Recreation Soccer Team Rosters are set between 5 and 8 players so that players get more attention and more opportunities to touch the ball. MUSA emphasizes getting the players as many touches on the ball as possible.
General Weekly Layout For Recreation Soccer
- The first 30 minutes should be dedicated to soccer skill development of your team.
- Please no drills, stretches or exercises.
- Definitely no lines, laps, or lectures.
- This period should be used for skill based games. Make it fun for the kids.
- A weekly list of suggested games to play is provided here, but feel free to add your own games.
- Never should you have a line of kids with 1 ball shooting on a soccer goal 1 at a time. Play kick the coach instead. You deserve it for coming up with such a drill.
- The next 30 minutes should be a traditional soccer game versus your opponent for the week.
- Game should be a 3 on 3 game or at most a 4 on 4 game. Roster sizes have been reduced to promote this style of game. This will increase the number of touches that the players get.
- There should be NO emphasis on winning.
- Score should not be kept.
- The teams are randomly assigned and you will have aggressive kids and less aggressive kids. Where possible try and have all of your aggressive kids on the field together then all the less aggressive kids on the field. This will promote aggressiveness in the less aggressive and sharing the ball of the aggressive kids.
- At NO point should all the players be on the field at the same time.
- Game play should not stop and only have brief stoppages for to switch players. Coaches should have balls in hand so when a ball goes out of bounds another "NEW" ball should be tossed back in immediately. Similar actions should occur after goals are scored.
- Fields are lined with sidelines and end lines. WIth the younger groups loosely teach the out of bounds. As they get older, be more cognizant of the boundaries.
- In front of each goal is a no touch box. No player should touch the ball in the box. A defending player that touches the ball in the box counts as a goal for the other team. An offensive player that touches the ball in the box gives possession to the defensive team. This is to prevent goalie play and cherry picking. Again, we are not keeping score but the no touch box should help to get kids to play the game.
- As coach, you should arrive 15 minutes early to find your area to play and to gather balls for your team. Each child should have a soccer ball at their feet for the first 30 minutes. Encourage parents to show up at 15 minutes early too so they can get a soccer ball. In this 15 minutes is when you could do stretches etc or encourage your players to do this at home.