U15/U16 Coaching Resources
General U15/U16 Information
Roster: 22 players max (18 active)
Practices: 90-120 minutes
Game Form: 11 v 11 (min 9)
Game Length: 2 - 40 minute halves
Goalkeeper: Yes.
Heading: Allowed.
Offside: Yes.
Ball Size: 5
Game Ball: Each team should have a properly inflated game ball provided to the Referee prior to the start of the match. The Referee will decide which ball to put into play.
Field Size: 100-120 yards long x 55-80 yards wide
Player Equipment: Team jerseys (2-home & away), black shorts, shin guards, soccer cleats, and black socks.
Playing Time Requirement: All players must receive 50% playing time in a game. If a coach is managing a disciplinary situation with a player, the player may receive less than 50% playing time. Prior to the game the coach must inform the parents, the referee, and the opposing coach of this disciplinary status.
Referee(s): Referee(s) will be assigned by home soccer club.
Reporting Scores: Team Manager or Coach of first team listed (Home team) will report score after completion of match through Tourney Machine Schedule.
Open up the schedule, “Public Result”.
Locate your division.
Locate your match.
Click on the “green” icon to post score.
Scores will be collected and posted publicly, but standings will not be kept or posted. Scores will be used as data points, if necessary, in helping to form “like playing level” groups for the spring season and to help monitor allowances such as “playing age group” selection and “guest players”.
Scores can also be reported here using PhoneItIn.
U15/U16 Learning Objectives
Developmental Characteristics
May have a lengthened attention span.
Able to better understand moral principles.
Strong identification with admired adults.
Very sensitive to praise and recognition; feelings are easily hurt.
Fear of ridicule and being unpopular.
Friends set the general rules of behavior; Strong need to conform exists; Dress and behave like their peers in order to belong.
Experiences physical changes - very concerned with their appearance and very self-conscience about their physical changes.
Often a rapid weight gain at the beginning of adolescence poses an enormous appetite.
Caught between being a child and being an adult.
Practice Objectives
Coaching Emphasis: Train to compete.
Technique: Airborne kicking-forward volley, scissors volley, bicycle kick. For the goalkeeper backwards diving; saving the breakaway; all forms of distribution.
Psychology: Personal accountability; drive; courage; sacrifice in order to achieve one’s best; sportsmanship; parental involvement; “how to play”; emotional management.
Fitness: Vertical jump; body composition; plyometric exercise; weight training; interval training; S.A.I.D. principle.
Tactics: Group tactics; role of the 3rd attacker; principles of attack and defense; diagonal passing; dribbling and off the ball runs; wing play; overlapping runs; defending in the midfield and attacking thirds; all possible set plays; match analysis; switching the point of attack; should be developing the ability to adapt tactics during the flow of play; key players should be able to dictate the rhythm of the game; command out to the penalty spot for the goalkeeper; provide offensive support to the top of the penalty area for the goalkeeper.