How to stop soccer players from bunching up

Contributed by Mark Wilson.
Director - Soccer Division, USA Sport Group.
Reference: How do you get them from being all bunched up?!!  Rick Meana, NJYS, Director of Coaching.

See also Should a team formation be used in 8v8 small-sided games?

As a soccer coach, I am often asked how to stop players from bunching up around the ball.  The question itself implies that the bunching up of players around the ball is a problem.  Adults see the bunching of players as unorganized and not playing as a team.  However, younger players don't understand what being a team means, and at that age they are selfish in their play.  Most kids can't even remember the name of their team or their coach, so how can you expect them to understand teamwork and fixed positions?

The ball is a magnet, so let them go after it.  In chasing the ball they're actually building good instincts that they'll use in the game when they are older and teamwork begins to mean something.  For example, many high school coaches struggle to teach their players the concept of zonal defending and zonal pressure defense.  However, these are in fact two concepts that they instinctively knew and applied as kids, without even knowing it!  But it was most probably drilled out of them by a youth coach so when they grow older they have no idea how to solve these problems in a game.  They become dependent on instruction from the sideline.

When they are around 5 years old, they already have a natural instinct for this kind of defending; they know that 5 vs 1 means they'll probably get the ball.  An important principle of the game is to outnumber your opponent near the ball, whether on attack or defense.

To parents who have mainly had experience with sports where players play in static positions or when you are on defense or attack for a determined amount of time, this is a mess on the field.  They want the kids to spread out so that the one player with any skill has the space to dribble around everyone else.  The problem with this is that children take instruction from adults quite literally, which means that if they lose the ball and continue to spread out they leave too much room for the opponent to penetrate; not a very good defense.  A good coach will have to adjust these instincts as players age, but not much.  Playing the game makes them smarter and as situations in the game constantly change, they are provided with more challenges for which they have to come up with solutions.

Another reason why bunching up is OK for young players is the kid in the center of that bunch is learning early on how to play in tight spaces and not be afraid of contact, invaluable skills that will become second nature to them as they grow older and are able to play in fixed positions.

As a coach, I'll want on my older team the youth player that consistently came out of the pack with the ball.  They might be a striker because they're not afraid of crowds in the box and have been fighting their way through traffic and scoring in those situations since they were 5.  Playing in a bunch can make players tough, technical and smart.

My advice to new youth coaches and parents is to stop worrying about kids being bunched up and just let them play.  Your role at this point is to teach them some basic ball skills such as control, turning and passing.  Let the game teach them for now, they will learn through trial and error.

Here at United Soccer Academy, we promote this kind of play through our FootworX program.  This is an innovative program designed to measure and record the technical ball skills of every player.  For more information about our FootworX program, or to get FootworX at your club, click here.