Soccer Fitness

What if I told you that young players find it really hard to kick a soccer ball using a straight leg? In coaching soccer drills, this is the trickiest part as far as the players and the coaches are concerned. 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.

This is the preliminary position in soccer practice for almost all kinds of kicks. The acceleration of the foot from below the knee creates a powerful impact on the ball. This gives players the power to execute a variety of kicks. Nevertheless, it depends upon the type of contact that the ball has with the foot which concludes the kick’s style.

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

The three essential passes in soccer are a side foot pass, instep drive, and the outside of the foot pass. Let’s talk about them further.

Soccer Coaching

The side foot pass: In teaching soccer, this pass is considered as the most extensively used and the simplest. This is usually employed to make short distance passes. Despite the fact that this is somewhat slow and predictable, it’s easy to learn and simple to execute. The foot turned outward, ball comes into contact on the outside of the ankle and the foot.

In coaching soccer drills, guide the players to keep their bodies totally relaxed throughout the entire movement. 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.

The moment players feel confident about carrying out this task well; their action should seem relaxed, simple, as well as smooth.

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 into contact between the outside edge of the foot and the laces with the foot turned inward and extended. By using the foot, the pass is converted into a quick toss for short distances.

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

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”. 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 contact with the ball is made between the laces and the inside of the foot and it should be stiff 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.

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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.

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 takes skill as well as gut feeling to produce quality 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. When teaching soccer, give a lot of emphasis on shooting.

There are so many things that may result from a shoot. Shots can be redirected into the goal. It is a possibility that the goalkeeper may very well drop the ball at the foot of your forward player. Directionless shots can become beautiful passes. Ground shots may return. You can even score a goal by a straight shot.

When in soccer practice, attacking players are always looking for a chance to shoot the ball right into the goal. They are trained in a way that they think of nothing else but scoring goals. These attacking players are known as sniffers in England. This happens because they are always reviewing scoring chances.

Soccer Coaching

They take every chance for a shot as if it is the last chance that they’ll ever get. 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. Therefore, in coaching soccer drills you must ask the players to hit the ball at every opportunity.

As a rule, a shot is whenever the ball it hit in the direction of the goal with the intent to score. But the most successful technique to drive the ball is striking it through the middle by using the laces of the foot. Make sure that the player’s head is over the ball, his toe remains extended, and his upper body keeps steady.

The players should be taught in coaching drills to shoot the ball low and wide of 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.

Young players while practicing inside regulation sized goals, tend to score more by kicking the ball over the head of the goalkeeper. This must be discouraged otherwise players form the habit of shooting very high goals. This practice can be put to stop in coaching soccer drills by not allowing players to 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.

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. 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 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. Some examples are; focus on player’s individual soccer skills, promote the importance of their physical fitness, and help them grow into mature, professional, and sporting soccer players.

You, being the coach are solely responsible to set high standards for sportsmanship. Encourage attitudes like fair play, team spirit, and sportsmanship. There are several objectives important in teaching soccer that can be incorporated in your list along with these.

In coaching youth soccer, winning is also an important concept that should be paid due attention. During the training sessions, introduce the open concept of winning and try to place it 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

The players as a result will feel totally relaxed but much more responsible to play the game sensibly with the team’s objectives in their mind.

When coaching soccer drills, always keep in mind the importance of giving clear and correct instructions if they are to be helpful. There are some clear dos and don’ts in soccer on which the players must be taught before you go ahead with your coaching sessions. The variation between coaching and teaching is prominent because coaching deals with a bunch of players who already play soccer pretty well.

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. 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. Relatively, they imitate perfectly.

Consequently, at all possible times, give a demonstration.

Lastly, but still no less in importance is to keep the kids engaged in meaningful activities. This is more valid if the weather prevents you from having a regular session. It’s a fact that all kids love to play 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 get out there and start incorporating these teaching suggestions into your practice sessions. The results will make you happy.

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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. 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.

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. There have been a number of situations where this educational facet of soccer has not been considered at all.

However, we should always remember one principle while working out the coaching drills for kids. A young player becomes an elite player of great renown only when he grows as an individual first and then as a soccer player. Therefore, the coach should act strictly as pre the above mentioned principle.

What motivates a player to take on the role of a coach is very simple to work out.
It’s the feeling to stay with the game in either ways after he has stopped playing for the team. This is the reason that a lot of soccer players end up as soccer coaches. However, what they don’t understand is the seriousness that this role requires.

Soccer Coaching

It is considered by some as the first step that’ll take them towards the prospects of coaching adult players. Some look at this opportunity as a way to be able to share their passion for the game of soccer with the budding players. Both are compelling and very well acceptable reasons. But at the same time, the person should also be aware of the moral responsibility that his choice implies.

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.

There are a few standards that a youth soccer coach is expected to not only set but also meet. 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. The players should be able to express themselves openly at any time during the soccer practice and it’s for the coach to ensure.

Each player in the team has individual talents, resistance, and competence. It is not important whether each of them has great potential and skills of a winner or not. 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. He should have a special bent for working with young players; an innate gift for human contact and emotional relationships.

Some food for thought; you should seriously consider what truly motivates you as it is a major requirement 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.