Under 7s Football teams - Recommendations

Definitely take him to where it is fun and where the training is most focussed on skill with no focus at all on winning.  My lad has just finished his U7 season where he played for a club which was the opposite (coaches having a go at the ref each game, so focused on winning they would not ever sub the best 3 players etc).  It was awful. 

One of my boys when aged 7 had to undertake selection trials to join a team. 

He then went on to stand on the touch line for the best part of the season until one day the manager called him on.  The ref looked at his watch and told our manager, 'You've gotta be joking, there's less than a minute left'.  My boy (the most even tempered kid you could wish to meet), took off his shirt, threw it down in front of him, walked over it and never returned to competitive football again. That was over 25 years ago.

I kinda guessed that the manager would phone me, and having already had the discussion with my lad I was prepared for him.  He, as I predicted offered the next game to my boy.  However, my kid was absolutely steadfast that he didn't want to return.  I gave the manager my views about adults who didn't allow children to play, about the utter futility on the emphasis on winning at any cost at the age of seven especially over the education of learning the game and having fun.  To make matters worse games at that time were played on oversized pitches with oversized goals, and it seemed to me that praise was heaped on any kid who could simply kick the ball up the field a decent distance. Utter madness. 

I have felt a bit guilty over the years that I didn't devote more time to coaxing my lad back, but it was a tough time for me.  I had recently been widowed, had three kids to bring up and a full time job.  Time was not on my side.  He has at least been a Charlton season ticket holder in the intervening years.

Glad you're sticking to where he's happy @kidbrookeaddick! 

 



  

  

Raith_C_Chattonell said:

One of my boys when aged 7 had to undertake selection trials to join a team. 

He then went on to stand on the touch line for the best part of the season until one day the manager called him on.  The ref looked at his watch and told our manager, 'You've gotta be joking, there's less than a minute left'.  My boy (the most even tempered kid you could wish to meet), took off his shirt, threw it down in front of him, walked over it and never returned to competitive football again. That was over 25 years ago.

I kinda guessed that the manager would phone me, and having already had the discussion with my lad I was prepared for him.  He, as I predicted offered the next game to my boy.  However, my kid was absolutely steadfast that he didn't want to return.  I gave the manager my views about adults who didn't allow children to play, about the utter futility on the emphasis on winning at any cost at the age of seven especially over the education of learning the game and having fun.  To make matters worse games at that time were played on oversized pitches with oversized goals, and it seemed to me that praise was heaped on any kid who could simply kick the ball up the field a decent distance. Utter madness. 

I have felt a bit guilty over the years that I didn't devote more time to coaxing my lad back, but it was a tough time for me.  I had recently been widowed, had three kids to bring up and a full time job.  Time was not on my side.  He has at least been a Charlton season ticket holder in the intervening years.

Glad you're sticking to where he's happy @kidbrookeaddick! 

  

When I was about that age I played for a local team. The manager left and was replaced by one of the dads. The new manager didn't like my dad very much, so he used to have me stand on the sidelines for most of the game then sometimes, just because he knew it was upsetting, he'd bring me on, then take me off the next time the ball went out of play. Might be a decent few minutes, might be 30 seconds. On one occasion he said he might bring me on, but in goal. I was a striker. It got to a point where the other parents started giving him grief over how he was treating me but he made it clear he was it wasn't changing. I left the team after that and found a new one, but I think about that still sometimes, and I'll be 30 in a couple of weeks. Luckily he didn't dampen my desire to play football, but as you can see it's had an effect on me all that time later. Basically, what I'm saying is don't feel bad that you couldn't get your son playing again, stuff like that will really sour you on something at that age and there's nothing you can do; I'm fortunate that for me it just turned me against people called Andy.