Youth Soccer Drills

You may have heard that in coaching soccer drills, all skills have only 1 goal and that is to take a shot at the goal. It takes skill as well as gut feeling to produce quality 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.

There are so many things that may result from a shoot. Shots can be redirected into the goal. It may happen that the goalkeeper drops the ball right in front of your forward. Unruly shots can turn into brilliant passes. Ground shots can get a timely rebound. You may even hit a goal through a straight shot.

When conducting soccer practice, the attacking players try to convert every goal scoring opportunity into a goal. They are trained in a way that they think of nothing else but scoring goals. In England, these attacking players are called sniffers. This is due to the fact that they are always on the lookout for scoring chances.

Soccer Coaching

To them, every opportunity is the last one they will get and hence shoot ferociously. You will see that they are always available when the situation is favorable. They have the skills to even convert negative situations into positive ones. So, in coaching soccer drills motivate the players to kick the ball whenever they can.

Normally, anytime the ball is kicked with an intention to put it inside the goal is taken as a shot. But driving the ball through the middle using the laces of the foot is by far the most effective technique for shooting. Make sure that the player’s head is over the ball, his toe remains extended, and his upper body keeps steady.

In coaching drills, your players should learn to shoot the ball low and wide of the goalie. Here, low ground shots are preferred over high shots. This happens due to the fact that goalies have to stop the low ground shots by stretching their hands a lot more in comparison to high shots, thus making it difficult.

While practicing with regulation sized goals, players get to score more by hitting the ball over and above the goalkeeper’s head. You must discourage your players to do this as it instills the habit of shooting high goals. In coaching soccer drills, stop this practice by not letting your players to practice in adult sized goals.

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

There is a lot more that you can get to know by just subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community which has tons of information on coaching young players in form of newsletters, articles, and videos.

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.

In coaching soccer drills, there are certain training tips that I’d like to share with you before you initiate your training program even if you have been doing this for quite a long time. 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.

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.

You, being the coach are solely responsible to set high standards for sportsmanship. Encourage attitudes like fair play, team spirit, and sportsmanship. In addition to the above goals, you are free to set as many goals as your feel necessary while teaching soccer to your team.

Winning is another important concept that I’d like to emphasize in coaching youth soccer. When you coach your kids, you must instill an open concept of winning in their minds. Let them know that to be tagged as winners, they must focus on playing their best game and not worry about the results.

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.

When coaching soccer drills, always keep in mind the importance of giving clear and correct instructions if they are to be helpful. Before coaching, you need to teach your players about some explicit do’s and don’ts in soccer. The dissimilarity between coaching and teaching lies in the fact that coaching is concerned with a group of players who are already familiar with the game to a certain 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. It is effective because young players are more receptive to seeing than listening. If you endeavor to explain in instructions, they will not understand it. Instead, they take demonstrations more enthusiastically.

Hence, make it an imperative exercise to give a demonstration at every possible opportunity.

Last but by no means the least; keep your players active with several purposeful activities. This is more valid if the weather prevents you from having a regular session. You must understand that kids are just thrilled at the prospect of playing in the rain. Therefore, in place of cancelling the training session, rearrange it in a way that the players make the most of their energy and time.

Just be sure that the kids have additional layer of clothing and proper shoes in situations like these.

Go ahead and make these tips a part of your plan. You’ll be amazed to see the results.

To gain more knowledge on coaching soccer drills, register for our youth soccer coaching community that will keep you updated on topics of youth soccer.

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.

In coaching soccer drills, there’s no doubt that perhaps the most complex part is that of finding out the most appropriate method of managing the conditioning schedules of the 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.

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.

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. It is therefore the duty of the coach to act along with the lines of this principle.

The main reason why an individual decides to become a coach is fairly simple to make out.
Once his playing days are over, he desires to remain involved in the world of soccer. This results in many successful soccer players settling down as coaches. But they don’t truly recognize the seriousness that this role calls for.

Soccer Coaching

It is considered by some as the first step that’ll take them towards the prospects of coaching 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. Theses reasons are both suitable as well as acceptable. It’s not just these responsibilities that follow your choice but also certain ethical duties that must be looked at while making a choice.

Communication is the main feature with respect to coaching soccer drills, and unfortunately it’s the trickiest for a majority of people to understand. 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.

To become a youth soccer coach, the goals that one needs to set for himself are well defined. It’s for the coach to encourage kids to look at soccer as a constructive and an inspiring experience in their lives so that they tend to love the game. During the soccer practice, a coach should ensure that the players can openly convey their feelings through the game.

Each player in the team has individual talents, resistance, and competence. The important thing is not that each one of them should have skills and potential of a champion. What is actually important is that each player ultimately reaches his own potential.

It is therefore of great importance for us to realize that only brilliant players having successful careers make excellent and expert coaches. He must possess a unique ability to connect easily with kids; a natural gift for individual contact and emotional relations.

Some food for thought; serious consideration of one’s real motivations should always be a precondition in this context.

If there is more information that you’re looking for on coaching soccer drills, just join our youth soccer coaching community and get an access to tons of news, views, and articles that help you give an insight of coaching young players.

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.

How would you react to the fact that one thing that young players find truly hard is to use a straight leg to kick the ball? In coaching soccer drills, this is the trickiest part as far as the players and the coaches are concerned. 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 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. Yet, it is the kind of contact of the ball with the foot that decides what type of kick would originate.

For example; it could be chipped very high, driven low, swerved left, or swung right.

There are three basic passes in soccer namely, a side foot pass, the outside of the foot pass, and the instep drive. We’ll now chat about them further.

Soccer Coaching

The side foot pass: In teaching soccer, the simplest and the most commonly used pass is this. This is usually employed 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 ball touches the inside of the foot and the ankle 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 by far the most critical rule applicable to 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.

After the players are confident in it’s execution, their action should appear comfortable, smooth, and natural.

Outside of the foot pass: Al though a little tricky to learn, this pass needs to be taught to the kids correctly as it’s quick, unpredictable, and accurate. The ball makes a contact between the laces and the outside edge of the foot, when the foot is extended and turned inward. By using the foot, the pass is converted into a quick toss for short distances.

In the course of these coaching drills, players should keep their stance relaxed.

The Instep Drive: Both the lofted version and the low driven version of the instep drive are used to pass the ball over longer distances. Once the players are confident in executing it, make a “chip pass” or an “in swinging pass” by introducing some changes in it. Since 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 ball makes a contact with the laces and inside of the foot, which should be firm 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.

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.