How do I approach Under 12s?

[overbyc]

As a new member to coaching, even though I have played and studied the game for over a decade how do you go about coaching Under-12s? As in running a practice differently from under 14s or under 10s.

[Val]

For me, the U12 skills are that I tend to stop rotating every player into goal (which I do for U8s (and yes we use keepers for U8s) and U10s) and start to specialize a bit. Maybe 2-4 keepers.

Although many on here seem to have kids who can handle this earlier, at least here in my corner of the US, I start working on having my players work on beating someone on the dribble. U10 skill sets for me, again here in the US, are going aggressively to goal and shooting, good first touch and diagonal passing. I do a lot more isolations, 1v1 in a 10 yard channel and my SSGs have multiple goals.

And lastly, U12 is typically when we introduce offsides, so I have to spend a lot of time on field position and spacing. I don't introduce the notion of an off-side trap until the kids have played for a year, so depending on the mix of players I have, that might be U12 or u14.

[ian.curry]

U12's I feel should know the ins and outs of offside - but I wouldn't encourage them to play it. You will come up against fast strikers who will simply wait a second or two and easily beat the trap. Better to have to whole line push up, but keep a yard or two behind the strikers.
Corners are important - you will gain many of these and if you have just one set routine that works, you could be looking at 3/4 goals a month from them.
Keeping working on the so-called 'proper' football aspects - ie passing, movement, control, vision. Tactics aren't too important here as any single player can make a careless error messing everything up. At u12s also it is good to have two strong headers of the ball in the middle - but strength is not a neccesity until maybe a year later.

Hope this helps.

[Jerzy]

Like Ian said with corners, dead ball skills start mattering, I really focus on throw ins as an attacking move in the game. For U10s all I can really do is work on getting the kids to take them quickly, but at this age, they start to grasp that. With the U12 boys I had last year, I was able to work on the long ball as well. No, not just booting it, but looking for the 20-30 yard through ball. Ian also mentioned heading, and while I haven't worked on that before, I got a couple of drills from a coaching clinic I was late last fall that I've thought would be good for this age group, but I think I'm coaching U10s next fall.

[Craig]

How Do I Join Arsenal Under 12's?

I Enjoy Playing Football And I Am A Good Stricker

And Im 11 Years Old.

[ian.curry]

Join a local Sunday team and your school too, then if you are deemed good enough they may invite you to trial with them.

[mcolwell1959]

It would depend on the skill levels of your under 10's. Mine are reasonably good but i have coached them for two years and so work on strengths and weaknesses with them. If you are new to them i would undertake an assessment of each boys abilities by running a series of skill test, i.e. control, passing, dribbling, shooting, heading. When you have established where the basic strengths and weaknesses are tailor your training accordingly. We play good teams but also play weak teams at under 10 so standards differ significantly. From an English perspective i think that we are keener on quick passing, movement andshooting whereas Amricans are keener on dribbling as a major part of the game.

I would suggets that anyone who wants to play for Arsenal should change their nationality to French!

[lanesra]

Originally Posted by mcolwell1959

I would suggets that anyone who wants to play for Arsenal should change their nationality to French!

That or being African. But with the problems we've had integrating Theo and getting him to look comfortable, this advice isn't half bad.