The U-9 kids were confused.
The ball had gone out of play on the side of the field where their coaches were not. No one knew what to do.
This guy with a yellow shirt and a black maskwas motioning with two hands over his head. What did that mean?
Yes, the person in the yellow shirt and the black mask was me, reffing my first game in 10 months. The kids were also playingfor the first time in 10 months, and the game wasn’t the same one they had played on small fields with small goals last fall.
The point here isn’t to call out the parent coaches ofthese rec teams. The East Coast has had all the rain the West Coast desperately needs, so Virginia teams that practice on grass had been out of luck. One coach told me his pregame goal was to learnhis players’ names.
But the games reminded me that clubs and coaches at all levels simply don’t prepare their kids for games — a short-sighted, extreme interpretation of favoringskill development over all else.
Pro coaches typically scoff at the notion of teaching throw-ins. The intent is sound. Training should be about foot skills, especially at this age.
Theproblem is that the games are supposed to be valuable for development as well. And every minute spent herding players into position for throw-ins, corner kicks, goal kicks and kickoffs is a minutelost.
Games aren’t the best place to learn such basics. They’re chaotic. They’re loud. Players are overstimulated and lost.
Why not take five minutes to explain thebasics of a throw-in — two feet down, behind the line, two hands over your head, throw? Why not take five minutes to explain the rules of goal kicks, corner kicks and the buildout line?
Better yet — in this social-distancing era, why not schedule a virtual watch party so players and coaches can watch a game together? Coaches can explain the mechanics of the game and perhaps pointto examples of players doing good things. (Or bad things. Maybe watch the game on mute.)
Even better — could some enterprising person with good video-editing skills put together anentertainer explainer for kids?
YouTube is full of videos that explain the game to fans, such as this entertaining piece from Minnesota United:
But kids don’t need to know that soccer snobs — or“football” snobs — use words like “kit,” “pitch” and “match.” (Also, the referee signals are completely wrong, and the explanation of offside isincorrect. Fun video, though.)
So until Minnesota United unleashes its video crew to explain goal kicks, throw-ins and the buildout line, we’ll have to make do with a hodgepodge ofvideos.
YouTube has a handful of videos that do a decent job on offside. Onevideo by a young ref explains the buildout line, though it’s really pitched towardrefs and coaches, not players. Throw-in videos tend to be about technique rather than the rules themselves, but a succinct take gets the point across. (No U-9 player is going to watch an eight-minutevideo on throw-ins.)
But even if we get a great video aimed at kids rather than parents(or yet another slideshow for referees), there’s no substitute for seeing things in person.
So come on, coaches. Take five minutes out of your practice and explain the game. You’llget that time back when the time comes to face another team.
Good reminder Beau! The LOTG (for any skilled activity with a specific goal) is required by the definition of competitive sport and serves as the basis on what is allowable for two sides to keep score. I’d recommend taking it one step further and also share the intent of the rules so our TEAMs not only play within the LOTG of the game but they do it with the highest integrity to preserve the competitive performance of the opponent, thus preserving the opportunity to be at your best, too.
With all due respect to Beau Dure, U9 players will not sit/stand still for 5 minutes. Better to use 10 minutes, maybe 15,at each of the first two practices to run through practice restarts, explaining as you go along. Start with throw-ins, CKs and GKs. At the second practice, go through DKFs, IFKS and PKs. If a drop ball situation arises in a practice ending scrmmage, deal with that then..If not, hopefully the CR in the first game in which a drop ball situation arises can explain it on the fly. Trying to do all restarts on one time is asking the young players to absorb too much in one lesson.
It really doesn’t take that long to go over the rules. I spread the dedicated time over the pre-season practices. The kids got a brief explanation and demonstration. Then they were preforming the restarts during play. For matches I designated who would do the restarts (by position), so it was a pretty simple coaching challenge. I didn’t put kids into situations that they weren’t capable of performing successfully.
Coaches are not at fault if clubs schedule matches before any practices.