Soccer Coaching Drills

What if I told you that young players find it really hard to kick a soccer ball using a straight leg? Both coach and the kids feel that this is by far the greatest trouble in way of coaching soccer drills. The player keeps overall balance and the leg to be used to kick 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. Still, the style of kick that would emerge would depend upon the nature of contact of the ball with the foot.

For example; it could be chipped very high, driven low, swerved left, or swung 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 talk about 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. Although this pass is slightly slow and almost predictable, it’s very simple to teach the kids and perform accurately. The ball touches the inside of the foot and the ankle with the foot turned outwards.

In coaching soccer drills, guide the players to keep their bodies totally relaxed throughout the entire movement. When it comes to different kicking actions, this rule is the truly indispensable. Teach the players to stiffen their ankle and the foot only when they need to get into contact with the ball.

Once the players become confident, their overall action should seem relaxed, smooth and effortless.

Outside of the foot pass: This is a little difficult to learn but is extremely important to master because it is accurate, quick, and cannot be predicted. The ball makes a contact between the laces and the outside edge of the foot, when the foot is extended and turned inward. 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 lofted version and the low driven version of the instep drive are used to pass the ball over longer distances. Once mastered, this style can also be modified to make a “chip pass” or an “in swinging pass”. Since 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, go forward and make the kids try different things with the ball by teaching them the basic kicking techniques as well its variations.

If you would like to enhance your knowledge on coaching soccer drills for kids, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that has a huge amount of information in form of articles, newsletters and 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 Training 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 is both a matter of skill and intuition to cultivate the art of shooting. But apart from this, there is something else that is equally important and that is forceful 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 might be that the goalkeeper drops the ball at the foot of your forward player. Unruly shots can turn into brilliant passes. Ground shots can get a timely rebound. You can even score a goal by a straight 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. These attacking players are referred to as sniffers in England. This is due to the fact that they are always on the lookout for scoring chances.

Soccer Coaching

They take every chance for a shot as if it is the last chance that they’ll ever get. They are always present at the right time at the right place. They always make the most of every situation even if it is not favorable. So in coaching soccer drills encourage your players to shoot the ball whenever possible.

As a general rule, any kick that causes the ball to go towards the goal is considered as a shot. But driving the ball through the middle using the laces of the foot is by far the most effective technique for shooting. 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. Here, low ground shots are preferred 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.

While practicing with regulation sized goals, players get to score more by hitting the ball over and above the goalkeeper’s head. You need to discourage your players on this as this leads them to a habit of shooting high goals. This practice can be put to stop in coaching soccer drills by not allowing players to adult sized goals.

So now go teach you kids to become master shooters when it comes to scoring goals by checking the goalie’s position once before they are ready to shoot.

If you would like to enhance your knowledge on soccer coaching for kids, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that has a huge amount of information in form of articles, newsletters 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.

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. In your soccer practice, identify one goal that is common to both the team and the coach for example; to have a lot of fun while playing the game.

At this point, it’s important to stay alert or else you’ll get 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.

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. When teaching soccer, you have the option to include any number of relevant objectives along with the ones stated above.

Winning is another important concept that I’d like to emphasize in coaching youth soccer. When you coach your kids, you must instill an open concept of winning in their minds. Make them understand that so long as their play is up to the mark, they are the winners, irrespective of the final outcome.

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 you start coaching your team, educate your players on some specific do’s and don’ts in the game of 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’s best to give the players 5 or 6 fine demonstrations of some specific skill and then let them perform it themselves. It is due to the fact that kids grasp visualizations more effectively than simple instructions. If you decide to give them plain instructions, they will not appreciate it very much. Rather they are pretty good at imitation.

So, as a general rule, demonstrate the skills yourself whenever possible.

Last but by no means the least; keep your players active with several purposeful 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. Therefore, in place of cancelling the training session, rearrange it in a way that the players make the most of their energy and time.

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

Go ahead and make these tips a part of your plan. 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. This is because in the past few years, the distinction between educating the players and coaching them has diminished.

Regrettably, many coaches still don’t understand that when teaching soccer, drawing a coaching plan based on the player’s needs is of paramount importance. 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. The coach must therefore base his strategy on the above stated principle.

The main reason why an individual decides to become a coach is fairly simple to make out.
Once his playing days are over, he desires to remain involved in the world of soccer. This is the reason that a lot of soccer players end up as 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. Some others decide to take up this role due to their love towards the sport and an intention to instill the same passion in the kids. Theses reasons are both suitable as well as acceptable. But at the same time, the person should also be aware of the moral responsibility that his choice implies.

In coaching soccer drills, the key factor is communication and sadly it’s the one that people find most difficult to recognize. 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.

There are some very important goals that a youth soccer coach needs to set for himself. Being a competent and skillful coach requires helping young players to love soccer and consider it as a positive and an exciting experience in their lives. During the soccer practice, a coach should ensure that the players can openly convey their feelings through 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 actually important is that each player ultimately reaches his own potential.

So we must understand that not every soccer player is cut out to be a skillful and a proficient youth team coach. He must possess a unique ability to connect easily with kids; a natural gift for individual contact and emotional relations.

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

Register to our youth soccer coaching community that has loads of knowledge on coaching soccer drills available in form of newsletters, articles, and videos relevant to 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.