Football class for a 6yo, what should they teach?

[mszebra]

Just wondering if anyone has child of similar age doing footie.
They seem to play for 5-10 minutes, then do a little exercise, play for 5-10 minutes, little exercise, etc. The 5-10 minutes of play is dominated by the 9-11yos passing to each other & DS doesn't get much to do.
Thing is, DS doesn't know how to dribble a ball, or how to throw overhead for throw-ins, or how to get his toe under the ball to kick it up in the air, or how to stop and control the ball before passing it on. In fact, he doesn't know anything at all about passing, tackling, the offside rule or ANYTHING.
The point of this course doesn't seem to be teaching him any of that.

The 5yos are segregated off for closer coaching, but DS is 6 so in with the older kids.
Do other 6yo boys usually "know" these things about how to play footie? Watching the other children >age 5 at least some of them are as clueless and skillless as ds...
"Am I unreasonable" to think that for paying £30 to a local occasionally premireship club Football-in-the-Community scheme I should expect a bit more actual "coaching"?

DS is very resistent to me & DH teaching him anything, btw.

ime, no, many don't know how to play properly even at 7 or 8 unless they play regularly in a team or with older siblings. ds finds hte pace and skill of older kids too fast, aggressive and demoralising. ds ' old soccer coach tried to teach them tactics at 5/6 and they still ran around like a pack of sheep following the ball. ds' sessions used to do about 20 minutes of "skills" then they'd play short matches of about 5 minutes each way in teams of 5 or 6 a side. Sounds like your sessions need more structure with focus on basic skills and to move the age groupings around to take account of such children tbh.

I would expect a bit more

I go to football training with ds. This is what they do - it's an hour long every week for the whole term (£50, but we are in London so that's not an unreasonable price for an activity).

They do around 10 minutes warming up
About 20 minutes skills (so learning how to stop the ball, then learning how to stop and pass the ball etc.0
Around 20 minutes playing little games (normally 5 a side, there are around 20 kids so split up in teams)
Last 5 minutes, they all shake hands and say thankyou

There are lots of different ages groups, 4-5, 6+, 8+ and there are other football in the community schemes which run a beginners club for age 5-6.

I think putting 6yr olds in with 9-11yr olds is a seriously bad idea!

I'll tell you what happened with and what I've seen with DS1 (13).

He started footie training when he was about 5. It consisted pretty much of what you described, 5-10mins play, then excercise.

They don't tend to know how to play "proper" football until they are about 11. They are only interested in "herding". Eg... the ball is kicked down the wing... all the kids (except the goalies) rush in a herd down the wing. The ball is kicked across the pitch... all the kids (except the goalies) rush across the pitch.

The fact that the 9-10s are passing to each other shows that they are beginning to recognise that football involves more than "herding".

I don't know that your DS would get more actual coaching if you pay and send him to the community scheme. However, I did send DS to half term soccer schools and summer soccer schools where (from what I could see) the same herding etc went on. He now plays (and has done for about 5 years) for a local team.

HTH

forgot to say... I don't agree with putting the 6 yo in with the 9-10s.

I agree with the other posters who say that your DS's sessions lack structure. But stick with what I say about him not knowing how to "play" football much before 10.

yes, I think the herding goes on for ages. All they really know how to do is follow the ball around. But that's why it's so important to teach them skills at this age (like how to stop the ball etc.) because even though they are not going to apply that sort of knowledge to a game till they are about 10 or 11, once the whole game structure clicks, they will have all these little skills in place.

In fact, I think (in ds's football) they only play the 5 a side bit at the end to give them all a little chance of a run about, everyone gets to go in goal and they all think they've played in a real game!

hi fox. I agree and that was what tended to happen in the exercises. They would do the stretching, running, jumping and also dribbling, running around cones etc. As they got older the more specific skills were taught. This all built on the original foundation of the exercises.