Tired of stressing out about practices

I signed my son up for soccer thinking that I’ll go and watch the practices and games and then go home. Well here I am now and I signed up to be a division coordinator and I am coaching my sons team! I’m not a soccer player myself, never played soccer and don’t watch soccer. I have a very basic understanding of the game.

When I was coordinating the teams my 8U division needed 1 more coach. I reached out to all parents of the division and not a single person stepped up so I did. But I hate it. I dread practice days and I hate game days. The parents have been supportive so far and I let them all know that I don’t have any soccer knowledge. But I’ve been spending hours reading soccer material and watching videos to prepare for practice. I just feel like a fraud.

So my question to this group is can I stop worrying so much about drills and just focus on play? The kids enjoyed the warm up games like sharks and minnow and when we do scrimmages. Is that enough for 8U? They don’t seem as interested in drills and honestly I don’t know how to correct them if they are doing something wrong.

There are several parents who have soccer experience and have offered to help with practice but they don’t want to coach even when they go to each practice and game. But when the parents help the practices feel so weird. I tell them to take control of the practice or the drill but they don’t. Can my team just play at practice instead of doing drills?

Top replies, most upvoted first

• (+8) They don't really help, because they don't want the responsibility. Make it easy for yourself! Try to make the practise the same build-up each time: - technical warm-up (in other words: a sort of game with a ball). You can just each give them a ball and make them dribble or do keep ups or something similar. Just a few minutes - Then let them play keep away. 4v1 or 5v1 and the middle one has to try to win the ball. When they do, the person who lost possession goes in the middle - Then, just make 2 fields and let them play small sided games. So if you have 12 kids, make 2 fields of 3v3 - End...
• (+3) I’m going to say this as someone who’s played a lot of soccer up through to men’s Sunday league, watched hundreds of games on tv, studied the game, and have a grassroots license. The best coaches for that age I’ve seen are schoolteachers with the most rudimentary soccer knowledge. I wouldn’t feel like an imposter if I were you.
• (+3) I’ve run most of my U7-U9 practices like this. The kids get used to the structure and it seems to keep them engaged. - Pre-practice: as they arrive, have them line up and take shots on goal. Watch them and teach them about angle kicks (i.e., approaching from an angle and striking with the laces). - Individual ball skills (tick tocks, scissors, v-pulls, etc.). Ton of videos with routines online. Line them up and have them show you they can do it. End with 60 seconds of juggling practice. Most of my kids can’t juggle yet but I think it’s good to introduce it, and they like it. - Dribbling back...
• (+3) I stepped up at U8 this season and had a blast. I've never played soccer. The most soccer knowledge I have is watching soccer and playing FIFA 10+ years ago. What I've tried to do: -Good Communication. I might be a little over-the-top, but I rather that than someone not know what's going on. -Positive environment. Everyone is there to have fun, play soccer, and give effort. There is no need to yell, scream, berate, and point out every little mistake. -Fun practices. Warm-up game, some kind of skill drill, a fun game focusing on that skill, and a scrimmage. Honestly, the warm-up and scrimmage...
• (+2) On the pile of kids question the pause usually isn't about kicking, they stop because there's nowhere to kick it, so the fix is teaching them to get out of the crowd first. You can make a game with almost no coaching, mark a square about ten steps wide and put four kids and one ball in it. Whoever has the ball scores by dribbling out of any side, and whoever wins it becomes the dribbler. After a few rounds they start looking for the open side before the ball even reaches them, which is the thing missing in games. For the scrimmage, try a goal counting double if the shooter hits it without...
• (+2) I replied to a different post in this subreddit about my training sessions and thought some of it might help. I say it below, but if you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me. This is typically what I do for my sessions: I'm coaching U8's for about the 4th or 5th season (coached older son, now coaching younger son). I am by no means an expert in this myself, but have a decent handle on sessions at this level. I tend to use the play-practice-play model as an outline for my sessions. I usually get there about 20 minutes early to set up the field and do small sided scrimmages as soon...