U-Littles Introduction | Applicable Activities | Circuit Approach

The Circuit Approach With U-Littles

The Circuit Approach is a great way to work with the U-Little agegroups (U-5 and younger), particularly if you've got a fairly large number of players and very few coaches. Using this approach, one coach can actually work with thirty or more children—if each child's parent helps.

The Approach

Here's how the circuit approach works with older players. Several different activities are set up before the players arrive. Players divide into groups, and each group begins at a different activity. Every ten minutes or so, the groups rotate to the next activity.

There can be more activities than groups. For example, three groups could rotate between five activities.

In the diagram, 32 players are rotating between four activities: Ride the Bronco, L-Shot, Run the Gauntlet, and Air Control.

Do you see the advantage of this approach? You can set up all the activities before practice, and you don't have to continually set up new activities during practice. A great deal of time and energy is saved.

A Circuit for U-Littles

Here's a circuit set up across three fairly small fields. These fields happen to have goals, which are nice for the shots but not necessary. Nine different activities have been set up. Ideally, there would be no more than four or five players at each one. This particular circuit, then, could accomodate up to 45 U-Littles!

Nineteen applicable activities are listed on the activity chart for U-Littles, 8 or which are shots. The soccer literature surely includes many other activities that would work well. By limiting the number, though, you'll be able to repeat each activity several times over the season.

Let's look at the organizational challenges. Suppose your practice is to begin at 6:00 PM and you've got only 60 minutes of practice time. You arrive at 5:30 PM to set up your field, expecting as many as 40 players. Between 5:50 PM and 6:10 PM, 32 U-Littles descend on your playing area.

Ideally, you'd have a coach, parent, or youth player to manage each station. They should arrive at least 20 minutes early, so that you can explain each activity before the players begin arriving. More likely, though, you'll need a rule. Each child must be accompanied by a parent. The parents must then be taught to organize the activities on the fly. After a few practices, though, they'll know all the activities.

Once four players have arrived, hustle them off to one of the stations and get them playing. Each time four more players arrive, get them started at a different station. Eventually, most of your stations will be full. If not, that's much better than having too few stations. It's okay to leave a station vacant for a few minutes.

You've only got 60 minutes, and you've got 9 stations. Doing the math, that leaves only 6 minutes per activity. Workable, but a bit stressed. You might want to go for 8 to 10 minutes per activity, realizing that everyone will only get to 6 or so of the total. No problem!

Once most of the players have arrived, begin timing the first session. The early arrivals will get a few extra minutes there. After 8 minutes or whatever, blow your whistle and have the players rotate to the next station. Clockwise works fine, or anything else that fits your situation.

Note that this approach is designed to have value even if none of the available coaches can teach soccer. The activities don't require teaching, but a quick tip now and then can help. Just be sure your players are playing most of the time, not listening.