what I say to my players every week!

You won't be coaching children for very long before you seem to hear an echo on the practice field. But it's not an echo – it's you, repeating yourself over and over again!

You will soon realise that it takes a long time and many, many repetitions before most children, (especially children under the age of nine), really understand new concepts. You have to be very patient – your kids are not deliberately ignoring you when – for the hundredth time – you tell them to “Get wide!” or “Play the way you're facing!”

It's just that young children are very single minded in their approach to games. For example, in soccer they are attracted to the ball so strongly - like iron filings to a electromagnet! - that it is very hard for them to detach themselves from this cat like impulse enough to understand that they can help their team by running AWAY from the ball sometimes.

So you have to be patient.

Don't worry, the penny will drop one day!!

If you were to stand on the touchline at one of my practice sessions, these are the three instructions you'd hear most often:

“Open up!”

This term refers to the way players must prepare to receive the ball by opening up their hips away from where the ball is coming from and in the direction they want to go next. In practice, this means that your children must receive the ball with the foot farthest away from where it was just passed.

Look at the way some coaches get their children to warm up. They get them to kick the ball back and forth to each other while standing still. There is a lot wrong with this activity, (how often do you stand still and pass/receive the ball in a match?!), but the primary problem is that it encourages children to face only the passer and ignore the rest of the field. This is a habit that is hard to break. Make sure your passing exercises DO NOT include passing back and forth to a stationary target.

Even if the receiver plans to pass it back to the area from where the ball is coming, opening up the hips will cause the defence to hesitate. They don’t know which direction the ball is going to be passed. If the hips are closed there is only one direction the ball can be played. Defenders will spot this and either compress the space or intercept the pass.

You must incorporate into your training some exercises that develop this crucial skill. It is not an exaggeration to say that the more ingrained this skill is, the more successful your players will be.

“Get wide!”

Watch any group of six to nine year olds playing soccer and I guarantee that most of them will be crowding around the ball like bees round a honey pot. It doesn't matter how good the coach is – most children of that age group simply cannot understand why they have to 'get wide'.

You can help your kids appreciate the benefits of making space for themselves by not letting them play large sided games on a standard pitch. Limit the games you play at the end of your practice sessions to 3 v 3 or 4 v 4 and play on a wide than normal pitch. Even better, don't use standard goals but set up with four small goals in each corner and no goalies. This will, eventually, help your children to understand the benefits of getting their heads up and looking across to the other side where – hopefully – one of their team mates will be waiting to slot the ball into an empty 'net'.

“Play the way you face”

This instruction simply means that your players should pass the ball in the direction they are currently facing, even if it is back towards their own goal.

You need to demonstrate that passing the ball to a player who is facing the goal you are attacking, even if he is farther away than you, is almost always the right thing to do.

This has direct implications for defenders who are running on to a ball as they face their own goal. Instead of trying to turn against the pressuring forward, they should either kick the ball out of play (the safest option by far!) or pass the ball back to the goalkeeper.

This one can also be called “don’t turn into pressure.” This is for the players who must ALWAYS try to go forward with the ball even when they have pressure all over them. You can be successful beating a defender occasionally, but if you try to turn into the pressure every time the defender just waits until you make your move and then she takes it from you. Midfielders and forwards do this a lot in the younger age groups.

The concept of unpredictability comes into play here as well. If you always make the same move, then you will become very predictable for the other team to defend. If a defender doesn’t know whether you will pass or dribble, then she is less certain and hesitates. This uncertainty is usually enough to allow you to win most of your 1 v 1 challenges.

This also covers the concept of shielding the ball as well. The point of shielding the ball is to keep it away from the defender. If you turn into the defender, you are exposing the ball to her and your chances of successfully beating her are low.

Don't dive in!!

This is simple 1v 1 defender stuff. Most children who are defending their goal against an attacker will automatically challenge for the ball no matter what the situation. Often they will be beaten by the forward thus creating trouble for the rest of the team as once the 1^st defender is beaten, one team has one less defender and the other has one more attacker.

With younger players, you need to teach them to close quickly on the attacker. You want your defender close enough to be able to reach out and touch the player with the ball. This limits the time that the player has to think about what she will be doing with the ball. This is the first step in good defending.

We also need to teach them to approach the attacker at an angle. If she runs straight on to the attacker, then the attacker can still go in any direction to beat her. We want to cut off at least half of the field from the attacker by approaching from the side. this reduces the amount of ground that our team has to defend. The rest of the players can then defend a smaller part of the field with greater numbers, thus increasing our chances of success.

“Make diagonal passes”

Most children will kick the ball straight up the field as this seems to be the most direct way to advance the ball. However, it is not normally the best way to advance from defence into attack. Why? Because the defence can predict with accuracy where the ball will end up.

This means that the defending team are more likely to intercept the ball and create a counter attack.

Defenders love it when the ball is played straight up the middle!

If the ball is played diagonally instead, not only does the ball move, but also the defender has to turn to see it. If several diagonal balls are played, then the defenders have to turn each time a pass is made. If they are not perfect, then gaps will open up in their defence. This creates opportunities for penetrating passes or 1 v 1 moves with good attackers against weaker defenders. Any time we can make the defence turn and face their own goal, we are in a very good attacking position.

**You should demonstrate to your children that they can also see more of the field when making diagonal passes. This can only help you keep possession of the ball.

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