There aren't many programs for the age groups under four. There are programs in the under 6 (U6) levels that accept players 4 1/2 years of age. If you are coaching this youth level, the only objective is for them to have a lot of fun. It isn't important that they know how to move a ball to the goal, or some of the soccer basics. The important thing is that they get to touch and kick the ball.
(More to come)
The Sam and Sara Smith Series Stories (At Ages four)
Sam and Sara Smith were four years old twins. This is totally fictional (copyrighted material) but hopefully will give a little help on understanding soccer from a different perspective. This is only part of a longer story. Each age division will have a story appropriate to these characters as they grow up.
“John,” said the twins’ mother to her husband when he came home one evening, “I signed the twins up for soccer.” “Soccer?” he said with a frowned look, “I don’t know anything about soccer, Charlotte. How about baseball or football or basketball? I know about those sports.I never played soccer.”“Well, I saw the sign at the place they are signing up for soccer and didn’t see any other sport signing up, so I did.May be we can try and learn about soccer, besides you never played football.” Mrs. Smith said.“I played football as a little kid, just not in High School. You go learn this soccer stuff. It just isn’t anything I am interested in.I’ll wait till baseball and football.” Mrs. Smith didn’t reply but walked away with a disappointed look. She noticed that the twins had heard the conversation. She wasn’t sure if they understood her husband’s words.She did notice the disappointment in their eyes when they ran to him, spouting: “Hi Daddy, we’re going to play soccer,” and he coolly replied: “That’s nice, kids,” as he gave them a hug. The next weekend, while Mr. Smith stayed home to watch football games, Mrs. Smith took the twins shopping for soccer.When she signed them up, she was given a list of what they needed. The sheet informed her that only a few items were needed for practices, which were going to start the next day.She read the list again. “Shin guards, socks that cover the shin guards. Regular running street shoes are allowed but soccer cleats may be used.The cleats cannot have front cleats, as baseball cleats do. A ball, size 3. For clothing, shorts if weather is warm enough, otherwise sweat pants, no jeans or pants too long,” she read out loud. She entered the big sporting goods store. She had rarely been in one as there was no need before this. Looking around at the entrance with twins in tow, she felt lost. People all around her seemed to know exactly where to go. Luckily an employee in a store emblem emblazed shirt and a smile said: “Can I help you find something?” She sighed in relief. “Oh, yes, I am looking for soccer stuff for my children.”She expected him to point into the general direction as so many store employees seem to do when giving directions.Instead he offered: “They are on isle 7.I’ll take you there.” Mrs. Smith almost told him thanks and that she could find things, but he quickly darted in front of her cart, where she had placed the twins, so she pushed the cart behind him. “Are you two going to play soccer?” he asked, turning his head towards the cart while still walking. Sam just looked at him, but Sara enthusiastically hollered: “Yes.” “Well,” he continued, you will really like soccer.I played it as a little kid, and I’m still playing it in college now.” There was no response from the kids, but Mrs. Smith gave a surprised: “Really.”She had seen his nametag when he first offered to help. “You must be a good player, Josh.”“Well, I guess I’m good enough to play at the local community college level, but here are many others who are better players.I do enjoy playing; always have.”
“Did your parents know soccer?” Mrs. Smith asked, estimating Josh’s age around 20 years old or so.“No ma’am, didn’t know the first thing about it.”They had arrived at isle seven where all the soccer equipment was.“Here it is, what do you need?” Mrs. Smith gladly handed over the list, being surprised at the personal service she was getting. “Let’s see, shin guards.Right over there,” he pointed as the cart with the twins followed him down the center of the isle.As he walked, he continued his earlier answer. “Mom and Dad didn’t know the first thing about soccer, but they signed me up when I was five years old and I really liked it.Dad wasn’t too keen at first, but he ended up getting into helping out and then coached my team till I was 10 years old.That’s when he let coaches with more experience take over.He still likes his football games, but understands soccer as well now.My parents both understand the game and enjoy watching me play. Here they are,” Josh finished the answer with information on the location of the shin guards. “Let’s see,” Josh continued, “Shin guards should be able to protect the shins if someone’s foot misses the ball and hits your shin real hard. That would hurt, or worse could break your shin,” he told Sam and Sara, with intention of telling Mrs. Smith as well, who was grateful for the information. “The best ones are those that cover from just above the ankle to just below your knee cap.”He looked at the different shin guards, and pulled a couple of pair off the wall.“Here are some blue ones for you,” looking at Sam, “and pink ones for you,” pointing at Sara.Not the most expensive ones, but these will protect their shins. Now we need to find some practice stocking socks, you know the long type that cover the shin guards without falling down when they run. We’ll find those up on the wall.Let’s go ahead and look at the soccer balls while we are here.They will need what is called a size three ball.There are three sizes youth plays with, three, four and five.The size five balls are what the big kids and professionals play with.No need to get a real expensive ball at their age. Just be sure they take care of it, like not leaving it in a hot car.The air inside will try to get out when hot, and the ball can end up looking like an egg, and be useless. And for goodness sake, print their names on them so if they lose them someone can get them back to you.If you feel uncomfortable putting their first names on the balls, put your last name and may be your phone number on them” Josh walked up and down the long isle of soccer balls, some green, pink, blue, almost any color imaginable.“Official soccer balls have 12 five sided panels and 12 six sided panels,” he informed them while slowly walking along the row of soccer balls.” “What a wonderful young man,” Mrs. Smith thought, “and so informative.”“How do you know all that Josh?”“I had a coach when I was 12 years old; the one who coached me after my Dad coached me.He insisted that we know more than just how to score goals.He wanted us to know as much as possible about the history, the equipment and the feeling for the game, as much as strategic and clinical things about soccer.I enjoyed playing soccer before that, but learned to really appreciate the game and all that was associated with it.He taught us to play cleanly, be disciplined and how to think the game.He was the best thing in soccer and extremely good thing outside of soccer that happened to me.”“What a nice man,” Mrs. Smith commented. “Yes, I respect Coach Jomias very much.Sadly he was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year and we don’t know how long he will live,” he said with a real sense of sadness. “Here we are,” pointing at some soccer balls.Take your pick.Here are some real inexpensive ones and there some pricy ones, and here some in-betweens.You might stay away from the least expensive ones and I suggest these just above that price.If you feel the skins, some of the cheaper ones look nice and shiny, but don’t make good soccer balls.I like the ones that when you hold them don’t try to slip out of your hand because they are so slick. See, the smaller ones are size three and they say it on the ball.” Mrs. Smith looked at them and turned to the twins.“Okay kids, you can choose from these,” as she waved her arm as to enclose their choices.Sara quickly spotted the one she wanted.“That one, Mommy,” she said excitedly, pointing at a pink soccer ball.Mrs. Smith picked it up, felt the skin as Josh suggested and being satisfied, handed it to Sara.It was in a square box encasing the ball sticking out the sides.Sara clutched the box as if not to let go.Sam kept looking as if hunting for the perfect color, and finally settled on a green one. “Okay,” Josh directed, let’s go find some socks.” He walked ahead again, off to another area.“There,” he pointed to the wall at the end of the isles.They could see a wall of socks in a long line of colors.“Now, these are socks for all sports, so let’s find the soccer stocking socks.”It didn’t take long to find them.“They have to cover the whole shin guard and be long enough so they don’t fall down, so I suggest they be just a little longer so you can fold then over at the top. Most of these don’t have a heel in them, but if you have a heel in a sock, you can measure to see if they are the right size by making a fist and taking the heel and toe and wrapping them across and around the fist.They are the right size if the heel and toe meet without overlapping.”“Is that so?” Mrs. Smith asked. “How did you learn that?“Coach Jomias.One of those things he taught us.”“Well ma’am, as far as the clothes, you can find the kid’s things on isle 44 and around there.”“Thank you so much, Josh.You have really been helpful.You are a very nice person.”“Thank you and have fun playing soccer, kids,” Josh said as he walked away.“Bye!!!” the twins hollered in unison. Mrs. Smith smiled as she started to walk to isle 44 where the clothing was. It didn’t take too long to find some sport shorts to fit them and long sweat pants in case it got cold.The paper informed her that uniforms would be ordered by the coach and it would cost extra.Checking the list, she realized that they hadn’t gotten the cleats.Looking up, scanning the store she saw the sign with shoes.They were the last thing on the list before they could leave.“Shoes, shoes and more shoes,” she thought as she looked at the sea of shoes. “I see you are still here,” a familiar voice sounded. “Oh hi Josh, you work here as well?” she asked.“Yes, this is where they just assigned me to.Lucky you.”“Lucky indeed,” Mrs. Smith said. “I don’t have a clue as to what is good for them.” “Well,” Josh answered, “shoes are very important for soccer players.Remember that they can’t have the front cleats and they can’t have any sharp cleats.That is to prevent other players from being injured. Most people don’t give much thought to soccer cleats for their young children, figuring they will just grow out of them quickly anyway.Truth is that badly fitted shoes don’t give them a very good growing start for the feet.Coach Jomias told us many times about how as a child his parents didn’t realize his feet are wider than most people and he always had his feet crammed into any store bought shoes they could find.He always had problems with his feet, even after he started wearing wide enough shoes as an adult.”Mrs. Smith once again was amazed at the wealth of information Josh had, and began a real appreciation for this Coach Jomias he kept mentioning. Then she thought about the terrible forecast of the man’s life with terminal cancer.She wondered how long he had to live, but didn’t want to ask. Taking out a device to measure feet, Josh asked Mrs. Smith to have the twins stand up on it to see what size they needed. Both measured the same.“Lucky for you, their feet aren’t wide like Coach Jomias, so we should be able to find some cleats for them.They can actually play soccer without cleats, but little kids get a real sense of pride in showing them off.Coach Jomias talked to us about small kids and cleats.He told us that he always watched in pain as he saw little kids on hard dry ground with cleats on, playing soccer.He would watch as they tried to balance on them because the cleats wouldn’t dig in and hurt their ankles and they wobbled sideways.He would always say: “Let them practice in running shoes till it rains a little so the cleats can dig in better.That was what cleats were designed for.”He pulled out some cleats to have them try on.“For these little ones, be sure you can press your thumb down at the shoe toe and can’t feel their toe there.That gives then some room to grow, and they’ll grow out of them quickly at this age, I’m afraid.” The twins quickly decided on the color cleats they were happy with and again waved good bye to Josh.Mrs. Smith put Sara back in the cart that now could only hold one of the twins due to the soccer stuff.Sam was in tow and off she went to the checkout stand.As she was being helped, the checker asked if she found everything.“Yes, indeed,” she answered “and Josh was a great help to me.”“Great, he is a pretty nice guy,” the cashier told her.“He plays soccer,” she said looking at all the soccer things on the counter.“Yes,” he told us. Mrs. Smith paid the bill, put everything in the cart, including Sara who was still clutching her soccer ball and left the store.She had a little trouble convincing Sara that she couldn’t hold on to the ball while in her car seat, but assured that the ball wasn’t going anywhere; they left to go home with a slight detour to the hamburger place. Pulling the minivan into the garage, Sara told her mother that she couldn’t wait to show her dad her new soccer ball.Sam repeated his sister’s desire to show his dad.As soon as Mrs. Smith released the car seats’ belt buckles, the twins jumped out of the van and with Sara having ball in hand ran into the house to find her father, with Sam right behind her.“We’re home!” Mrs. Smith hollered as she walked through the door from the garage.“Hi,” Daddy, the twins called out as they raced towards their dad sitting on the sofa watching Sunday football games.“Hi kids, hi Charlotte,” he greeted them. Sara threw herself on top of her dad, boxed ball in hand.Mr. Smith let out a little grunt as the box hit his chest.“Easy, Sara,” he cautioned, “what you got there?”“A soccer ball, Daddy, see?” she said as she proudly shoved it into her dad’s face.“Take it out of the box, Daddy,” Sara pleaded, as Sam tried to show his soccer ball as well. Mr. Smith pulled open the flaps on the boxes and handed the balls to them.“There will be no using these inside,” he told them with a slight frown.With that he continued watching the football game on the television as he ate the hamburger and French fries his wife had brought home for him. Mrs. Smith told him about the nice young man at the sporting goods store, and how excited the kids were about their soccer things.“That’s nice,” he replied halfheartedly.“I just don’t know anything about soccer. I’m sure they’ll have fun. The next day was Monday and the first day of soccer.They were on a team in the under six age group, called U6.They got there 15 minutes before they were told to, and after having a little trouble finding the field described on the paper, they saw a few other people with children standing around waiting.Smiling as she walked up to the group, calling out a “hello,” she held Sam with one hand, and Sara with the other.She introduced herself to the woman closest to her: “Hi, I’m Charlotte Smith and they are Sam and Sara.”“Hello,” the other woman replied with a smile.“I’m Beth Johnson, and this is Max,” looking at the boy standing next to her holding a soccer ball, just like the twins were.Beth continued: “Do you know anything about soccer?”“No,” replied Charlotte, “I’m afraid not. I did run into someone at the sporting goods store who seemed to, but I sure don’t.”“I don’t either,” Beth responded. Just then, a man dressed as if he could coach a team walked up to the group.Over his shoulder he has mesh bag with a few soccer balls and orange cones.“Good afternoon,” he addressed the group.There were some mild and some enthusiastic greeting responses from the small group.“My name is John.I am not your children’s coach.I am helping out till we can get a coach for the team.I am on the soccer club’s board of directors.We had more players sign up than expected this season, and came up a little short of coaches.What we need is either one of the parents to take the team, or ask you to find someone like a relative or friend to coach the team.I have another older team that I coach, so I will not have the time to coach your kids full time.I apologize, but it is out of our control.Soccer is the fastest growing sport in the United States, so we will run into this. We will teach you how to coach and be sure you have an experienced coach to help for a while.Coaches must go through a background check to be sure they don’t have a questionable background.We have a short course on coaching as well, so all we need is a volunteer.Anyone here willing to help?”He scanned the group of parents, most shifting uncomfortably in place, trying to make themselves smaller so they wouldn’t stand out as a volunteer.“If we can’t find anyone in a week, we may have to disband the team.There is no room on the other teams as they are all full as well.So please start looking around for anyone willing to help out.We will have a parent meeting in a week so that you get a chance to see what is going on in case you have questions.In the meantime, does anyone have questions I can answer right now?”
The group stood silent, till one of the fathers spoke up.“So how is it that our kids ended up without a coach?”“Well,” John replied, “We scanned all the registration papers and found that on each team, except yours, we had someone who checked the box, willing to help, and we have volunteer coaches on those.”“So if there were more than one volunteer, couldn’t you have shifted then to our team?” the father continued.“We happened to have one per team willing to coach,” John informed him.“We are working with them to teach them how to coach soccer to the little ones.”
There were no more questions, as most were disappointed that their children didn’t seem to have a coach.