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Getting the right balance with under 6s

Craig Gill

Hi everyone,

I have just started with a group of around 12 to 15 under 6s.

We don’t play any competitive matches but just have a session every Saturday morning for an hour.

Third week in now and I’m struggling to find a balance. The older and more able/confident of the group just want to play a match which is fine. The newer, less confident or able kids get lost in the gameplay and often find it intimidating with the more able players. The younger ones actually prefer the more instructed practices we do rather than the open play.

The last thing I want to do is split them as we are still one team and I want them all to develop together as one.

I have game conditions in my head, perhaps a younger player is worth two goals rather than one if they score to encourage the older ones to involve them more into open play.

Has anyone else had this experience? Any suggestions on how to get the right balance?

Thank you

  • 0

    Hi, along with some other coaches we run U6 sessions and have about 25 players. We've found lots of the ideas from the play phase activities work really well for this age group https://learn.englandfootball.com/sessions?programme={C46DBFB9-4CE5-411C-9595-93B4A30CB58A} We run 2-3 of these kinds of activities and vary with/without a ball and other progression ideas to keep players interested. We run small sided matches for about 15 minutes of the 1 hour session. Mostly about 4-5 a side so everyone gets to touch the ball. We try and balance teams when setting it up, but sometimes switch a player, overload a team to challenge more able players or a coach might join in to support and get everyone involved.

    Alternatively, we warm up with games like stuck in the mud, space invaders or what's the time Mr Wolf then split the players into three and run three different carousel activities trying to offer a mixture of skill, technique and competition all with as much fun as possible. About 8-10 minutes an activity. Again we'll then do about 15 minutes of matches. We generally find that even the few players that are less comfortable in matches will join in all the other activities and have been slowly building their confidence in to do more in the matches. We still get some that will lose focus, need a break or just want to chat to their friend, but they are engaged in lots through other aspects of the session. The more able players that want to play matches all the time are getting it through little competitive games, challenges and mismatched small sided competition e.g. 2v1s, 3v2s etc. before they put it all into the matches.

    Good luck with it and keep us updated with anything you find working well!

  • 0

    Hi, I'm fairly new to coaching and have completed a season last year with U7s. Started again this season with and U7 group of around 20.

    The first session there was clear differences in ability levels and some of the kids started to loose thier way (and as a result concentration) in the match at the end. In the 2nd session I split the group into 2, separating the more able and less developed. I ran some 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 sessions with each group and it worked great in making sure all kids had ball time.

    There are games prior to this that everyone works together and a short match at the end with all involved, to keep the team ethos going.

    I've found that split really important for every ability level to feel part of the training session. Don't be vocal about the ability level groups. My players were totally unaware (for now) that was happening.

    I'm interested to see how this thread unfolds and other views on this.