Soccer Training Tips

When you are a soccer coach, it’s necessary for you to be aware of the important soccer training tips to teach the game to your players. It therefore becomes easy for you to include these tips in your soccer drills training session that take place 4 to 5 times a week as per your game’s standard.

You can improve their performance by instructing your players about the essential tips and techniques. They are as follows;

Train your players to continuously move the ball with one or two touches: In a team setting, this is called inter-passing. Train your players to move the ball with speed and make solid crisp passes, whether it’s a 3 meter pass or a 20 meter pass.

Play the ball and keep travelling: Playing and moving encloses the basic idea behind making runs. But the important thing to keep in mind is to make these runs dangerous leading to goal scoring opportunities or opening up space for a team-mate.

Soccer Training

The idea of teaching soccer skills to players is to develop their ability to create goal scoring opportunities. It works well to set up your defender here. Instruct your players to draw near towards the defender, assuming that he or she is going to be able to get the ball, then give it and go, speed up into the open space to receive or return the pass.

Your players should be taught to change their pace once they’ve made a move to beat their opponent. They should attack fast and make sure they keep moving the ball as fast as possible. The moment they get a chance to break, they must even the score with a few accurate passes.

Coach your players to keep the ball close to their feet when maneuvering the ball: One of the important soccer training tips requires kids to keep their head up and remain watchful of others movements in the field. They should make sure to touch the ball at every step while dribbling the ball. This results in maintaining a close control over the ball then enhancing hie/her ability to take it away from the defenders.

Get the cross in: In the first part of the game, carefully observe the goalkeeper while you take shots on the goal. The player should ensure that the other team members are informed about his/ her intentions to make runs into open spaces. It is necessary for the young players to learn this type of communication to become better players.

When training for soccer, teach players to aim for the area between the 6 and 18 yard boxes. This will push the goalkeeper to come out in an endeavor to get the ball. The goal will therefore become open as well as defenseless.

Keep an eye on the ball: Keep an eye on every player’s movement on the field at all times. Coach your players in such a way that they strictly follow the team’s approach and strategy for the day.

You must now include these soccer training tips in your training regimen to allow players to become experts in dealing with situations when on field. For more such tips and ideas, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and get access to innumerable articles, videos, and periodic newsletters.

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 training tips.

Let me tell you that stretching is an vital part of soccer training tips and professional coaches highly recommend it along with almost every player in every sport practicing it daily? As a sport, soccer is growing and developing incessantly in its superiority.

When it comes to kid’s training for soccer, two types of stretching i.e. static and dynamic stretching are included in it.

Static stretching requires the kids to extend their muscles as far as they can and hold for a given duration of time. When it comes to dynamic stretching, recurring motions, rhythmic bouncing, and rebounding is what the player does. Generally, static stretching is considered as more effective and involves less risk than dynamic stretching.

This article shares some of the benefits that stretching provides in helping average players become champions.

Soccer Training

Stretching reduces injuries: Continuous stretching during the day and performed over a period of time may promote muscle growth that, consecutively, could reduce the risk of injury. Stretching also provides an effective way of enhancing the muscle size and strength.

Stretching affects flexibility: Stretching does prevent loss of flexibility. Still, the effects of stretching are way better when it is done for a long period of time than for a shorter duration.

Stretching for some minutes prior to any occasion is liable to improve flexibility. But, of all the soccer training tips, the best is where stretching program is extended over a longer period of time that constantly improves the player’s range of motion.

Stretching betters’ performance: When the stretching program is planned after considering the player’s soccer specific needs, their performance improves.

Stretching can be great fun for the kids: If you include a lot of different types of soccer drills in your practice sessions, it can be a lot of fun. Keep changing the warm up activities that are performed before stretching. Try to include games such as the tag game, ball tag, and keep away.

Focus mentally on stretching exercises, feel and recognize each stretch, whilst checking for body soreness.

For a majority of kids, one stretch of15-30 minutes is sufficient for each muscle group but some kids may take longer stretches or more repetitions.

The reason is that when the temperature of muscles is higher than normal, tension decreases and extensibility increases. Players who want to maintain or increase their flexibility can partly achieve this goal by stretching. It’s advisable to perform stretching exercises when the body temperature is higher than normal as it is safer and more useful.

For this reason, some kids are made to do stretching even after their workout also. If your kids stretch for 5-10 minutes after performing soccer skills, their muscles will not tighten too fast.

In general, players who do an active warm-up before stretching get an improved range of motion than kids who only stretch. So if injury prevention is your aim, stop stretching before exercise and increase the warm up time.

Some food for thought; one of the most important soccer training tips is that hurried stretching is meaningless and boring and doesn’t help your players gain flexibility, so allow them some extra time when they are feeling inflexible or stiff. You can get more such tips and tactics by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community that has several relevant articles, videos, and periodic newsletters.

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’d like to ask you something. Almost all soccer coaches tend to ignore the soccer training tips while designing training programs for kids with the intent of just making up the numbers and going through the motions. Do you find yourself doing the same thing?

Before you design your next training programs, make sure you set some specific goals for your team. Determine in advance what you wish to achieve form this program and do whatever it takes to accomplish that.

Add to your training program such soccer drills that are new, innovative, and fun to perform so as to add variety. This will give the players a break from the dullness of performing repetitive drills day in and day out. Once players start enjoying their practice sessions, you’ll notice that their performance will improve consistently.

Notwithstanding their age and the level at which they play, your players must learn to respect you and listen to you. Valuing each other’s opinions and feelings creates a healthy environment for both players and the coach.

Soccer Training

A high level of flexibility greatly benefits every soccer player. The same is classified into 3 parts.

Dynamic flexibility: Just like twisting from one side to another, it’s the player’s ability to carry out brisk movements within the full range of motion in the joint.

Static active flexibility: It’s the skill to stretch an intricate muscle employing the tension within that muscle. One example is to hold one leg in front of you and keep it as high as you can. Here, your hamstrings are stretched when your quadriceps and hip flexors hold your leg up.

Static passive: This kind of flexibility allows a player to make use of his body weight or some external force to hold a stretch. For example; you can hold your leg out in front of you and then rest it on a chair.

Now let’s advance towards the next stage in the line of soccer training tips. Here, you need to check if the kids are clad in appropriate clothes that suit the weather conditions.

Training for soccer needs to be supported with a fitness program that will help the areas where your team needs most help. Following are the factors that must be kept in mind when designing a training program like this.

Player’s age: Decrease in the flexibility of soft tissue with aging is directly related to the reduced range of movement as one grows older, irrespective of the gender. But, if we remain active, the flexibility will always remain.

Gender: Girls are more flexible regardless of their age.

Action: Active kids are always better at performing soccer skills and exhibiting a greater range of movement that the inactive kids.

Injury: Injuries also hinder the range of motion in a joint.

Pain: There is a decrease in flexibility as pain increases that result in muscle spasms. On the other hand, strength training does not affect flexibility if you are doing the exercises correctly and in full range of motion.

Genetics: A player’s genetics also have an effect on the amount of flexibility that his or her body possesses.

So make sure you incorporate these soccer training tips into your training programs with a view to improve their effectiveness and productivity. You can develop your coaching skills by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community that has loads of articles, newsletters, and significant 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 Drills For Kids.

The importance of soccer training tips for goalkeepers can be easily made out from the fact that a goalkeeper is the only player on the field who can touch the ball with both arms and hands.

And so, soccer skills that a goalie possesses give him an edge over other remaining players. But this makes the job of training goalkeepers for soccer even more difficult.

Based on the method of play in soccer, goalkeepers are the first line of offense and last line of defense. They’re always ready to employ their body to stop the ball from entering the goal or to block it. They are always prepared to grab hold of the ball by pitching into any direction whatsoever.

When it comes to a goalkeeper’s training for soccer, on various requirements specific to their role and their level of play can be very trying. At the same time, his or her mental state should be kept in mind while teaching him various skills.

Soccer Training

A striker in the team is the only player who has the potential to stand in comparison with the goalkeeper. In reality, many goalkeepers have already been great strikers at some point in their careers. You’ll be able to encounter frequent one on one battle between the goalie and the forwards at different levels of competition.

Of all the soccer training tips, the one essential for the goalie to follow is that he should stay balanced and be aware of the center of gravity of the body. In a game setting, this will benefit by improving the goalkeeper’s activity and the inclination of the other player.

Though most goalkeepers in soccer are tall with long arms and big hands, but even if otherwise they easily compensate for the need of physical built with good vertical and lateral mobility.

Goalkeepers need unvarying motivation even though they have a good sense of self-worth and the coaches should never forget this. Goalkeepers should perform soccer drills that improve upon their skills specific to their role in the game once they have finished doing regular warm up exercises with the team.

Goalkeepers act as the leaders of the team as they have a personality that is both dominating and controlling. When goalkeepers are supported by their teammates and are put in a demonstrative capacity, they are able to achieve the desired results.

The goalie is allowed to handle the ball only in the 18 yard box. When the ball gets touched by the arm of any player other than the goalie, the opponent team gets a free kick. In the case of the goalie’s team mate, it is a penalty shoot from “the spot”.

So go ahead and use these soccer training tips in improving the overall performance of the team by supporting the goalkeeper who’s the leader in the 18 yard box and should be appreciated for that. Join our youth soccer coaching community that has numerous relevant articles, newsletters, videos, and podcasts to help your broaden your knowledge on soccer coaching.

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.