Football: 3rd man running

Hello all! My kids aged 9 and 7 are very slow when compared to their peers of the same age. They don't seem to fight for the ball and get and watch others play their game. They seem to lack the urgency (heart) needed for the game. (They LOVE football). How can make them move around and react faster. Any help you are able to provide is greatly appreciated. Thanks O

Hi I have quite a large squad (11) for my U9s team. Sometimes not all of them turn up but when they do managing the substitutions can be a nightmare. Have tried planning it out and making 3 subs on a rotation every 6 or 7 minutes. This works OK, just wondered how others do it? Thanks! Asked using Sportplan Mobile App

Team keep getting thrashed every week - where to start? Having been the sole coach/manager of a little league team for the past two years, this year I lost all my senior players. I was therefore presented with 10 brand new lads, some of whom have never played competitive football. We are 8 games in and my lads are getting thrashed every week. The main problems are that they cannot get the ball out of their half, positions are usually a mess, finishing and chance creation are non-existent, and they don't apply any pressure or are unable to tackle. The main problems are keeping the ball as a team, getting it in the opponents half and staying there, and creating/finishing chances. I only have 1 and a half hours a week with them. I don't really know what to do, and I'm a little desperate. Does anybody have any advice? Thanks for literally anything.

Hello, I am currently coaching an u9's boys team and a majority of them are well behaved and want to play football, but the odd 1or2 tend to mess around at training which distracts the others. I have sat them out in training and spoken to the parents but still this goes on. Do I decide to kick them out of the team altogether or does anyone know the miracle cure to stop this happening?

where on the field can I play a slow player

I have 3 players at under 14 level, that seem to think running with the ball and not passing is the best way forward, could anybody suggest how I might get round this.

I have a player who i would describe as being "Alpha male" he is very disruptive at training and constantly having niggles with other players and challenging for the us the coaches.We have tonight stopped them having game time at end of training due to their behavior as a team and also reinforced the "Respect" values and that if they are not well behaved in training and preparation on match day they will not make the starting line up and in extreme cases will be asked to miss games.I have tried yellow/red card system and sending to side lines for a few minutes.Should we start to reward good behavior with some kind of sticker/merit and league table and prize for first one to reach target ?It has all come to a head at training tonight and looking for any ideas or if anyone has had or got similar situation.

Hi All, Need help with training my U9s with passing during the game. I have one player (centre mid) that knows how to pass at the right time during the game. The rest of my team, meaning LM and RM and striker put their head down and just run with the ball. What can i use during training to make them think about passing during a game. Thanks in advance

I am coaching two U12 boys groups. They have minimal training in the past, I have worked on dribbling and passing. Just starting 1 v 1s. I am training now in a gym, was wondering if any one had any drills that would work with approx. 15 kids?

I've got a player who is commanding, brilliant at spreading the play, and is no doubt my best player in my under 8's 5 a-side team. I've decided most times that he's going to be captain. The question is, whether or not you think it's right to give the captaincy to just one player? How do you guys organise yours? Rotate it? Have just one? Give it to the best trainer that week?

I usually plan my session the Friday night before Saturday training . I anticipated 12 players but then this sequence of events happened. Friday 8.36pm, parent texts amp; says child can't come as he is doing 11+ mocks (did he only just realise this?). Saturday 8.57am, another parent texts amp; says as they went to a wedding the night before, child is in no fit state to train (again, was this something that only just occured to them may happen?). Saturday 9.26am, parent phones amp; says child is throwing up (fair enough, I guess). Saturday 9.57am, parent texts, another puking child (a bug perhaps doing the rounds? Bit late notice though as we start training in 18 mins). Saturday 9.58am, another text from another child's parent to say child is throwing up (Hmmm, another one. Late notice again?). Saturday 10.15am, training starts but another child is missing. I give it 5 mins then phone. Parent says they are off to theme park amp; he sent me a text. I said that I never received text amp; asked if I sent an acknowledgement to aforementioned text to which he said no which I said meant his text wasn't receieved. I went from 12 players training @ 8.36pm Friday to 6 by start of training in under 10 hours. My session plan went in the bin. I realise the sickness is one of those things but think the last 2 were rather late in notifying me. As for the other 3, I feel these to be lame excuses. What can I implement to try to stop or reduce these issues? Fines? Suspensions? Nothing? #frustrated

Hi, I coach u13 team and most of them really have poor shoot power. I tried to show them proper way to shoot the ball, we worked on approaching the ball with small steps, and now after few months their shoot technique is mostly satisfying, but they simply lack power. There are 3 or 4 players who can shoot the ball well, but others can't shoot on goal from 15 or 20 metres out which is really worrying because in other teams we play against almost all players can shoot the ball much further than my players. I think 13 years old is too early to start with any serious strength trainings. Any ideas?