7v7 Coaching Manual PDF
“Introducing the Role of the Goalkeeper” A brief Portrait of the 3rd/4th Gr.
Soccer Player:
In general, a third or fourth grader is gradually becoming more influenced by his or her teacher.
The schoolyard is a quite common play area, and visits to a friend’s home and yard are frequent.
A fourth grader often plays with a group of friends.
A size 4 soccer ball is ideal for practice at home.
A soccer field set up at the schoolyard will get a lot of enthusiastic use.
With these general premises in mind, the fourth grade soccer player will benefit from a soccer program that has medium sized teams, parent coaches, trained referees, short games and brief practices.
Practice seasons that make use of groups or mini-teams are especially valuable and are easily organized when teams are properly sized.
Skills such as dribbling, passing and controlling, and shooting should be advancing quite rapidly.
Heading the ball as a skill should be progressing.
The coach will also introduce games designed to increase speed.
Stretching before and after workouts will improve the players’ flexibility.
In the Saturday games, most teams will begin to use the principles of attacking and defending quite well if they have developed progressively in micro soccer.
Fourth graders have fully entered the “golden age” of soccer development.
Their enjoyment of a fun activity may soon grow into a desire to consciously develop into a competitive soccer player. Our mod. soccer program for third and fourth graders will move up to a 7v7 game with the role of “goalkeeper” added to the field of play.
The soccer playing field will be fully lined with a penalty area and a goal area so that the keeper’s special playing is clearly marked. Goals with a cross bar will also be available to fully define the goal scoring area.
Goalkeeping is a specialized skill that can make a huge difference for the team with a well-trained keeper. Too often, goal keepers have to develop of their own without knowledgeable coaching advice or adequate practice time with the team.
Our soccer program was developed with the idea of many players sharing sweeper/keeper duties throughout their micro soccer days, and then when the players moved up to mod. Soccer, a smaller group of players would be trained for goalkeeper.
Hopefully, this is a group of players who want to advance in their goalkeeping skills and again, hopefully, their coaches will advance their own knowledge through clinics and study.
Our micro coaches and coaches of older age divisions will be encouraged to set aside specific amounts of time at each practice to help their keepers’ skill development. In addition to the role of the goalkeeper, 7V7 mod soccer also is the point at which the offside rule becomes part of the game.
There is a section in this guidebook devoted to this rule as well as other rules related to penalty kicks, and goalkeeper restrictions.
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