Learning 1V1 play or team passing at younger ages.

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socalkdg

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Came across this quote

"The two most difficult skills in soccer that can take a lifetime to master, are 1v1 attacking play and finishing (not shooting, they are two different things). It's much easier to master the possession oriented passing game... but not at the younger ages!
But here's the trick – we teach it backwards. We start off with tactics and passing but mentally, it's the opposite. It's a lot easier for kids to understand 1v1 play than it is the complexity of the team passing game."

Learning 1V1 play or team passing at younger ages. U8 - U12. Which is the correct route? Thoughts and opinions welcome.
 
To expand on your question, can youth players learn both simultaneously? I have tried to preach to my player to make the best decision in the moment during a game. Doing so requires both skills, 1v1 and passing depending on the situation.
socalkdg said:
Came across this quote

"The two most difficult skills in soccer that can take a lifetime to master, are 1v1 attacking play and finishing (not shooting, they are two different things). It's much easier to master the possession oriented passing game... but not at the younger ages!
But here's the trick – we teach it backwards. We start off with tactics and passing but mentally, it's the opposite. It's a lot easier for kids to understand 1v1 play than it is the complexity of the team passing game."

Learning 1V1 play or team passing at younger ages. U8 - U12. Which is the correct route? Thoughts and opinions welcome.
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In my opinion, I think the 1v1 and attacking play should be taught exclusively at the younger ages. This is the time where they can experiment with the ball and learn how to create their own opportunities. When I see 6 year olds trying to pass the ball, I feel they are not learning the basics of soccer. I love great passing but not at such a young age. Passing will come later when they play the 9v9 and 11v11.
 
Sokrplayer75 said:
In my opinion, I think the 1v1 and attacking play should be taught exclusively at the younger ages. This is the time where they can experiment with the ball and learn how to create their own opportunities. When I see 6 year olds trying to pass the ball, I feel they are not learning the basics of soccer. I love great passing but not at such a young age. Passing will come later when they play the 9v9 and 11v11.
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I go the other way on this. At the youngest ages 80% of what we teach should be passing. To teach kids to pass means teaching them how to move to space, how to receive the ball, how to make a first touch, how to pick up the head and how to pass. In the run of play, escape skills are required calling for good footwork and dribbling skills. All of these skills require decision-making. So my view is that teaching passing is the best way to teach all the skills required for attacking soccer.

Teaching kids to dribble and play 1 v. 1 is comparatively easy. They learn it with footwork and Coerver-style drills, and in the run of play. Teaching players a passing-style game from the earliest ages is more difficult, but in my estimating it gives each player a better understanding of the game right away.
 
I'll just put this recent study out there. It's not completely on point to your question but interesting none-the-less. https://www.upi.com/For-developing-...is-as-important-as-ball-skills/7041536813659/

"New research shows young soccer players, or footballers, should spend more time learning to scan the playing field and less time working on ball skills.

When researchers surveyed coaches on their teaching philosophies, they found more experienced coaches were aware of the importance of football vision, while younger, less experienced coaches remained in the dark. The less experienced coaches focused almost exclusively on technical skills."
 
I'd actually break up the age groups. By U11, U12 things start to change because their brains start to function differently.

But here's my perspective from having reffed a lot of U8, U9 & U10 games this year for the AYSO Core and Extras. For this age groups coaches who focused on 1v1 play, the games generally degenerated to a handful of strong players trying to win the ball on defense and then going at it towards goal, with the other kids basically chasing them. For the coaches who were teaching primarily the passing, many times the passes couldn't connect and sometimes were kicked wildly off target or down the field (because the offside line was so limited), but generally the whole team was involved in chasing the ball down (particularly at the youngest ages). At that age it's supposed to just be fun IMHO.

I agree it's easier for kids to understand the 1v1. Given the disparity in coordination at that age though, it's a whole lot less fun.
 
I played this video for my U12 DD to show her what possession football looks like. It's 44 consecutive passes to get the ball to a spot where Marcelo (at 1:50) used his 1v1 skill to get himself open for a split second to make a perfect pass for an easy goal. But when I showed this to her younger brother, he was not impressed and lost interest rather quickly.

IMHO, at U12 passing and movement should be 80+% of the focus (except perhaps the strikers) if what's in this video is the brand of soccer you like. At U8, passing is important but it's really hard to validate what you practice in games. Field is too small, most kids' first touches are just not good enough to string together 10 passes, and their understanding of the movement of the game is just not there yet (although this particular problem can be improved by playing a lot of FIFA18 :)).
 
I don't think it's a binary choice of 1v1 OR passing. For u8 - u12 they should be working on both as they work in tandem. A player who always dribbles is easy to shut down since they're predictable/one-dimensional. A player who can pass and dribble is unpredictable and hard to handle if they know when to pass and when to dribble.

I would also say have players take advantage of taking on players 1v1 in 7v7 in u8 - u10 since there's more space (less players), team passing is not as developed and games kinda don't really matter that much anyway at that age.
 
As a coach, I'm stunned by how many kids can't play a 15 yard pass 10/10 times and can't do it with both feet. I've coached high level DA players and others who played in college who can't do this. My coaching mentor told me something that I believe is true. If you can't run and you can't pass you can't play. I'd work on making my kid a two footed player above all else.
 
JCM said:
As a coach, I'm stunned by how many kids can't play a 15 yard pass 10/10 times and can't do it with both feet. I've coached high level DA players and others who played in college who can't do this. My coaching mentor told me something that I believe is true. If you can't run and you can't pass you can't play. I'd work on making my kid a two footed player above all else.
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I'm just a parent but would agree wholeheartedly on this.

Futsal is a great venue that can help with passing, finishing, and using booth feet. Young Kids just don't get enough touches on the ball during routine practices twice a week IMO.

When my kid first went to academy training/tryouts one of the first exercises was dribbiling and shooting with the off foot. A larger % of those players couldn't score with there off foot from the 18 or dribble and most weren't asked back.

Takes a lot of practice, exercise, and continuing fortitude to work on your off foot but really is needed once you get to a certain level.

Besides speed and soccer IQ can't think of anything thats more valuable than being able to take anybody on 1v1, pass accurately, and of course finishing but with both feet.

Young kids tend to over emphasis dribbling over passing or shooting rather than passing to the open players. We all tend to have a overall selfishness but the player that scores, assists, passes accurately and puts the team first will always be in demand so the young player needs to learn everything including how to defend, use both feet, pass, shoot,, etc.
 
Just saying...most people vote passing, but most people claim the Maradona solo goal where he dribbled from the half way line as the best goal ever. Is that not a conflict?
 
blam said:
Just saying...most people vote passing, but most people claim the Maradona solo goal where he dribbled from the half way line as the best goal ever. Is that not a conflict?
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Is it different for boys or girls as well? I don't see the solo skills with women's soccer that I see in men's soccer, so would that mean we should actually train them differently? Do the physical differences make it possible for men to do things on the field that women can never do?
 
blam said:
Just saying...most people vote passing, but most people claim the Maradona solo goal where he dribbled from the half way line as the best goal ever. Is that not a conflict?
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Well, we're talking about 99.99% of the kids. If your kid has the potential to be the next Maradona, by all means work on 1v1 all day long :).


I'm not sure you guys have seen his "Live is Life" warm-up routine. I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in soccer. My DD was floored by Maradona's juggling with his shoulders.

Messi will always be the greater footballer to me, but no one did it with more styles and flares than Maradona.
 
Messi>CR7 said:
Well, we're talking about 99.99% of the kids. If your kid has the potential to be the next Maradona, by all means work on 1v1 all day long :).


I'm not sure you guys have seen his "Live is Life" warm-up routine. I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in soccer. My DD was floored by Maradona's juggling with his shoulders.

Messi will always be the greater footballer to me, but no one did it with more styles and flares than Maradona.
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Seen the routine before but not this video with the music, well done for sure even without the shoes tied.

When the kids where younger his club used to practice juggling as part of the warm up for practice and all players where expected to do x number. By U10 kids where expected to be able to at least:

Juggle the ball with the feet 25x times, Thighs 10 Times, Head 10 times, Around the world, 2 Left and 2 Right, Head, shoulder,Head, Pick up the ball with the feet and juggle 6 times, Juggle the ball above your head 6 times, Pinch the ball between your feet and hop to pick the ball up and juggle 6 times.

The girls at this age seem to be better than the boys for some reason and my Son didn't like the fact his older sister could do them better & more of them initially and worked his tail off but it would be a couple years before he finally caught up.

Just look at the legs and the lower center gravity that both Maradona and Messi have, takes a certain body size also and some kids outgrown themselves but having the dribbling, 1v1 , and passing skills never hurts no matter the position.
 
The issue that I have encountered with solely focusing on 1v1 and skills with the Ulittles is that as they growth, they tend to believe the game is about themselves, hence becoming ballhogs and nuances to teamplay. If the player lacks soccer IQ, can't collect passes and make accurate passes, that player has been given a great disservice and the worst part, a once promising player, basically can't go past their local soccer club glory, because the full package it wasn't given to them in the younger ages. As long players are taught to play as a team, that every player in the field has a purpose and its somehow equally important, the player will be able to later on work on his/her weaknesses.
 
coachsamy said:
The issue that I have encountered with solely focusing on 1v1 and skills with the Ulittles is that as they growth, they tend to believe the game is about themselves, hence becoming ballhogs and nuances to teamplay. If the player lacks soccer IQ, can't collect passes and make accurate passes, that player has been given a great disservice and the worst part, a once promising player, basically can't go past their local soccer club glory, because the full package it wasn't given to them in the younger ages. As long players are taught to play as a team, that every player in the field has a purpose and its somehow equally important, the player will be able to later on work on his/her weaknesses.
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A quick way to judge a player's ability (one who is unknown to the evaluator) is to score them on the shots and passes made with their off foot, and how well they control a difficult pass (such as one about hip high, just a couple of feet outside their weak side).
 
socalkdg said:
Came across this quote

"The two most difficult skills in soccer that can take a lifetime to master, are 1v1 attacking play and finishing (not shooting, they are two different things). It's much easier to master the possession oriented passing game... but not at the younger ages!
But here's the trick – we teach it backwards. We start off with tactics and passing but mentally, it's the opposite. It's a lot easier for kids to understand 1v1 play than it is the complexity of the team passing game."

Learning 1V1 play or team passing at younger ages. U8 - U12. Which is the correct route? Thoughts and opinions welcome.
Click to expand...

Spot on. But not just 1v1 attack, 1v1 defense as well. Hard to teach them good 1v1 attack at practice if no one can defend properly as well.
It's still good to touch on passing and first touch though but at a more technical level with more touches.. instead of large tactical drills.
 
I don't understand why you should do one over the other. I coach exclusively in the U7-10 age groups, I think it is imperative that you do both. Kids have to be comfortable taking kids one on one. At the same token, you have to work on passing on this age. The kids have to understand that there is a group of players out on the field dying to play as well. Nothing is more frustrating than a player that won't pass the ball. I have noticed that other kids are much more in tune to those players these days, even at ages as young as 5. They look up and see that kid and won't pass it to them because they know they won't pass it back ever. Lastly, I agree the off foot thing is the most frustrating thing of all. I marvel at kids that come from other clubs and can't kick it 2 feet with their off foot. Every technical thing we do has both feet involved, that have to learn how to use it. I always tell the kids "doesn't have to be great, just has to be useful." We even occasionally have a "off foot day" at training. It is quite comical and I think the kids sometimes look at it like us adults look at taxes. Those usually only come up when we are doing passing or dribbling work and they are being very one-footed. On a side note, my biggest pet peeve is kids in their free play. The kiss of death is a goal. If there is a goal out there, the kids will do nothing but kick a still ball from their ideal spot for an hour. No juggling, no dribbling, no hitting a ball on the move with both feet. I try to tell my kids that if they are playing on their own they must do more than hit free kicks from the top of the box.
 
The players that are great dribblers but poor passers are quickly exposed when they play high school against older players.
 
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