Hello fellow coaches i’d love to hear some great ideas of various ways to keep players engaged while also helping them improve mastering the ball at under 7 in community.
I am currently coaching at SPORTING KHALSA FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED community which I have under 7s and I am trying to work on the players mastering the bal. However some players lose concentration and therefore i’m reaching out for ideas to keep it fun and to keep the players engaged.
Any advice is much appreciated 🤝🏻
Callum, let the forum know if you try any of the suggested ideas so that we can all share and learn together.
Best wishes.
Pete
Callum, thanks so much for your question as it is a really good one and one that many other coaches of children this age will be thinking about. There is quite a simple solution to immediate engagement with players of this age and our Play Phase roadshow events tried to showcase this. If you include some 2v2 games within your practice I am sure the children will be motivated to play. Your role (and the role of other adults) is to have another ball ready for the game when it inevitably goes out of play (which it will a lot at this age) Roll the other ball into play (and this could be towards a child that maybe hasn't touched it for a while to bring them back into the game) and you ensure maximum involvement, touches, other technical actions and lots of movement.
If in your warm up or activation you play tag games these can be done with each child having a ball at their feet or in their hands (dribble it to avoid the tagger who also has a ball) or when holding it in your hands try to tag someone by touching them with your ball.
In our play Phase section there is also a game called the "Stadium Game" This is a great one that combines lots of fun and lots of repetition of similar but never the same thing - perfect for this age group as it helps to develop their physical literacy as well as their mastery of the ball. The research tells us that the two things are very much connected so children who are helped to move well and in a wide variety of ways are better equipped to become more skilful and when that happens enjoyment and motivation increases.
I hope this helps, Callum, and thank you so much for being our very FIRST coach in the Forum. Best wishes. Pete and Lauren😀