Coaching Soccer Drills: A Guide To Effective Coaching
Saturday, July 31st, 2010Before you get on with Coaching soccer drills to kids, let me share with you some teaching ideas that are sure to help you, whether you agree or not. In your soccer practice, identify one goal that is common to both the team and the coach for example; to have a lot of fun while playing the game.
At this time, it’s essential to follow your goal and not feel 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 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. Promote the feeling of sportsmanship, team spirit, and fair play amongst team members. There are several objectives important in teaching soccer that can be incorporated in your list along with these.
Winning is another important concept that I’d like to emphasize in coaching youth soccer. During the training sessions, introduce the open concept of winning and try to place it 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.
This will take away the pressure off the kids and they’ll focus more on playing their best game rather than just winning it.
In coaching soccer drills, make sure that your instructions are very precise for them to be effective. It’s imperative that your kids are aware of the dos and don’ts that are critical to the game of soccer before you go any further with their training. The difference in coaching and teaching is that the former is done with a group of players who are already familiar with the basic skills and concepts of the game.
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. It is because kids have a tendency to learn quickly by watching than by listening. If you endeavor to explain in instructions, they will not understand it. Relatively, they imitate perfectly.
Consequently, at all possible times, give a demonstration.
Lastly, but still no less in importance is to keep the kids engaged in meaningful activities. This is all the more important when it rains or the weather is extremely cold. It’s a fact that all kids love to play in the rain. Hence, instead of simply cancelling the session, it makes more sense to have them play soccer games or something like that.
Just keep in mind that the kids should be wearing additional protective gear in such weather.
Now get out there and start incorporating these teaching suggestions into your practice sessions. You’ll be amazed to see the results.
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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: Soccer Training Drills
