Welcome to the U8 News Pages
27 Feb 2006
Article 1 - Operating Model
Article by Barry McCormack Manager 08/02/06
Welcome to the Under 8 news page. We will be adding lots more articles to this page and I will be referring to this page in emails therefore it might be a good idea to bookmark this in your favourite section of your browser. This is the first in a series of articles.
In this article I would like to set out how we are going to operate for the remainder of this term.
First I would like to say something about match organisation. The coach will send out an email requesting your child to play early in the week of the match. It is expected that you reply as to your child’s availability in good time to enable the lead coach to organise the team.
If you don’t reply then it is assumed that your child is not available and your child will not be selected to play football for that particular match. Should you have an enquiry about the match then contact the lead coach of your team, not the Year Group Manager. (As I get far too many enquires and need to cut them down).
The current teams are listed at the end of this letter. The lead coach’s email addresses are:
Jets
Mark.Mitcheson@Pfizer.com
mark@mitcheson.net
Sharks
carlos.elsesser@ra-lond.com
Giants
chris.tomlinson@imperial.ac.uk
Tigers
AstridMattheus@aol.com
And now some words about the sessions.
Each exercise that is performed at the session has been carefully designed to improve some aspect of the child’s football skills and ability. Certain routines emphasise different aspects but all are geared to improving overall ability and keeping motivation.
The training sessions are divided into four parts; Registration, Group training, Team Training and Match Practice.
Practice sessions start at 10:00am with registration and now finish at the later time of 11:45. I am very keen for the children to leave the ground in a controlled and orderly fashion in order that we don’t have anyone lost. This means that you need to be at the ground ready to pick up your child for 11:35. We will not let the children leave the park until we have line of sight of a child’s parent. It is also very important that you check your child in at the right time therefore please do not turn up after registration takes place as this means your child needs to be registered late which disrupts our session.
Group training consists of the whole squad training together. This part of the session is taken by a different coach each week. Each activity is designed to improve co-ordination, skill level and football ability.
Team training works on ideas that the team coaches have to improve their team’s specific strength and builds upon the previous part of the session. In this session the coaches know the players individual strengths and weakness better, and these elements are worked upon with a view to improvement.
Finally we have match practice where all players are rotated evenly in order that they get a game.
We try to split the teams into two equal pairs of ability. i.e. Jets and Giants, Sharks and Tigers. These teams are not rigid. There will be movement of players between the two. We will be constantly adjusting them to keep the levels correct because at this age group we are constrained by the league into having two equal pairs of teams. (otherwise we get fined!)
At this age players come along in terms of ability and improve dramatically in short time periods. Consulted wisdom from other teams with older age groups than ourselves has shown that the strongest players at age 8 may not be the strongest players at age 10 therefore we will have to adjust the teams accordingly.
Also we cannot stay as we are as teams as eventually the 6 a side teams will disappear and we will have 11 a side. We are preparing ourselves at this age ready for the teams going into the correct league levels and this we feel is the correct way to do this. This is part of the strategy of the club to take us forward and improve our overall ability.
We are also planning more sessions around goalkeeping skills and these players showing an interest in this area will be separated for specific training with our goal keeping coach during the session.
Finally we are mindful that your child should enjoy the session and we like to keep the motivation high. If you notice a problem then please bring this to our attention immediately and we will do our best to correct something if it going wrong.
If you have any questions around the session please do not hesitate to ask.
Watch this space for more articles.
Current team listings below:
GIANTS
Marcus Harding
Henry Golder
Elliot Nichols
Harry Tomlinson
Toby St John
Tom Burgess
Oscar Booth
James Pancaldi
Oliver Marden
Jake Pugh
Head Coach - Chris Tomlinson
JETS
Dominic White
Thomas Mitcheson
Jamie Russell
Rece Beenie
Freddie Whip
Josef Wolfe
Max O'Neill
Daniel Leroni
Joseph ODell
Scott Beasley
Head Coach - Mark Mitcheson
SHARKS
Tom Greer
Fraser Cressall
Freddie OConnell
Alexander McNab
Charlie Elsesser
Toby Musselwhite Steel
Joseph Copp
Freddie Henderson
Ben Hunt
Sam Sinclair
Head Coach - Carlos Elsesser
TIGERS
Andrew McCormack
Harry Gorniak
Antony Meakins
William Hopkin
Sam Peate
Lukas Ratcliffe
Alfie Talbot
Thomas Patrick
Billy Farris
Oliver Hurditch
Head Coach - Colin Ratcliffe