules, the ringing round of parents, the text admins, the website admin, organising the equipment so the coach doesn't need to worry about it. That sort of stuff.
I'm the team secretary for an under-15's side here in Bristol and assistant manager of the team too. Can only echo a lot of what has already been posted on here.
My twins (15 today) have been at my club since the age of five and love it. At eleven, their coach at the time told them and two other lads, that they might struggle athletically with Division One football and it would be best if they maybe found another team. I agreed on the proviso that they remained with the team till the end of the season giving me time to organise an alternative. So for one season, my lads played Saturday football with four of their mates because the Saturday league, you only needed 1 7-a-side team, not two so you could manager with 7-8 players.
At the end of our first season, we reached the cup final where we were mullahed by the best side in the division. While we were waiting for our medals, I noticed a coach stood with 5 or 6 other kids. I half recognised him and wandered over; he said they were just telling the kids that their team was folding due to lack of numbers. I asked him for a quick word, the kids kicked a ball around for 20 minutes while we had a chat, and we agreed to set up a team; my six or seven lads, his five or six.
That first season in Div 2 on Sundays was bloody hard. Four points from 22 games, those four from the same team. Lost 17-8 one week, many times by double figures but we'd given a dozen kids the chance of football. We were bottom by a mile so took a double relegation from Div 2 to Div 4. The rebirth continued..
The kids started to enjoy themselves at the lower level and enjoyment brought confidence, brought results and we won Div 4 in our first season. In Div 3, we finished third then last season, won promotion again as runners-up. Happy kids, we now have 17-18 kids fighting for places every week in a positive, energetic environment. We are now back in Div 2 and it's hard but we've picked up seven points from ten games so far. Took the league leaders on last week and lost 6-4, missing a penalty and our keeper throwing three goals in....
Sometimes, it pays to take a step or two back in order to brush yourself down and move on. The best thing we ever did was to take a double relegation and regroup. Obviously doesn't work if you're in the bottom division but there you go.
Going to be lazy here and copy-and-paste my post from the other thread, sorry. But the best advice I can give you is to find someone like me for your team. I took my Level One badge and quickly realised that coaching wasn't my forte but admin and organising stuff was. It sounds arrogant but it's not meant to; make sure you get yourself someone like me who will deal with the training schedules, the ringing round of parents, the text admins, the website admin, organising the equipment so the coach doesn't need to worry about it. That sort of stuff.
I'm the team secretary for an under-15's side here in Bristol and assistant manager of the team too. Can only echo a lot of what has already been posted on here.
My twins (15 today) have been at my club since the age of five and love it. At eleven, their coach at the time told them and two other lads, that they might struggle athletically with Division One football and it would be best if they maybe found another team. I agreed on the proviso that they remained with the team till the end of the season giving me time to organise an alternative. So for one season, my lads played Saturday football with four of their mates because the Saturday league, you only needed 1 7-a-side team, not two so you could manager with 7-8 players.
At the end of our first season, we reached the cup final where we were mullahed by the best side in the division. While we were waiting for our medals, I noticed a coach stood with 5 or 6 other kids. I half recognised him and wandered over; he said they were just telling the kids that their team was folding due to lack of numbers. I asked him for a quick word, the kids kicked a ball around for 20 minutes while we had a chat, and we agreed to set up a team; my six or seven lads, his five or six.
That first season in Div 2 on Sundays was bloody hard. Four points from 22 games, those four from the same team. Lost 17-8 one week, many times by double figures but we'd given a dozen kids the chance of football. We were bottom by a mile so took a double relegation from Div 2 to Div 4. The rebirth continued..
The kids started to enjoy themselves at the lower level and enjoyment brought confidence, brought results and we won Div 4 in our first season. In Div 3, we finished third then last season, won promotion again as runners-up. Happy kids, we now have 17-18 kids fighting for places every week in a positive, energetic environment. We are now back in Div 2 and it's hard but we've picked up seven points from ten games so far. Took the league leaders on last week and lost 6-4, missing a penalty and our keeper throwing three goals in....
Sometimes, it pays to take a step or two back in order to brush yourself down and move on. The best thing we ever did was to take a double relegation and regroup. Obviously doesn't work if you're in the bottom division but there you go.
No match tomorrow due to waterlogged pitches, but we had our first games of the new year today in our Futsal league. Another two wins today mean we're top of our league with 8 wins from 8 games.
We've been doing Futsal for 3 years, training and matches and it's so nice to see all our hard work finally paying off. I only wish I could get more of my squad involved as only 7 lads want to do it and the others are getting left behind.
We've been doing Futsal for 3 years, training and matches and it's so nice to see all our hard work finally paying off. I only wish I could get more of my squad involved as only 7 lads want to do it and the others are getting left behind.
Kinky said:
Kinky Junior (14) passed his Level 9 Referees course today 
Both my lads passed L9 at 14, youngest (now 17) is still reffing. Congratulations, you are now about to enter the worst of grass roots football (not the kids, they're mostly no trouble, just the coaches and parents). You will encounter some utter scum.Gargamel said:
What surface do you play on for Futsal, is it astro only?
It's indoors on basketball courts/4 court badminton halls. Loads of stuff on YouTube if you want to see more. It's the ideal thing for this time of year, all our younger age groups are training midweek in school sports halls and we've supplied Futsal balls for them all and some basics rules & sessions plans to get them going, but all of the L1 sessions will work just as well with a Futsal ball indoors as they do outdoors with normal balls.The weather has meant all our clubs games were called off today, so it was nice that we had the Futsal games yesterday, at least it got them moving again after the Christmas food frenzy.
j4ckos mate said:
Does anyone know if your allowed to wear the long under armour leggings in kids footy for games?
looks a cold one this weekend
As I understand it, apart from the goalkeeper, any undergarments must be the same colour as the item it's under.looks a cold one this weekend
So if you have red shorts for example, then you must have red undergarments. Or a blue short-sleeved shirt should have a blue undergarment under it.
However, as you say, given the probable weather, it would be a nasty ref to tell you to take it off. But I've seen it happen to my team (and others too), so it is checked and they do demand it.
I would say go for it, but check with the ref beforehand and simply explain, and get his OK. But be prepared to take it off if he says no.
j4ckos mate said:
Does anyone know if your allowed to wear the long under armour leggings in kids footy for games?
looks a cold one this weekend
Almost all of the lads in my team wear black leggings during the winter. We do have black in our colours though, so it's not a foreign colour. I doubt many refs would argue a kid being cold to uphold a ridiculous ruling.looks a cold one this weekend
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