Does every coach have that ONE practice a season?

This is my second year coaching u7/u8.

My last practice the kids were just out of pocket. And the same thing happened last year where I just had some kids who are actually making it unsafe for practice. Had to talk to a few parents.

Bickering, couldn't stop touching each other, complaining about having to be on defense, etc. I had to tie six shoes, a few kids arrived without water. I usually send the kids to their parents if they need something because I'm one person against anywhere from 10 to 14 kids. But two of my kids got dropped off so now I'm going to send a message that practice is not drop off because I can't leave to take your kid to the bathroom and that they need to arrive with their cleats tied even if that means parents doing it.

I have the same setup to my practices. It's 75min. We scrimmage for 15- 20 minutes. Water break then I set up a speed or tempo acceleration drill. I do fun animal warm-ups, hops, sprints, etc. Water then ONE drill. ONE. Usually based off of what I kind of noticed they needed the most work on and I think would give the most improvement in the next game. Sometimes it's passing sometimes it's scanning sometimes it's timing on shooting, etc. Last year we had to work on throw-ins because the concept just was not clicking. WE go to through that drill for 10 to 15 minutes and then we scrimmage again for 20+.

I had to end practice 15 minutes early because we couldn't get through the drill no one was paying attention the kids that were paying attention were annoyed with the kids that were talking the kids that were talking didn't know what to do and so the drill didn't actually work but this is after a legit hour of of emotional chaos.

Upon reflection I wonder am I doing something wrong or was it just a bad day and if so do you find that your team's especially in this younger age between like 6-10 have these practices where they just go sideways?

Also if anyone has any drills for a wide range of skill and age that require less than 30 seconds to explain that would be great. For example I have 2 siblings that are barely six on my team because their older sibling is on my team but they can't keep up with the bigger kids. Like legit can't complete a pass more than a couple feet. And then I have a third of my team that could probably play the next age range up in both skill and size.

I do plan to pull parents in but the chaos started before we even started doing drills.

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Top replies, most upvoted first

• (+13) They're 6/7 coming to practice after a long day at school. The parents likely just worked a full workday and are scrambling to get everything ready. There is also a full moon or was very recently a full moon. I'd give everyone a bit of leeway, life is busy. Also, 15 minutes for a drill for these age groups may be too long. Heck, 75 minute practices are too long. Heck, having 10 to 14 kids by yourself is too many. Why don't you see if one of the parents wants to help you out? Having an extra set of hands would be extremely helpful and feel a lot less like chaos.
• (+6) In addition to everyone else's excellent advice, three thoughts: 1. For the really young ones, I feel like 75 minutes might be longer than their attention spans are built to tolerate. 2. A reminder than when possible, it's helpful to set positive expectations for the kids ("this is how we behave at practice") rather than negatives ("you can't do x/y/z"), it's just more effective overall at helping manage behavioral stuff. Our broad "rules" are really positive expectations, and we can use them to cover pretty much anything-- be on "team time" (a positive way of framing 'don't goof off'),...
• (+5) You’ve got some good comments. But I think it is important not to do too many drastic changes from ONE crazy practice. It happens. However, after I had some troubles with my u6/7 team not listening I introduced three rules witch we repeat at the start of every practice, and during if needed: 1) Have fun, 2) listen to the coaches, 3) be a good teammate. It was a assistant coach who had the idea. I didn’t think it would work. But it really has!
• (+4) I'm not a soccer coach and don't have advice I just wanted to say that my kids played soccer throughout HS and some in college and looking back it feels like at least once a season when I asked how practice went they'd tell me that it was chaotic or just kind of a silly practice because people couldn't focus or were in a weird mood. I think this just happens sometimes - too close to finals; sudden, unexpected burst of great weather; mercury in retrograde, who knows?
• (+4) Sometimes kids on a team all wake up on the same tempo and decide that today is the day that all hell will break loose. There's almost nothing you can do. I personally love to have my players run approximately a mile at the start of every practice bc it does seem to help with crazy antics and also gets everyone on the same pace. However, there are just those days where it does not matter and the kids feel it in their bones to test every cell of your body. On the positive side, this practice has been completed for the fall season so congrats on making it through.
• (+3) Lol! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 My practice yesterday was exactly this! My kids who are usually pretty good, were just not themselves I looked over to my assistant and we're both just as perplexed. I thought about coming here and asking the exact same question you just did! I'd love to know how others deal with it!
• (+3) This is my first year coaching Rec U8 , and I am loving it but I quickly found out that they don’t listen, I have to keep it as short and sweet as I can and have a backup plan if something doesn’t go well that you can change to quickly. There are so many things I want to work on , like where to position for corner kicks etc that hopefully I’ll get to one day but getting them comfortable in 1 on 1s and more dribbling is what we are doing because we have a bunch of newer players, but it’s a fun journey!