Oct 11
9
U8 Age Development
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.
