Kids Soccer Drills

If you are like me, you probably feel the same way that the biggest problem that a coach faces in coaching soccer drills is to decide on the best way of organizing conditioning schedules for its players. The reason I say this is because in the last few years, the fine line between coaching and educating has gradually dissolved.

Regrettably, many coaches still don’t understand that when teaching soccer, drawing a coaching plan based on the player’s needs is of paramount importance. They should make an effort to develop them professionally together with educating them on the game. In certain situations, it has been observed that this educational side in soccer takes a backseat.

Nevertheless, while deciding on the coaching drills that kids are to perform; one rule should be kept in mind. Any young player must first endeavor to grow as an individual and only after that he can become the best and a high ranking soccer player. A coach should therefore act according to the above principle.

It’s easy to find out the reason that pushes a player to take on the duty of a coach.
His desire to remain associated with the game even after his days as a team player are over. This is what makes some successful players take a plunge and become kid’s coaches. But they don’t truly recognize the seriousness that this role calls for.

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 the reasons are equally acceptable and convincing. But at the same time, the person should also be aware of the moral responsibility that his choice implies.

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.

To become a youth soccer coach, the goals that one needs to set for himself are well defined. Being a competent and skillful coach requires helping young players to love soccer and consider it as a positive and an exciting experience in their lives. As a coach, make sure that during the soccer practice, players feel comfortable in openly expressing themselves by way of the game.

All players in the team vary in terms of strength, style, and individual skills unique to them. The fact that every single player in the team has the qualities and talents of a champion is not of much value. But what’s really important is that every player must reach his own competence in the due course.

This needs to be understood that every soccer player, no matter how skilled, renowned, and competent he may be, is not capable of coaching young players. He must possess a unique ability to connect easily with kids; a natural gift for individual contact and emotional relations.

Some food for thought; you should seriously consider what truly motivates you as it is a major requirement in this context.

There is lot more that you can equip yourself about coaching soccer drills by just subscribing to our youth soccer caching community that offers a great amount of knowledge by way of articles, newsletters, and videos.

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.

What if I told you that young players find it really hard to kick a soccer ball using a straight leg? In coaching soccer drills, this is by far the biggest problem that a coach and the players face. The player keeps overall balance and the leg to be used to kick the ball is bent at the knee. Both power and stance to kick the ball emerges from below the knee.

This is the starting point for almost all styles of kicks in soccer practice. The speeding up of the foot from below the knee generates a great impact on the ball. This provides the players with a lot of power to act upon a range 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 knocked very high, driven low, turn left, or sway to the right.

In soccer, the three critical passes are the instep drive, a side foot pass, and the outside of the foot pass. Let’s now discuss them some more.

Soccer Coaching

The side foot pass: In teaching soccer, the simplest and the most commonly used pass is this. 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 contact with the ball is made on the inside of the ankle and the foot with the foot turned outwards.

In coaching soccer drills, guide the players to keep their bodies totally relaxed throughout the entire movement. 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.

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

Outside of the foot pass: This is a little difficult to learn but is extremely important to master because it is accurate, quick, and cannot be predicted. A contact is made with the ball between the laces and outside edge of the foot with the foot extended and turned inward. The pass is then transformed into a quick throw for short distances by using the foot.

Throughout the coaching drills session, the posture of the players should be relaxed.

The Instep Drive: Here, the two versions; lofted versions and the low driven version are utilized to pass the ball to longer distances. There is also an option to adapt this style to make a “chip pass” or an “in swinging pass”. 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 contact with the ball is made between the laces and the inside of the foot and it should be stiff and extended.

So then, go on and train your players on these basic techniques of kicking along with the variations so that the ball does little different things.

If you would like to enhance your knowledge on coaching soccer drills for kids, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that has a huge amount of information in form of articles, newsletters and 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 Training Drills.

I don’t know a thing about you, but I’ll bet that it is necessary that you look at some common teaching suggestions before starting out with the coaching soccer drills. 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.

At this point, it’s important to stay alert or else you’ll get distracted by other things. For this reason, I suggest that your goals should be as precise as possible both for your own good and for the good of your team. For example; develop a sense of team spirit and a sporting attitude in your players, help them identify their individual soccer skills, and emphasize on improving their physical fitness.

It is your duty to set reasonably high standards for players in relation to sportsmanship. Promote the feeling of sportsmanship, team spirit, and fair play amongst team members. However, in teaching soccer, you can have numerous other objectives that you can add to those mentioned above.

The theory of winning is one concept that I’d like to stress upon when it comes to coaching youth soccer. Infuse an open concept of winning in your player’s minds when you are coaching them. Make it clear to the players that it is the level of their performance that makes them a winner no matter what the final decision is.

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.

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 disparity between coaching and teaching is obvious in the fact that coaching deals with the bunch of players who already know the game to some extent.

In coaching drills, it’s best to give the players 5 or 6 fine demonstrations of some specific skill and then let them perform 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. Instead, they take demonstrations more enthusiastically.

So, as a general rule, demonstrate the skills yourself whenever possible.

In the end, but still important is to keep the kids involved in several activities. This holds even bigger importance when the weather is not conducive to a regular session. It is very well acknowledged that the kids find it enjoyable to play in the rain. So, rather than just telling them to go home, it is more beneficial to find ways so that they can still enjoy soccer in some form.

Ensure that in situations like these, the kids are wearing proper soccer gear as well as additional protection.

Go ahead and make these tips a part of your plan. The results will make you happy.

To access more similar tips on coaching soccer drills, enroll for our youth soccer coaching community that has tons of useful tips and tricks on youth soccer coaching.

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.

You’ve probably heard it a hundred times that in coaching soccer drills, all tactics, skills, and teamwork taught to the players ultimately lead to a shot on the goal. It takes both skill and instinct to develop the art of good shooting. But apart from this, there is something else that is equally important and that is forceful attitude.

Even though, all players must do this but it is more onto the forward players to shoot the ball. When you are teaching soccer, give shooting top priority.

There a number of things that may come out of shooting. Shots can be directed towards a goal. The goalkeeper might drop the ball exactly at the feet of your forward player. Wild shots can turn into great passes. Ground shots may bounce back. A goal might result out of a straight shot.

When conducting soccer practice, the attacking players try to convert every goal scoring opportunity into a 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. It is so because they are always looking for scoring opportunities.

Soccer Coaching

They take every chance for a shot as if it is the last chance that they’ll ever get. 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. So, in coaching soccer drills motivate the players to kick the ball whenever they can.

As a general rule, any kick that causes the ball to go towards the goal is considered as a shot. One of the most effective techniques of driving the ball is through its middle with the help of laces of the foot. While performing this, head of the player should be over the ball, his upper body be steady, and his toes should be extended.

During the coaching drills, teach the players to shoot the ball low and wide of the goalie. At this point, low ground shots are favored over high shots. This is because goalies find it difficult to stop the ground shots as they have to stretch their hands relatively more.

While practicing with regulation sized goals, players get to score more by hitting the ball over and above the goalkeeper’s head. This must be discouraged otherwise players form the habit of shooting very high goals. When coaching soccer drills, put a stop to this activity by not permitting kids to play in adult sized goals.

So now go teach you kids to become master shooters when it comes to scoring goals by checking the goalie’s position once before they are ready to shoot.

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.