Under 9’s School Football

[beddie]

Herts. I had the same problem forty years ago so I have great respect for what you did/do. I had one parent who never let me down with transport but we ended up packing two cars with kids every week, looking back it was very dangerous. As you say they'd drop their kids off for training and match days then bugger off. I did it for about five years, I needed a rest after that.

[mealdeal]

I've been helping coach a team for the last three years, currently U10 and have recently taken on a team of U7 on my own. To be honest, I'm already on the verge of packing in. Parents just aren't interested, I can't get a response to availability requests, everyone sees the messages and 75% ignore them and have to be chased up. I don't have the time or patience to be chasing around simply trying to find out if kids can come to a game or a tournament and its only going to get worse as they get older.

[bfccrazy]

I've been helping coach a team for the last three years, currently U10 and have recently taken on a team of U7 on my own. To be honest, I'm already on the verge of packing in. Parents just aren't interested, I can't get a response to availability requests, everyone sees the messages and 75% ignore them and have to be chased up. I don't have the time or patience to be chasing around simply trying to find out if kids can come to a game or a tournament and its only going to get worse as they get older.

It is a mainly thankless task. I took on a team a few years ago and ended up having to sort lifts for half the team to get there for matches. I got offered recently to take control of an older team but can’t commit to giving it the time ignored needs but try and help out at training/matches as much as I can. Parents can’t see how much goes on every week to sort a match at the weekend and it’s even worse when kids are younger as you spend hours during the week to arrange a half hour match on a Sunday morning ....

[Covclaret]

Had a similar experience to others on this thread with my eldest lad. He played in goal for an under 9's team in Coventry. I played football all my life and always thought my boys would grow up with football as I did. But every week managers were either mouthing off or fighting, parents abusing players, the ref, each other. It got to the point where it was no fun at all going and the final straw was our manager telling Christian that he'd let the team down this week because he let 2 goals in. It was under 9's football ffs!!! Turns out to be a blessing in disguise losing the football. He gave hockey a go and turns out to be pretty good at it. He represented Australia at the youth Olympics last October in Argentina and will hopefully be in the Australia under 21's shortly. He's a claret through and through. He wore his Burnley shorts at the Olympics instead of the official Aussie shorts

[Herts Clarets]

Had a similar experience to others on this thread with my eldest lad. He played in goal for an under 9's team in Coventry. I played football all my life and always thought my boys would grow up with football as I did. But every week managers were either mouthing off or fighting, parents abusing players, the ref, each other. It got to the point where it was no fun at all going and the final straw was our manager telling Christian that he'd let the team down this week because he let 2 goals in. It was under 9's football ffs!!! Turns out to be a blessing in disguise losing the football. He gave hockey a go and turns out to be pretty good at it. He represented Australia at the youth Olympics last October in Argentina and will hopefully be in the Australia under 21's shortly. He's a claret through and through. He wore his Burnley shorts at the Olympics instead of the official Aussie shorts

Hope he takes a better penalty than his dad....

[Quickenthetempo]

That's another bugbear of mine with coaches.
Keeping training going all year round for fearing losing players to other sports.

Kids will only develope properly and improve their skills if they try all different sports.

Balance and hand to eye co-ordination etc.

[Covclaret]

Herts- where did the ball finish up?

[dushanbe]

That's another bugbear of mine with coaches.
Keeping training going all year round for fearing losing players to other sports.

Kids will only develope properly and improve their skills if they try all different sports.

Balance and hand to eye co-ordination etc.

Completely agree with this, it’s not just about trying other sports, it’s nice to have a rest and not feel like you’re on a treadmill year round. Our season finishes in a few weeks and ‘winter’ training winds up but then we’ll carry on training. Just break off at the end of April and come back in August for me

[J50]

Completely agree with this, it’s not just about trying other sports, it’s nice to have a rest and not feel like you’re on a treadmill year round. Our season finishes in a few weeks and ‘winter’ training winds up but then we’ll carry on training. Just break off at the end of April and come back in August for me

Yes definitely. We didn't continue training as most played cricket at school and/or club from Easter onwards. But some teams carried on both training and entering tournaments almost every weekend. Do you have them where you are? Every weekend some club has it's summer tournament, they're great money raisers for clubs, but they just keep football going all year round

[Herts Clarets]

Herts- where did the ball finish up?

Due to the slow response from my defenders - maybe they hadn't played in front of a keeper adept at saving penalties- the rebound was put away. Is it next season that rebounds will not be allowed after a penalty? Fingers crossed. Yours, keepers union.