Choosing players to take part in the tryouts soccer depends on the purpose of your team. A coach working with kids should concentrate in developing the competitiveness of the kid. Players with athleticism and love for the game should be helped to shine.
But you may have the right player who’s new to the team but has an innate ability to learn fast. In such a situation, take account of the time you’ve got to prepare him for the tryouts.
What you find below are only a few points that help coaches to prepare players for the upcoming tryouts and soccer tournament.
Prior to Tryouts: Get your players in shape by making them run approximately 3 days a week. This surely helps to build the stamina. If the players are able to run 2-3 miles by the end, they’ll definitely be in good shape.
Agility and steadiness are also vital. In addition, good running, stopping, and changing the direction are important too. Have the players practice these by doing short sprints. For instance, sprints can be from 40-100 yards marked on a flat surface. Make them run between it a few times.
Players can practice shooting by hitting at the round target drawn with chalk on the wall. The perfect place to draw the target would be two feet from the ground and a foot diagonally. Ask the players to hit the target from a 10 feet distance.
When they are able to do that, vary the distance and ask them to continue.
It is essential that you along with your players get to the place early which will give plenty of time to get warmed up.
If kids need not wear something specific, ask them wear something distinctive. It is a lot easier for the coaches to point to someone wearing blue socks and give an opinion, rather than pointing to a group of girls all wearing red T-shirts and white shorts.
Almost all the tryouts soccer sessions start with small games like 2v4 or 4v4 to goals, and work up to 8v8 to goals with goalkeepers.
Almost all of the decisions are made in the small-sided phase. Often, players are rated as a) definitely, b) maybe, and c) certainly not. Players in the ‘may be’ category are given most of the playing time so as to decide to move them to either of the other two categories. So encourage kids to play with energy and take control of the game.
If you communicate well in the games, it makes your players to observe you and to stand out in a positive way. By giving instructions and helping other players with vocal and visual signals, any player can become a leader. Any player who is silent may appear to be out of the game mentally.
On all possible occasions, players should greet their coach. Soccer association is very keen about the etiquette of the players.
Players who ask questions know better what is happening at the tryouts soccer and during any follow-up tryouts. That’s not all. You should consider joining our youth soccer coaching community for it has got newsletters, articles, and videos to make you a better coach.
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.
Tags: soccer association, soccer tournament, Tryouts soccer, youth soccer