Quote:
Originally Posted by Dazza
Thanks for the reply guys.
Cookie, I think you might be right, warm-ups could be a small part of it. We're going into games warm now and holding the opponents out for 3-5 minutes, before letting a soft goal in. An opponent will dribble the ball through 2 or 3 players from open play and score. They'll defend well for small periods and then let a soft goal in.
I think we also have difficulty getting the ball out of defense to the attacking third, and so spend more time, than I'd like, defending.
A few things to work on eh?
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To be honest, I'd quit worrying about the result, or the goals conceded, and just look for progress week by week. They are, after all, only 7 years old. Just praise them for all the good things that they start to do - be it a pass, a tackle, great position, a shot at goal etc. and you'll soon seem them improve.
It takes a long while, or a good squad of players, before they start to keep a good shape and learn about decision making for themselves. So long as you empower them with the right to make those decisions, you'll see a great team develop given time.
I've watched lots of U7 and U8 teams where one player dominates because he is very skillful. The team learn to play by passing to the one decent player and they then run up a cricket score and go home happy because they won. But this to me is not developing the team, and teams like this are normally overtaken within a few years by sides who learn good technique on the ball, and also the benefit of passing.
Just keep working on technique, every week, and you will end up being the team that everybody dreads playing. Trust me, it worked for my U8's.