Every story Hobbit Weekly has picked, newest first · 89 stories
Stories that name no age are only under all ages. A story for U8 to U12 is in both of those bands.
Aprende Entrenando published a guide for parent coaches in grassroots football, setting out age-by-age demands from benjamín to juvenil and three traps to avoid, such as over-demanding your own child. It asks for equal minutes in fútbol 8 (at least 50% per child), errors treated as learning and a session where players are moving or on the ball about 80% of the time.
A youth coach describes how praising a 6-0 win led his U11s to chase goals instead of playing, and offers a three-step post-match review built on one game criterion set before kickoff. He asks players what worked, what needs rework and who helped unseen, then closes on the next session.
An U7/U8 coach asks whether one practice a season falls apart, after a session ended 15 minutes early with kids bickering and unfocused. Most replies say it happens, urge leniency, and suggest 75 minutes and one 15 minute drill are too long, with an extra parent helping.
A 10u rec coach who plays everyone equally all season asks whether to go more competitive in a single elimination tournament. Most replies say keep equal playing time: the kids remember riding the bench, not the result. Some coaches say shortened minutes in playoffs are normal, but only if parents and players are told first.
A U10 coach switching from 2-1-3 to 3-2-1 asks for build-out patterns. Most replies suggest using the shape in possession like a 2-3-1: split the back three wide, keep midfielders staggered, and let wingbacks push up. Several say 2-3-1 is easier to build out with.
A parent argues that locking kids into one position kills their love of the game. Most replies push back on parts of the premise, saying defense is where players develop, and several note the poster is likely new. The most experienced coach agrees players should rotate over time, using 2 to 3 week position blocks.
A one-season study of 58 male Norwegian academy players aged 12 to 19 found clinically diagnosed lower-limb apophyseal injuries in 12% of players in an average week, at 4.6 per 1,000 hours of exposure. Pubic apophysitis was the most common (32% of cases), and 77% of injuries had a gradual onset, with 81% starting during or just after training.
A small study of 15 male players aged 10-11 found that after about 14 hours without food or fluid, Yo-Yo intermittent recovery distance was significantly lower than when fed, while jump, 30-m sprint and agility times did not differ. Fasted players also had higher resting heart rate, fatigue and perceived exertion, and shorter sleep.
In a Coach United Academy video for U8 to U12 coaches, M&A Soccer School coach Masaki Arano builds 2v2 defending from body positioning and prediction to the second defender's cover and intercepting. The session uses 2v2 plus one free player to keep possession, then 2v2 plus two servers where dribbling over the goal line scores, teaching challenge and cover.
Ikegami Sei, who has coached over 600,000 children, advises a volunteer U12 coach not to prepare players for 11-a-side before middle school. Keep playing 8-a-side until March: at 12 the priority is scanning, the third-man run and linking defence to midfield to attack, and early heading or long kicking of a size 5 ball can cause injuries such as lumbar spondylolysis.
Aprende Entrenando published a step-by-step method for planning youth football sessions, matching content to each age group from benjamín (8-9) to juvenil (16-18). Sessions should last 75 to 90 minutes, built as a 15-minute ball-based warm-up, 45 to 50 minutes of two or three progressive tasks and a 10-minute cool-down with questions.
A questionnaire study of 735 children aged 7 to 15 at a Medical University of Warsaw dental clinic found 42.9% had a parent-reported history of traumatic dental injury, rising to 49.7% among those playing sports versus 31.3% among non-participants. Football participation, rural residence and lower parental education were also linked to higher reported injury. Clinic-based sampling means the figures are not population estimates.
Sports and education journalist Yuko Shimazawa advises a U10 parent to hand a team dispute over verbal abuse to the coach instead of confronting the other family. One player has stopped school and football after being blamed, and parents on both sides are trading accounts as players talk about quitting.
A parent with no soccer background ended up coaching 8U and dreads practice. Most replies say yes: warm up with a ball game, then small sided games and scrimmages, keeping the same session structure each week. One reply says a warm up plus scrimmaging is enough for U8.
A coach of strong, fast U12 girls says practice effort is low but match day spark is high, and wants fun tactical sessions. Most replies say use small-sided, game-based formats with scoring, uneven teams and rule conditions instead of cone drills; a few suggest linking poor practice to poor games and keeping tactics to shape and spacing.
A Spanish youth coaching guide sets out a minute-management model: equal quarters in F7 and F8 initiation stages, a guaranteed minimum share of playing time from Infantil upward, and rotating squad lists for large F11 squads. It suggests planning changes before leaving home and recording minutes monthly, not match by match.
A coaching guide from Aprende Entrenando says isolated technique work fails under pressure and offers four exercises built on perception, decision and execution. It recommends cutting space, limiting touches, using overloads and adding rules such as a double goal after a one-two to raise the cognitive load in sessions for U7s to U16s.
A coach with more than fifteen years on the field sets out how to plan grassroots football training by stage: initiation at 6 to 9, development at 10 to 13 and perfection at 14 to 18. Sessions of 75 to 90 minutes split into a 15 minute warm-up, two or three linked main tasks and 10 minutes of cool-down and reflection, with content spread across weekly macros and microcycles.
A U12 coach blames losses on a keeper who cannot stop shots, and most replies push back: the team, not one 12 year old, loses games, and the keeper is still learning. They advise rotating him into the field and teaching positioning during scrimmages.
A coach's U12 rec boys talk through practice, so attention takes several tries and a whistle. Most replies say talk less and play more, using small sided games and short instructions, with quick attention cues such as two claps. Some still use laps or up downs as needed, but others call running them counter-productive.
r/SoccerCoachResources · 30 comments ↗Also reported byr/CoachingYouthSports
A U13 boys team is outscored 13-1 in three games after moving to 11v11 and a mandated 4-2-3-1. Most replies say the formation is not the problem: the jump in field size and weak fundamentals are, so keep working passing, receiving and scanning, and consider a simpler shape.
A grassroots coaching guide says training tasks must be representative of real football, with ball, teammates, opponents, defined space and direction, not copied drills or queue-based circuits. It gives four principles, a five-step design process and progressions and regressions per age group, from 1v1 and small-sided games up to collective tactics.
Researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital found that youth aged 11 to 17 who averaged about 141 minutes of screen time a day in the first three days after a concussion recovered 35% faster than those with 260 minutes. Two hours a day of smartphone or TV use was linked to quicker recovery; computer, tablet and gaming use was not.
M&A Soccer School coach Masaki Areno demonstrates defending for U8 to U12 players on COACH UNITED ACADEMY, moving from partner step drills to a two-goal 1v1. He teaches small steps, reading when an opponent will stop, and pressing to hide the pass lane and invite the dribble you want to win.
A coach's guide sets out how to divide minutes fairly from Fútbol 7 to Cadete and Juvenil. In Fútbol 7 every called-up player should get at least 50% of the minutes; in Infantil at least 30 to 35 minutes; in Cadete and Juvenil, starting places are earned in training, with pre-planned windows instead of minute-89 substitutions.
Coach Kazu argues that defending for lower primary players starts with mentality, not tactics: the will to win the ball and to chase again after being beaten. He uses a 30 metre line-goal 1v1 so a player who does not chase back is obvious, since a 12m grid lets the attacker score before the second chase can happen.
A parent says two coaches shout directions at their U9 keeper on every goal kick, and her roll out has got sloppy. Most replies agree in-game directions should be limited to questions and praise, and suggest talking to the coaches; one says a parent-coached travel team is a red flag.
A 15-week study of 56 young soccer players (average age 9.98) found no link between how much they enjoyed training and their cognitive or motor test scores. Motor Efficiency Test and FlankTime scores did change over the period, but enjoyment ratings clustered near the top of the scale, which limited the analysis.
Coach Osamu Ikegami, who has worked in JEF United Ichihara Chiba's academy, says direct play should come first and two-touch second. Starting from the halfway line, players pass toward goal so they learn how far ahead to play the ball before working out where to control it while running.
Japanese junior coach Kazu explains why children who cannot press or win the ball usually cannot use their body, and sets out the approach, stop, close sequence he uses with primary school players. In training he lets them hold a shirt or arm and tells a player who is shielded to kick at the ball, and for pressing he says the first defender should commit to the 1v1 and leave interceptions to the second and third player.
A coach's team warms up, then talks tactics, and starts both games flat; yelling at halftime transforms them. Most replies blame the order and the warmup: talk first, then build intensity to game speed, with short, intense, game-like drills finishing near kickoff. Arriving an hour early may also be too long.
A youth coach answers whether U10 players cannot kick far because they lack strength or repetition, and says distance does follow muscle, but correct form and frequent repetition should start in the early years. He advises coaching instep key factors from big movements down to detail, and stretching pass distances so poor form cannot hide.
Youth coach Kazu says the simplest way to judge a player's choice is that if the pass lane is cut, dribble, and if the dribble lane is cut, pass. He splits dribbling into beating a player and carrying the ball, says he avoids 1v1 in the final third with primary-age players, and favours 2v1 relationships instead.
A parent of an 11 year old on a premier B team says the coach, who runs four other teams, offers no instruction and is on his phone at practice. Most replies split: some say sitting back and letting the game teach is developmentally right for this age, but the phone and the workload are not defensible.
Coach Osamu Ikegami, who has coached over 600,000 children across age groups at clubs including JEF United Ichihara Chiba, says covering starts with 1v2: let two defenders work out together which way to push the attacker, with the coach saying nothing at first. He adds that sliding often arrives late because players are not seeing what is around them, so he stops the ball carrier after about three metres and asks each defender where they should go.
Former futsal Japan international Toshi Nagashima, who runs AMBER FA, shows U8 to U12 coaches how to build receiving and dribbling training. The session covers controlling with the far foot, a soft knee to absorb the ball, and a 2v2 plus two vertical servers game that links receiving, turning and finishing.
Youth coach Kazu says positions should follow three ways of watching a player: what they can already do and what option to add, what would make them look clearly better, and what would stop them looking out of place. Let the players' traits decide the formation, and move players between positions to create the noise that drives self-organisation.
A coach's guide lays out a progressive method for teaching players to scan before receiving the ball, from a U8 to U9 look-before-you-play reflex to U14 and older automating it under pressure. It lists common coach errors: training control without the gaze, waiting to U13 to introduce it, praising the touch but not the look, and drills with no time or opponent.