Coaching Soccer

[cupcrazy16 0]

I'm going to start coaching soccer for kids, I was wondering if there are any soccer players who have any good drills (warm-ups, games) for kids. Personally, I've never played soccer on a team or anything, which means they were really desperate for coaches. Hopefully I won't just have them running laps the whole time. Any suggestions will be appreciated, thx.

[BobEP 0]

A couple from our high school practices that don't take too much skill...:

Have 3 kids at a time (usually volunteer as they'll be shooting) be infront of the goal. The rest of the kids line up at the 50 yard line (half of the field if its not a football field) on one of the sidelines. The kids in line starts with the balls and pass it to one of the 3 that are left infront of the goal. The kid infront of the goal then passes it back. The kid recieves the pass and then CENTERS it (he should still be running along the sideline) and the 3 kids in the middle header it in, shoot it, whatever floats your boat in the situation. Then the next kid out of the 3 recieves a pass from the next in line and so on and so forth. This can be done going two ways so both goals (and goalies) get worked.

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The O's being the wee lads. (Thought a pic might help)

The next thing if accessible, is to find some basketball courts that arent being used. If there are two post on the hoop between those is your goal, if not, set up a cone with 2 feet of the post. Have the kids play on this surface as if its a mini game. In this small area, they can really get a better feel for the ball and practice there dribbling. Other than that, monkey in the middle drills (if too many kids, monkeyS in the middle) is another fun one.

Good luck.

Edit: Can't get the little drawing to work, so just move the three dots over to the CENTER more. That might make it a bit clearer.

[fatwabbit 93]

hmmm.... there are a lot of drills that can be used, but since you are dealing with kids, the important thing is to make it fun. Some of the drills that were used when i was in school (our coach was a great guy, tough... but made fun). dealing with kids is not easy, and keeping their attention is even more difficult.

basics

passing drills, how to trap and control the ball. these are the fundamentals of soccer... vision and tricks will come at a later stage. similar to hockey, we need to show the kids how to pass and recieve the ball.

- paired up kids, passing with feet... alternating between left and right leg. reciever is to recieve and control the ball. standard stuff applies, look where you are going to pass, but look at the ball a second before passing to the reciever.

- heading the ball... one kid tosses the ball to the other, second kid heads the ball back USING HIS/HER FOREHEAD!. emphasize that eyes should be on the ball, and use the forehead, otherwise the kid is gonna have a headache

as you progress, you can show different ways to control the ball.... chest, thigh, feet, controlled headers etc. you could incorporate games like 'who can juggle the ball the most'.

more advanced stuff....

1) get to know which kids are rightys or leftys. Have them line up about 10yards out of the penalty box facing the goal. You will stand somewhere in the semi-circle at the top of the penalty box, back to goal. have the kids pass you the ball, and you lay if off (left or right depending on preference of the kid), they will run up and shoot on goal. Doesnt matter whether it goes in, just to give them the feeling of shooting on the run

2) start about 20 yards out, coach facing goal. One kid about 8-10yards away from you, back to goal. He/she passes you the ball, and you pass it to his or her left/right... kid collects ball and shoots on goal. practices passing, and turning.

these are just some of the stuff off the top of my head. we did quite a few advanced drills later on, especially set pieces

email me if you want some more stuff... kev_wee@yahoo.com or wee_kevin@cat.com

[kosydar 0]

I was going to suggest having them run laps the whole time, but I guess thats out of the question. If the kids are younger, its really important to make sure that they are active and don't stand around in line too much. If they just stand around too long then they'll start to hate it.

[fatwabbit 93]

yup... totally agree. Best is to have them paired up or in small groups to practice the drills. Later on you can have a 'keep away' session with 6 or more kids. We used to play keep away, each person only allowed to touch the ball once (basically just keep laying the ball off to others)... we would just keep going at it, down the slope, into the cafeteria (nobody would be there after school), carpark, basketball court....

[seanmccann 3]

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=soccer...le+Search&meta=

[cupcrazy16 0]

Thanks for the feedback, I just hope the kids enjoy themselves. I'm going to incorporate those drills into my first practice.

[dix0r 0]

this might be a little advanced if they're young, but as long as you make it fun, i don't think it will matter. when i was 13 i was getting tortured by my coach (running till you puke, making kids cry, 1000 crunches, etc)

have em get ready

run a little (say 2 laps around the field jogging)

stretch

fundamentals:

make 2 lines of kids, each kid facing another one. kids in one line pick up a ball and throw it to the kids in the other line, who just touch it back to them. depending on how good they are, they can do all these, or just start with the easy ones (feet, theigh, chest, head). throw it to their feet, they hit it back with the right foot laces, then right foot inside of the foot, left foot laces, left foot inside. then left theigh back, right thiegh back, left thiegh left foot laces, left thiegh right foot laces, left thiegh left foot inside, lefth thiegh right foot inside. repeat for right theigh. then chest down to feet, you can try chest to thiegh to feet too. and finally just headers straight back to the thrower. make them jump for them. this goes quicker than it seems unless they're not ready for them...then just do the easy ones. if you practice this every time for 15-20 minutes you should see lots of improvement.

then, passing drills:

do quick passes (2 lines facing eachother, just pass back and forth to each other at varying distances). you can try having them take one touch or two (trap and pass). run to the back of the opposite line after you pass.

keep away - first 4 on 1 in really small squares (too big and its hard on the 1)

then, switch it up to half the team against half the team in a bigger box. depending on how good they're doing, you could have them do one or two touch only also.

you can have them pair up and get pretty far away from each other (like, as far as they can kick), and just pass to each other. typically, they won't be good at passing accurately from this far, assuming they're getting the passes in the air. but it will help a lot in games (corner kicks, crosses, etc).

you can also do the same thing but not so far away to practice chipping the ball. that'll help for the same things too.

moves:

make a couple of boxes, have one defender in each of them. he can't come out of his box. then forwards go, one at a time, through the boxes, trying to beat the defenders. this is to practice moves in small spaces.

1 on 1 - have the kids start out next to the goal, kick a ball out 30 yards or so. when you kick it, they start running. whoever gets to it first is on offense, and they start going in, trying to get by the other. if the other gets posession of the ball, he's on offense now. keep going till somebody scores (this can be very tiring).

2 on 2 - have 2 lines of defenders starting at the goal posts, and 2 lines of offense starting at half field. they start with the ball. go until forwards score or defense clears it out.

2 on 1 - same as above.

shielding:

everyone gets in a circle, pick two guys to go inside it. the guys who make up the circle have balls. the guys inside don't. one guy inside is offense, one is defense. the forward makes runs to the outside, calling for the ball and passing it back to the same guy with one touch. the other guy just tries to get to it first. this is harder for the defender but he should win a few. go for about a minute at a time, making sure they work the whole minute. pair them up by skill and size.

another good similar one is get the circle and the 2 kids inside. guys on the outside don't need a ball for this. just have the two guys inside go one on one for 1 minute, one guy trying to keep it away from the other guy, the other guy trying to get it.

shooting: either you or one kid stands facing away from the goal, at around 18 yard line, maybe a little further out. the goalie is in the net. the rest of the kids are in a line facing the goal, say 35-40 yards out. they pass to you, you pass it to the outside (probably to your left first), then they run up and shoot, preferably with only one touch. after doing this for a while, start passing to your right to make them shoot left footed. or you can simply stop the ball, get out of the way, and have them shoot it from the 18 yard line.

finally, for a little fun competition, you can have them team up and take penalty shots.

another fun game is world cup...get set up on half field with a goalie in net, and have the kids pair up. kick the ball out and have them chase it and bring it in. if a team scores, they stop playing till the next round. when only two teams are left, the team that doesn't score is eliminated, and you start the next round with everybody but them playing. the eliminated kids can run if you're mean, or practice juggling or something. you can also say they have to shoot from a certain distance out to make it more difficult, or they can only score from inside this area on a header.

edit: thought of another fun one. make a box and set up a cone in the middle of it. have the kids play 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 or 4 on 4 or whatever. the object is to knock the cone in the middle down with the ball. the remaining players/teams are on the outside of the box, and if the ball gets kicked out, they're there to keep it in. (no breaks for the guys inside). winning team has the choice to stay in and keep going or sit out and take a break. if the losing team is to sit out, you can have them run a lap or just stand outside the box with the others.

other things - you should emphasize that they spread out across the field and don't bunch up.

wow, i got into this post :o