I coach a very easily distracted, like-to-mess bunch of 8-year-olds.

On matchdays we can have 3 to 4 subs. I make changes every 8 to 10 mins depending on how many players we have on the day.

Depending on how much space we have to the side of the pitch I will encourage players to have a ball and pass/dribble together or watch the game to support teammates and think of ways they can impact the game when they come on.

You would think 8 mins wasn't long enough for the cherubs to do much messing - but I'm sure a lot of you realise it is!

Owing to their inclination to get easily distracted and their penchant for messing, they will do any number of things except for what I've asked. Play fight, climb on fences, run off to parents who could be on the side of the pitch, play with my 2-year-old daughter, the list goes on - despite being told beforehand what we expect of them.

My other bugbear is that we only get the lads for one-hour training per week (which for those behaviour related issues I've pointed out certainly doesn't represent one-hour of quality training!) and on match days they may only get 25 mins maximum each. It's a meagre amount of playing time.

I'm starting to think, would it be a good idea to have myself or assistant hold a training session for the subs when they are off the pitch, so 1) they get more playing time 2) stop them becoming distracted. Obviously, if they are really tired from the time on the pitch then they could have a few mins to recover.

Just interested if anyone else has similar issues and if you had a plan in place for subs.