Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer.

All right, we're down to part three of this youth soccer series.

For the final episode, we're going to get into the

nuts and bolts of coaching U6 and U8 soccer in most of America. There are definitely

pockets of the country where U8 teams can look like Man City. Most of America is not like that.

Most six and seven-year-olds need to get better with the ball. And how to get them better with the ball in practice is the heavy focus of this conversation.

Because it doesn't matter if we magically institute pro rel or build 1,000 foot saw courts across the country.

If kids aren't learning to love the ball and therefore love the game, none of it makes any difference.

So sharpen your pencil, listen up,

and volunteer as a rec soccer coach as soon as possible. Our guest today is one of the best

email correspondence I've ever had. A huge help to me in my little rec soccer coaching endeavors.

He's the women's soccer coach at SUNY Brockport near Buffalo, New York, and he's done a lot of

youth soccer coaching in his day, and he's going to help us with several practical ideas on

coaching U6 and U8 soccer. Mike Idland. Welcome to scuffed.

Thanks, Adam. It's an honor. Thanks for having me on.

Yeah, thanks for doing it. I think this is going to be great. So let's start with the most controversial part. You passed me a document a couple years ago that was that explained

this, but you tell coaches of little kids, you six, you eight, not to tell the kids to pass,

not to even encourage passing. I mean, you're not the only person

who says this. I know. I recognize that. But why? Yeah, I think, so I have kind of like a short

thought and a long thought on that. All right. So let's hear them both. Yeah. All right. So the short

thought for me is basically that we want players who want the ball rather than players who want to get rid of the

ball. So that's like in a nutshell to take on it for me. And we want to develop them and give them

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