Suggestions for U8 Small Sided Games

Originally Posted by loghyr I wasn't coaching before the move to small-sided soccer in Oklahoma. But all the old salts here say that smaller teams actually dillute the learning. Instead of having 1 seasoned coach working with 12-14 kids, you would get 1 seasoned coach working with 6-7 kids and one newbie dad working with 6-7 kids.

In most of the country, it meant that you went from one newbie dad working with 12-14 kids, to two newbie dads each working with 6-7 kids.

At my club, the U-8 recreational teams have 12 players. They play 4v4 on two small adjacent fields. Each 12-player team is split in two and you have 4v4 with a couple of subs on one field, ditto for the rest of the team on the next field. Coaches from the two teams are in a 5-yard gap between the two fields. You try to split the teams into two roughly equally capable halves. For the second half, one team keeps its two halves on the same fields where they played the first half, while the other team swaps fields. So, if the two halves are not working out equally, there is variety. The players see different opponents with different styles.

We get fast-paced 4v4 soccer, very fluid, no goalkeepers, no sweepers standing in goal, but you still have 12 players per coach rather than 6-7. Each coach is encouraged to train an assistant coach, because you cannot watch two fields at once and handle substitutions. It helps the coach training/experience pipeline. You have 12 players available for practice sessions, whereas if you only had 6-7 you could not even put together a 4v4 game in practice.

I guess I am so used to the advantages of this system that I forget that other clubs are doing something different. I don't think having 6-7 players on a team at U-8 is a great idea, for many reasons.