Tips for keeping boys focused

I coach a u12 boys rec team. They are nice boys and I’m glad they all get along with each other. The thing is, they talk a lot which leads to unfocused practices and not enough time to get through what I want to get through.

I takes me a few times to get all

Of their attention. Sometimes i blow My whistle.

I’ve started having them run a lap whenever they aren’t listening.

Is this a good option or is there any better way?

Top replies, most upvoted first

• (+5) Talk less. Play more. Have them playing small sided games as soon as they arrive. Burn off some energy right away. Roll into a practice event but keep instruction very short. Short pauses to emphasize the key points. More than 30 seconds to a minute and you lose them again. Find an attention tool to refocus them when talking, “if you can hear me give me two claps”. Then scrimmage at the end but re-emphasize your focus points periodically or 1v1 as opportunity comes up.
• (+4) I think you need to go in with reasonable expectations. They are a rec team, make sure practice is fun. Just for comparisons sake, I have a son playing u9 on a top team in the top flight of our regional league. The coach never has to make the kids run during practice and rarely gets on them about focusing or getting back on track. These are 8 and 9 year olds who are serious about the sport. The expectations and experience are (and should be) different.
• (+3) Don't be boring. Turn practices into a game, and use the Whole-Part-Whole method so that they feel like they're playing natches too. Also, here's a mantra that I was taught by my UEFA A tutor, "no lines, no laps, no lectures". If you use any of those then your sessions are boring and/or counter-productive.
• (+3) I watched and learned the “two claps” technique from another coach. Whenever I need their attention, I ask everyone for two claps 👏 and clap my hands twice. If not everyone claps, I ask for two claps again, and again, and again until I have everyone’s attention. Once they get used to it, the kids usually do it the first time. Two claps followed by “touch your nose” or “touch your ear if you can hear me” also works very well with younger kids.
• (+3) U12 boys might be the hardest group to coach because you expect a bit of focus, and it's really hard to get. Things I did that seem to be better (I do have 1 really sever ADHD kid on my team which makes it harder). I do the same run through warm up every time, practice and game. I no longer start with anything that has lines for more than a few seconds after warm ups. Rondos are a great start as it gets them thinking about soccer asap and avoid lines. But really anything group oriented to get them going. I do foot skills and passing drills after that, but once again trying to avoid lines or...
• (+2) My current team is well over half boys and what Ive found is that if there is no downtime in our practice, they do great. The minute I talk more than 40 seconds I’ve lost them. Boys need to do. Even our water breaks I literally yell “water break one minute!” so that the water break is just one of the many things that they’re doing at high intensity. u12 here also
• (+2) I like to use laps and up downs as needed. Sometimes you just have to. The best method is prevention: don't put them in situations where they're standing around waiting. Constant motion, limited lines, not much down time. But sometimes they're also just going to want to goof off. Some of that is acceptable but if they miss their turn or mess up the drill then you have to correct them. Other times the whole team is going to be in a goof off mood even if there are no lines and lots of motion. That's when you have to kind of flip the script on them. This is what I've had to say a few times and...
• (+1) I’ve had the exact same challenge. I found books about classroom management to be very helpful. I picked tools for teachers from Fred Jones. Summary is consistency is key, and get the kids to ‘fear’ you while still being caring and dedicated. I’m certainly not fully there yet but found the approach to be effective for me
• (+1) Simple rule we’ve always worked with is 2 minutes max. 2 minutes before practice to explain, walk it through and tell the focus. Then ball starts rolling. Then add layers to the practice for what youre trying to do
• (+1) What I've done is tell them that whenever we do a new drill I will explain it once and then demonstrate it. Then I'll ask for questions. Then we do the drill. If you're unable to attempt the new drill you'll sit and watch until you've got it. If more than 2 players get pulled from a drill we start over from scratch. The time for that comes out our end of practice scrimmage time. When going through repeat drills I end one and immediately start putting players in position(lines) for the next. No more than 30 seconds to transition from one drill to the next.
• (+1) If you really need to talk to them, have them go into the plank position. It will strengthen their cores and it makes it very difficult for them to chit chat.
• (+1) Highly recommend USSF Grassroots online course - has lots of similar suggestions to the thread but the big one is PLAY-PRACTICE-PLAY. More time with small sided games, a few moments spent on simple stuff like offense or defense (break it down SUPER EASY), then back to playing more with encouraging them to implement what you just worked on. Set expectations before each training session - make it a team goal. If they can make it thru a session with good focus (not perfect because that won't happen), then they get INSERT BLANK e.g. their favorite game, drill, etc. Making them run laps only makes...