"I love you Coach Noodle" I have no idea where Coach Noodle came from.

Assistant coaching last year was a difficult and rewarding experience, one that I didn't plan to repeat. But as the 2025 season approached, the league sent an email that without enough volunteers they'd need to drop some teams.

So when 2026 comes around I guess it'll be nice to have some notes on what worked and what didn't for coaching Dani's U6 team, the Cheetahs.

I had a few drills from last time, as well as a vague idea of how well they worked. The first few practices centered around the functional aspects of the game - listening to the referee, kick-offs, kick-ins, substitutions, and so forth. As the season continued I found myself designing drills to directly improve on things that went wrong during the games. So this post will have three parts:

1. The team; this year's team was not like last year's.
2. Proactive drills; the things you'd train any team on.
3. Reactive drills; points of emphasis based on gameplay.

I had the kids personalize cones we used whenever I needed them to line up.

Last year we had two dominant players who, more importantly, were interested in everything we did in practice. The rest of the team either remained focused on their own volition or followed the lead of the Mia and Lucy.

This year was different, primarily because I had a bunch of kids that knew each other. Rather than the coach, soccer, or the team captains being the most interesting thing on the pitch, without close scrutiny practices (and games) quickly turn into playground shenanigans. And so much of my practice routine revolved around things that would keep the chaos at bay.

Critical to this was to minimize player vs player situations. There were too many ways for a drill to go off the rails without a coach keeping things on track. In full-team scrimmages the ball was constantly going out of bounds (honest skill issue) but once it started rolling away two kids would chase it and suddenly forget they were playing soccer. The kids still on the field would get bored and dig holes or search for foxtails. So every scrimmage was coach(es) against players (also because more than a few practices only had four players). The ball remained largely in play, worthy of attention, and near an authority figure. I also found that the kids were very competitive so if they lost focus (e.g. on a kick-in) I could just kick it in their goal and start celebrating (Go Rainbow Leopards!), they'd snap right back into action.

Ordinarily I'd think that peer competition would be important to building confidence against other teams, but no one seemed shy about getting into the thick of it in games.

I introduced three key phrases that were heard many, many times throughout the season:

1. Where's the ball? Specific tasking for frequent spacing out.
2. Find your spot. As soon as the ball goes out of bounds, the kids start wandering.
3. Spread out. Because bunchball.

These were in the playbook at the start of the season.

Dribbling course

This year rather than doing a cyclical course I constructed a large loop that ended with a shot on goal.

Dribbling a cone course was the bread and butter of practice this season. It's an important skill and since everyone has a ball (and follows the leader), the kids stayed on task.

Top: the player passes the ball through the cones, runs around the cones, and continues. A primitive push-and-go. Bottom: the player plays a one-two to Coach Joe.

To make things more fun and practice other skills, I added passing segments to the course. Playing a one-two or passing through defenders are good long-term skills to develop. For most of my players, these segments were an opportunity to untrain the instinct to run directly at the ball at all times. I think it was progress to see a player pass the ball to Coach Joe, run directly at him, then catch herself and run to the next cone to receive the pass.

Last year's standalone push-and-go drill.

Sharks and minnows

The minnows must dribble past the shark.

We did some sharks and minnows in the early season. The one thing that sends this one off the rails is when a player demands to be a shark.

Footgolf

The closest ball to Coach Noodle wins.

Footgolf worked well last season and this season. Everyone plays simultaneously, even the younger/newer players are about as proficient as the older and more aggressive players. It's not a perfect attention-keeper, the ball return time is an opportunity to lose focus or start conversing with a neighbor. Perhaps a better formulation of this is to have a coach walk down the line and call out one-by-one kicks.

This one can also be used to practice kick-ins by having the kids start a few steps back from the ball.

Another variation might be to set all the personalized cones up and have the winner(s) be whoever's cone doesn't get knocked over.

Kick-ins

Cones for where to stand, the kicker plays it to each teammate.

Last year's kick-in drill started with a player chasing a ball kicked out of bounds. I took that part out and simply placed the ball on the line, on-field cones marked where the other players should stand to receive the kick ("Find your spot").

Keep out

Keep the balls out of your rectangle by kicking them into the other team's rectangle.

For the early practices, I tried to create fun games where everyone was doing something at all times. One was to have the kids try to defend their rectangle by kicking balls into their opponents' rectangle. The idea was to practice coordinating who would run to which ball as well as approaching an uncontested ball and kicking it the desired direction.

It wasn't a disaster but it wasn't great. I should have revisited this one later in the season.

Keep-away

Players stay next to their cones and must pass the ball before Coach gets there.

We didn't try keep-away this year because I'm not sure passing was in the cards.

Through-balls

Receive the ball, shoot as soon as possible.

Again, we had more pressing things to work on than passing skills.

2v1

Defender wins on anything but a goal.

Maybe U8s.

During the games I kept a mental record of the things that went wrong, then tried to create drills from those scenarios.

Off-ball positioning

"The ball is here, you're on offense/defense, where should you be?"

U6 soccer is bunchball, meaning you have teammates running into each other, taking the ball from each other, and nobody dropping back to clean up a ball that squirts away. The instinct to drift toward the ball is hard to overcome at this age but it's not a bad time to start.

We called this drill "Where should a Cheetah be?" I'd stand somewhere on the field with the ball, tell them if I'm on their team or an opposing team, and ask them to go where they think they should be. The success of this one hinges on how well the instructions are presented/explained.

The kids got this one pretty quickly so we switched it up and I gave a player the ball. Then I had her dribble at a walking pace while everyone kept their formation or found their new spot.

Formation and passing

Dribble to the line, pass to a teammate who has advanced to a shooting position.

I intended to extend the off-ball positioning drill to a walking-pace scenario (then running) where a single dribbler would be flanked by teammates, then pass to an open player before reaching a stationary defender. I never got to this drill because the last practice had seven kids and no assistant coach.

Shepherding

The attacker/coach moves toward the goal, the player positions herself between the attacker and the goal.

We let in a handful of goals where our defender was in the right place to make a stop but simply wasn't on the direct path between the ball and the goal. We let in a handful more where our defender would whiff on a big swing at the ball, allowing the attacker to walk it in. To address both of these, we did a no-ball drill where the defender would simply try to shepherd the attacker toward the corner flags. The team did great and I saw some of this in subsequent games.

This could potentially work with a ball and a player as the attacker. The defender would be under instructions to not steal the ball but simply stay between it and the goal.

Sidestepping

A suboptimal intercept course.

Most U6 players follow the intercept strategy illustrated above: running to where the ball is at any given moment, resulting in an arcing intercept course.

The player must intercept a slowly-kicked ball while staying on the line.

Luckily, at this age kids are great at staying on or in lines. So after warming up by all sidestepping down the length of the touch line, we practiced sidestepping to intercept errant balls.

Turning

The player turns in place and chases the ball down.

For balls that can't be intercepted with a sidestep, we practiced turning in place then chasing the ball down rather than running directly at it. This drill has three variations:

1. Goal kicks
2. From midfield, attacking
3. From midfield, defending (clearing)

First touch

The player chases down a ball rolled toward the corner, turns, and shoots as quickly as possible.

For U6s, dribbling tends to be in a straight line so it's not uncommon to dribble a breakaway ball straight past the goal. It's also very common for the ball to squirt out of the clump so practicing this scenario was a great way to improve our offense.

Arcing dribbles are great but sometimes its better to work on approach and first touch. I rolled balls toward the corner flags and let the players figure out how to get them pointed in the right direction (either with footwork or approaching the ball at a different angle).

Shooting zone

Even our strongest players ended up dribbling into impossible shooting angles, so for another drill I gave the kids a zone to shoot from. I didn't expect much rules compliance but they did great, including taking shots more or less on the run.

1v1 and 50/50s

Both players chase, offense tries to score, defense tries to kick it away.

Like I mentioned above, in U6 there are a lot of 50/50 balls that slowly roll toward someone's goal from around midfield. In these situations the attacker has the straightforward job of keeping the ball going in that direction. The defender, incorrectly, wants to do the same thing but in the other direction. So she runs past the ball, turns 180 degrees, winds up, and tries to kick the ball toward the other goal. Obviously by the time the second or third step is complete, the ball is already in the back of the net.

The correct thing for the defender to do, of course, is to clear the ball as early as possible. The 1v1 drill reinforced this priority for the defending player and was good shooting practice for the attacker. One of my players took the defensive message to heart and became a defensive beast for the rest of the season. Others were less reliable but still had some great clearances.

Another flavor:

Opposing players race to win a 50/50 ball.

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