I have 2 soccer players in my family of 4 kids. My son is an 02B and was just placed on the North Texas 01 Boys State Soccer Team. I'm very proud of that. My youngest (06G) is a first grader and is just starting to enjoy soccer. I want to make sure her technical development starts correctly, so here are my 3 rules of pre-select soccer for U10 and younger (recall you go select at U11):
Rule 1: Work on foot skills.
For this rule I highly recommend:
Both teach individual foot skills and 1v1.
Rule 2: Play small sided games, like 3v3 or futsal.
Luckily, Ferdie offers a 3v3 game/course on Sundays here in Dallas so the kids get a lot of exposure in a controlled atmosphere. Both of my soccer kids play here. But to increase the number of touches, I recommend looking for 3v3 tournaments in your area. The three national organizations that I'm aware of are:
I'd recommend a team of 5. Key to this game format is passing. Here's a good link I found for 3v3 tips/strategy, http://3v3soccer.blogspot.com/. If you do well in your city/state/region, you can go to Disney for the national championships.
We also have a great futsal program at www.cityfutsal.com.
Rule 3: Don't join a club until third grade.
This way the above rules will sink-in and they'll have more fun playing with friends on a rec team as long as possible. A lot of the clubs in North Texas focus on speed and power and forget the skills. Here's a good article on the subject, (link). Additionally, K-3rd graders are too immature to appreciate that players on their rec team aren't as good as players on their academy (club) team, so you may get hurt feelings when rec team players don't play as well. I've seen this happen.
In summary, I coach my daughter's 06G rec team and focus our practices on skills and small sided games. I leave the league games as a time for them to have fun and enjoy themselves and let their parents "coach" from the sidelines. With everyone yelling, the last person they are listening to is me.