Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #618: Grassroots Pt. 3 — How to coach rec soccer with Mike Idland

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Foxes & Hounds! Sharks & Minnows! High Fives! Pinecones! We’re getting into the nuts and bolts of helping little kids learn to master the soccer ball with Mike Idland, a college women’s soccer coach in New York state who’s spent a lot of time working with rec soccer and club coaches, and has been a huge help to Belz in his rec soccer efforts. Lots of practical stuff here to cap off this series of interviews on youth soccer.Here’s Mike’s brief and excellent U6 training plan: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cG0r1WV6eJNS3pGSZGMubDeukj8ssoDx/view?usp=sharingAnd here are some U6 drills from Belz, including Pinecones, Goal Races, Sharpshooter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1usw-Ivi9hpmiAi8M8suqEiYw1gYlz-1R/view?usp=sharingIn a couple weeks we (Belz and at least a couple of the grassroots episodes guests) are going to record a 4th episode where we respond to questions and comments. You can send us a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/scuffedpodOr, if you don’t want to do that, send us a question here: https://forms.gle/YjdLExcqyyLn5KpK6 Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. All right, we're down to part three of this youth soccer series. For the final episode, we're going to get into the nuts and bolts of coaching U6 and U8 soccer. In most of America. There are definitely pockets of the country where U8 teams can look like Man City. Most of America is not like that. Most six- and seven-year-olds need to get better with the ball. And how to get them better with the ball in practice is,

the heavy focus of this conversation because it doesn't matter if we magically institute pro rel or build 1,000 foot saw courts across the country. If kids aren't learning to love the ball and therefore love the game, none of it makes any difference. So sharpen your pencil, listen up, and volunteer as a rec soccer coach as soon as possible. Our guest today is one of the best email correspondence I've ever had. A huge help to me in my little rec soccer coaching endeavors. he's the women's soccer coach at SUNY Brockport near Buffalo, New York, and he's done a lot of youth soccer coaching in his day, and he's going to help us with several practical ideas on coaching U6 and U8 soccer.

Mike Idland. Welcome to scuffed. Thanks, Adam. It's an honor. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, thanks for doing it. I think this is going to be great. So let's start with the most controversial part.

All right. You passed me a document a couple years ago that explained this, but you tell coaches, of little kids, U6, you eight, not to tell the kids to pass, not to even encourage passing. I mean, you're not the only person who says this. I know, I recognize that. But why? Yeah, I think, so I have kind of like a short thought and a long thought on that, right?

So let's hear both, yeah. All right. So the short thought for me is basically that we want players who want the ball rather than players who want to get rid of the ball. You know, so that's like in a nutshell to take on it. for me and we want to develop them and give them a chance to develop into those type of players, right? But then the longer thought for me is that like so, so many of the trip-ups in this grassroots thing at the youngest age groups sort of tie back to this idea of insisting that

the soccer look like adult soccer and it can't and it shouldn't. And this falls right square into that, you know, where it's, you know, at the very youngest ages, you'd be hard-pressed to find players who actually can pass, you know, in any kind of meaningful way, over any, physically, you know, over any kind of distance, you know, 10 yards would be a miracle foot-to-foot. And, like, I'm sure you can find them somewhere. Like, there's a group of five-year-olds in Barcelona somewhere that can do it. And that's fine. But when we talk about just your random sample of kids in America who are signed up for fun just to play, that's outside of their scope.

And then you just always have to bring it back to is this fun or not for them. And I think like at the end of the day, the ball is fun for them. Like having the ball is fun for them. And so for me, kind of the mission of this. whole thing for for rec soccer is like retention is priority number one keep them in the game how do you do that you do it by you know trying to ensure that it's fun and how do you make sure that it's fun you make sure they have the ball the whole time and it kind of boils down to to that for me yeah yeah i mean i i pretty you know pretty vigorously agree with you at this point i didn't

I didn't really think about it that much when you first sent that. But, you know, we talk on, like Greg and I talk about, or Greg actually talks about the clock ticking down when a player has the ball for the national team, like for the men's national team. And some players, you can just tell, like, they got to get rid of it because they just don't have it in them to keep the ball. And, you know, you can kind of see the full spectrum of this, like, when we, you're, when you're talking about you want kids who want the ball rather than kids who want to get rid of the ball,

because the players at the highest level that you really want are the ones who can keep the ball kind of no matter what, right? And I see that sort of the beginnings of that when you have a kid who just loves to dribble the ball, you know? Sure. And you can see that they're like they're not going to go that direction if they're six and they're, already just like kicked them all as soon as they get close to it, you know? Yeah. I mean, I think there's so like, you know, you took it right to the top there to the national team, but you're, you're totally right.

I mean, you just kind of look at like what opens the game up for players. And again, just like you, like when I first kind of stumbled into this, I had been, you know, in the youth soccer world quite a bit, but it was much more at the other end of the spectrum, you know, kind of like the premier club level and towards a higher end of it, a little bit. But I definitely stumbled into the, the rec level of it with, you know, my own children, like so many parent coaches will. And, you know, I think that as far as, like, what unlocks a game for a player, it's always that. It's always like when he or she receives a ball, first off, do they feel confident with it at their feet? And then can they solve a problem, right? And it's the ones that can solve it under that. pressure like Greg's clock that's ticking down. No big deal. Like if there's still a tick left, like I can still do something with the ball.

Or they can reset the clock. Yeah. You know, a little, little move little and reset the clock totally. Right. And that's kind of that's kind of like it, I think in a nutshell, you know. And then when you look to the, I was thinking about this kind of on my ride into work today, you know, with our discussion coming up. And like the special ones.

Like if we think about, I don't know, just like let's just look at Pulisic right now. right like in so quickly i think we knew that like he was right in the mix to be the one maybe is the one right and why i don't know but i saw like just about every time he gets the ball he can do what he wants with it and he can bring it past a player right like carry the ball past a player pretty smoothly pretty intentionally and you think about like how simple that is like just that concept in it's in its own right how simple that concept is and i have a hard time seeing it any other way with the youngest kids, you know, just give them a chance. Obviously, for most of them, that's not going to pan out, but it'll pan out for more of them

than would otherwise if you're always trying to get them to get rid of the ball, basically. Yeah, and maybe your point about making it fun, making sure that the game is fun for the kids, the little kids who are playing it, is much more important than like whether, you know, they'll become national team players because we just want more and more kids to love soccer, right? Yeah, but it factors in. Yeah, yeah. You work with your local rec. Maybe you work with the local club too a little bit.

Yeah. How much resistance do you run into on this point? And do you, how do you persuade someone who's like, nah, my, my U-Aids, they're rondowing like Javian and yesta, you know? Well, first off, none of them are, but I don't know. I think there's either resistance or, you know, passive, you know, a disguised resistance. in there almost every step of the way. And it's kind of okay. Like I'm, I'm at peace with that. It's, I always say to the other people that are kind of like, you know, on the on the board with me there,

that it's, this is not the environment in which I make enemies. Like, I live here in this town. I'm not, you know, going to dig in too much about this. But like, I'm available to you, you know, and I definitely don't have all the answers or anything. But I have been through all the coaching courses. I have done all licensing and everything. And I can at least. try to pass some of that along. And so I try to. And I think, you know, I think most probably fall into the category of either kind of indifference or passive acceptance of what I'm trying to put across, you know.

And I kind of give them like little one page cheat sheets, basically. I know I sent a couple of those on to you, just little coaching guidelines. They're great. They're great. And I think a few of them, I'm sure, just say like, like anything. in life don't tell me what to do and I'm not even going to read this thing because these are volunteer coaches right 100% yeah 100% fun that's like the the age old problem you know like how do you get volunteers to comply and if you get like these dedicated types that are that are all for it you know

like hey thanks you handed me this this this guideline from age group you know read it carefully think about it a little bit and then maybe follow up with me and you know and those people are like on track you know you just know if you go out and watch their their teams go it's going to look great and they're like good things are going to be happening. Those kids are going to be having a blast and getting better and all that kind of stuff. But honestly, most are somewhere in the middle. Like you might see little hints of they've taken your ideas on board. And that's, you know, kind of take half a loaf with that, I think.

And then you'll get some that it's like clearly, you know, either haven't, you know, read through any of it or don't care to. And that's life, you know. And I think like if you're trying to get 100% of them, it's just, you know, set yourself off for frustration. You have sent me an actual practice plan for U6, which I think is awesome. And I want to kind of go through it and hopefully show it on the video here. But U6 seems to me like the most, like such an important age group.

In my town, U8 and U6 are not that different because there's a lot of kids coming into soccer for the first time at when they're seven. And the skill level isn't that much higher in U8. And I wonder, is that common in rec associations? I think so. I mean, again, like, I think it's important for people to know I'm, I'm not a guru in this department. Like, it's, this is, you know, but. Ah, beg to differ. Beg to differ. But, um, I don't know. I would agree in, in my little world. Yeah, you know, they look about the same.

And it's, yeah, they're, they're so, so similar the, you know, the objectives and everything for the age groups. Okay. So what are, so what are some of the don'ts, the common missteps? Don't, I mean, I think I touched on it at the top, but don't, don't, don't expect it to look like adult soccer and don't ask the players to make it look like adult soccer. That's, that's to me a big one. So, like, where does that come in? We kind of touch on the passing thing, but it's also, like, if you think of the chorus that will ring out on any sideline in America, it's going to spread out, spread out, spread out, you know, pass the ball, all those. That, for me, falls into the don't category. And some of that is just like you're, you're kind of trying to, you know, swim upstream

necessarily. But also, it's just like what's, what's best for their development. You know, so I've definitely put that one in there and just the, the idea of insisting it looked like adult soccer. Don't do that. There is, I'd say don't restrict the players' movements in any way, you know, with, like, rigid positions or the range they can have or anything like that. It's like. Like everybody can go everywhere.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. For me, like, freedom is the, is the guy. guideline there. Don't get too abstract with the players, you know? There's a bunch of, I don't know, don't

have them standing in lines, don't lecture them. I don't know, do you have any others in mind? Yeah, I mean, when it comes with practices, having people stand around is just like, it's absolute poison at that age. Because people just disengage. The kids just disengage.

And then you got, you know, team of players who didn't enjoy soccer practice. And that's a tragedy, you know. Nobody wants to be standing in line. Like in life, certainly the kids don't. I think, like, it's so hard to keep them focused at that age. You know, you have to be, like, exceptionally good with the age group and then get sort of lucky, right?

And so there's all these little pitfalls in there and having them standing around without an actual active thing to do in a given moment is just like a guaranteed way for it to go off course, I think, as well. And those kids aren't, that's like all time they could have on the ball, that they're not being active with the ball. So you got to be organized enough to get the lines out for sure. Yeah. One ball, one kid ratio, you know, which I mean, it's kind of implicit and everything we're

talking about. But yeah, that balls to player ratio thing is, is huge, you know. Like, I think when I first started learning about this stuff and I come out and did the U.S. youth license that I'm not to be honest I don't think it exists anymore exactly though you know in that format the E or something like that well no it used to be just a true US youth that that was a title of the license a youth license it was delivered through US soccer like through the Federation their coaching it stuff but it was actually a US

youth soccer course and curriculum just kind of you know delivered via US soccer I believe it still kind of sort of exists more in the United Soccer Coaches' like education pathway. But anyway, when I went through all that, back then, it used to, you know, you'd always hear like this is a really interesting course to go on. And it also satisfied the continuing education units to see you use for your A license. So it was like, do it, you know. it's just like it's a win-win and and going through that that's where I started learning about

balls to players ratios and things like that it made perfect sense you know and it's it's all they're almost like guardrails to keep you from trying to make an adult soccer on little kids my like my understanding is that all of that came through the um physical education curriculum for the age groups and that's like where we had this pool of experts with working with those age groups and and pedagogy and what works and what doesn't. And they just kind of packaged it up and put it into soccer and made good sense. So pretty big believer in it. We had an interesting exchange, I don't know, a year and a half ago, something like that, a year ago,

where actually it wasn't that long ago. It was more like four months. Anyway, who cares how long ago it was. It was, I was talking about sharks and minnows, which my specific brand of sharks and minnows is not the one where you, like, go through and, ocean to get to the other side. It's like, it's basically just you're in a 25 by 25 yard box and you got to keep the ball and not let it go out of bounds. And then the, if you're a minnow, and then the shark is trying to kick the ball out of bounds. I found this to be quite useful because kids enjoy it

and they learn to keep the ball in bounds. You know, learning to keep the ball in bounds, change direction with the ball, really kind of crucial. So you said, you pointed out to me, you said, Well, why don't you just tell me what you said so I can stop talking? Tell me what your reaction was to it and what you suggested because it was a really helpful suggestion. Well, I think I went back there. There's like a funny little detail to your story. So correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you have a kid that intentionally was losing the ball

so that he could be a shark? That's right. That was like at the crux of the whole. That's right. That's it. Yeah. Did that kid ever come around for you or no? Yeah.

He actually came on real strong at the end of the season. But yeah. I don't know that he loves soccer that much yet. But that's right. He would kick his ball out of bounds so that he could become a shark. On purpose. And I was like, I was like, what do I do? Yeah, yeah, I love that.

So that one just kind of triggered something for me. So I, it's like, to me, like what are the incentives in this whole thing? Like how is a game, you know, kind of configured to, like he found a gap in that. You know what I mean? He found a little bit of a loophole in that one. So it's, you know. What a little rascal. Yeah, yeah.

They're always going to find a way. So I don't know. I immediately thought of this game that somebody had. share with me years back and I've used it you know I had used it with my players they all love it called uh foxes and hounds and you know I sent it over to you and said like hey I think I think here's the fix for your sharks and minnows problem and um that one is basically like same concept you have uh you know we have uh most players are a fox you know and they have a ball at their feet we should take a penny and tell them like tuck it into the waistband you know either they can do it like a tail or

like a side tail whatever they're comfortable with just pinny hanging out and then you get a couple of hounds right who don't have the tail and um you know obviously you can start with one or two or three or whatever but the fox the hounds are chasing the foxes and they try to pull out their tail and if they manage to pull out their tail well now that you know player is now a hound and the whole hound pack keeps um chasing after the rest of the foxes but the big thing is to that and like the difference between the sharks and minos thing is that you know ask those hounds also to have a ball. So like everybody is dribbling all the time, right? So you're dribbling to get away from a player if you're a fox. You're dribbling to catch a player if you're a hound, all that stuff.

And it kind of takes away that little like loophole that that's in that Sharks and Minow's thing that you mentioned. And like when I kind of, I don't know, stumbled, you know, came on to that my own coaching. It's perfect. That's one that's just going to like lock in forever when working with that age group. And they always like it. It's, you know, it has to be fun. They love it. They have a blast with it. Something about the tails. Yeah. Having them pulled out, it's just like they just can't get enough.

Yeah. Yeah. And everybody's dribbling the whole time. And they're all, they have to keep their eyes up a little bit to try to figure out where to go or how to get to somebody. Yeah. That's kind of the whole thing. And I know, like, I remember you kind of came back with, it's good because, like, I

enjoy these little email exchanges we have every so often because it's good. It makes you think, like, make me rethink about my own stuff too. And, you know, I think you've looked it over and, I was like, hey, you know, thanks for sending this. I'll give it a try. But what happens when one of these hounds ditches his or her ball and goes and chases the other one? Like I can see that happening.

And it will. Like, again, they'll try to kind of exploit any little, you know. And I think that's one. You just as a coach, you sort of get out in front of it and just be like, hey, you have to keep that ball with you or it doesn't count. You pull out the tail. I'm going to give the kid the tail back.

You know, it doesn't count. You got to bring the ball with you and catch the hound. And that's sort of how you keep that like one-to-one player-to-ball ratio going on through the, through the whole game, I think. Yeah, yeah. And I, you know, I, when you brought up the incentive's issue, I defended Sharks and Middows with the following. The coach, so the problem is the worst kid, let's not bandy words, the worst kid gets their

ball knocked out right away, you know. That's the end of their practice with the dribble. Yeah, right. Then they can't dribble anymore. So the solution I had for that was. sharks and minnows was I would I would be the shark at the beginning and I would just very what would they call it passive resistance very gently sort of try you know I try to be scary so that it's fun but like move you know move around them make them change direction encourage them to keep the ball

inbound and do that for as long as I can to keep while everyone's engaged and then once people start to waffle a little bit that I knock somebody's ball out of bounds then a kid the kids start knocking each other's ball out of bounds really fast so that's That was my solution, but it's not as good as foxes and hounds because, like you said, everybody has a ball the whole time. There's no problem there. There's here and there, there's like, I mean, you can make an argument for your approach because, like, you know, when you just let that fox and hound thing go naturally, it's

going to be like, it's like mother nature. Like the slow kid is getting caught quick, you know? Like, there's no getting around that. Yeah. But when you're kind of controlling it, obviously you can let that player who's a little bit slower, have a little bit more time before getting caught. So it's, I don't know. Like, I could see a world where you just progress, you know,

go from one quick, you know, quick five-minute version of yours, move on to the other station. They'll love them both. They both will work. You know, maybe it kind of, like, and as we go on and talk about, like, different activities and stuff, I think part of the art of coaching that level of soccer and those level of players is like,

can you find ways to control the flow of the activity? that like caters to those players at all different you know end of the spectrum right so the player that is like really struggling um slow can't handle the ball etc right to the player that this isn't challenging for right and you can see that player too this is a real challenge yeah yeah and you might be able to sort of like just manipulate a little bit the the way the activity goes so that both ends both players are getting what they need out of it and that's like the beauty of it i think you know so like your approach it's important for the for for that kid like that kid needs to get a little bit of that very passive resistance that and it's just another one of their peers is certainly certainly

not going to give them you know no yeah doggy dog out there baby it totally is yeah and i think uh my experience with foxes and hounds is two which two which was your recommendation i think two is the right number of hounds because if it's just one it's pretty hard it can be pretty hard for them to catch anybody yeah um but anyway if you you don't remember anything else from this podcast episode remember fox is announced it's brilliant and it i i used it the first i used it the night that you sent me the email later that night i'm a good listener somehow which is awesome yeah um i used it that night and it was just immediate success like kids were i used it with my u-8s actually and kids were like changing direction and um

doing like little stop-start moves that they hadn't done before because they i don't know it just forces them to do that stuff. So do you go into it with, like, how do you go about putting those points across to the players? Or do you just kind of let it happen? I'm not very good at that. I'm not very good at, like, the message. It's all about, like, the exercise and me acting like a lunatic.

The energy and everything. Yeah, keeping them, yeah. So I think, like, so I think for any coaches listening and stuff that, and again, there's no right or wrong way to do on me. This stuff is just a perspective. But, like, for me, if you go. into stuff like that with like you know that it's going to bring out exactly what you just said it's going to bring out changes of direction it's going to bring out um changes of speed it's going to bring

you know um little uh like vision problem situations that are like hey you better keep track of where those hounds are as you go that kind of thing right but i think like i don't know for me what i really like to do is like let a round go and i don't i don't let those rounds go very long like they you know keep them moving quick yeah keep it keep it moving quick somehow and if somehow those rest of those foxes aren't getting caught, just wrap it up or whatever. But try to get it so that I can in between rounds, ask them questions. You know what I mean? Like, hey, how do you get away from one of these hounds?

You know, like you get one's pretty close to me. I got one behind me. How do we get away from her? You know, and you get one. Go, hey, why did you change direction? Do this with the baller. Okay, but then what? Like, she's pretty fast.

Well, you better change speeds. All right. Show me what that looks like. And just gives you chances to kind of, um, reinforce the concept. Yeah, yeah. have those conversations with them. It feels like it comes from, it does. You know, you're just kind of like guided discovery,

letting those ideas come from the players. And that's where like the content piece comes in. And then when you're got like down the line, when you're dealing with a game later in the day or over the weekend or whenever it is, it's like, hey, remember those fox and nouns? Like you are definitely going to have to change speeds here. Don't like, don't expect to get away from that defender

if you don't also change speeds, right? And it's the same, you know? And so hopefully that carries over a little bit. But I think, like, that's also important, too, that it's not just all running activities. There's some craft in, like, that the delivery is coming across and a little bit of planning on how it's going to come across. Okay, so let's talk through this little practice plan you sent me. We don't have to spend a lot of time on it. Let me see if I can pull it up for the YouTube watchers.

Hopefully everybody can see that. This is the U6 plan you sent me. And why don't you tell us about this drill? This is the first drill we do. if you can't see it up close as 25 yards by 25 yards and you got six kids out there. Yeah. So this one, obviously that's just, you know, that's, it could be eight kids. It could be five kids.

It could be whatever. But this one, I just do like this is as simple as it gets. And you should, I believe, anyway, kind of move your practices from simple to complex as best you can, even within these kind of grassroots practices. usually that just means take it from, you know, a grain and bring it toward the real being, right? So this one is just every kid with the ball. You just say, hey, I'm going to, I'm going to set a timer here. And, you know, it might be a minute, 45 seconds, 30 seconds. I mean, sometimes it feels like an eternity for these young kids.

But how many touches can you get with this surface, you know, during that time? This surface, you mean when you say this surface, you mean this surface of your foot? Of your foot, right? So it could be like the laces of your right foot only or inside of your left foot only or soul of your foot. I don't know, you get creative with it. Yeah. And if you go, if you dip back into it through the season, now maybe get more creative with it second time, et cetera. But, you know, so it's just, of course, like opportunity for them get a, you know, a ton of touches.

There's nobody in there trying to take the ball from them. They do have like the lines as the barrier, I suppose, right? And running into other players. So there is some element, like something to navigate there as far as pressure, but nobody's trying to take it from them or anything. And then, you know, kind of like I mentioned before with the Fox Announce thing, it's like most of the stuff I like to try to do coaching in between rounds, reps. So, you know, might stop it after, you know, 45 seconds and say, okay, you know, put your hand up if, you know, if you got, I don't know what, 20 touches, right? And, you know, hands stays up, 25. And, you know, we kind of figure out who the top couple of players are.

And then we, you know, how'd you do it? Like, man, you've got a lot of touches in there. How'd you do it? Yeah. Hey, I figured out that keeping it close was, like, I was able to add on more touches than, then keeping it, you know, kicking it far from. Okay, great. Let's see if we can do that next round.

Everybody go keep as close as you can, see if you can beat your number, that type of thing, you know? Yeah. And just try to coach them with little, like, just little challenges. You know, here's a little challenge. Obviously, it gets at the point you're trying to make. which is like tight ball control, that kind of thing, right? But they come up with the solution.

You give them a pretty clear focus for the next round. Boom, off they go, right? Like change the surface so that it's not redundant. They're getting like balance and everything like that. You know, and the next time it's like, hey, I saw a lot of these balls are going out of bounds, but, you know, Sally, you kept yours in. Like, when you get close to the line, how'd you do that? You know, she said, hey, I do this little thing.

Like, I roll this ball back, essentially, you know, or I. I do cut it. Awesome. Like this, you mean? You know, a demo it for them a little bit. Yeah, just like that. Okay, great. Anytime you guys get close to the line, same thing.

Try to do what Sally did right there. See if it works for you. How many touches can you get? Boom, off you go. You know? So it's a... Yeah, I love it. Sneak the coaching in, basically, is what it is.

You know? I've never done this before, and I will be doing it this fall for sure. Yeah, cool. Because it leads nicely into boxes and hounds, too. which we did already talk about, but let's just, let me just show you the... For some people, it's so much more helpful to look at it, so... Yeah. So the green ones are the hounds, they don't have a tail, they don't have a penny tucked in.

They're just, but they're chasing the foxes who do have a penny tucked in. A little tricky to get for five-year-olds to tuck a penny into their shorts, but, you know, you can help them with, you know, in full view of the parents. Yeah, try to get a friend to help them. when they yeah for me but yeah or you know parent or whatever but um but yeah so that's you know it it does like lead on nicely because you can kind of like you could pick up the first one and drop it into the fox and hounds and it more or less looks the same right it's players dribbling around getting touches um but now with a little bit of pressure right so those defensive players chasing them and um competition component more than just they're you know against themselves or against the clock kind of thing

it. But real similar, like you can move easily from one activity into the other. The size is, the way I drew it up, it's a little bit different, but you could very well do it on the same size with, you know, or with similar numbers. You could use the same size. Yeah. Grid is used on the one before type of thing. You just want those transitions to be like quick, you know, quick and. Which transitions? Like you transition from one activity to a number. I see. So if you're doing this counting one that, you know, we just went through. and now moving into the fox and hounds thing like can you do it without them even knowing you switch that that's perfect you know or or with very very little kind of like interruption but yeah yeah

you know and then you're hoping like here and there you just get recall going on in there right where it's like hey how do we get away from from from these hounds remember that uh you know that little rollback that sally showed us along that sideline like how do you think that might work if if a hound is coming from in front of you like could you use it there and they They always like, yeah, yeah, good. Like, here's how it'll look, you know? Great, show me. Can you show me, Molly?

Can you show me? Marial and they do it. You know what I mean? And you just kind of roll with it. And it's just all basically, hopefully, feels like it's at least in large part their ideas that you're working with, you know. And not too much of me, the coach, telling you, here's exactly how you play. Because, like, there goes the fun, like, right then and there, I think. Yeah.

I know if that makes sense. Yeah, it does. What do you think about, so one thing we do, or somebody told me to do, is to have, when I'm the one offering passive resistance, which is obviously neither of these games, but when I'm the one offering passive resistance, then I tell them that I have a weakness, and my weakness is if you do a certain move with the ball. And I could see that working with like the rollback or the, you know, move a cut with the outside of the foot or something.

What do you think of that whole, like, that whole thing? Because I know you have a drill in the UA planning session where the kids teach each other a move, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we can look at that one, too. I like it. I never really, I don't think I've ever had that idea that you just sort of ran by me, but I like it. I think that, like, you can take your activity into exciting spots with the player and, like, funny situations, you know, and if you can get a kid to do this little step over and like,

I just happen to fall every time, you know? Like, it's just one of those things. Yeah. Every time you go a step over, like coach fall. I don't know. I could see it working. I like it. Yeah, you become like kind of crusty, the clown out there, you know.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I like that idea. So. Okay, let's move to the next exercise in the U6 plan. Pretty self-explanatory, I think. But explain it anyway, Mike. Yeah.

So this one, so again, none of this stuff is really mine. Like maybe the counting one, just, most of it is just you just pick them up along the way, you know? Yeah. And this one I definitely want to give full credit on because it's, I got it from, I don't know if, I think it's kind of a national thing, but there's a program called Happy Feet that works with babies essentially, you know. I know there are different versions of it. There's like soccer shots that I think is somewhat similar. but my kids did one called Happy Feet and it's um i believe it's the the brainchild of a of a coach

andy and um so anyway who's very like one b one oriented so my kids did this they were so young and i'm like it locks it locks in perfectly so here's this setup basically so you have um coaches at each end so you kind of need like really do need to adults anyway on the field for this. Pile of balls. And you just have, it's a directional thing. So like you have the pink team in this case trying to score at the top, the blue team trying to score at the bottom. But it's each player with a ball.

And they, you know, when they score, they just sprint back, give their own coach a high five. That coach gives them a new ball. And they just go again. So there's tons of dribbling, a tons of scoring. There's chaos, lots of chaos. Yeah. And like the whole dodging other players as they come through

is like remarkably similar to traffic in games where you know, to see this thing in action, this is excellent, you know? And it's just because they're so, like you so have to have your head up for to not either run into your own player or somebody else coming.

It's just and you just get so, so much out of it for me. And like the satisfaction of scoring and the satisfaction of the high five and the satisfaction of. getting that new ball played in and all that stuff you know every time they come through maybe you kind of keep an eye on one of them and hey i love the way that you you've talked that one in or you know watch out you guys i think you wiped out on that one i don't know whatever you know but it gives you

those little moments with each kid as they come through um so it's great and it's like a good way to have something that's like to me that's about as much of a game as that age group sort of meet, you know, they're, um, like you can keep track of it and you just, I mean, like the math will become difficult, right? Because how many goals did each kid score and you get, you know, hey, I scored, you know, 10, but then somebody tells you they scored like 50 goals, you know, they'll lie straight through the, yeah. So you're going to maybe have to do like a little Z score on that or something, but you got, you got to find a way to rate that. And, um, but one way or another, you can kind of turn it into a competition a game, you know,

within, within reason. They usually like that. And, um, and it's, same thing like it keeps the balls to players ratio one to one and it's when you when you think about like the experience of it it's miles away from where the practice started with just in a one player one ball in a square like it's it really moved on and sort of like a journey in the practice but it's still one player one ball and it's still dribble change direction slotted into a goal in this case but most of this just dribble change direction change speed yeah man i i really like this and i i've never done it before And I'm going to, I'm going to do it. So I have one point to make about it, which is, you know, you say here, when the player scores, she leaves the ball and the goal, sprints back to on end line and high fives coach who gives her another ball. Crucial. It seems crucial to me that we don't have kids digging around on the goal to get their ball out. Yeah. Because then the chaos goes through the roof.

And you're getting kids like getting scored on, like hit in the back with the ball and stuff. All that stuff will happen. if you have them digging the ball. It will happen to the coaches too. Like it's, yeah, it's an awkward thing for the coach. You've got to find your little moments

to, like, get a couple out here real quick. And by the end, you're just kind of like rolling them out with your hands. But it's, yeah, you kind of put the adult in danger kind of thinking. But that just seems really, you know, it's so important in these practices to keep things moving and not to have, like,

and part of that is sometimes the ball, the coaches being really good at shagging the ball, you know. Yeah. 100% if you have like in this case I mean I don't know for for you guys but I'd be surprised if there's an under six practice anywhere in the country that doesn't have parents sitting around in their camping chairs like they all do you know what I mean so yeah I'm getting better at recruiting recruiting them yeah there you go yeah recruit them and you know

they'll probably enjoy it I don't know what but they you know just use an extra set of hands yeah all right and then uh see look this isn't rocket science this no this is uh and here's the last drill for a U6 training session. If everybody did U6 training sessions like this, we'd be, maybe we'll win a World Cup before 2,100. It is like, like you said, it's not rocket science. It's actually, and it's fun, you know? Like, it's, do try to tell the coaches, like,

because you can kind of see like the, like the defenses come up a little bit. I'm like, this is about fun also for you, I promise, you know? And if you, like, if you try to do this thing, you know, if you're aiming up here to kids that are down here, you know, and you're trying to make an adult soccer. Really, they need foxes and hounds. Like, it will not be fun for you,

but it will be fun for the kids, you know, if you kind of stick with the program. Yeah, it's no fun to try to get kids to pass and move when they're six and have them not do it, you know? Like, that's a fool's errand. A little bit. But yeah, I can go through that last. The last one's important.

So this one, right, so basically looks like the game, like at first glance, it looks like the game as it's played, or at least for us, 4 v4, little goals, no goalkeepers for under six. But it's a multi-ball thing. And I think like one of the simplest components for youth coaches at these very, very young age groups that they almost don't realize are available to them, certainly if they're like new to it and just volunteer. is that you can use more than one ball at a time, right? And so here's the coach on the side, feeding balls into this activity, right? And this is where it kind of comes back to that, you know, concept we were touching on earlier. It's like, can the coach kind of, you know, with a delicate touch, manipulate the game in a way that, like, it's going to make it work for most players? So you might have at any point, like, I don't know how I drew it up one to four balls on the field at any time.

It's probably, like, at its most populated, that ball to players ratio is going to be one to two, right? But sometimes it's going to be a little bit below that. And look, nothing's going to stop you from feeding a couple more in there. Like, sometimes a ball will lay around, but somebody will go find it and go try to score. But having multiple balls on the field, it just opens up. Like, it will look chaotic. And that's probably why most people are going to be, like, resistant to it. But it really is okay.

Like, it's going to give the players that, um, time on the ball that they need. There are reps. There are going to be like opposed possessions on the ball now, right? Because you're going to have somebody come try to take a ball from you unless you have eight balls on the field for eight players. Which you might. That seems like a little much. It is.

It is a little much. But that's kind of what we had in the activity before. So you go like move it along, get it closer to, right? Like get it closer to the game. So, but, right, you know, you'll see like the strong players. are just going to go find the ball and go score goals. Like that's just the way it goes, right? It's like survival of the fittest kind of thing.

But you'll be able as a coach as you watch to find players who are at the other end of that spectrum and like, this player's just not getting the ball right now. Well, guess what? Like I'm going to feed one in over on that end of the field and the, you know, the top player's going to go chase it down and a couple others are going to go. And then I'm going to feed one in close to that player's feet. And nobody's going to know that like why I'm doing it. But that player is going to get three, four, five, six touches.

and if I'm good about it and if he or she can kind of like recognize the moment, they may advance and score or they may advance over, you know, right. And you highlight it like you catch them being good. Hey, great, great, great. Keep dribbling. Go, go, go. That was best. One of the best plays of the game, that kind of thing.

And as a coach, you can kind of like delicately adjust those dials simply with how many balls are on the field and who are they going to and when, right? And then here and there for like the purist that this is going to make that. them like get sick to their stomach here and there are multiple balls on the field. Just let it fizzle, like let the attrition happen so that there's one ball in the field for a little while, you know, and there you have your normal game. See what happens with it. And it's good.

Like that's what they'll have to, you know, do on the weekend. And it's nice to have that little test and touch point. But you don't want that mode to be the dominant mode throughout a practice simply because the players don't get the ball enough. And for most of those players, it won't be that fun. It will be for a little bit. Like in that case, when you have one ball on the field and they'll all be engaged for a certain amount of time. If it kind of, you know, if that ball lasts too long, you'll start seeing a couple

like fall off, feed a new ball in or end the game. But that's, that's to me, how you control that piece of it. And at the very end, you have like that, you know, that flexibility to play around with it. And that's where you're kind of like dabbling in and out of one-to-one ratio, to 1 to 1 to 8 ratio and it's healthy for them. Yeah, especially that U6 age group. I mean, scrimmages are, and honestly, games are kind of, you know, for like three-fourths of the kids, not that useful, you know.

No, I totally agree. There is something there to like, because I, you know, I'll read here and there that, you know, at these age, I think honestly, I think even in the U.S. soccer stuff, I was reading, you know, way back when I was starting to put some of these guidelines together for her own. coaches kind of said there's no need for the games at at at this age like just do the practice and that's good enough you know and they'll have a little competition within there i do think like this is just like a personal thing i do think the game as an event yeah it's a good touch point right it's as an event like you know you talk a lot about the culture of like where our culture is

in the uh in in this country with with the game right and it's like i think you want that like when i first laid eyes on this house operation that we have in my little town. It was an event. It was a festival. You go out there and you just go like, pooh, it's organized, beautiful, like we've got this big, beautiful open field at a state park that happens to be in our, in our, in our, in our, you know, our town is, uh, and it, it's, it's a thing for everybody to come together. They all kind of swoop in, you know, three seconds before the game start, but that's, that's a whole other, you know, point. And, you know, spill out of the cards, get on the field, and boom, it goes. And, like, I think having that touch point for the kids and for the players is good.

And, like, is the balls to player ratio off for that 30-minute game, however long it is at this age group? Yes. But it still plays a part in the whole thing. If they don't understand that it's a game and organized thing, then I think we're missing something. Yeah, you're right. That's right. Yeah. And especially, we've got a soccer and the people who love soccer.

I kind of have to meet people where they are a little bit. And at least in my community, you know, if we, if we were like, hey, come join, come play rec soccer. We're not going to have any games. And we're not going to have any teams, you know, it's all development. This is developmentally appropriate, folks. Everybody would be like, peace. Yeah. Nobody's, nobody's signing up for that.

It might be a riot. You know, you got to, you got to give the games. Yeah, yeah. The games are good. And little kids do, it is good for kids to sort of, submit themselves to a larger sort of event, to use your word. You know, to say, like, I'm part of this. I have to, like, sort of follow the rules here and do this stuff.

I'm just saying maybe that's not the best way to coach, but it is, it is true. It's true for humans. No, yeah. And they start, you know, that little piece of how do we work together and, like, the team aspect of it. And, you know, I don't think there should be much emphasis on who wins these things, you know, or like we don't keep score for ours. Some of the kids will try to keep score.

I just, they always ask. I just, I don't know. I don't, you know, I lose track. But, yeah, no, it plays a part. So I have a couple other drill ideas that I wanted to mention. I'm always trying to keep people engaged, keep them on the same page with me and touching the ball a lot. One that works really well for five-year-olds.

I don't know if you've ever used this. We call it pine cones. And what it is is, I don't have a picture of it, sorry. But everybody, I put like 19, it's the number I always use, is 19 little traffic cones at the halfway line. And then I have one team in one goal and one team and the other goal. And every kid has a ball. And I say, go.

And they have to dribble out and pick up a cone and take it back to their goal and stack it up and whichever team of the two gets more pine cones wins the game and um you know it's not like opposed or anything but it is at least for the skill level of the kids that i'm coaching a lot of the times it's it's so good because they're they're actually dribbling the ball and kind of keeping their head up and kind of figuring out how to do two things at once you know a lot of them when they first do it they reach down to pick up the ball when they go to get the cone you have to like kind of train your muscles. Yeah, yeah.

But then they get the hang of it and kids really love it. And they do, I can see they do get better with the ball from it. So that's one. I like it. So help me understand it. So all of the cones are in the center, correct? They're actually along the center line. So basically from sideline to sideline on this little 4-4 field.

Yeah. Okay. And so you have like two teams of four or something kind of going at it. Yeah, sometimes, sometimes two teams of three, sometimes two teams of two, you know. Can one team sabotage the other in any way or no? No. Kids have suggested different ways to do that to me, and none of them have made sense yet. Yeah.

I like it. I like it. I'm sure you can riff off of it a lot too, right? Like, if you were to scatter those cones, how would that change things? You know, if you were to do, like, here's a set of, you know, green cones and orange cones. And this, you know, the green team, you've got to get the green ones. You got to get the orange ones. And maybe that puts some directional challenge in there.

Maybe that puts some, you know what I mean? Some tabitage, some strategy. I don't know. I mean, they're five, so. But it might be something you built toward, right? Then you could have an even number of cones and as long as you have equal of each color. And then whoever finishes first wins. Something like that, you know.

But it might be something like as you come back to it through a season, right? So maybe you get a couple times where they get it right, simply. and then, hey, here's this new version of this game. You know, I don't know. I think you can probably rip off off a little bit. I like it. Another one, which I think has been made obsolete by the game that you were, what was that third one called again,

the one with everybody scoring a bunch of goals, high-fives game. Yeah. So this is a drill I've used, but that I probably won't because I'll start using high-fives. But I was running into this, problem where some kids were pretty good at getting pretty good at dribbling but they couldn't like they didn't have a sense of urgency about like putting the ball in the net so i would so basically

i would just set to this is kind of breaking some rules here but set up two of them on either side actually i did it where i would set up four two going one way and two going the other way from midfield and I would just say go and then the first one to score wins you know so they would race to score in the goal and I do think like you know if anybody's really hard up and they're like

want to try it I think it's not a bad idea because it's it forces them I mean it gives them the muscle memory of like going fast to like put the ball in the net you know because they might not do it any other time but then they

you do it, you do this goal races thing and they're like, this is the goal to beat this other kid. And they do it. And then you kind of see it translate into like the opposed activities and stuff. Yeah. No, I like it. I like any of that stuff. Like I think you're pushing the right buttons because that, that is a thing what you're talking about. Like the, you know, sometimes like lack of urgency or lack of speed or can we get these kids to change gears when dribbling and stuff like that.

Yeah. try to find little mechanisms to do it. And it sounds like you've found one there, you know. So when you have one racing the other, are the other ones kind of like waiting in line to be the next ones to race? Yeah. I mean, ideally you have four going out of time. So people aren't waiting in line for very long,

basically getting their ball and coming back in the middle. I think that that's a thing. And like so for so many coaches, like some of the organizations that like almost feels like, hey, there almost has to be a line for this. Just ask for parallel stations, right? So it's like, same thing you just said, but can we set this up on two or three or whatever it is. Yeah.

As long as you have an assistant coach to sort of make sure it moves along and you're good and they're going, you know, it takes that waiting and line piece out of it. And they don't like disrupt your practice or anything. But yeah, I think it's good. It takes some time for kids to learn how to do it, you know. But once they get it, they really do it. enjoy it, you know. That's the key thing is kids enjoy that drill.

They enjoy that exercise. Yeah, you got to have a radar for that. Like if they really like it, take note of it, right? And if there's a little, you know, like you said, it technically maybe breaks a rule here or there in your organization. Yeah, but they love it. And they're like enjoying the soccer. That counts for a lot.

It's like a weighted thing, you know, and that counts for a lot of that weight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. The last one I wanted to mention. And then I want to hear a few.

any others is something I call sharpshooter. So you have the, you have, say you have six kids in practice, let's say you have eight kids in practice, you put four on each side, but they can't cross the halfway line. Everybody starts with a ball. And then I set up two pretty large goals with cones, maybe like at the edge of the goal box, you know, there's sort of a cosmetic goal box in these four-view-four fields. Yeah, yeah. So sort of off the corners of the goal box, maybe a five-yard-wide goal, maybe six yards wide, on each side.

And what they're trying to do is pass it through the goal on the other side, shoot it through the goal on the other side, and block the other team from shooting it through their goals on their side. And then you just go to a certain number. I usually have a coach, an assistant on the other side who's like keeping track of the score. but the kids really love this and it also kind of this is something else that I noticed wasn't going very well in practice

is like nobody could really strike the ball they weren't like hitting the ball hard and so we started doing this and it and it does build that muscle memory of like look I see an opening there I'm going to actually shoot it hard because I know if I just like softly hit it

it's not going to get there and I think that that exercise probably breaks some rules too, but I've had some success with it. So how many balls are on the... Basically, as many balls as you have should be out there. Because they're going to pass... They're passing it back and forth from side to side,

so they have to retrieve the ball and then shoot it, and then sometimes they forget, and there's a bunch of balls collecting back by the goal. So how many balls are active at any one time? I would say six. Okay. So it's got multiple. It's a lot.

I mean, it could be eight. If you got eight kids, there could be eight balls active at all times. And probably should be close to that seven, eight. I like it. Like there's,

I almost kind of, when you were asking for like different activities, I almost kind of put a striking one in there, which I kind of, for me at under eight, I like to get into that a little bit. Again, because like in our setup,

there, there's a goalkeeper in the little, goal and like their inability to strike the ball is stands out a lot but then also in the at the highest level sometimes you could go like inability to strike the ball sometimes is it's like glaring you know for for certain players and definitely like when they get to my my college level when I work with them as players it's like you know if a player can strike it cleanly that's a special skill set you know most are just kind of mediocre in that department and yeah Some are, you know, poor in that department.

So it's an important thing. And I almost sent one to you that's like real kind of similar, but it's just boiled down to either either 1 v1 or 2v2. And it's kind of set up on, I just think of it as like a tennis court, but it's almost identical. Like you stay on your side of the court, make it very, very tight. Like without fail, as you go to set it up, you'll think the game can be longer than it, the length of the field can be longer than the players can handle. So make it very tight. It might be like, honestly, it might be 20 yards long, you know, or 22 yards long at most.

And just kind of, okay, you stay on your side. Each player is, if it's 1B1, they're both the goalkeeper and the strike garments. They have to deal with both aspects of it, right? Now, the goal for them is behind them on the goal line. But you have a certain number of touches, right? So when it comes on my side, I've got four touches to use up however I want, right? I can dribble it closer and strike it all the way up to like midfield.

Or I can just hit it first time if I really wanted to or whatever. And then sometimes you can add like a teammate to that. And now it becomes 2v2. And now you're sharing those touches as needed, right? So if you and I are playing together, maybe I control it first touch, play it too with your, with my second touch, you lay it off for me with your, with our team's third touch. And I strike it with the fourth. but that's like most players can't sync that up but you might like build toward that you know what I mean

but it is sort of unopposed I mean there's opposition on the other side of the field but there's nobody there trying to take the ball from you and then you just put a little rule in there like if the ball stops moving the other team gets it so it kind of keeps the game and so it's just one ball at all times just one ball yeah yeah so that's where you have to watch with it right but if you just have it set up on a bunch of parallel chords you can you do it 1 B1 where you can stretch and break the rules a little bit and go 2 v2 right and again this depends on the age group but if you're under 8 or certainly under 10 you're you're fine you're within those parameters and now they're starting to do a little bit of certainly at under 10 they're starting to do a little bit of like

how as a pair can we make accomplish this task you know of keeping the ball rolling sort of create some kind of angle to strike and then you got to for sure make sure that the focus is on the technical of like the basics, right? So toe pointed down, ankle locked, shoulders a little bit more forward, that kind of thing. And, you know, like I found with these young kids, when we get to a point in the season, and it even, I don't know under six, but under eight, I think you can get there where by the end and when they're having some trouble with that piece of it, that last piece, the striking piece, like, they just find a way to make sure that they have exposure to the technical components. When we shoot, this is how we shoot, right? And so the ankle lock piece is probably the

biggest part that there's like foreign to them. So you kind of have to work on that. Like, yeah. How do you keep that foot from wobbling? I just always say like, don't let it flab in the breeds. It's got to be like firm. If we try to pull a foot, would it move or not, right? And you want the answer to be no. And, um, and like where on the ball do we want to make contact? It'll be like a mystery to them kind of just through the center of the ball, toe pointed down. I have them driving almost everything at that age. They have to move their. way through the different finishing, you know, styles and techniques as they move along.

But it will pop up in the game. It's like this stuff actually works, you know? And like you'll see a kid, the light bulb go off and all of a sudden now they strike it with a little bit of technique. I'm like, what do you know they may score? So that stuff is important. I think those little setups like you have like yours sounds a little bit fun and chaotic in a good way.

I love it. I think maybe it's like almost like I could see, I could foresee a practice where we almost like early on find some little way to tease out the technique pieces of how you strike strictly like the technical and mechanical stuff put it into my little one B one version move it into your bigger number version with lots more balls get let's get a game going that does have a goalkeeper in each goal afterwards and see if just make sure that like the only coaching we really do is the ball striking piece of it and the light bulb will go off for. somebody that day, you know?

Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of what it's all about. Well, you got one or two more drills burning a hole in your pocket? I know we got, I know we're not supposed to call them drills, right? We're supposed to call them exercises. I don't care what anybody calls them.

I think that whole thing is pretentious to me. Just to what, you know. Good, good, good, good. Yeah. Because I've been calling them drills. Yeah, it's fine to call them drills for me. I don't know. in that under 8-1 I sent you,

I have a 1-1 one that I picked up that I like that I think was like, when I first came across it, it sort of opened up an avenue for me to work with players in all the way from like grassroots kids up through you know, whatever college, senior

level adult players called a called space invaders. Yeah. Tribling. Keep talking about it and I'll try to pull it up on the screen. So what it does, so yeah, as as a,

trying to pull it up at him. So it's a it's somewhat of a similar kind of setup of what I sort of described as like a relatively small court. It's like I've got it drawn up as 15 yards long, put a midfield stripe in the middle, right? And you just have one player with a ball at an end line and one player standing on the line in the middle. And the player who's standing on the line in the middle is the defender. They are not allowed to leave that line. So they can move laterally as much as they want, but they can't move forward, they can't move back. And now what the attacking player is trying to do, they dribble from one end, and can they successfully dribble past that defender who is trying to win the ball, but they're restricted

by only being able to move sideways, right? And just bring it to that other, the opposite end line if you do, like, that success, you score, right? And so you just have that one B1 setup. Yeah, there's the picture. So you just have that one. B1 setup and it kind of like the beauty of it is is it like allows you to sort of hone in on sort of those like mysterious aspects of how certain players are able to like successfully take players on 1B1 and certain players are not and so you might kind of look at it like okay well how do we approach the player in the first place right like what do those lines look like and I think like the vast majority are just kind of line up in the middle, go at them centrally,

that defender will stay central. And they're going to have a tough time getting around them, even if they do push from one side to the other, like, will they be able in the end to like keep the ball and play and get to the end line? Maybe not. But so now you can start playing about like, okay, what angles are you coming at that player on, right? Does it make more sense to sort of come from wider and attack them, right?

Or come out of diagonal. And now how do we get them to move a little bit? like let's talk about where you want to go past them like where on the field do you want to pass them point to me on the line where you want to pass okay right there great can we move her out of that the defender out of that space how do you do it right and then you maybe start getting into like yeah I bet if I leaned a little bit this way with the ball and then took it that way maybe that would move her out of the way right great now what comes next right and now it's like hit the gas and get they're fast. And for this, you'd have to find a little mechanism for that.

If you, because I, you do want them to run away from players. Like for me, it's hit, hit the gas after you've gotten beyond this defender. Because this defender is so restricted in there, that, that piece of it is kind of gone. You may put a little countdown in there. You may allow, you know, ultimately allow that player to, that defensive player to go live once the ball's gone past them, you know, so the attacking player has a little bit of a head start. But somehow in there, you, you want to work it out so that they, they, they, they, they have to be able to, hit the gas once they go by them so that once you've eliminated that that defender they stay eliminated from the game type of concept but i found that really really useful and i didn't get it

i cannot remember where it was at the convention somewhere was at the united soccer coaches convention or the nmcala convention back you know in his previous name but um i want to say it was from like a manchester united youth academy session or something but um kind of showed it to me i saw it in action I'm like perfect. It sort of allows to get in on the nitty gritty of moving beyond a player in somewhat of like an isolated way that I liked. So you'd be doing this like simultaneously with everybody on the team? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And the player and the defender has to stay on that line. Yeah. They can't, okay. Yeah, they stay on that line. They switch the rolls, you know. And every, I see every two minutes. That seems like a long time. But what do you, they get a point.

each time they get past them or something? Yeah, maybe it doesn't even matter. Yeah, set up scoring like that. But also, like, so I don't know, the, like, software that I used to put these things together. Like, this one probably is drawn up for my senior age players, you know, like that timing. That is too long, like for under eight.

Oh, yeah. I wouldn't do it for 10 minutes, you know what I mean? I'd do for 45 seconds or something or, you know. And then switch places and see if the other one can do get past the other player more than, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I like it. I like it.

Yeah. And you maybe do it in teams. Like if you have multiple fields going on side by side, you know, all the pink players are the defender at first. All the blue players are they attacking at first. And let's see how many can success, like, add up how many times, you know, hey, Adam, did you, how many times did you get by that defender? Hey, you got three. Well, I got two. And, you know, Jeff over here got just add them up and created a little competition, but it's still an individualized kind of thing, you know?

Okay. So, I don't know. I like that. I love that. I love that. So then I think You know in that same like if you have time for one more do you want to look at one more? Yeah yeah yeah definitely

Okay If we want to go to that last one that I put on there So this is like a multi ball multi goal game with goalkeepers so is that yeah I was gonna ask you about multi goals because I think I read Germany is is like requiring multi goals I don't know about requiring but they're like doing a lot of multi goal stuff with you sixes Yeah well I the multi goal thing is important like I think I can't remember if I mentioned it earlier, but I think like unlocking possibilities for coaches at these like real young grassroots kind of setups, how many balls can you use

and how many goals can you use, right? And that will sort of open up all kinds of opportunities, right? So this one is just kind of has a setup where there's two main goals and in this, you know, game that I put together that does have goalkeepers in. But then there's two mini goals like off in the corners, right, that don't have goalkeepers in. Those are a little like pop-up goals or whatever. And again, you can float multiple balls in. You can let it kind of fizzle out to just one ball for a little while here and there. But what it's kind of kind of do, and it's sort of like, for me, straddles a line between, you know, under eight, under 10 range,

where you just are beginning to sometimes want to start introducing like collaboration between players a little bit. And, you know, so you'll have situations here where you'll have a player go take the ball in individually, attempt to score on the goalkeeper himself or herself. That's great, right? Then you'll have situations where they have that same scenario coming, but one of their teammates has run up to their left or to their right. And, you know, like a light bulb goes off and they go, hey, if I dish this off to the side, that player can go score in this other little goal, right? And so now you get that little bit of like collaborating to solve problems there together. You might start playing with like 2V1 ideas offensively. And then the coaching piece and the piece that I would keep coming back to for that like I believe pretty strongly in is that just keep plan A dribbling and doing it yourself.

So even though there are now multiple goals, even though now there are multiple options potentially of like this team. off to my right, this teammates off to my left. Yeah, but can I do it myself? And then when you start coaching, like, the top players that you can feel have like a little bit of intuition in their game and are starting to kind of get that, you know, think a little bit, I don't know, more artistically or abstractly about this whole thing, then you get it's like, hey, can you use that player as a decoy to just go ahead and do it yourself, you know? So maybe you dish it off to them last play.

and here's the same setup again, how do you make it look and feel like you're going to dish it off, but still go yourself, you know? Yeah. And that's like, you see Gior Reno do stuff like that. You know what I mean? It's not just like that subtlety.

We used to see it. We're going to see it again. He's coming back. He's coming back. Yeah, we're going to see it again. But I, you know what I mean? Like that's, that's that like, man, those players that have that, like,

beautiful subtlety and craft that you just can't see like that surprise that's, you know, in their back pocket, it's stuff like, it's stuff like this for me. And like, I'm always surprised that the players that can begin to bring that stuff out

if you put lay out the field in this way. And then you can again, play with the incentives, right? Maybe the goal with the goalkeeper in there is worth two and the other ones are worth one. And that starts factoring into things for them a little bit, you know. But it's,

it's worthwhile to consider like how many goals you have on the field for sure. Okay. I think this is a great amount of stuff for people to chew on. And, you know, if you're signing up to coach this fall and you want to stay in touch, you know, send an email. Scuffpot at gmail.com. It's basically my favorite topic. Mike, thanks so much for doing this, man.

And thanks for all your help over the years. Thank you, Adam. I'm, like, I'm, this is my favorite. I listen to almost all of your guys stuff. And this is, I think, my favorite stuff that you guys touch on. It's like always in depth. You know, you go deep on this stuff, which is what I love about it. And so I'm grateful that you thought to have me on.

And just, I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for what you're doing for the game. Like it's this whole thing, the longer I'm around in it, you know, the more I realize that this whole thing is just inches on very, very few people doing important work. And you're certainly one of them doing it. So I mean that. I'm generally grateful for you doing it. Ever any way I can help.

You just let me know and I'll help. Thanks, man. Yeah, I appreciate you saying that. And I think that's it from us. Okay, that's the third interview in our little series on youth soccer. It's not the end, though. We're going to take comments and questions from people.

And at least a couple of the guests and I are going to record one more episode together and respond to as many of those comments as we can. You can leave a voicemail for us by following the link in the show notes. So if you can coach, I think you ought to, and if you want Mike's U6 practice plan and some other ideas in PDF format, they're in the show notes for download. Coaching little kids can be exhausting, but it really is a blast. Highly recommend it.

We'll see you.