Determining how long a development session should be for a youth team is vital. Occasionally the training may go on too long as the trainer gets too enthusiastic. As the tutor sees the kids acquiring more skills, he may want to step up the training times. It may be more tempting to try and spend more time with the children during the week than they desire to spend with you. There could also be certain guidelines from the club league as to how much training is really allowed. If they don’t then you will have to use your own assessment. Being in a kids shoes One hour a week is generally good enough for many young children in a week.
Kids of an early age will be given skills that will last them through their later years and keep them enjoying training. Also including a match a week, time must be allowed for recreation activities. The older and more advanced kids can maybe advantage from more training sessions that last longer than an hour.
Including practice matches as part of the training can also be good. However bear in mind that over using it can take away to much development time that could be used for coaching. Playing matches might actually take away the total of touches the youngster gets with the ball. The better way is to leave the match to the last few minutes to have the rest of the training in. Alot of the kids at this age group like to do some sort of game in their practice time as playing a game of football is the fun part.
On occassion having a large team means you have split the team into two for the games and play two smaller matches simultaneously. Splitting the team into smaller groups means the players will have more touches of the football. Also when playing one big match there is only a chance for players to get involved in playing in one position. With a smaller number of players in the team means that many more players get chance to try different positions. The players then get a chance to play striker and defender in quick succession, meaning they cover more ground quicker. The smaller groups could also encourage baby boys to try and win the ball more and practice more skills. Introducing various elements into the match can help with passing more often. Introducing a pre-determined measure of passes within the match helps the lads pass more often. In the practice match always make certain there is some sort of training exercise involved as well so the boys learn as they play.
