Hi Paul.  Thanks for being so honest.  I saw no one has replied to you yet so I thought I'd see if I can give you some advice.  The first thing I'd say is, it takes time mate.  This is a new team, new players, your new to it, you're all on a journey and that's the first thing to remember.  Do you have an assistant? If so, one or both of you take notes of the games and you could breakdown what's happened into your sessions but remember they are 6 years old.  To some you'll sound like the adults in the Charlie Brown cartoon. My team are U8's and I think many have ADHD or ADD so their attention wains.  Be patient.  Do you have other managers you can speak to if your part of a bigger club?  Speak to the former U7 manager and see what they suggest.  Speak to the U7 opposition manager who could well be in the same place as you.  My team won well on Sunday, that result will be forgotten about after this Sunday's game, and this Sunday forgotten about the following Sunday.  You also have to manage the expectations of the parents.  Some may want little Ronaldo's but that takes time, effort and dedication.  How about giving them homework to, in the kitchen, to roll the ball to their feet and receive it back from the pass?  Or work with their child on another aspect?  Also, you can only do what you can do, maybe they need to attend additional football training.  Find a local we make footballers or fulham or whoever and post it in the group encouraging them to take them to more football.  You're a volunteer, those coaches are paid and on their journey's further than you.  Above all else.  Just tell them to have fun.  Kids at U7 will sneeze and wipe it on the jersey without thinking hahaha.  They're kids.  Let them be that.  Good luck mate.    

Having just done my first U7s season, I'd say everything you're feeling is totally normal - most of us have been there.

In terms of results, ignore them, they mean nothing. Whatever league you're in will aim to match teams of similar ability and as the season goes on, you should find yourselves playing in increasingly more competitive matches. Essentially the season gets better from October half-term onwards and should only improve opposition-wise.

Do you use some sort of coaching platform, like the Coaching Manual? Different kids obviously develop at different levels but there are some great drills and even season plans to give you guidance as to what to coach the kids on.

A couple of bits of advice would be 1) try and get a couple more players so that you can at least register 8 that can play in league matches (i.e. for power plays, kids away, etc) as otherwise you're going to end up struggling to field teams at periods of the season and 2) figure out some really simple patterns of play to coach the kids on alongside all the skills, ball mastery, etc. From memory, we worked for 10-15 mins each week on playing out from goal kicks initially and it made a huge difference to the kids confidence knowing their roles on a matchday rather than running round aimlessly.

Good luck!!

Hi Richard - I am 4 games in to my first season with a group of U7s. We have been fairly competitively matched which has been great, but playing out from goal kicks is a real problem for us and distorts the scoreline somewhat. Would be really grateful if you could share some of the exercises/drills you implemented to target improvements.

Firstly, I'm no expert but happy to share what we felt helped the development of the kids last year!

We put in place a really simple plan initially - the defender would go to the left or right of the box, receive the ball and then aim to play the ball down the line to the midfielder, with the aim to get the ball into the opposition's half and play football. Initially, we coached "always down the line" (i.e. not across own box) before slowly getting the kids to make their own decisions and play more naturally.

We would train this for only 5-10 mins for a few weeks max (as we felt ball mastery and fun drills were better for their development) and would then just underline it before each quarter to the child playing in the defending role. Drills that helped us included 2v1s, any drill where someone has to make decisions under pressure (as they'll be pressed more the further you go into U7s) and a press vs play out drill, where the attackers had to get the ball to one end of a box while being put under pressure by defenders.

Hope this helps in some small way!

Thanks for sharing Paul. 

You're not on you're own experiencing this. Thanks to everyone who has replied below, it's great to share ideas and experiences. 

Firstly, it's brilliant you are helping this team and the children involved, as if you didn't they might not have a tram to play for and train and not fall in love with football.

Keep trying to make everything fun, the kids will not remember the scores/results of the game but they will remember how they felt when they played. 

Have you spoke to the opposition managers/coaches, when my grassroots team has been losing heavily they have allowed us to put an extra player on (or they have taken one off, as they are benefitting form the game being too easy), hopefully this can help.

Keep positive, keep doing what you're doing and I'm sure the players will continue to develop and enjoy what you're doing.

Anymore questions please post on here, kind regards

Dave

Hi Richard, what is the Coaching Manual you mention here please? It sounds good! 

Hi Richard, what is the Coaching Manual you mention here please? It sounds useful!

The Coaching Manual is an online resource (possibly provided by Southampton FC - they certainly include some of their coaches' exercises). It's a subscription based website but there is a FREE basic version that allows you to 'Try before you buy'. You can see if from this link:  https://www.thecoachingmanual.com/  

Thank you!