U8 Boys get up early for a game of "chase-the-ball-around-the-field".

     All of my teams seem lately to be plagued by a tendency to want to chase around after the ball like a pack of puppies.  Here's a video clip that demonstrates what I'm talking about:



     I've watched a lot of youth soccer and I think what we see in this situation is a combination of two things.  The players want to be involved in the play so they stay focused on the ball since that's where the action is.  But at the same time they are at an age where they don't have a well developed ability to be aware of the ball and of what's going on around them at the same time.  That is, their peripheral vision is not well developed yet so many of them aren't very good at discerning when they should or shouldn't go to the ball.  As a result they generally chase the ball rather than anticipate where it will go.  They wear themselves out running around without actually being in a position to make a good play on the ball.   And that's what we saw throughout the U8 boys game yesterday.  By halftime most of them were worn out and playing listlessly.  Chalk that up to a combination of the game time and the way they were playing.
     I'm hoping that if they take a moment to watch the video above they might get a start on getting past this phase.  One of the themes I try to touch on prior to every game with every team I coach is that the players need to always be aware of three things:  Where the ball is;  Where the goals are; Where your teammates are.  What you can see in the video is that frequently our players end up defending against each other because of the three things mentioned the only one they are really aware of is the ball.
     I don't spend any time in practice talking to them about "position play" such as playing defense because I want to devote all the time we have to working on dribbling skills.  Then in game situations I don't coach them to "stay in position".  Rather I just keep reminding them to keep their eyes open and know where they are and where their teammates are.  I do want them to play with a sense of the different position responsibilities on the field but I want them to develop the kind of field awareness that makes the responsibilities seem obvious.  Of course, it is frustrating to see players get stopped by their own teammates just when they are trying to use some dribble moves.  With that in mind I will try to modify the way I'm working with this particular team during the games by setting some guidelines for them in terms of positioning.  I'll write more about that once we've given it a try.