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4 & 5 YEAR OLDS
This is a great age to coach. Children of this age can be full of creativity and enthusiasm for exploring new ideas. The coach needs to make sure they mirror these creative enthusiastic attitudes, and make sessions exciting, varied and fun.
Most children aged 4 and 5 will be completely new to football, others may have gone to a few sessions at other football programmes or have older siblings that they play football with. One of the main differences among children at this age will be there confidence to play with a football and to join in group activities. Coaches need to remember that they can play a huge role in helping all the children become confident young footballers through tailoring activities to fit the needs of the group, and to use plenty of praise and encouragement.
The main themes for this age-group are Agility, Balance and Co-ordination and Technical development. Most 4 and 5 year olds may not comprehend directional play, and the coach needs to gently introduce this. Certainly some small-sided games may be useful at this age-group, especially 2v2s. However, the main part of the session should include activities with a ball each.
Below are a few sample activities from the MoF Coaching Manual. If you have any comments or suggestions, or want to purchase the Coaching Manual please email by clicking here.
One ball each technical activities
A good coach of this age-group will have loads of one-ball each activities to challenge the children with. These activities can be great as warm-ups, homeworks, or for children to try while the coach is setting-up a new group activity.
1v1s
Children aged 4 and 5 will vary greatly in how physically competitive and confident they are. This 1v1 set-up allows the coach to pair children who are roughly equal, in order to ensure all children achieve success.
Small-sided games
There is no need for coaches at this age-group to try to "coach" small-sided games. The key job of the coach is to ensure that all children are being challenged at the right level. Having two small games instead of one large game has many benefits: more touches of ball and more involvement = more learning experiences and enjoyment. Also, it allows the coach to group players according to their confidence and ability therefore helping all children experience learning situations that are appropriate to their needs.
In order to maximise learning, one of the trickiest tasks for the coach is to not spend too long getting the players into teams and games. It can seem to take an eternity to get all players in bibs and in the right pitch/goal and playing! Some tips: Get players in bibs during the activity before. Get all players doing some ball manipulation work (eg throw-kick-catch), and while this is happening you can take two colours out and get them going in their game. Then deal with the other two colours afterwards.
At this young age, some players will not have grasped the concept of directional play. The coach may need to identify the players who need help remembering which goal they are defending / scoring in. The coach will also need to recycle the ball often by throwing a new ball into play when the previous one has left the play area.
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4 and 5 year olds session times and venues