Alameda Soccer Club Small Sided Soccer U6, 7, 8

Alameda Encourages the Young Soccer Player!

The Alameda Soccer Club is the only club in the area which offers an Under 6 (or U6) program. Children who will be entering kindergartners are eligible to play the fall season. For the Fall 1999 and Spring 2000 seasons, kids born between 8/1/93 and 12/2/94 are eligible for the Under 6 division.

For these young players, our primary goal is to introduce soccer as a great way to have fun. We're trying to create life-long soccer players and fans. We do this by using a Small-Sided format, with only three players from each team playing at a time. This format is called 3 v. 3 (contrasted with the 11 v. 11 format used by adults).

Small-Sided Soccer for U6, U7 & U8

In 1996 the Alameda Soccer Club began phasing in a program of Small-Sided Soccer for our youngest players. By 1998 all U6, U7 and U8 players in Alameda were playing in an age-appropriate format designed to maximize both learning and enjoyment.

The Alameda Soccer Club is among the Bay Area leaders (along with the Fremont and Almaden Youth Soccer Leagues) in the shift to smaller-sided soccer for young players. We are the only club in the Jack London Soccer League to offer a small-sided program.

The benefits of Small-Sided Soccer are widely recognized as more and more clubs nationwide adopt it. Small-Sided Soccer is played with fewer players on the field than traditional formats. Alameda's Under 6 division plays with three players from each team on the field at a time rather than the 5 v. 5 and 7 v. 7 formats used in past years. Our Under 7 and Under 8 teams play with five players on the field instead of the seven players used by other clubs. Lots of benefits have been seen, including:

With fewer players on the field, each child has more opportunities to touch the ball, using and improving their soccer skills.
With fewer players on the field, the "pack" of wildly kicking players surrounding the ball is much less likely to form. There is less "bunchball" and more soccer.
The extra space encourages players to spread out, supporting each other and making team play more possible.
For the Under 6 division, the absence of bunchball combined with the way coaches split their teams into 3 v. 3 squads encourages the more timid players to get involved. Virtually all kids show dramatic improvement over the course of the season.
For the Under 7 and Under 8 divisions, the requirement that coaches play four different goalkeepers each week gives many more kids the chance to learn that playing in goal can be fun!
Small-sided soccer is a lot more fun to play and to watch.

The Under 6 Program

All U6 teams are "co-ed" and have nine or ten players. U6 teams meet for one hour each week on Sunday afternoons. A parent or other designated adult is required to be present with each child.

The first half-hour is devoted to a team "practice," directed by the coach. In the second half-hour, games are played against another U6 team. These games are intended to be low-key and fun, with no score kept and lots of positive cheering.

Before each game, the coach will split his/her team into two squads, each of which will play a 10 minute 3 v. 3 game (without goalkeepers) against a squad from the other team. Teams are split according to guidelines in order to achieve specific developmental goals. Substitutes are rotated into games "on the fly" every two minutes, so everyone gets to play the same amount. These two games occur simultaneously on adjacent fields. After a short break, two more 3 v. 3 games will be played. Each child will play two 3 v. 3 games each week.

Since two 3 v. 3 games are played simultaneously, the team's coach cannot supervise both games. In Small Sided Soccer, each 3 v. 3 game is supervised by a Game Monitor from each team. The Game Monitor is on the field, primarily responsible for putting the ball in play when it goes out of bounds.

Game Monitors can be parents or soccer-experienced siblings. Since the rules of Small Sided Soccer are so simple, being a Game Monitor requires no more experience than having watched youth soccer games. For Small Sided Soccer to work, each team must provide two Game Monitors each week.

The U6 regular season runs from just after Labor Day until the end of October. Following the regular season, a single-day U6 Post-Season Tournament is held.

The Under 7 and 8 Program

Teams in these divisions will be composed of seven or eight players. There are separate divisions for Under 7 Boys/Co-ed, Under 8 Boys/Co-ed, and Under 7/8 Girls.

Teams typically practice once per week and play their games each Saturday. The fall season begins after Labor Day and concludes before Thanksgiving. A spring season is also offered.

Games are played with a 5 v. 5 format, each team with a goalkeeper and four field players. Games are supervised by a Game Monitor, typically a coach, parent, or soccer-experienced sibling. In order to promote the development of goalkeepers, each team is required to play four different goalkeepers each week. Most kids quickly find that playing in goal is not really that scary and is actually fun.

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