U8 training

Fall and spring training

• Always bring cleats, shin guards, ball, and water
  • Put your name on your ball
  • Size 4 is the best size for U8 players
• Please wear the club practice jersey. Second best is some other gray shirt.
• Dodds Park, Atom field (small field on north edge of soccer complex)
• Training time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:30 to 6:30
• Fall starting date: Monday, August 18
• Fall ending date: Wednesday, October 29

Registration

The U8 team has an open-ended registration policy, but there are limits to how many players we can reasonably manage. Contact the coach if you are interested in joining.

If you do end up registering, you will need to follow the instructions in the registration packet below:

• registration_packet_08_09.pdf
• US_Club_Soccer_Med_Form.doc (instead of the IYSA medical waiver in the registration packet)

Training objectives

• Have a great time
• Dribble with the head up
• Use different surfaces of the foot to dribble
• Change speed and direction
• Pass with good technique
• Receive with a good first touch
• Use different parts of the body to receive the ball
• Shoot with good technique
• Communicate with teammates on the field
• Have a great time

What about tactics? See the Q & A page.

Practice Cancellation

(for fall and spring training)

The Champaign Park District controls the fields on which we practice. To protect the turf, the park district may close the fields due to rain or even very wet fields (from previous rain). We almost always know about such closures by 4:00 in the afternoon, and we put a message on the main club web site. I also try to to put a message on the team web site and send out a team e-mail.

In addition to wet fields, lightning (with or without rain) can make us cancel or end practice. Dodds Park has a lightning alarm that goes off when the danger of lightning is high, whether or not lightning has been sighted. When that alarm sounds, we have to be off the fields for at least 30 minutes. We can't return to the fields until the warning system allows us back on, which usually is more than 30 minutes from the initial alarm. We will gather the players under the concession stand roof until they get picked up.

In late fall and early spring, cold weather could cause us to cancel practice, but that is unlikely. We just bundle up and play.

Uniforms

U8 players need only the club practice shirts. If your player wants to feel a little more official, you can also buy the official blue shorts and blue socks, but these are not required of the U8s.

Uniform orders are due at Soccer Country (355-8326) by July 16. After that date, the bulk purchase/early order discount goes away. You can place your order at registration.

You can choose any number you want, or no number at all.

Competition

• 3v3 or 4v4 games on small fields end half of the practices
• Full team intrasquad games on regular fields end the other half of the practices

Coaches

• Joseph Seeley
• joseph.t.seeley@gmail.com
• Phone: 359.9644h ~ 403.7563w ~ 714.9283c (for weekend use mostly)

We may tap into our parent pool as well. I know we have some parents with soccer backgrounds, but more important is a willingness to tie shoes and pump up balls and steer kids in the right direction both physically and behaviorally ("the orange team is over there now" and "we need to leave these cones where they are").