Soccer Conditioning Drills

It is well known that in coaching soccer drills, every skill and teamwork imparted to the players has only 1 objective; to shoot the goal. It takes both skill and instinct to develop the art of good shooting. But there is one more thing that is equally important towards shooting; an aggressive attitude.

It is the responsibility of every player but more importantly that of the forward players to shoot the ball. When you are teaching soccer, give shooting top priority.

There are so many things that may result from a shoot. Shots can be redirected into the goal. The goalkeeper might drop the ball exactly at the feet of your forward player. Rowdy shots can turn into accurate passes. Ground shots may return. 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 trained in a way that they think of nothing else but scoring goals. In England, these attacking players are known by the term sniffers. This happens because they are always reviewing scoring chances.

Soccer Coaching

They take every shot as if it was the last chance to score a goal. They are always present when the opportunity is right. 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 driving the ball through the middle using the laces of the foot is by far the most effective technique for shooting. Make sure that the player’s head is over the ball, his toe remains extended, and his upper body keeps steady.

In the course of coaching drills, teach your players to shoot the ball wide and low to the goalie. Here, low ground shots are preferred over high 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.

Young players while practicing inside regulation sized goals, tend to score more by kicking the ball over the head of the goalkeeper. This must be discouraged otherwise players form the habit of shooting very high goals. This practice can be put to stop in coaching soccer drills by not allowing players to adult sized goals.

So get going and train your team members to see and confirm the goalkeeper’s position before they shoot the ball into the goalpost.

There is a lot more that you can get to know by just subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community which has tons of information on coaching young players in form of newsletters, articles, and videos.

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.

Before 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. Let’s say that the soccer practice has one broad goal for both the coach and the player and it is to have fun while participating in the practice sessions.

Here, it’s easy to lose track of the fun part if you are not cautious. I therefore recommend that you decide on more specific objectives for yourself and your soccer team. For example; develop a sense of team spirit and a sporting attitude in your players, help them identify their individual soccer skills, and emphasize on improving their physical fitness.

You, being the coach are solely responsible to set high standards for sportsmanship. Encourage attitudes like fair play, team spirit, and sportsmanship. However, in teaching soccer, you can have numerous other objectives that you can add to those mentioned above.

One more concept that needs to be highlighted in youth soccer coaching is the notion of winning the match. During the training sessions, introduce the open concept of winning and try to place it in their minds. 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.

When coaching soccer drills, always keep in mind the importance of giving clear and correct instructions if they are to be helpful. 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 variation between coaching and teaching is prominent because coaching deals with a bunch of players who already play soccer pretty well.

In coaching drills, it is great idea to first demonstrate to the kids about 5 to 6 times a specific drill and then let it di it themselves. It is because kids have a tendency to learn quickly by watching than by listening. 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.

Last but by no means the least; keep your players active with several purposeful activities. This is more valid if the weather prevents you from having a regular session. It is well known that the kids love playing in the rain. Therefore, in place of cancelling the training session, rearrange it in a way that the players make the most of their energy and time.

Just be sure that the kids have additional layer of clothing and proper shoes in situations like these.

Now get out there and start incorporating these teaching suggestions into your practice sessions. The results will make you happy.

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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.