Understand this! When you coach youth soccer, it becomes a challenge to come up with challenging and interesting drills 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 help them not just focus on the game, become proficient in soccer, but also enjoy the game.
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, disperse the balls all over the ground. Once done, tell the kids to play with the balls as if they are moving towards the opponent’s goal. They should also shoot the ball as soon as they have an opportunity.
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.
Passing the Ball: In this game, make the kids stand in a queue at a distant corner of the field. Start counting till 3 and when you finish, order them to run to you as fast as they can. When they are running towards you, they should also try to take over the ball from the other player who has it. When you say stop, the player who has the ball must pass it to another player.
When you coach youth soccer, these drills bring out the best in kids when it comes to passing and dribbling. This way, the players also learn a very important skill of snatching the ball from other players.
Touch and Go: It’s a very interesting game which kids love to play. Make the young players stand in two queues not more than 40 feet from the goal post. Also, the goalie should defend the goalpost. Place yourself somewhere between the two queues.
You pass the ball to one line and subsequently coach them to shoot or pass the ball with one stroke only. The purpose must be to convert it into a goal. Now the goalie should return the ball and continue with the practice.
In case of two or more than two goalies in team, they should be rotated between practice 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 ball with you: Players get to learn the skill of moving ahead with the ball protecting it from the opposite team. Engage two players, one protecting the ball and the other attacking it. Guide them to play their respective roles and win points every time any player wins over the other.
These happen to be the simplest methods to coach youth soccer. You can make your kids perform these as they help them learn along with having loads of fun. If you would like more such tips and know about drills, join our youth soccer coaching community.
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.
Related Reading:
