Ages 4-8: Creating different ways to score

One of the most exciting aspects of football for young players is putting the ball in the back of the net. At grassroots level, finding fun and creative ways to help children in front of goal not only fuels their love for the game, but lays the foundations for long-term development of one of the sport’s core skills.

In this edition of FIFA’s Grassroots Coaching Essentials series, Dr Jené Baclawski explores how coaches can provide players between the ages of 4 and 8 with different methods of scoring goals. She offers three key coaching tips for grassroots coaches to implement this successfully: experiment, plan intentionally, and engage and develop.

Below is a presentation in which Jené explains her tips in further detail, highlighting practical strategies that coaches can adopt to create engaging, game-realistic shooting practice. Following the video is a written summary of her coaching tips and age-appropriate activities that will support players in becoming more confident, prolific and switched-on in the penalty area.

Tip 1: Introduce variety

Varying the method of scoring in training keeps players engaged, builds their confidence in front of goal and ignites their creative side. Here, Jené explains how introducing variety into practice offers several key benefits to young players when developing this core skill:

Improves awareness: By encouraging players to focus on reading the game, they will learn to make effective decisions to move the ball towards their intended objective of scoring goals.
Fosters teamwork: Playing the right pass requires communication, with team-mates working together to create space, support each other and maintain the flow of play.
Tweak the difficulty: Coaches can increase or decrease the challenge of the drill by adjusting the rules, making it suitable for players across all stages of development.

Activity 1: Two equal teams (3v3) aim to pass, using feet or hands, to moving target players positioned at both ends. The target players should rotate to ensure everyone participates. Varying pass types, touch limits and player numbers introduce variety, encouraging creativity, enjoyment and confidence.

Tip 2: Intentional planning

It is important that grassroots coaches always plan sessions with clear intent to ensure that every activity has purpose and maximum impact on young players, particularly in this age category. In this section, Jené explains how careful practice design can mirror game-like situations, teach key concepts and prove adaptable to players’ needs:

Create relevance: Coaches should select each activity carefully to create scenarios that feel like a real match. In turn, this makes training more exciting for players, helping them to see the relevance of the exercise.
Teach concepts: Drills designed with purpose can help young players grasp the key principles of attack and defence in a clear, structured way.
Ensure flexibility: For a coach, one of the main components of planning should be designing an activity that is flexible and adjustable. For this exercise, the coach could change the rules or scoring system to keep players engaged for longer.

Activity 2: This is a simple 3v3 activity in which teams can score a point by passing or dribbling into an end zone. The first side to 10 points wins the game. Adjust touches or scoring to reflect the focus on purposeful design, teaching concepts and adapting for all abilities.

Tip 3: Engage and develop

Finally, Jené discusses how designing sessions that truly engage young players helps them to develop both their skills (in this case, shooting) and their understanding of the game. She highlights how creating enjoyable activities can inspire creativity, forge an engaging environment and foster teamwork:

Get creative: Encouraging players to be creative on the training pitch helps them think strategically and strengthens their problem-solving skills during matches.
Creates an engaging environment: Large goals can be intimidating for youngsters. Allowing them to score by hitting multiple small targets can enhance their enjoyment of the game.
Encourage teamwork and communication: Players must work together to create goalscoring opportunities, learning about positioning, team roles and how to support their team-mates in the process.

Activity 3: This is a round-robin 3v3 game in which players face a new opponent every few minutes. It is a winner-stays-on activity, and the team with the most goals wins. This aims to engage players, develop creativity and encourage teamwork through varied match-like experiences.

Key Take-aways

By designing goalscoring sessions that are varied and fun, grassroots coaches can create the ideal environment for young players to thrive in front of goal. Here is a summary of the key take-aways from Jené’s presentation on creating different ways for young players to score goals:

Use target players: Using target players in training helps children learn about positioning and reading the game, as well as encouraging communication skills.
Deploy end zones for structured training: Games featuring end zones highlight the differences between attacking and defending, at the same time as promoting teamwork.
Focus on engagement and development: Incorporating mini-goals and gates gives players more opportunities to do what they enjoy most – score goals!