U10 boys - How to build confidence on the ball?

Football CoachCoach

Hi mate, great question, for certain you are doing the right thing for trying to find out what is the best way to teach young lads. Unfortunately you have not actually said what you are doing with them, so not sure if what you are doing is right or not. Building confidence takes time and a lot of practice, so be patient, dont expect instant results. Have an idea of how you would like the lads to play when they are adults, then that will guide you on a certain pathway in terms of how and what you coach. Personally I dont let my young lads just kick a ball away, I insist that every time they have a ball they either dribble, pass or shoot. I now have most of my lads confident with the ball at U8, confident in respect to how they try to play. On the whole they will turn, dribble, run with the ball. Of course they are not in any ways amazing players, but the confidence to try a trick is never coached out of them. So in my opinion with lads you coach for 1 hr a week, they must play a lot of football, those games must be small sided, ie: 4v4, dont worry about goal keepers just yet, allow them to play outfield first. Insist on them trying skills in games, children will amaze you, one moment they are struggling, then the next they pull off a Maradonna turn. Constant Passing at a young age is not recommended, they can not develop the ball skills if they give it away. Passing and movement will come through the games if you set those up correctly, pitch not too big or too small, encourage them to keep the ball as a team. Example of what I have done. 15 minutes with a ball each, play tag games, practice dribbling, juggling, turning, keep it varied each week. 40 minutes playing games, remember to keep the numbers down to as near as 4v4 as possible. This allows more touches, tackles, shots, 1v1 etc and is the smallest number you can have all elements of play. LENGTH - WIDTH - DEPTH. Vary the games, you dont always need goals as they can be like a magnet for players and can distract them away from what you are coaching, also use games where children hold the ball, they are great for developing spatial awareness.

Football CoachCoach

Dave, thanks for the tips - Ive just started out as a coach and the team is (U10's) are not the most confident and neede developing.  We had our first game at the weekend and lost  - I did tell them Im not to concenred about winning just yet but they need to have fun and enjoy it. what was apparent is that everyone wants to play striker and theire positional sense and reaction to thngs is too slow- how do I improve their confidence on the ball (as i want them to play the right way and not just hoof it up) and improve their positional play.