Oct 11
1
How U8 Soccer Players Perceive the World
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.