There’s a simple method for explaining soccer practice; no rules to follow. You are free to test new drills, come up with innovative ideas to create drills and so on. It is also a good idea to keep your eyes and ears open to look for ready made practices and modify them for your own use. There are tips that can be real helpful in carrying out a plentiful soccer training timetable.
Formulate flexible plans. It is quite natural that all your plans may not work out as desired. It could be due to untimely rains, you being unwell, or the kids not showing up. All these are possible blockers and so make adequate arrangements to take care of them.
It is a good idea to have several soccer practice games ready. There would be few that prove to be useless and therefore get rid of them to go to next. Flow with the training and you will get to know what is working best for the kids.
Tell the kids to warm up ahead of every session. Include the soccer ball in the warm up drills, in addition to the regular warm up drills. Introduce some nice exercises such as an interesting game called Fetch. In this game, the coach must throw the ball towards the player and he must return it using any or both the feet.
Along with this, the kids can also be made to roll the ball using their feet, kick it backward and forward among the feet. There are plenty of such soccer drills that help players warm up.
It’s imperative for every player to have soccer ball for himself. And in such a scenario, create many individual activities for players that include use the ball. The players must practice dribbling, hitting the ball to the wall, shooting and so on. Make sure no lines are added and keep your movement as free as possible.
Soccer coaching requires including group activities once the individual activities are over. In order to practice, passing and receiving are excellent drills. The kids conduct in the group activities should reflect team spirit. It’s natural for the kids to take some time in getting used to the feeling of team spirit from individual play to team play. You‘ve got be the guiding light here for the team. Stress on the fact that it’s each other’s support in the team that will help win matches.
At the same time, lead the weak players to develop the feeling of team spirit. These are activities that drive the spirit to play as a team.
The kids should be made to play soccer without a goalie and in teams. Ask them to target the goal without caring for any rules. Also, instruct them to first attack and then defend. This helps them do their own thing and in the process develop something new.
This is the easiest way to conduct a soccer practice. Just let yourself free and create whatever you think will help the kids learn. There is no right or wrong drill. The only thing to remember is to be flexible. Our youth soccer coaching community has wealth of resources on youth soccer that will help you make the most of training sessions.
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 practice.