Kids play soccer to have fun. They stop playing soccer because it stops being fun. More often than not the reason the game stops being fun is related to adult – coach and/or parent – behavior. To coach at the youth level you must understand your players - how they define fun and at what stage are they in their cognitive and physical development. Coaching a 7-year old as you would a high school player is unproductive, unfair and simply not fun.
These Coach's Resource pages are designed to help coaches have fun, productive and age-appropriate practices. Each page listed in the menu to the left will present you with links to Practice Sessions from 2 highly respected state associations, Massachusetts Youth Soccer and Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer. A very special thank you to Ian Mulliner and Mike Barr, Technical Directors of Massachusetts Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer and their coaching staffs for developing these Practice Sessions and for allowing coaches across Louisiana to use them.
Click the US Youth Soccer emblem for a link to their Lesson Plans. Again, they are arranged by age groups.