Kids Soccer Drills

When you are a soccer coach, it’s necessary for you to be aware of the important soccer training tips to teach the game to your players. As a result of it, you can conveniently include in your soccer drills practice sessions, these tips to be executed 4 to 5 times every week according to your game’s standard.

You can improve their performance by instructing your players about the essential tips and techniques. Following are the techniques;

Train your players to continuously move the ball with one or two touches: In a team setting, this is called inter-passing. They should play the ball with speed and make crisp solid passes, whether it is a 3-meter or 20 meter pass.

Play the ball and keep progressing: Playing and moving controls the basic idea behind making runs. But the important thing here is to make sure that these runs open up goal scoring opportunities and make spaces for the other team members.

Soccer Training

The basis of all soccer skills is the ability to pass accurately in order to create opportunities. The key here is setting up your defender. Your players almost need to close in the defender towards them, as though he or she is going to be able to catch the ball, then give it and go, stepping up into the open space to receive or return the pass.

When dribbling, guide players to change their pace after making a move to beat the opponent. They should quickly attack and try to keep the ball moving as fast as possible. When they get a chance to break, train them to retaliate with a few accurate passes.

Teach your kids to retain the ball close to their feet when trying to control the ball: As one of the important soccer training tips, they should keep their head up and keep an eye on other player’s movements on the field. They should try and make contact with the ball on every step when dribbling it. This perks up the player’s ability to get the ball from the defenders and ensures total control over the ball.

Get the cross in: In the first part of the game, carefully observe the goalkeeper while you take shots on the goal. The player should ensure that the other team members are informed about his/ her intentions to make runs into open spaces. It is necessary for the young players to learn this type of communication to become better players.

When training for soccer, teach players to aim for the area between the 6 and 18 yard boxes. This will encourage the goalkeeper to come out in an effort to save the ball. Due to this, the goals will remain open and unprotected.

Keep a watch on the ball: Watch the movement of all players on the field, all the time. Condition your players such that they don’t lose their way from the team’s strategy for the day.

Your goal? To start utilizing these soccer training tips in your daily practice matches so that it comes naturally to your players while they are on field. For more such tips and ideas, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and get access to innumerable articles, videos, and periodic newsletters.

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: Soccer training tips.

I’d like to ask you something. Many soccer coaches design their player’s training programs without considering the soccer training tips only to go through the motions and make up the numbers. Do you find yourself doing the same thing?

Set some distinct goals for the team next time when you decide to plan a training program. Determine in advance what you wish to achieve form this program and do whatever it takes to accomplish that.

Introduce new, fun, and innovative soccer drills in your training sessions to add variety. It will break the boring routine of performing the same drills every single day. You’ll notice a positive change in your kid’s performance once they begin to enjoy their training sessions.

Make your players understand the value of respecting and listening to you, their coach, no matter what their age or level at which they play. Mutual appreciation creates a friendly environment for both players and the coach.

Soccer Training

Soccer players can greatly benefit from having a high level of flexibility. It has been divided into 3 categories.

Dynamic flexibility: It is the ability to perform energetic movements within the full range of motion in the joint, for example; twisting side to side.

Static active flexibility: It is the ability to stretch a difficult muscle using only the tension within that very muscle. Let’s take an example; holding one leg in front of you and keeping it as high as you can. When you do this, your hamstrings are stretched whilst the quadriceps and hip flexors hold your leg up.

Static passive: Ability to use your body weight or some outside force to hold a stretch is termed as static passive flexibility. For example; you can hold your leg out in front of you and then rest it on a chair.

Now let’s advance towards the next stage in the line of soccer training tips. Here, you need to check if the kids are clad in appropriate clothes that suit the weather conditions.

Training for soccer needs to be supported with a fitness program that will help the areas where your team needs most help. One should keep the following factors in mind while designing such a training program.

Age of the player: With age, there is a decrease in the flexibility of soft tissues in the body that is directly related to the reduced range of movement, no matter what the gender. However, decrease in flexibility can be significantly slowed down if we keep active.

Gender: Girls show greater movement, no matter what their age.

Activity: When it comes to displaying soccer skills, active individuals demonstrate a greater range of movement than inactive individuals.

Injury: Injuries also hinder the range of motion in a joint.

Pain: Flexibility decreases as pain increases, resulting in muscle spasms. Nonetheless, flexibility in kids is not hampered by strength training unless the exercises are done correctly and in full range of motion.

Heredity: How flexible is a player’s body depends upon a player’s genetics also.

So make sure you incorporate these soccer training tips into your training programs with a view to improve their effectiveness and productivity. You can develop your coaching skills by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community that has loads of articles, newsletters, and significant videos.

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 Drills For Kids.

The importance of soccer training tips for goalkeepers can be easily made out from the fact that a goalkeeper is the only player on the field who can touch the ball with both arms and hands.

Therefore, it’s the soccer skills of a goalie that set him apart in a better position, in comparison to others. But this makes the job of training goalkeepers for soccer even more difficult.

Depending on the method of play, soccer goalkeepers are often the first line of offence and last line of defense. They’re always ready to employ their body to stop the ball from entering the goal or to block it. They are ready to dive in any direction to catch hold of the ball.

Goalkeeper’s training for soccer on different skills and techniques can be one tough job depending upon their role requirements and level of play. It simultaneously calls for you to consider his mental state while training him on different skills and techniques.

Soccer Training

Only one player in the team can be compared to a goalkeeper and that is the goal hungry striker. In fact, some of the best goalies have also been great strikers at one point or the other. You’ll frequently encounter a one on one battle at various levels of competition between goalies and forwards.

When it comes to soccer training tips, staying balanced and knowing the center of gravity of the body is of the essence to the goalkeeper. This will improve the activity of the goalie and the state of readiness of the player to make remarkable gains in a game setting.

Although most soccer goalkeepers are tall and have long arms and big hands, but even if he or she is short, they usually compensate for the lack of height with good vertical and lateral mobility.

It is necessary of the coaches to recognize that goalkeepers need constant motivation no matter how good is there sense of self-worth. After the goalkeepers have done their routine warm up rounds with the team, they should then focus on performing soccer drills meant for their specific role in the team.

Goalkeepers are the leaders of the team as both their role and their personality is quite dominating. When goalkeepers are supported by their teammates and are put in a demonstrative capacity, they are able to achieve the desired results.

The goalie is allowed to handle the ball only in the 18 yard box. When the ball gets touched by the arm of any player other than the goalie, the opponent team gets a free kick. In the case of the goalie’s team mate, it is a penalty shoot from “the spot”.

So your job now is to use these soccer training tips to improve goalkeeper’s performance on the field as they are the leaders inside the 18 yard box and should be valued by their teammates. For more such training tips and coaching skills, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and get access to thousands of 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.

Let me tell you that stretching is an vital part of soccer training tips and professional coaches highly recommend it along with almost every player in every sport practicing it daily? Talking about soccer, it is constantly growing and developing in its difficulty.

When it comes to kid’s training for soccer, two types of stretching i.e. static and dynamic stretching are included in it.

When doing the static stretching, players draw out their muscles to a given point of resistance and hold it right there for a given amount of time. When it comes to dynamic stretching, recurring motions, rhythmic bouncing, and rebounding is what the player does. It is generally considered as more dangerous and less effective than static stretching.

There are some advantages of practicing stretching discussed in this article that improve a player’s ability to become an exceptional player.

Soccer Training

Stretching reduces injuries: Constant stretching by players during the day and continuing it over a period of time helps the growth of their muscles, thus diminishing the risk of injury. Stretching also provides a way of increasing the muscle size and strength.

Stretching affects flexibility: Stretching prevents loss of flexibility. However, the support is more convincing for a long-term stretching line up than for shorter periods of time.

Stretching a few minutes prior to any event is likely to increase flexibility. But the best of all soccer training tips is to spread a stretching program over a period of months, leading to a constant increase in range of motion.

Stretching improves performance: Stretches, when designed to be soccer specific can greatly improve a player’s performance.

Make sure that the kids enjoy stretching: Make stretching fun for the kids by including a variety of soccer drills into your session. Keep altering the warm up exercises that you do before stretching. Try games like the tag game, ball tag, and keep away.

Focus mentally on stretching exercises, feel and recognize each stretch, whilst checking for body soreness.

For a majority of kids, one stretch of15-30 minutes is sufficient for each muscle group but some kids may take longer stretches or more repetitions.

The reason is that when the temperature of muscles is higher than normal, tension decreases and extensibility increases. Players who want to maintain or increase their flexibility can partly achieve this goal by stretching. It is better, safer, and more productive to do stretching exercises when the body temperature is higher than normal.

This is the reason why some coaches make kids stretch even after a workout. Stretching for five minutes after practicing soccer skills prevents muscles from tightening too fast.

Usually, players who practice an active warm-up ahead of stretching get a superior range of motion than those kids who just stretch. So if injury prevention is your aim, stop stretching before exercise and increase the warm up time.

Some food for thought; one of the most important soccer training tips is that hurried stretching is meaningless and boring and doesn’t help your players gain flexibility, so allow them some extra time when they are feeling inflexible or stiff. Join our youth soccer coaching community and enhance your knowledge about soccer through loads of articles, videos, and podcasts available there.

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.