Category: Team Tactics
Type: Philosophy
SMALL-SIDED SOCCER
"In simplified, modified games, players learn to be aware and to improvise, to concentrate and to recognize the situation. Skills are important, of course, but the value of skills is to be able to use them efficiently in a fraction of a second. Our practices should be one quarter skill training and three quarters applying those skills in endless situations.
Kids get tied up in the emotional level of the game. A little one playing 11-a-side says, "We won!", but he touched the ball three times today. Our responsibility is DEVELOPMENT! So we must play 4v4 and 7v7 with plenty of time and space – to learn combinations, skills, awareness, smartness."
Rinus Michels, Former coach of Holland's national men's team
Small-sided soccer, used as a developmental tool, can and will develop skilled players. These individuals will then get to know the sport for the physical skills that it uses and the enjoyment of the game. They will also become more skilled and competitive when they are ready to play the 11v11 game at older ages.
First, and perhaps most importantly, small-sided soccer is FUN! Because of the smaller numbers, the skills and concepts involved in the game are presented in a simpler, less complicated way. Thus, there is a lower frustration level for the players and coaches, especially those new to the sport. The game is easier to understand when played with fewer players, and each player is able to have more touches on the ball during the course of the game, thus increasing their skill development. When players become more skillful, the game naturally becomes more fun.
People involved with youth soccer must realize that U-6, U-8 and even U-10 players are, in a sense, not real players. They have not developed enough physically, psychologically or socially to meet the same challenges as older, larger players. They need to play on teams and fields that meet both their physical and mental abilities. The small-sided approach has helped thousands of players develop at a faster rate into competent, skillful players at the junior and senior levels.
Submitted by: Jeff Pill
|
|
|
