Soccer Coaching 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 requires both skill and character to produce quality shooting. But apart from this, there is something else that is equally important and that is forceful attitude.

All the players must be involved in this but more importantly; it is up to the forward players to shoot the ball. When teaching soccer, shooting should be at the top of your list.

There are so many things that may be a consequence of shooting. Shots can be redirected into the goal. It is a possibility that the goalkeeper may very well drop the ball at the foot of your forward player. Directionless shots can become beautiful passes. Ground shots may spring back. You can even score a goal by a straight shot.

When conducting soccer practice, the attacking players try to convert every goal scoring opportunity into a goal. They are conditioned in a way that the only thought that keeps roaming inside their mind is getting the ball into the nets. These attacking players are known as sniffers in England. It is so because they are always looking for scoring opportunities.

Soccer Coaching

They consider every chance the last chance to score a goal and hence shoot accordingly. You’ll always find them at the right place at the right time. Amazingly, they have the ability to be in the wrong place at the right time. 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. But the most successful technique to drive the ball is striking it through the middle by using the laces of the foot. The player’s head should be over the ball, his toe extended, and his upper body should remain steady.

In the course of coaching drills, teach your players to shoot the ball wide and low to the goalie. In such a scenario, high shots are less preferred that low ground shots. This happens due to the fact that goalies have to stop the low ground shots by stretching their hands a lot more in comparison to high shots, thus making it difficult.

When kids practice inside the regulation sized goals, they are likely to score more by striking the ball above the goalie’s head. You need to discourage your players on this as this leads them to a habit of shooting high goals. In coaching soccer drills, don’t allow the kids to play in adult sized goals to stop this practice.

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.

You can lay your hands on loads of relevant information pertaining to coaching young players in form of newsletters, articles, and videos by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching 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: Youth 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, it’d not just the players but also the coaches who have a problem here. The player keeps overall balance and the leg to be used to kick the ball is bent at the knee. Both posture and strength to kick the ball comes out from below the knee.

In soccer practice, this is the opening pose for just about all types of kicks. The increase of rate of the foot from below the knee puts together a powerful blow on the ball. This gives players the power to execute a variety of kicks. Nevertheless, it depends upon the type of contact that the ball has with the foot which concludes the kick’s style.

For example; it could be hit very high, driven low, swung over left, or lean towards right.

There are three vital passes in soccer i.e. a side foot pass, the outside of the foot pass, and the instep drive. Let’s talk about them further.

Soccer Coaching

The side foot pass: In teaching soccer, the simplest and the most commonly used pass is this. It is generally used for making short distance passes. Despite the fact that this is somewhat slow and predictable, it’s easy to learn and simple to execute. The contact with the ball is made on the inside of the ankle and the foot with the foot turned outwards.

When you are in the midst of coaching soccer drills, teach the players to be at ease with respect to their body. This is the most basic rule with all types of kicking actions. Players should strengthen the ankle and the foot only at the time of making 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. The ball gets into contact between the outside edge of the foot and the laces with the foot turned inward and extended. With the help of the foot, the pass is modified into a quick flick for short distances.

In coaching drills, it’s imperative that the players maintain a comfortable posture.

The Instep Drive: Both the versions of instep drive i.e. the low driven version and the lofted version are brought into play to pass the ball over longer distances. Once the players are confident in executing it, make a “chip pass” or an “in swinging pass” by introducing some changes in it. Because the approach of the instep drive is angled to some extent, the non kicking foot is positioned about 12 inches toward the side of and behind the ball.

The ball then comes into contact with the laces and inside of the foot which must be hard and extended.

So, go ahead and teach your players these basic kicking techniques with variations to make the ball do slightly 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.

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. That’s probably because the similarity between coaching and educating the players has been getting some recognition in past few years.

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. The players must be taught about the game as a person along with their professional conditioning and training. Many a times, this educational characteristic of soccer gets totally neglected in almost all scenarios.

Still, we must not forget one theory on which the coaching drills for the layers should be based. A young player becomes an elite player of great renown only when he grows as an individual first and then as a soccer player. Therefore, the coach should act strictly as pre the above mentioned principle.

What motivates a player to take on the role of a coach is very simple to work out.
After the player is no more a part of the team, he wishes to continue being associated with soccer. This is the reason that a lot of soccer players end up as soccer coaches. But they don’t truly recognize the seriousness that this role calls for.

Soccer Coaching

Some look at youth coaching as a stepping stone to coaching adults. Some look at this opportunity as a way to be able to share their passion for the game of soccer with the budding players. Both the reasons are equally acceptable and convincing. But it’s not only these duties but additional principles too that need to be taken into consideration.

When it comes to coaching soccer drills, communication is the key concept and unfortunately, it is still very difficult for people to accept. The absolute qualification of a youth soccer coach is not necessarily his successful career as a brilliant player consecutively for some good number of years.

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. The players should be able to express themselves openly at any time during the soccer practice and it’s for the coach to ensure.

In a team, there are players with varied talents, stamina, and caliber. What’s not important is that every player must possess the competence and talents of a great player. What is most important is that every single player must be able to reach his own ability ultimately.

It is therefore of great importance for us to realize that only brilliant players having successful careers make excellent and expert coaches. Working with kids must come naturally to him; an inherent gift to get in touch with their human side and emotional feelings.

Some food for thought; give some serious consideration to what actually motivates you as it is a condition in this context.

You can lay your hands on loads of relevant information pertaining to coaching soccer drills in form of newsletters, articles, and videos by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community.

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.

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. Work out a common objective for the team as well as yourself as a coach, for instance; during soccer practice the players must enjoy the game while they are a part of it.

At this point, it’s important to stay alert or else you’ll get distracted by other things. Consequently, identify such objectives that are particularly important for you as a coach and also equally important for the 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.

When it comes to sportsmanship, the onus lies on you to set a high standard for the players. Encourage attitudes like fair play, team spirit, and sportsmanship. There are several objectives important in teaching soccer that can be incorporated in your list along with these.

In coaching youth soccer, winning is also an important concept that should be paid due attention. Try to infuse an open idea of winning the game inside your player’s minds while training them. Make them understand that so long as their play is up to the mark, they are the winners, irrespective of the final outcome.

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.

In coaching soccer drills, make sure that your instructions are very precise for them to be effective. There are some clear dos and don’ts in soccer on which the players must be taught before you go ahead with your coaching sessions. 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.

While coaching drills, it is preferable to first demonstrate the drill to the kids and then give them a free hand in executing it themselves. This is because young players generally do not respond to oral instructions very well. If you try to explain everything as a lecture, they may not get it. Instead, they take demonstrations more enthusiastically.

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

Lastly, but still no less in importance is to keep the kids engaged in meaningful activities. This becomes even more important when the weather is windy, wet, or cold. It is well known that the kids love playing 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 be sure that the kids have additional layer of clothing and proper shoes in situations like these.

Now, it is time to add these tips to your training program and make the most of them. You will be astonished to see the results.

To know more about coaching soccer drills, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that offers effective and practical knowledge to help you excel in your career as a soccer coach.

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.