Coaching Soccer Drills

What if I told you that young players find it really hard to kick a soccer ball using a straight leg? In coaching soccer drills, this is the trickiest part as far as the players and the coaches are concerned. The player has to be in total balance and the leg used for kicking the ball is bent at the knee. Both position and control to kick the ball appears from below the knee.

In soccer practice, this is the starting position for almost all types of kicks. The acceleration of the foot from below the knee creates a powerful impact on the ball. This provides the players with a lot of power to act upon a range of kicks. Nevertheless, it depends upon the type of contact that the ball has with the foot which concludes the kick’s style.

For example; it could be hit very high, driven low, swung over left, or lean towards right.

The three essential passes in soccer are a side foot pass, instep drive, and the outside of the foot pass. We’ll now chat about them further.

Soccer Coaching

The side foot pass: In teaching soccer, this pass is considered as the most extensively used and the simplest. Normally, it is used to make short distance passes. Despite the fact that this is somewhat slow and predictable, it’s easy to learn and simple to execute. The ball makes a contact on the inside of the foot and ankle, and the foot is turned outward.

In coaching soccer drills, guide the players to keep their bodies totally relaxed throughout the entire movement. This is by far the most critical rule applicable to all types of kicking actions. The ankle and the foot should be stiffened only at the time of contact with the ball.

The moment players feel confident about carrying out this task well; their action should seem relaxed, simple, as well as smooth.

Outside of the foot pass: Al though a little tricky to learn, this pass needs to be taught to the kids correctly as it’s quick, unpredictable, and accurate. A contact is made with the ball between the laces and outside edge of the foot with the foot extended and turned inward. The pass is then transformed into a quick throw for short distances by using the foot.

During all these coaching drills, the body posture should be relaxed.

The Instep Drive: Both the versions of the instep drive namely, lofted version and the low driven version are applied to pass the ball to longer distances. Once mastered, this style can also be modified to make a “chip pass” or an “in swinging pass”. As the approach of the instep drive is slightly angled and the non kicking foot is placed about 12 inches to the side of and behind the ball.

The ball then comes into contact with the laces and inside of the foot which must be hard and extended.

So then, go on and train your players on these basic techniques of kicking along with the variations so that the ball does little different things.

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Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Soccer Training Drills.

I don’t know a thing about you, but I’ll bet that it is necessary that you look at some common teaching suggestions before starting out with the coaching soccer drills. During soccer practice, focus on a specific objective like kids must have loads of fun in the game as it benefits both the coach and the players.

Here, it’s easy to lose track of the fun part if you are not cautious. So, it is suggested that more specific objectives are decided upon that benefit not only the team but also the coach. A few examples are promoting the physical fitness of the players, developing a good sporting attitude towards competition, and focusing on the individual soccer skills.

You, being the coach are solely responsible to set high standards for sportsmanship. Promote the feeling of sportsmanship, team spirit, and fair play amongst team members. There are several objectives important in teaching soccer that can be incorporated in your list along with these.

In coaching youth soccer, winning is also an important concept that should be paid due attention. During the training sessions, introduce the open concept of winning and try to place it in their minds. Let them know that to be tagged as winners, they must focus on playing their best game and not worry about the results.

Soccer Coaching

The players as a result will feel totally relaxed but much more responsible to play the game sensibly with the team’s objectives in their mind.

It’s important that your instructions during coaching soccer drills are to the point and exact for players to fetch expected results. There are some clear dos and don’ts in soccer on which the players must be taught before you go ahead with your coaching sessions. The difference in coaching and teaching is that the former is done with a group of players who are already familiar with the basic skills and concepts of the game.

In coaching drills, it’s best to give the players 5 or 6 fine demonstrations of some specific skill and then let them perform it themselves. It is effective because young players are more receptive to seeing than listening. If you attempt to explain an action in words, they won’t understand it. Relatively, they imitate perfectly.

Hence, make it an imperative exercise to give a demonstration at every possible opportunity.

In the end, but still important is to keep the kids involved in several activities. This holds even bigger importance when the weather is not conducive to a regular session. It’s a fact that all kids love to play in the rain. So, instead of revoking the session, it makes more sense to find alternative ways to let them have fun.

Just make sure that in a situation like this, your kids have an extra layer of clothing and proper footwear.

Move forward now and start using these tips to your training sessions. You will be astonished to see the results.

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Andre Botelho is a recognized expert in youth soccer coaching. He influences well over 35,000 youth coaches each year with his unique coaching philosophy, and makes it really easy to explode your players’ skills and make training more fun in record time. To download your free youth soccer coaching guide visit: Coaching soccer drills.

If you are like me, you probably feel the same way that the biggest problem that a coach faces in coaching soccer drills is to decide on the best way of organizing conditioning schedules for its players. There is a reason why I’m saying this and it’s because the thin line between educating and coaching the players has somehow vanished.

Unfortunately, not all coaches realize that teaching soccer involves designing coaching plans specific to the players’s requirements. They should concentrate on their professional grooming and simultaneously educate them about the game. In some situations, it is seen many a times that the educational aspect in soccer is neglected totally.

However, we should always remember one principle while working out the coaching drills for kids. Any young player must first endeavor to grow as an individual and only after that he can become the best and a high ranking soccer player. Therefore, the coach should act strictly as pre the above mentioned principle.

What motivates a player to take on the role of a coach is very simple to work out.
It’s the feeling to stay with the game in either ways after he has stopped playing for the team. This results in many successful soccer players settling down as coaches. However, what they don’t understand is the seriousness that this role requires.

Soccer Coaching

Some of them take this as an opportunity to get into the field of coaching and training adult players. Some look at this opportunity as a way to be able to share their passion for the game of soccer with the budding players. Both these reasons are valid and well accepted. But at the same time, the person should also be aware of the moral responsibility that his choice implies.

Communication is the main feature with respect to coaching soccer drills, and unfortunately it’s the trickiest for a majority of people to understand. It is not necessary that anyone who has achieved great success for ten consecutive years in various age groups can be regarded as a skilled youth coach.

There are a few standards that a youth soccer coach is expected to not only set but also meet. It’s for the coach to encourage kids to look at soccer as a constructive and an inspiring experience in their lives so that they tend to love the game. As a coach, make sure that during the soccer practice, players feel comfortable in openly expressing themselves by way of the game.

All players in the team vary in terms of strength, style, and individual skills unique to them. It is not important whether each of them has great potential and skills of a winner or not. What is truly important is that each one of them eventually reaches his own aptitude.

So we must understand that not every soccer player is cut out to be a skillful and a proficient youth team coach. A special ability to work with kids is of paramount importance; an inborn gift to make contact with people and nurturing relationships.

Some food for thought; give some serious consideration to what actually motivates you as it is a condition in this context.

There is lot more that you can equip yourself about coaching soccer drills by just subscribing to our youth soccer caching community that offers a great amount of knowledge by way of articles, newsletters, and videos.

Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Drills.

You’ve probably heard it a hundred times that in coaching soccer drills, all tactics, skills, and teamwork taught to the players ultimately lead to a shot on the goal. It takes skill as well as gut feeling to produce quality shooting. But there is one more thing that is equally important towards shooting; an aggressive attitude.

Every player should take care of this but it is more upon forward players to shoot the ball. While teaching soccer, put shooting on the top of your priority list.

There are so many things that may result from a shoot. Shots can be directed towards a goal. It is a possibility that the goalkeeper may very well drop the ball at the foot of your forward player. Directionless shots can become beautiful passes. Ground shots may return. You may even hit a goal through a straight shot.

When in soccer practice, attacking players are always looking for a chance to shoot the ball right into the goal. They are made to think in a way that they always have goal scoring on their mind. These attacking players are known as sniffers in England. This is because they are always sniffing out scoring chances.

Soccer Coaching

They take every chance for a shot as if it is the last chance that they’ll ever get. You will see that they are always available when the situation is favorable. They’ll even make the most of being in the wrong place at the right time. Therefore, in coaching soccer drills you must ask the players to hit the ball at every opportunity.

Normally, anytime the ball is kicked with an intention to put it inside the goal is taken as a shot. One of the most effective techniques of driving the ball is through its middle with the help of laces of the foot. While performing this, head of the player should be over the ball, his upper body be steady, and his toes should be extended.

The players should be taught in coaching drills to shoot the ball low and wide of the goalie. Herein, low ground shots take priority over high shots. The reason is that low shots are especially difficult for the goalies to stop as they have to move their hands a greater distance than for high shots.

Young players tend to score more when they practice inside regulation sized goals by kicking the ball above the head of the goalkeeper. You need to discourage your players on this as this leads them to a habit of shooting high goals. When coaching soccer drills, put a stop to this activity by not permitting kids to play in adult sized goals.

Now get out there and start teaching your players to look up once before they shoot the ball with a view to check the position of the goalkeeper.

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Andre Botelho is the author of “The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide” and he’s a recognized expert in the subject of youth soccer coaching. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make coaching sessions fun in less than 29 days! Download your free pdf guide at: Youth Soccer Drills.