My 3 year old does not pay attention during soccer. He grabs a ball and will go score goals on his own. It's so annoying. Last week, we gave him warnings and then just had him leave class. Any other suggestions?
You might also enjoy...
-
Where is the coach during all this?
-
What does the teacher do? Maybe he's just not feeling the structured class and would do better in more of a free ply environment?
-
@T.H.O.U.: Just ignores him.
-
@catomd00: Its a weird soccer class, they don't really play soccer. It's more like a little gym or my gym kinda thing.
-
@BandDmommy: Well I mean, what is the coach doing at these times. Are they trying to lead stretches or drills?
Also is this designed as a Parent involved class?
-
@BandDmommy: It sounds like maybe its designed to be kinda free play.
-
@T.H.O.U.: It's weird, like he shows pictures of animals and then asks kids to act out animals. It's really not much of a soccer class. Or they build castles out of cones.
-
I grew up playing soccer, and the littlest kids don't really get it. I've been shocked by people mentioning 3 year old classes, because teams don't start until 4/5 years old and then they still have no idea how to really play the game, they just run around in a pack, following whoever has the ball.
In this situation it sounds like your son needs a more physical class. He may not be interested in learning about animals or stacking cones, and really just wants to kick a ball. Maybe a gymnastics class where he can be really active would be better for him?
-
Lil kickers? We did that when my son was little. It does sound like you may have a bum coach. The coach should be encouraging coming back. But the games do work my son learned to dribble a soccer ball and no one "taught" him. But even my 4 year old struggles with paying attention in classes (swim, gymnastics and violin). It's frustrating to me but he still loves them so I let it keep up.
-
This was my son too. In fairness, the class at that age was more like soccer "skills", where they would line up on one end of the field, and play things like red light, green light while dribbling a ball.
My son wasn't interested towards the end, but the cool thing about the class was that there was parent involvement, so my son and I would run around together. Eventually though, we decided not to continue and will pick it up later when my son is older, if he wants to.
-
@BandDmommy: is it a drop off class? would he do better if you weren't there?
FWIW we tried to do soccer this summer with LO (almost 3) and it was a huge fail. He didn't want to follow instructions and now cries when I try to get him to play. So we'll wait another year and then try again.
-
@looch: We had the same experience with our son. He was 2.5 and just wanted to play around.
DS1 tends to do really well with more hands on/smaller classes, like swim classes.
-
We just started soccer. LO isn't even 3 yet, her teammates are almost 3 to just 4. They have practice one evening a week and games on Saturday morning. I was shocked at the difference between practice 1 and practice 2. My husband is actually the coach and the kids did so much better the second week when they were more familiar with him. Is your son nervous around strangers? Maybe he just needs to warm up to the coach. Also, I would definitely suggest to the coach that he mix in some more physical stuff. The girls love to "follow" the leader and dribble down the field in a big line and then kick it in the net when they get to the other end.
-
He might just be too young. We debated starting DS in soccer this year at 3, but everyone we talked to said it's not even worth it. It's near impossible for a bunch of 3 year olds to learn and play soccer. I was told 4 was the bare minimum it would be worth it, and even then, it would be pretty ugly. I'm debating putting him in gymnastics right now, since it's such a small class and not super structured.
-
@BananaPancakes: good call my parents forced soccer on me from a young age them still talk about how bad I was (thanks guys). I made flower wreaths and hid my shoes in mud puddles.
-
He's 3. Seems pretty normal to me. I used to coach toddlers basketball and many kids don't really "pay attention" the way adults wants them to
-
Sounds like just not a great fit. My daughter doesn't do soccer but she does dance and gymnastics and with he kids who are really resistant to it I haven't really seen anyone be able to force it. Personally I would look around at what other classes are available and also get your sons opinion about whether he enjoys it. Also how long has he been in there and is he getting better, worse, just uninterested? Is there another time slot with a different coach? We have our daughter in my gym not for skills learned but because she's not in preschool yet and looks forward to it, the teachers and kids. I don't know if you are very serious about starting a sport or what your goals are though.
-
My son has been in "soccer" since 18 months. He did great the first two sessions, then had an AWFUL session, where I thought about just dropping the money and giving up, and now is back to doing great (he's moving up to a new class starting next week). During his bad time, nothing I did made any difference (he was just past 2 at this point). The coach was amazing and continually invited him to participate, and accepted when he didn't want to (he would just sit on his "spot," though, and wasn't in the way of others.)
The only thing that seemed to make a difference, and it doesn't seem to be your problem, is that before we went, we'd talk about trying everything once (since they'd repeat things a number of times) except the one thing he hated (which he's perfectly happy to do now...) We just focused on trying everything once, but then respecting if he didn't want to. We just waited it out. I think kids are so up and down that it may be worth waiting a couple months and trying again. Or you could try setting up the expectation ahead of time: "you don't have to do what the coach asks you, but I can't let you XYZ, because it would disturb the other kids. If you don't want to do what coach says, then you have to sit with me, etc."
-
I think classes at that age are just meant to be fun free play, I can't imagine 3 year olds actually doing everything they are instructed.
-
I think 3 is kind of young to really "get" it and pay attention if the coach is not engaging the child.
-
We have our son, who is also 3, in a lil kickers class but we are doing a parent participation for his first session. I think the coach makes a big difference. Our coach understands the kids are only 3 so he works a lot on listening skills and bases games off of them. Out first class he told us at this age it's playing with a little bit of soccer skills (mainly just dribbling and kicking) thrown in. In our program they go through 3 levels before they actually start playing soccer around 4-5.
We do have days where our son just doesn't want to participate during certain things and while I try and the coach tries to get him to listen we also don't force it. He has to sit on the side of he doesn't want to participate. -
@KT326: that's a good idea. If he doesn't want to participate he just needs to sit on side and not do whatever he wants.
-
@BandDmommy: I would also talk to the coach about it and see if he has some ideas. It might just not be a good fit. At our place we are allowed to transfer if there are open spaces. Maybe a new coach would help?
Reply
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
23 comments