Soccer Coaching Techniques

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 is both a matter of skill and intuition to cultivate the art of 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. When teaching soccer, shooting should be at the top of your list.

So many things may come out of 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. Directionless shots can become beautiful passes. Ground shots may bounce back. A goal might result out of a straight shot.

When conducting soccer practice, the attacking players try to convert every goal scoring opportunity into a goal. They are conditioned in a way that the only thought that keeps roaming inside their mind is getting the ball into the nets. In England, these attacking players are known by the term sniffers. It is so because they are always looking for scoring opportunities.

Soccer Coaching

To them, every opportunity is the last one they will get and hence shoot ferociously. You’ll always find them at the right place at the right time. Amazingly, they have the ability to be in the wrong place at the right time. Hence, in coaching soccer drills, you must instruct the players to hit the ball whenever they get a chance.

As a general rule, any kick that causes the ball to go towards the goal is considered as a shot. But the most successful technique to drive the ball is striking it through the middle by using the 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.

In the course of coaching drills, teach your players to shoot the ball wide and low to 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.

When kids practice inside the regulation sized goals, they are likely to score more by striking the ball above the goalie’s head. 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.

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.

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. This is because in the past few years, the distinction between educating the players and coaching them has diminished.

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. Many a times, this educational characteristic of soccer gets totally neglected in almost all scenarios.

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. The coach must therefore base his strategy on the above stated principle.

What motivates a player to take on the role of a coach is very simple to work out.
His desire to remain associated with the game even after his days as a team player are over. This is what makes some successful players take a plunge and become kid’s coaches. But they don’t truly recognize the seriousness that this role calls for.

Soccer Coaching

Some look at youth coaching as a stepping stone to coaching adults. Many of them consider this as their only chance to get one with the sport and contribute to the game by sharing their experience and techniques and helping the kids grow. Both the reasons are equally acceptable and convincing. It’s not just these responsibilities that follow your choice but also certain ethical duties that must be looked at while making a choice.

When it comes to coaching soccer drills, communication is the key concept and unfortunately, it is still very difficult for people to accept. The absolute qualification of a youth soccer coach is not necessarily his successful career as a brilliant player consecutively for some good number of years.

In order to be accepted as a great coach, certain standards need to be set and followed. 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. The players should be able to express themselves openly at any time during the soccer practice and it’s for the coach to ensure.

All players in the team vary in terms of strength, style, and individual skills unique to them. What’s not important is that every player must possess the competence and talents of a great player. 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. Working with kids must come naturally to him; an inherent gift to get in touch with their human side and emotional feelings.

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

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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? Both coach and the kids feel that this is by far the greatest trouble in way of coaching soccer drills. 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 opening pose for just about 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. 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 hit very high, driven low, swung over left, or lean towards right.

In soccer, the three critical passes are the instep drive, a side foot pass, and the outside of the foot pass. Let’s now discuss them some more.

Soccer Coaching

The side foot pass: In teaching soccer, the simplest and the most commonly used pass is this. It is generally used for making short distance passes. While this pass can be easily predicted and is a little slow, it is extremely simple to learn and easy to carry out. The contact with the ball is made on the inside of the ankle and the foot with the foot turned outwards.

In coaching soccer drills, players should know that their body need not be tense during the movement with the ball. This is the most basic rule with all types of kicking actions. Players should strengthen the ankle and the foot only at the time of making contact with the ball.

Subsequently, as players are convinced of their ability to perform it, the action should come out smooth, natural, and relaxed.

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 gets into contact between the outside edge of the foot and the laces with the foot turned inward and extended. The pass is then transformed into a quick throw for short distances by using the foot.

In coaching drills, it’s imperative that the players maintain a comfortable posture.

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”. Because the approach of the instep drive is angled to some extent, the non kicking foot is positioned about 12 inches toward 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.

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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.

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. 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.

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. For instance; constantly remind the players to remain physically fit, develop them into sporting players with a positive attitude towards the game, and concentrating on skills unique to them.

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

In coaching youth soccer, winning is also an important concept that should be paid due attention. Infuse an open concept of winning in your player’s minds when you are coaching them. Make it clear to the players that it is the level of their performance that makes them a winner no matter what the final decision is.

Soccer Coaching

This ultimately takes away all the unnecessary pressure off the players and enables them to play their original game by carefully following the strategy.

In coaching soccer drills, make sure that your instructions are very precise for them to be effective. It’s imperative that your kids are aware of the dos and don’ts that are critical to the game of soccer before you go any further with their training. The disparity between coaching and teaching is obvious in the fact that coaching deals with the bunch of players who already know the game to some extent.

In the process of coaching drills, it is nice to first impart 5 to 6 demonstrations about a drill to the kids and then let them practice it themselves. This is because young players generally do not respond to oral instructions very well. If you try to explain everything as a lecture, they may not get it. However, they are good at replicating things.

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

Lastly, but still no less in importance is to keep the kids engaged in meaningful activities. This holds even bigger importance when the weather is not conducive to a regular session. It is well known that the kids love playing 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.

Now, it is time to add these tips to your training program and make the most of them. 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.