Fun Soccer Conditioning

Before you get on with coaching soccer drills to kids, let me share with you some teaching ideas that are sure to help you, whether you agree or not. 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.

At this time, it’s essential to follow your goal and not feel distracted by other things. 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.

Since you are the coach, you only are responsible for setting high standards of sportsmanship for players. Promote the feeling of sportsmanship, team spirit, and fair play amongst team members. However, in teaching soccer, you can have numerous other objectives that you can add to those mentioned above.

In coaching youth soccer, winning is also an important concept that should be paid due attention. When you coach your kids, you must instill an open concept of winning in their minds. Teach them that as long as their performance is out of ordinary on the field, they are winners, no matter what the final result.

Soccer Coaching

This will take away the pressure off the kids and they’ll focus more on playing their best game rather than just winning it.

Coaching soccer drills requires you to give clear and precise instructions to your team so that they get the desired results. Before coaching, you need to teach your players about some explicit do’s and don’ts in soccer. The dissimilarity between coaching and teaching lies in the fact that coaching is concerned with a group of players who are already familiar with the game to a certain extent.

In coaching drills, it is great idea to first demonstrate to the kids about 5 to 6 times a specific drill and then let it di it themselves. It is effective because young players are more receptive to seeing than listening. If you decide to give them plain instructions, they will not appreciate it very much. Instead, they take demonstrations more enthusiastically.

Consequently, at all possible times, give a demonstration.

Finally, but still very important is your ability to keep the kids engaged in important activities. This becomes even more important when the weather is windy, wet, or cold. It’s a fact that all kids love to play in the rain. Hence, instead of simply cancelling the session, it makes more sense to have them play soccer games or something like that.

Just be sure that the kids have additional layer of clothing and proper shoes in situations like these.

Now get out there and start incorporating these teaching suggestions into your practice 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.

It is well known that in coaching soccer drills, every skill and teamwork imparted to the players has only 1 objective; to shoot the goal. It takes skill as well as gut feeling to produce quality shooting. But other than this, winning attitude is also equally important.

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.

So many things may come out of a shoot. Shots can be directed towards a goal. The goalkeeper might drop the ball exactly at the feet of your forward player. Directionless shots can become beautiful passes. Ground shots can get a timely rebound. You might even score a goal directly from the shot.

During the soccer practice, attacking players are always on a lookout to shoot the ball into the goal at every possible opportunity. They are accustomed to think only about scoring a goal when in the field. In England, these attacking players are called sniffers. This is due to the fact that they are always on the lookout for scoring chances.

Soccer Coaching

They take every shot as if it was the last chance to score a goal. You will see that they are always available when the situation is favorable. They always make the most of every situation even if it is not favorable. So, in coaching soccer drills motivate the players to kick the ball whenever they can.

As a rule, a shot is whenever the ball it hit in the direction of the goal with the intent to score. Yet, one technique that is most effective is driving the ball through the middle by use of the laces of the foot. The player’s head should be over the ball, his toe extended, and his upper body should remain steady.

The players should be taught in coaching drills to shoot the ball low and wide of the goalie. In such a scenario, high shots are less preferred that low ground shots. This happens due to the fact that goalies have to stop the low ground shots by stretching their hands a lot more in comparison to high shots, thus making it difficult.

Young players while practicing inside regulation sized goals, tend to score more by kicking the ball over the head of the goalkeeper. You need to discourage your players on this as this leads them to a habit of shooting high goals. In coaching soccer drills, stop this practice by not letting your players to practice in adult sized goals.

So get going and train your team members to see and confirm the goalkeeper’s position before they shoot the ball into the goalpost.

There is a lot more that you can get to know by just subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community which has tons of information on coaching young players in form of newsletters, articles, and videos.

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.

If you think the way I do, I’m sure you’ll agree that in coaching soccer drills, zeroing down the best method to organize conditioning programs is by far the most difficult part. 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.

I’m sorry to say that even today, there are many coaches who fail to recognize the importance of designing player specific coaching plans in teaching soccer. 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.

Yet, there is just one code that must be adhered to while determining the coaching drills for the 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. A coach should therefore act according to the above principle.

What motivates a player to take on the role of a coach is very simple to work out.
Once his playing days are over, he desires to remain involved in the world of soccer. As a result, many successful players become soccer coaches. But they fail to seriously consider the nature of this job.

Soccer Coaching

Majority of them attempt to get inside the arena of coaching adult players by becoming kid’s coach initially. There are still others who take this up because they truly love working with kids and wish to share with them their passion for soccer. Theses reasons are both suitable as well as acceptable. But along with this, there are some ethical responsibilities as well that come hand in hand with being a coach.

Communication is the main feature with respect to coaching soccer drills, and unfortunately it’s the trickiest for a majority of people to understand. The fact that someone has been a successful soccer player for a long time and has countless achievements does not hold well when it comes to being a successful coach.

To become a youth soccer coach, the goals that one needs to set for himself are well defined. It requires a proficient and a skilled coach to push young players in loving soccer and regard it as an encouraging and an exciting incident in their lives. During the soccer practice, the players should feel at ease all the time so that their feelings are conveyed openly in course of the game.

In a team, there are players with varied talents, stamina, and caliber. It is not important whether each of them has great potential and skills of a winner or not. What is most important is that every single player must be able to reach his own ability ultimately.

It is therefore of great importance for us to realize that only brilliant players having successful careers make excellent and expert coaches. He should have a special bent for working with young players; an innate gift for human contact and emotional relationships.

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

If there is more information that you’re looking for on coaching soccer drills, just join our youth soccer coaching community and get an access to tons of news, views, and articles that help you give an insight of coaching young players.

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.

Would you be surprised if I let you know that it’s really tricky for the young players to kick the ball with a straight leg? In coaching soccer drills, this is the trickiest part as far as the players and the coaches are concerned. It calls for the player to keep complete balance and bend the leg at the knee in order to kick the ball. 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 rushing of the foot from below the knee creates an immense impact on the ball. This provides the players with a lot of power to act upon a range of kicks. However, what type of a kick would it be is determined by the precise contact of the foot on the ball.

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

There are three basic passes in soccer namely, a side foot pass, the outside of the foot pass, and the instep drive. Let’s discuss them further.

Soccer Coaching

The side foot pass: In teaching soccer, this is the most widely used and the simplest pass. This is by and large applied to make short distance passes. Though it is a little slow and quite predictable during the game but is very easy for the kids to learn and execute accurately. The ball touches the inside of the foot and the ankle with the foot turned outwards.

In coaching soccer drills, the players should be trained to keep their bodies relaxed all through the action. This is by far the most critical rule applicable to all types of kicking actions. Teach the players to stiffen their ankle and the foot only when they need to get into contact with the ball.

After the players are confident in it’s execution, their action should appear comfortable, smooth, and natural.

Outside of the foot pass: This pass is a little complex to teach and learn but it must be learnt well as it’s the quickest, most accurate, and unpredictable pass. The ball gets in touch between the outside edge of the foot and the laces with the foot extended and turned inwards. With the help of the foot, the pass is modified into a quick flick for short distances.

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

The Instep Drive: Both the versions of instep drive i.e. the low driven version and the lofted version are brought into play to pass the ball over longer distances. Once the players are confident in executing it, make a “chip pass” or an “in swinging pass” by introducing some changes in it. 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 now coach your kids the various techniques of kicking the ball and with variations to let them do different things with the ball.

You can also get your hand on loads of relevant information pertaining to coaching soccer drills in form of newsletters, articles, and videos by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community.

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.