Soccer Practice

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 takes both skill and instinct to develop the art of good shooting. But there is one more thing that is equally important towards shooting; an aggressive attitude.

All the players must be involved in this but more importantly; it is up to the 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 converted into goals. The goalkeeper might drop the ball exactly at the feet of your forward player. Rowdy shots can turn into accurate 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 made to think in a way that they always have goal scoring on their mind. In England, these attacking players are called sniffers. This happens because they are always reviewing scoring chances.

Soccer Coaching

They consider every chance the last chance to score a goal and hence shoot accordingly. You’ll always find them at the right place at the right time. They have the skills to even convert negative situations into positive ones. Therefore, in coaching soccer drills you must ask the players to hit the ball at every opportunity.

In most cases, when the ball is knocked with a view to get it through the goalpost, it is termed as a shot. Yet, one technique that is most effective is driving the ball through the middle by use of the laces of the foot. The player’s head should be over the ball, his toe extended, and his upper body should remain steady.

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. This must be discouraged otherwise players form the habit of shooting very high goals. In coaching soccer drills, don’t allow the kids to play in adult sized goals to stop this practice.

So get going and train your team members to see and confirm the goalkeeper’s position before they shoot the ball into the goalpost.

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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.

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? In coaching soccer drills, this is by far the biggest problem that a coach and the players face. The player has to be in total balance and the leg used for kicking the ball is bent at the knee. Both posture and strength to kick the ball comes out 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. The players get immense power from this to perform several styles of kicks. However, what type of a kick would it be is determined by the precise contact of the foot on the ball.

For example; it could be thumped very high, driven low, turn sharply to the left, or move to the 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. Normally, it is used to make short distance passes. Though it is a little slow and quite predictable during the game but is very easy for the kids to learn and execute accurately. The foot turned outward, ball comes into contact on the outside of the ankle and the foot.

When you are in the midst of coaching soccer drills, teach the players to be at ease with respect to their body. This is the most basic rule with all types of kicking actions. The ankle and the foot need to be stiffened only at the time when the players is about to get in 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: Since this pass can never be predicted, is pretty accurate and quick, players must be trained on this even though it’s a little tough to master. The ball gets in touch between the outside edge of the foot and the laces with the foot extended and turned inwards. With the help of the foot, the pass is modified into a quick flick for short distances.

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

So, go ahead and teach your players these basic kicking techniques with variations to make the ball do slightly different things.

You can also get your hand on loads of relevant information pertaining to coaching soccer drills in form of newsletters, articles, and videos by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community.

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. Let’s say that the soccer practice has one broad goal for both the coach and the player and it is to have fun while participating in the practice sessions.

Here, it’s easy to lose track of the fun part if you are not cautious. Consequently, identify such objectives that are particularly important for you as a coach and also equally important for the team. 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. Support them in developing a sporting attitude, a feeling of team spirit, and an attitude of fair play. However, in teaching soccer, you can have numerous other objectives that you can add to those mentioned above.

One more concept that needs to be highlighted in youth soccer coaching is the notion of winning the match. 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.

It’s important that your instructions during coaching soccer drills are to the point and exact for players to fetch expected results. Before coaching, you need to teach your players about some explicit do’s and don’ts in soccer. The variation between coaching and teaching is prominent because coaching deals with a bunch of players who already play soccer pretty well.

While coaching drills, it is preferable to first demonstrate the drill to the kids and then give them a free hand in executing it themselves. This is because young players generally do not respond to oral instructions very well. If you endeavor to explain in instructions, they will not understand it. Relatively, they imitate perfectly.

Therefore, consider giving demonstrations wherever you can.

Finally, but still very important is your ability to keep the kids engaged in important activities. This becomes even more important when the weather is windy, wet, or cold. 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. 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 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. The reason I say this is because in the last few years, the fine line between coaching and educating has gradually dissolved.

Unfortunately, not all coaches realize that teaching soccer involves designing coaching plans specific to the players’s requirements. The players must be taught about the game as a person along with their professional conditioning and training. 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 player should first grow as an individual before he grows and becomes a prominent soccer player of great repute. A coach should therefore act according to the above principle.

If we try to figure out something that cheers a former player to become a coach is pretty easy.
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

Some of them take this as an opportunity to get into the field of coaching and training adult players. There are still others who take this up because they truly love working with kids and wish to share with them their passion for soccer. Both are compelling and very well acceptable reasons. But it’s not only these duties but additional principles too that need to be taken into consideration.

When it comes to coaching soccer drills, communication is the key concept and unfortunately, it is still very difficult for people to accept. It is not enough to have a great career history spanning many years of top rated success and achievements to qualify as a professional coach.

There are a few standards that a youth soccer coach is expected to not only set but also meet. It’s a capable and an expert coach who alone can cheer his players to fall in love with soccer so much so that they begin to experience it as an upbeat and a stimulating practice. During the soccer practice, the players should feel at ease all the time so that their feelings are conveyed openly in course of the game.

In a team, there are players with varied talents, stamina, and caliber. 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; you should seriously consider what truly motivates you as it is a major requirement in this context.

You can lay your hands on loads of relevant information pertaining to coaching soccer drills in form of newsletters, articles, and videos by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community.

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.