U8 Soccer | Drills, Practices, Rules, Games

U8 Girls Soccer Team Names

U8 Soccer Guy — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:34:44 +0000

What is good for the goose is good for the gander, or so goes the saying. Since we posted the boys list, here are a list of top girls soccer team names for the U8 age group.

Bays
Blaze
Darts
Dragons
Express
Firecrackers
Flames
Flash
Force
Fusion
Her-ricanes
Hotshots
Hotspurs
kicks
Krashers
Panthers
Raiders
Sonics
Strikers
The Beat
Thunder
Twisters
Victory
Vipers
Waves
Wildcats

We are always looking for new girls soccer team names for U8, just let us know what you think!

U8 Boys Soccer Team Names

U8 Soccer Guy — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:33:00 +0000

We wanted to share with you some cool u8 soccer boy team names we have dug up. Overall we think some dads should step in at this age and help their sons pick some descent soccer team names.

Accelerators
Ajax
Avengers
Big Dogs
Bombers
Champions
Crushers
Dynamites
Expos
Flyers
Hammerheads
Hurricanes
Kings
Lil Rollers
Lionhearts
Ninjas
Patriots
Power
Quicksilver
Raiders
Roughnecks
Rowdies
Shadows
Sharpshooters
Slammers
Stingers
Strikers
The Stars
Wolves
Wonders

If you know of a good u8 boys soccer team to add let us know!

U8 Coaches for Duck Hunt

U8 Soccer Guy — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:25:56 +0000

This is a fun u8 soccer drill that takes about 10 minutes to complete where you take your team and split them into two groups. To execute the drill you need cones and at least one ball per player but extra soccer balls don’t hurt, and for u8 you need about 10-20 square yards. Put cones between both groups of players and have each group take a turn and ‘shooting’ the ducks (e.g. cones). The team with the most hits wins. To spice up the game if you are feeling up to it, let your U8 team take a crack at the coach. That is a good way to lift your team’s spirit. The easiest way to make the game more difficult is by moving all players back ten yards.

Your Child is Moving From U6 to U8

U8 Soccer Guy — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:43:27 +0000

For many parents that are tuned into their inner soccer self and their child’s development moving from U6 to U8 can bring a number of questions. Should my child play for a specific league, should they try out for their local academy team, what position will they play are all common questions. Here are three things you should remember as your child moves up to U8.

1. Two years is a big deal, take your dreams and aspirations slow. Most folks will say for your child’s development playing a rec league for the first season of U8 makes sense so that your kid keeps their aggressiveness and confidence.

2. Academy’s are great, but your kid is great because of you. Ask about your local academy and watch their first tryout to get a good sense of what you would be paying for. In my current town, every kids makes the academy team so other than mommy and dad paying there is nothing elite about it.

3. Moving from 3v3 or 4v4 is going to be a BIG adjustment. Get use to it and realize your kid may need too also.

More than anything enjoy the time you have. Right now is fun, it should be fun, there is plenty of time (and you know this as an adult) to be serious.

U8 Age Development

U8 Soccer Guy — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 02:41:55 +0000

We wanted to share the screenshot below from US Soccer that highlights their thoughts on age appropriate development and specifically look at U8. If you see the screenshot below you will notice they mention that players need to focus on “basic motor skills like walking, running or jumping combined with ball handling and ball control.” I have mixed feelings on this but I think the key word is ‘combined.’ They are saying doing all of those things with ball control is key and that is fair. What I see typically is kids lack any ball control and would not combine it with running but assume this is fair.

The most important part of this characteristics matrix is the importance on players using games to learn relevant skills. That is as important to a five year old as it is an eight year old.

Soccer Dribbling Drills w/ Cones

U8 Soccer Guy — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 02:55:22 +0000

One effective way of helping U8 soccer players learn how to dribble the soccer ball is by giving them the opportunity to dribble the ball at or through a series of cones. In the example below we provide three unique sets of cones to provide perspective and concepts of what you want the players on your soccer team to work through. Primarily we want to look at cones as opportunities for U8 players to practice dribbling the soccer ball with pace and either changing direction or executing a fake.

The reason dribbling at cones is an effective tool is because cones are static. The fact that they do not move allows your soccer players to attack the cone and practice either a simple change of direction to more dynamic ‘fakes.’ We would encourage three specific drills first.

1. Dribble at a cone as quickly as possible and go around that cone to goal. It is important that your players understand to stay as close to the cone as possible.
2. Dribble at the cone and take a step fake in one direct and move in the other with either the inside or outside of your foot.
3. Dribble diagonally at the cone and move quickly in a change of direction.

Each of these U8 soccer drills should be used in soccer practice that is dominated with small sided games. The drills are simply an opportunity for all players on your team to get touches on the ball and practice ball control.

How U8 Soccer Players Perceive the World

U8 Soccer Guy — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 02:35:27 +0000

The following information is from the US Soccer Curriculum which is an excellent document covering how to best develop youth soccer players in the US. The document begins by saying, “Children do not learn in the same way as adults, especially when the learning process involves both intellectual and physical activity.”

If you were like me that was still a little bit to high in the clouds for U8 soccer but they clarify that statement in the document saying, “Age conditions the way a person perceives and interacts with the world and with others. In any learning process, age is the key component in selecting appropriate content and methodology. Soccer is no different. For this reason we must not train 6 year old players the same way as 13 years old players. Training sessions must be adapted to the age of the players. Taking into consideration the characteristics of human and player development.” That is a really good statement and something all youth soccer coaches, even parent coaches need to keep in mind. Finding and implementing age appropriate strategies to help players grow.

Specifically for U8 soccer they say, “At this age children do not have the same capacity as adults to analyze the environment. They explore and have an egocentric conception of the world. Children are still gathering the experience necessary to interact with their surroundings and with others. Also, empathy and the capacity to consider the thoughts and feelings of others is very low. In order to help children build their own experience, many exercises will be individual (e.g. each player will have a ball). The tactical component of the game will be reduced to small-sided games with basic explanations about space distribution. Training sessions will be treated more as physical education than specifically as soccer training.”

Over the next few weeks we will continue our deep dive into the latest recommendations from US soccer and provide our feedback.

Piggy In The Middle

U8 Soccer Guy — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 03:09:30 +0000

Piggy in the middle or monkey in the middle is a great U8 soccer drill that forces young players to think through the concepts of passing the ball and creating space for their teammates. This is a soccer drill that not only works for U8 but has gotten lots of accolades by the top professional players in the world as one of their primary training techniques. The drill is easy to set up, you need one soccer ball and 6 to 10 soccer players. The majority of the players line up in a circle with one or two players in the middle. The players in the circle attempt to pass one ball without the players in the middle intercepting it. There are multiple variations of this drill including one or two touch passing but the concept remains the same in all the examples. Find ways to pass the ball in tight spaces without losing the ball.

U8 Soccer Means No More Coed

U8 Soccer Guy — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 04:11:37 +0000

For most youth soccer teams U8 soccer means everything from playing on a ‘real’ team with keeping scores to no longer playing on the same team as opposite gender. Now that is not true for every league but I think for most it is and the question I had was why? What happens between U6 soccer and U8 soccer where kids are no longer on the same soccer pitch. The kids are still roughly the same size and speed, and the girls can hold there on. The other argument which is fair is they have to be split up at some point.

I tried to find the answer. Unfortunately most of the responses revolve around all the liberal ‘empowerment’ topics. This old fish thinks it has more to do not in REC soccer but travel. At the more competitive levels there is a real need to break out boys and girls in u8 soccer. I think more than anything it just is spill over into the rec leagues.

U8 Indoor Soccer

U8 Soccer Guy — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 04:29:06 +0000

Should you sign your kid up to play in an U8 indoor soccer league over the summer and winter? If you want to develop their ball control then the answer is yes. I would absolutely consider doing this for my U8 son but there is an even more important question. Are giving your child an opportunity to test some other sports? That is a tough question to answer, even for me because like a lot of parents I believe in specializing at an early age but I also recognize and appreciate that there are other skills learned playing additional sports.

In addition there is that whole, what if your child doesn’t like soccer or isn’t good enough to keep up. There are no right or wrong answers, but for my family we will probably continue to do basketball in the winter and keep indoor limited to a summer sport though the age groups around U8. As our kids get older it probably makes more sense to specialize.