Kids Soccer Drills

Shall I ask you a straightforward question? To coach youth soccer, what are the 3 things for the coach to do? Now, before you respond to this query, it is critical to understand that the meaning of youth soccer is that the kids entertain themselves. The concentration should be on turning the drills into enjoyable exercises so that the players get motivated.

So, to teach youth soccer, remember the following rules. These will instill the ability in the kids to become mature players.

Make the kids enjoy the game: As we talked about it earlier, having fun and enjoyment is the key to youth soccer. As a coach, prepare each of the sessions beforehand. To illustrate, engage the kids in warm-up exercises before making a move to the daily drills. Once completed, make the kids move to more advanced drills, for example, passing dribbling, and controlling the ball.

As an addition, motivate the players to think out of the box. Encourage them to try new things and even of they are doing something wrongly, do not interrupt them. Discuss with them after the practice session is over. The support of the parents is also extremely crucial in achieving the fun objective.

Coaching Youth Soccer

To coach youth soccer, it is important since the kids will spend a considerable time with their parents off the field. Ask for cooperation from the parents since it is crucial in keeping a check on their daily diet, regularity in sessions, and encouragement.

Get familiar with the age of the kids: Teaching soccer to kids is between the age of 7 to 14. At this age, it is a challenge to define the drills that actually catch their attention. Therefore, you must spend a considerable time researching on various drills that are appropriate for this age group. And, ensure that you keep the age level of the players in mind while communicating with them and remain very casual in your conversation.

It is always a great trick to divide them into teams and also give them individual names. This inculcates a sense of team spirit. Do not test a lot as well. The idea of a well-balanced session is to have both tried as well as new activities in it.

Document the Drills: You must always write down the sessions, drills, and the goals associated with them. It makes the efforts of the team worthwhile. Recorded data is highly beneficial in depicting the performance of the players. If you need to modify anything, it can be easily done in a written document.

And then, it is super-easy to measure your goals. It is quite normal for some things to go awry and then, you can always check them.

It is safe to say that youth soccer is a dynamic, fun-filled, and yet a responsible job. With this information at your disposal, you will without doubt be able to do full justice to your job.

Test them right way. These tips on coach youth soccer are sure to bring positive results for your team. For more such tips on youth soccer, join our youth soccer coaching community where you will find many resources and like-minded individuals from the soccer community.

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: Soccer Coaching Drills.

Let this be known! In order to coach youth soccer, it is always difficult to think and create new drills that are interesting as well as useful for the kids. In teaching soccer, the biggest difficulty is to keep thinking about new ideas that make the training for kids interesting.

What follow are some drills that you can teach youth soccer players. These drills help the kids focus on the game, get good at soccer, and enjoy it to the core.

Employ the players to do dribbling and shooting: This is an easy drill that helps all the players practice at the same time. Make the players stand on a single goal line. Now, scatter a lot of balls all over the field. Once done, tell the kids to play with the balls as if they are moving towards the opponent’s goal. They should also hit the ball as soon as they get a chance.

This workout helps the kids build their stamina, confidence and also improves their dribbling skills. As the players do not have any opposing players, it makes them showcase their personal styles too.

Coaching Youth Soccer

How to pass the ball: Ask the kids to stand in a line at a far-away corner of the field. Start counting till 3 and when you finish, order them to run to you as fast as they can. While they are running towards you, they also need to steal the ball from the other player who is kicking the ball. When you say Stop, the player who was kicking the ball must pass to one of the teammates.

When you coach youth soccer, these games make the kids showcase their best skills in passing and dribbling. They also learn the art of stealing the ball from other players which is very important.

Touch and Go: A game full of fun that kids just love to play it. The kids should get in two lines distant from the goal post which is less than 40 meters away. And in addition to this, the goalie should guard the goalpost. Situate yourself in between these two queues.

Pass the ball to either of the queue and with only one tap teach them to shoot or pass the ball to another. The idea is to translate the ball into a goal. Once the goalie returns the ball, carry on with the practice.

When you’ve got two or more goalkeepers in team, make sure you keep include them in alternating sessions. This sport encourages team effort and helps improve shooting skills. The goalkeeper becomes skilled at protecting the ball from converting to a goal.

Keeping the control of the ball: This exercise allows the players to learn to advance with the ball while retaining its control. Take two players, one acts as the defender and the other attacker. Instruct them to start moving the ball as per their roles and when a player dominates the other, reward him with a point.

These are the easiest ways to coach youth soccer. You can make your kids perform these as they help them learn along with having loads of fun. You can connect to our youth soccer coaching community to get more of these tips and information.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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.

Ever wondered how difficult it may seem to coach youth soccer team? Actually it is not, if you have the right attitude, flair to deal with the kids, and some handy tips.

It is always logical and best to start with the basics. During this stage, the kids are offered with the opportunity to enjoy thoroughly, thereby developing a professional attitude. Besides, a clear understanding of the basics has the advantage of instilling more confidence in the players.

To teach youth soccer, the first things to do is to do nothing. Let the kids’ act the way they want and observe them keenly. Don’t attempt to be hugely organized or teach a great deal. In this way, kids will only take pleasure in the sport which is of essence.

Kids should be given regular feedbacks to enable them to work upon themselves. Give these feedbacks only at the end of the session, not during them. Always keep in mind that it is important to interact with the kids in the language that they know.

Coaching Youth Soccer

Kid’s parents show a lot of concern in their advancement. So it is a great idea to involve them early. It is beneficial in ensuring that the kids will stay interested in the sport even while at home. It is important for you to confirm accurate understanding and handling of kid’s questions.

Keep all the communication channels open. For example: personal meetings, email, and telephone are adequate and efficient methods of communication. However, a word of caution! Do not instruct the kids or allow parents to do the same on the field. Also, the feedback, especially negative, should never be discussed in front of the young player.

To coach youth soccer successfully, one must communicate regularly with the fellow trainers. Every one has unique experiences of their own and sharing them with each other opens new doors to communication and ideas.

Set up and arrange the drills in advance. This essentially means that you do your homework well in advance. At times, the coaches adopt a plain approach because of the feeling that they are managing the kids. That is not right. Expert coaching and respect for budding players is no less relevant as is in case of soccer as a sport.

Train your kids in the basics of the game in a fun way by involving them in exciting drills. At times, it is also advisable to take them out on excursions and small picnics. Provide sufficient time to kids so that they can communicate their feelings and thoughts with each other. This develops a sense of team spirit and camaraderie between them.

When teaching soccer, help the kids understand the value of regulation in soccer. From the beginning itself, make the players understand the value of best practices in soccer.

To end the discussion, teach the kids how they can enjoy soccer to the fullest. These tips can be applied in training your team to get remarkable results.

You will find a variety of such tips to coach youth soccer by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community. This is where you will meet a supportive and a well-equipped coaching community in addition to various resources on coaching youth soccer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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: Coach youth soccer.