Jamaica Plain Youth Soccer

Coaching Objectives and Ideas

Progression: U8 / U10 / U12

JPYS aims to create an atmosphere that combines playfulness and learning. We hope that all the players have fun, feel inspiration, and improve constantly. Our first priority is ball skills and mastery; then come notions of how to use those skills in games and how to play effectively in a team.

U8

Primary Objectives (U8)

  • Balance, agility, coordination.
  • Mastery of the ball: fast, precise, fluid, stable movements. Becoming “friends with the ball” (a great expression from Sweden).
  • Kids should learn, as the youth program at Ajax says, to be able to “move the ball in any direction with all the surfaces of both feet”. (Ajax, from Amsterdam, is one of Holland’s big teams; it has a world-famous youth development program.)
  • Getting good with the feet, on the feet.
  • Shielding the ball.

Practice Ideas (U8)

  • Repetition is the key: maximum ball touches.
  • “Isolated technical activities” and small games.
  • One player – one ball a lot of the time.
  • Virtually everything is on the ground.

Big Ideas (U8)

●Learning to relax on the ball.

“When the ball comes to you, don’t just kick it away! Try to do something: control it and try to shoot or dribble or make a little pass to a teammate who is in a better position.”

“Don’t just give the ball back to the other team! It’s bad enough to lose it – but it’s even worse to GIVE it to them. Say to the other team: ‘I won’t give the ball to you! You must work hard now and try to take it away from us!”

  • Protecting the ball.

“Having the ball means everything! Your team can’t score if they don’t have the ball – if the other team has it or if it’s out of bounds.”

“Use your body to keep the ball safe! Get between the ball and that opponent.”

“If you’re close to an opponent, try not to put the ball near him or her.”

  • Trying to make the field big when you have the ball.

“ If your team has the ball, try to spread out a little. The more space you have, the easier it is to play.”

“If you find a big open patch of grass when there is no opponent around, it’s easier for you.”

  • Pressing the ball when you lose it.

“If your team loses the ball, the person closest to it, should fight for it: get close and use your feet and legs to get a hold of it.”

“Don’t be content just to kick the ball away from that opponent: get it!”

“Try to protect the space in front of your own goal. Get more players around your goal than they have there.”

U10

Primary Objectives (U10)

  • More balance, agility, and precise movements.
  • More specific requests with the ball: 180 degree turns, cuts of 45 degrees, several ways to turn and spin, feints. Shielding the ball well.
  • Accurate ground passes of 15 to 20 yards with insides and outsides and laces.
  • Receiving while moving and setting up the next action: understanding that receiving is not an end in itself. That is to say: bringing in the tactical element of receiving.
  • Playing under pressure as much as possible – spending less time stabilizing techniques in unpressured activities and more time gaining skills (using those techniques) under pressure.
  • Playing together: anticipating, ‘reading the game’, helping one another, learning basic combinations (wall passes, overlaps, through balls played into space).

Big Ideas (U10)

  • Help your teammate who has the ball.

“ If a teammate near you has the ball, try to help her or him by offering yourself as a target. Don’t stand behind an opponent – get into a space where the ball possessor can see you – then give her or him a yell.”

“Be sure that the player on the ball has help behind if the pressure on her or him is too much to handle – either straight back or back at an angle. Also, teammates should try to support at angles to the sides – and in front.”

“The players without the ball are very important: they should be moving, looking for the ball, always ready for it, hungry for it, always thinking ahead. They’re constantly asking themselves ‘Where is the most helpful place I can be right now?’ “

  • Shoot every chance you get!

“Don’t be hasty – but when you get near enough to the opponent’s goal to score: try to score!”

“Try to shoot the ball so that it goes into the goal after hitting the inside of the post.”

“When you’re anywhere near the opponent’s goal, glance at it all the time. Be aware of exactly where it is – and where the goalkeeper is.”

●Use your body to get the ball and keep the ball.

“Learn to use your legs and shoulders to fight for the ball- stay balanced, don’t ‘reach’ for the ball, keep your feet moving, and get your shoulders in there and ‘pry’ the ball away.”

“On the ball, keep the opponent away by turning sideways, getting low and wide, and spinning off him or rolling away from him.

●Learn to ‘make space’ when your team has the ball.

“Get away from defenders – try to get out of their view, even. Run one way, then run another, faster than they can.”

“Try to get to a place where you have a lot of open grass around you.”

“Watch your teammates carefully. Sometimes you can make space for other players by running away.”

U12

Primary Objectives (U12)

  • Real stability and flair on the ball. Shielding well, building up moves to beat a defender, using the body to keep the ball.
  • Receiving well – having a good first touch that is technically smooth and tactically astute.
  • Shooting well off the dribble, and hitting one touch shots. Hitting the corners of the goal.
  • Tackling well, learning to ‘charge’ – that is, how to use the shoulders.
  • Practicing heading and goalkeeping (everyone).
  • Reading the game, understanding the different climates of the field, mastering good body position and good tactical positioning on the field.
  • Playing in the team: learning functions and positions, playing intelligently with and without the ball, communicating, being dynamic, always staying ‘in the game’.

Big Ideas (U12)

  • Communicate!

“Use words and your body’s gestures to communicate with your teammates.”

“Keep as much of the field as possible in your vision and keep your body ‘open’ to the ball so that you can play it forward with one touch if that opportunity presents itself. Keep your eyes and your head up.”

“Be patient but quick – or quick but patient! – and try to get into open spaces when you see that a teammate can get the ball to you there.”

  • Get really good at receiving the ball.

“As the ball comes to you, get your body and the ball moving in the same direction. If possible, make a feint in the opposite direction from the one where you intend to go, just before the ball arrives.”

“’Open the game’ when the ball comes to you. As a general rule, don’t play it back where it came from: make a new angle and make defenders keep running.”

“Try clever, cheeky moves with your first touch: knock the ball past a defender and run the other way around him to retrieve it, pop it up over a defender’s head, etc.”

  • Learn to read and be aware of the pressure on you, as you receive a ball.

“Be ambitious: if a defender doesn’t play you tight and the ball comes to you, try to dribble it or pass it (or shoot it) ahead. Don’t be content to play it back or sideways.”

“But, if there is pressure on you, be careful! Either play the ball into space and run away from the defender or play it to a teammate who is unpressured.”

“The closer you get to the opponent’s goal, the more willing you should be to take risks and try creative, imaginative moves.”

  • Resolve to become an intelligent, tough, clever defender.

“Practice shoulder charging and block tackling and toe-pokes: master the techniques of defending.”

“Read the situation that confronts you and try to make life tough for the opponent. Keep in mind the priorities of a defender. First, if possible, intercept a ball played to a nearby opponent; second, arrive at the same time as the ball does and try to tackle as your opponent is trying to control the ball. (That means, that you’re turning the tables on her or him: making her or him play defense – defending the ball – as you attack!) Third, invite your opponent to turn up the field with the ball and hit them as they turn and expose the ball. Last, if they beat you to the ball, try to push them in the direction they don’t want to go (like in the direction of their weaker foot).”

“Remember that you play defense to win the ball. Don’t be content to kick the ball away form an attacker or, ever, to kick it out of bounds. Get it!”