Lend me your ears even though you may differ with me on this. Talking about soccer drills, the most important thing for the players is to have an understanding of the game for which they should be taught the basics first. The soccer training we talked about must happen first before starting with teaching them the more difficult parts or the best way of playing the game.
Since you are a soccer coach, the onus lies on you that the players start on a right note. For this reason, coach your players on every important soccer skill forming the basis of the game. Let’s discuss some basic skills in the game that are important for every player to understand.
Coaching the players to dribble and shoot the ball: Shooting and dribbling are the two most basic soccer skills to master. To become a successful player, these skills have a major role to play in their game. But, for teaching these soccer exercises, you should see that all preparations are made in advance.
Start with positioning several players over the soccer field and arrange all players in a straight line on either ends of field.
Now signal the players to start. Running around the field, they would try to grab the ball by their feet as they dribble and shoot the ball in the goal located at the opposite end of the field. When they practice these two soccer drills on a daily basis, they’ll be able to learn them fast.
Passing the ball and following directions: Players learn the importance of team spirit as a result of these two soccer skills. In any case, soccer being a team sport should be uniformly spread among all team mates. It’ll be impossible for them to display team spirit if they don’t learn good quality passing skills or don’t understand simple directions.
There is a simple drill that can be used to teach them about passing the ball and following directions. Start with lining the team up in a single file line at one end of the field. One team member should be then made to stand in front of the row almost 5-10 feet away.
As you blow the whistle, first person in row will try to catch hold of the ball form other team members on the field. The moment you tell them to stop, the player with the ball should then pass it to the first one in row. This soccer practice will teach the players to listen as well as follow your instructions.
Handling the Ball: It’s for you to teach your team members the ability to maneuver the ball in the field by using their feet along with other parts of body. This has the effect of enabling the players to give a more spontaneous performance on field. The players can improve on this by practicing the use of heads and knees to throw the ball and stopping the using the back.
Soccer drills like these help in developing players that become match winners and make their way to learning more difficult components of the game. You can get as much information as you like on all soccer related topics by joining our youth soccer coaching community. So go ahead and become a member today.
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: Soccer drills.
