I just volunteered to be the head soccer coach for a group of six year olds. Looking for some help or tips. More specifically, I already know there is going to be a divide among the parents: those who want practices and those who do not. What is the norm in your corner of the world?

Depends on how many kids you have. I was all in favor of a weekly practice at about age 7 for my oldest. I am specifically avoiding that with my youngest. Live and learn? Or maybe just getting older, lazier and more overwhelmed. This fall I will have 3 kids on soccer teams. Are you picturing my Saturdays yet?

Let me start by saying, May The Force Be With You. It will help if you have some experience herding cattle but I'm sure you'll do great.

When we headed our son's U6 soccer team we found that one 1-hour practice a week worked fine. We tried two but it was just too much at that age. We also stopped practices altogether after the first week of games.

Their attention spans simply aren't to the level of the older kids and, from our experience, they retained what they were taught for about 15 minutes.

No matter what we taught them they still clustered around the ball and just pushed it from one end of the field to the other before missing a wide open shot from 2 feet away. It's adorable, but never take it TOO seriously.

The kids will love the instruction just try to keep them focused on you more than butterflies, clouds, and passing helicopters.

Godspeed!

I am helping coach a group of six/seven year olds and the main message should be FUN.

Try not to get too technical, one training session a week is sufficient (any more than that will drive you crazy and most probably clash with their other clubs/after school commitments).

They will win some games/lose some games and generally play "crowdball" when it comes to the games at the weekend, regardless of what you taught them in practice.

Getting them to enjoy the game is the objective at this level and there will be moments/days when they play like they have been listening in training and those are the moments that make the coaching worthwhile.

At our town club, a lot of the parents have been coaches or are coaching other siblings at other age levels and have a general empathy for whatever efforts you make. Anyone who takes it too seriously and doesnt appreciate your efforts should not have their kids playing locally and should be seeking out a top regional teams soccer academy, like in your case maybe the Houston Dynamo, FC Dallas or Austin Aztecs.

Try to get them to understand the differences between playing in defense and offense and switch them around a lot during a game so they can appreciate both ends of the field.

As long as most of them are having fun, you will have fun too.

I am in the same boat as you! Just started coaching same age group last week. Learning as we go. You might be interested in a recent post on my blog about this topic...Kindergarteners with Cleats at MyBoys3.com

Daddy T, as you know the Walker Dog is playing on another team in this same league. We are practicing one day a week and it has worked fairly well. The coach is very good, knows soccer well but is super laid back as to expectations of learning. He teaches skills but makes it fun. I believe the main thing for six year olds is that each team practices the same amount or not at all.

This may be a subject for another post, but I'm worried that my five-year-old, Coop, may be taking soccer just a *little* too seriously. He's a chunk of a kid, a head taller than most of the boys, and while I joked about his first game, he chugged around the field with grim determination.

I did not see his second game first hand, but my wife reports that Coop was a little scary. I don't want to tell him to try less hard. But I don't want to upset other kids, or make the games not fun. How do you carefully tell a kid to cool it a little?

I don't think you should try to curb his enthusiasm. At his age, his physique may well stand out compared to the rest, but they will learn to play around him for now. In our town soccer 'in house' games, there was a boy a few years ago who stood head and shoulders above the rest and used his physique to his advantage. It was just an accepted part of the game for all the parents there. Now he is 7 1/2 and my kids team played against his on Saturday. They had caught up with him physically and he had to adapt his game accordingly. I say let him use his personal assets to his advantage and don't stop him enjoying the game.