A Second Staff Response to
“The Players Are Getting Bored”

By Len Marks

I congratulate you! If at a meeting only two parents indicate their kids were questioning practice routine, you must be doing something right. Good work!

The key to success is repetition to achieve muscle memory. This is why we never forget how to ride a bike. A good coach will mask that repetition so the kids have fun. There are several ways to do this in the CYSA ‘9-Step Practice Routine

• Vary the theme.


• Vary the rotation – sometimes to the straight rotation, other times do “king of the hill” rotations in which the winners move up and the losers move down.


• Vary the game – sometimes do 1v1 anyone scores, other times do offense vs. defense, taking turns on who is on “O” and who got “D.”


• Change the scoring – sometimes give handicaps, sometimes count goals, sometimes reward for different moves or skills.


• Change the rewards – one push-up per goal allowed, for ties, for not scoring, etc.; let the top-five start; let the winner play the position of his/her choice; use a handicap system so the more athletic players on the team must be in top half or they don’t start, etc. Permit the top scorers to sit while the others clean up the field after practice (and you can handicap).

Remember that the key to practice is the number of touches — you receive twice as many touches in 1+/v1 then you do in 2+/v 2. The small-sided games are critical to the advancement of the player.

With the above said and done, I confess that I significantly vary the ‘9-Step Routine.’ I will not do the 1+1/1v1 in every practice. While I will have a “+” and “vs.” phase in each half of practice, I will alter the games. In the first half of practice I will usually do 1+/v1, but sometimes will do larger games.

In addition, on rare occasions I will do drills, just to remind the kids how much more they like it when we do the games, though I rarely waste time with the kids running and use the 1v1 for conditioning.

I will on rare occasions do the old-fashioned conditioning work just to remind the kids how much more fun is 1v1. t brings them back into the routine.

In the second half of practice, I will expand to 4+/v0-4 bypassing the 2v1. While I still do the ‘9 Steps,’ the size of the games and the orientation of the games will vary. I have A.D.D. and like variety.

The most important item in the ‘9-Step Routine’ is to permit lots of touches in a positive and fun manner in which the aspect of competition increases as we go from “walk,” to “jog” to “run” phases. We start with smaller games and move up; however, within that framework there is a huge amount of variability that, as a coach, you can have loads of fun and success implementing. Good luck to you!

Note: For more CYSA Staff Instructors responses to the above ‘theme,’ or to submit your own question to the CYSA Instructional Staff, visit cysanorth.org and click on the ‘FUNdamental Soccer logo’ on the bottom of the front page.