How Often Should Young Players Train?
The training frequency question comes up constantly. The answer changes pretty significantly with age. What makes sense for an 8-year-old is completely wrong for a 15-year-old. What we’ve found at South Van FC probably isn’t what most people assume going in.
The players who develop the most aren’t always the ones training the most. They’re the ones training smart. The pressure to keep up is real, especially when another kid is adding sessions or joining a second team. But piling on sessions without the right structure around them just leads to tired, disengaged kids who stop improving.
Ages 6 to 9: One or Two Sessions
For this age group, a session or two plus a game each week covers it. Some free time with a ball on top of that and you’re doing everything right.
At this age it’s really about falling in love with the ball. Dribbling, passing, shooting, receiving, none of that needs five days a week. It needs repetition and it needs enjoyment. Give a kid a ball they actually like being around and they’ll find time with it everywhere. In the backyard, kicking against a wall, dragging it around the house. None of that shows up in any training log but it counts.
What usually gets in the way is too much structure and not enough play. The most technically gifted players we’ve coached didn’t get that way from extra sessions. Most of it came from hours on their own with a ball. No coach watching, no structure, just them figuring it out.
Ages 10 to 13: The Game Starts Clicking
Players at this age can improve fast when training is regular and they’re genuinely engaged. A couple of solid sessions and a game each week is the right load for most kids in this range.
Around this age the game starts making more sense to them. Space, timing, when to go and when to wait, the more technical side of things starts to click. Good training here can be the difference between a player who keeps developing and one who plateaus early.
They’re also still 10 to 13 though. School picks up, their social lives get busier, and they’re not running on unlimited energy. A tired, overloaded player at training isn’t developing. They’re just there. And it shows on the field more than most parents realize.
Ages 14 and Up: Quality Over Quantity
Three or four sessions a week makes sense here, sometimes more depending on the level. But the shift at this age is that how you train starts to matter more than how much you train.
A focused 45-minute session where a player is genuinely working on a real weakness will do more than two hours of just showing up. Intent matters. A player going through the motions without thinking about the decisions they’re making isn’t developing, they’re just accumulating time. Without the right guidance, a lot of players assume the answer is more training. Usually it’s the last thing they need.
At South Van FC, every player in the academy has an Individual Development Plan that helps identify where focused work will actually move the needle. Training harder is easy. Training with purpose takes coaching.
Rest, Recovery, and Overloading Kids
Rest. Not a suggestion, just how the body actually works. Training creates the stimulus but the adaptation happens when they’re not training. Cut into that consistently and you’re leaving a lot of development on the table.
Playing for multiple teams or stacking a club season on top of school season on top of a rec team sounds like more development. In reality it usually just means tired legs, no mental freshness, and two or three coaches who all think they’re the main priority. We’ve watched really promising kids plateau for exactly this reason and it’s more common in Vancouver than most people realize.
Something that doesn’t get said enough: players who are overloaded too early walk away from the game. At that age the goal is just to keep them wanting to play. Show up, have fun, get better, want to come back next week. Load that up with pressure before any of that foundation is there and a lot of kids just stop showing up. Most of them don’t come back to it.
The Short Version
Younger players aged 6 to 9 need one or two sessions and a game. From 10 to 13, two or three sessions plus a game is plenty. At 14 and up, three or four sessions depending on where they’re at, and rest has to be part of that.
There’s no shortcut. Development takes years and it needs players who still want to be there. Protect that above everything else.
South Van FC is a community football club based in South Vancouver, BC. We run a youth development academy and a VMSL Men’s team, built around one philosophy: develop real players, technically sharp, tactically aware, and mentally tough. Learn more at southvanfc.com.