Youth development - Canada and Europe (Czech Republic)

[Toje]

My 4.5 year old son has just started with our local side, because he really wants to play football.  Since it is a smaller club, he is with children born in 2011, 2010, and 2009.  The trainer has a UEFA B license, and the first session went really well.  The emphasis is having fun  while learning some basic skills.  They use a size 3 ball, and for the most part they don't play any games until they are 8 years old.  I was surprised to find out that they can train up to 3 times a week for 1-hour each time.

 

I started playing soccer when I was 5 years old (in 1983) in a small Eastern Ontario town.  So, obviously things were not as well developed.  I am curious, how to children learn to pick up on the game in Canada?  How do the clubs start with the youngest players?  I know it is different in every city/province, but I was just just wondering about a general idea.

[youllneverwalkalone]

If there's a U5 coach with a UEFA B license or equivalent in Canada, I will eat my hat.

 

There's an article in the Guardian which compares the number of licensed coaches in Germany and England. Germany have them 100-1 in most categories (UEFA B to Pro). I'd expect a similar gulf or worse between Czech and Canada.

[CrossCheck]

I'm in a small town in Alberta, about 30k people. The community hosts many sports and has great facilties, so having a soccer club is taken for granted. There is both an indoor (once a week, 1.5 hr, Oct-Mar) program and an outdoor (twice a week, 1.25hr, May-June) program for U6 (2009 & 2010). 

 

Everyone gets a size 3 ball and are broken up into teams. All the teams practice on the same field at the same time, but separately from each other. The first half of each session is a practice, then the second half is a game against another team, small field, 4v4, no goalies. Score and standings are not kept. The emphasis is on having fun and a few basic skills.

 

The U6 coaching is 100% volunteer parents. There isn't any UEFA B license coaches in our area, not that we could afford one even if there was, and I doubt they would be interested in our house league players. The best we may do is a parent with the community coaching courses, but that is rare.