Barca U9's in Action.

     Please try to get your player to watch the video below with you.  After you've watched the first few minutes jump ahead to the 15:00 minute mark.


    These are players in the Barcelona Academy going through a typical training session.  These are U9 players. That means they are all eight years old.  Think about that.  Now, there are some drills they are running that I might like to steal for one of my own training sessions but what I'm most impressed by is the level of focus the players have.
     There have been times when a parent or a fellow coach might ask "when are you going to work on passing?"  By which they mean tactical passing, not the ball skills needed to execute passes.   My normal response is to say that until my players have actually developed a good passing stroke (kick) and have developed a good touch for receiving passes then there is no point in talking to them about when and where to pass the ball.  The tactics are worthless without the techniques.  So, it occurs to me while watching the young players in this video that I need to take yet another step back to an even more basic level.  If I can't get my players to stay focused at practice I can't begin to teach them technique.  This is something I need to think about for a while.