Where to start...

In order to make practices run smoothly and be fun, it is important for us to have a basic understanding of the intellectual, emotional, and physical developmental stage of the players we are coaching. Here are some typical characteristics of the 7U player.

• Focused on themselves - reality to them is based on what they see and feel
• Unable to see the world from another's perspective 
• Everything is in the here and now
• Enjoy playing, not watching - every player should have a ball in practice, eliminate lines and waiting, play games where everyone can participate at the same time
• Short attention span - keep directions concise and to the point, switch activities and games frequently if needed
• Unable to think abstractly - spatial relationships are a mystery so focus less on tactical training in positions and more on the technical skills of dribbling and shooting
• Active imaginations - utilize their imagination in activities and they will engage more and love practice!
• Typically have 2 speeds -- extremely fast and stopped, they will often go extremely fast until they drop so provide lots of short activities followed by frequent breaks
• Cooling systems are less efficient - need frequent water breaks
• Effort is performance - if they try hard, they are doing well
• Look for adult approval - be encouraging when they say "Coach, look what I can do!" 
• Usually unaware of game scores - keep it that way for now, celebrate every success and compliment the other team when they do well
• Still developing confidence and bravery - must take risks and try new things to learn, if it doesn't work the first time coach should celebrate the attempt in order to build confidence to try again
• Learning how to handle failure - players often struggle with getting scored on or losing the ball, remove the negativity from your response to these experiences and instead encourage players to use it as motivation to try to dribble down field or score a goal themselves
• Influenced by your response - to this age cheers measure the level of success, don't just cheer for the goals, cheer for every step in the process, there's no such thing as too many hi-5s!!

Practice Structure: Play - Practice - Play

1. The (Initial) Play Stage - Empirical data has shown that children learn best when they get to experience periods of unstructured play where they can experiment on their own. It promotes enjoyment, inclusion, and development. These three factors have proven to increase motivation to continue playing. The coaches role during this Play stage is to ensure safety and monitor the games. Monitoring the games includes making sure the games are not lopsided and providing adequate stoppages to allow the players to stretch and rehydrate. During the stoppages the coach is encouraged to ask guiding questions to lead the players towards the goal and objectives of the session.
2. The Practice Stage - This stage uses activities to create game-like situations that create problems for the players to solve and the coach to assist with the problem solving process. A simple checklist provided in the session plans includes questions such as: Does it look like Soccer? Is it organized? Is it challenging? Are there repetitions of the topic being worked on? and Is there coaching consisting of positive reinforcement? Mistakes are an essential part of the learning process and players should be encouraged to work through them and try again. This stage utilizes group activities that focus on the topic being worked on that day.
3. The (Final) Play Stage - In this stage we are checking to see how much if any of the practice stage has transferred with each player into the game. It is recommended in this stage that the coach sets up 2 teams of equal numbers and that one team is set up as close to the starting line up for the upcoming game as possible. In ideal circumstances this should be in the 4v4 format that players will experience in the upcoming game, but adjustments can be made based on number of players at practice. The players should experience extended periods of uninterrupted play with the coach just monitoring the safety of the players and reviewing the checklist and guided questions to empower the players to solve problems on their own.

Optional Practice Plans

The following practice plans are made available to assist coaches in providing engaging, educational, and fun practices for 7U teams. These plans were created and shared by Massachusetts Youth Soccer in good faith and must not be utilized for assignments for US Soccer or United Soccer Coaches education courses. Coaches are welcome to use and build upon these plans as long as appropriate credit is given.

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  Week 7

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  Week 10

Sources

http://www.mayouthsoccer.org

The City of Republic Parks and Recreation would like to thank Ian Mulliner and Massachusetts Youth Soccer for providing this shareable content for coaches. Before joining Massachusetts Youth Soccer, Ian Mulliner served as the Director of Coaching of Illinois Youth Soccer Associaiton for over ten years. Originally from Manchester, England, Ian has been coaching in the U.S. since 1992. Ian has served as a member of the National Coaching Committee for US Youth Soccer and worked with US Soccer to develop the new Grass Roots Coaching Licenses. He holds the USSF "A" License and National Youth License, F.I.F.A. Futuro III certificate, F.A. Preliminary Coaching Awards as well as the Dutch KNVB Coach's License.