Coach Youth Soccer: A Guide to Youth Soccer

To coach youth soccer is not a simple job and you’ll know that if you are just like me. It involves some good amount of enthusiasm, and a intellect along with innovative thinking to carry it out. Use many different training exercises and drills while teaching your kids different soccer practices.

People have different views in relation to this. Some think that the sport in itself is a great coach while others feel that training exercises are the best method to teach soccer. The opinions of the coaches also differ significantly. Yet, all different activities must be combined in a way that the monotony does not set in. The kids will get bored and soon get disengaged from soccer.

A great mix of all the activities will have the effect of making the kids learn newest things and include them in their practice sessions.

The difficulty with Drills-only sessions: Coaches have a tendency to focus extra on drills to coach youth soccer. It’s not wrong. Drills are a key element in any practice session. But the likelihood of kids getting disinterested in the game will be high when your plan only has drills in it. Worse still, this may drive them away from the practice sessions altogether. It has to be a blend of games, drills, and talk sessions. Introduce as many different activities as you can.

The kids feel energized if they remain engaged in different kinds of activities. Such as it is senseless that a player uses his same foot every time he attempts to hit the ball.

Moreover, he will not be able to relate the exercise with the actual scenario on the soccer field. Teach the right technique: While teaching soccer, always focus on the right techniques to do things. Their practice sessions can therefore include these techniques too. You can complement the sessions by introducing fun-filled games, outdoor picnics and so on.

Afterwards, they can enjoy a game of soccer. It is crucial that there is a lot of concentration on the system of playing so that there can be match winning performances. If the players are practicing incorrect techniques, it is crucial to correct them else they will get used to that particular technique.

It makes sense to divide the group into teams and make them play different games. Ensure that the directions are accurate and to the point. This can be achieved only if you have prepared in advance.

Make it a point to work out the activities in advance that you would like the players to do. Remember always, kids will play soccer only when they enjoy it.

If their interest is not developed, they will soon move to something else. So there you have it. Know what it takes to coach youth soccer, create a fun-filled and engaging practice session and implement it. When you subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community, you will have tons of tips, tricks and knowledge articles on youth soccer. Register now!

Andre Botelho is the author of "The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide" and he's a recognized expert in the subject of Coach youth soccer. Learn how to explode your players' skills and make coaching sessions fun in less than 29 days! Download your free Coaching Youth Soccer guide at: Coach youth soccer.

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How To Coach Youth Soccer

To coach youth soccer is not a simple job and you’ll know that if you are just like me. It calls for some a logical approach to execute things differently with enormous energy and resourceful thinking. When you teach your kids soccer methods, you can take up a whole host of training activities and drills.

People have different views in relation to this. One says that drills are the best way to teach soccer whereas others believe that the game itself is the best coach. The opinions of the coaches also differ significantly. Still, it is notable that unless various activities are mixed well, the task will become repetitive. The kids will get bored and soon get disengaged from soccer.

But if different activities are suitably combined, the kids are sure to discover new things and use them while practicing the game.

The issue with Drills-only sessions: There is a great deal of attention paid by coaches on drills to coach youth soccer. Not that it is a bad thing. Drills are an essential part of a good practice session. However, if you include only drills in your plan, there is great chance that the kids will stop enjoying the sessions. As a result, players may feel forced to miss out on the practice sessions. It has to be a blend of games, drills, and talk sessions. Include a lot of diversity in the plan.

When kids get busy in different activities every now and then, it delights them. Take an example of a player striking the ball many times with the same foot is futile.

Moreover, he will not be able to relate the exercise with the actual scenario on the soccer field. Teach the right method: In teaching soccer, your concentration should be on teaching the right method to carry out tasks. They can then practice these during their sessions. Supplement these with properly organized scrimmages, small games, and a few outdoor excursions such as trekking, biking and so on.

After that, you can make them move on to playing a regular soccer game. It is crucial that there is a lot of concentration on the system of playing so that there can be match winning performances. If the players practice things that are wrong, it will eventually become their style and will be difficult to correct later.

One way is to divide the big groups into teams and then instructing them to play varied games. Make certain that the orders are carefully drawn and executed right. This is probable only if you have prepared beforehand.

Always get to the field prepared with what you want the kids to do. Remember always, kids will play soccer only when they enjoy it.

If the interest is lost, they will deviate from it. So this is it! Understand what needs to be done to coach youth soccer, create an enjoyable training session and execute it. Register today and take advantage of the inexhaustible resources, tips, and ideas available at our youth soccer coaching community. Sign up today!

Andre Botelho is the author of "The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide" and he's a recognized expert in the subject of Coach youth soccer. Learn how to explode your players' skills and make coaching sessions fun in less than 29 days! Download your free Coaching Youth Soccer guide at: Coach youth soccer.

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5 Simple Steps To Coach Youth Soccer

Let me ask you if these traits are a part of your personality? Kids look at some specific traits in their coach to coach youth soccer. If you display all of the mentioned traits, the odds are high that kids may score you pretty good as a coach.

We often discuss as to how kids and their parents should be informed about the training drills. However, it is almost always neglected as to what kids expect from their coach. To teach youth soccer, following skills are required to take any decision on the capability of a coach to build a champion team fast.

Thoughtful: Spend quality time to identify and respect their yearnings and objectives. Value their hopes, dreams and desires. Be patient and listen to whatever they have to share. Besides, showing your funny side to the kids will make it easy for you to manage them.

Awareness and Experience: It is natural for the kids to expect familiarity with soccer and updated knowledge on the game. As such you qualify as a coach only if you have a wide experience in playing soccer, and complete know-how of its intricacies.

Admire and Feedback: Make sure you congratulate a kid when he performs well. In the same way, when the kid makes a mistake, identify it and correct him. However in both the situations, do not go overboard. At the same time, it’s vital to give negative comments to the players in seclusion. Buck up the team from outside the ground. This is important to coach youth soccer.

Sincerity: At times difficult for the kids to make up their mind whenever something difficult comes up. In situations like these, they expect you to show them the way. Speak with them, discuss your thoughts, know their concerns and build a rapport with them. They’ll believe in you when you help them in their decisions.

Managing: Kids like their soccer coaching sessions well organized and planned. You therefore also need to have great administrative skills. Make sure that time is productively used in every situation, whether it is a pleasure trip, field drills, or small meetings.

An experienced guide: A coach and an experience trainer are the same. Try to impart correct and accurate instructions, be compassionate to their problems, be appreciative and never ever reprimand, unless absolutely necessary.

Be a Friend: Along with being a coach, be a companion. The kids feel like sharing many things with you but will be reluctant to share them when they cannot bond with you. Generally, kids get intimate only when they believe that their coach is friendly and open with them.

Always keep in mind that youth soccer means learning and entertainment simultaneously. If either of these is not there, kids will have no interest in the game. You can make a proficient coach if you get to absorb all such qualities in you.

So starting tomorrow, coach youth soccer after amendments in your everyday practice sessions. Find out which traits you need to develop and start imbibing them. Grow in your coaching career with the help available at our youth soccer coaching community offering exhaustible tips, tricks, newsletters, and articles.

Andre Botelho is known online as "The Expert Youth Soccer Coach" and his free Coach youth soccer 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 Coaching Youth Soccer ebook at: Soccer Coaching Drills.

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Coach Youth Soccer: A Guide to Controling The Ball

Allow me to put a question in front of you? When it comes to coach youth soccer team, what is the most important skill? You will get a variety of answers to your question but in reality, it’s the skill of dealing with the ball and maneuvering it. For a team to be successful, it needs entire team’s support along with the individual talent of any player to deal with the ball.

To teach youth soccer, start with teaching the players various positions on the field. When these are associated with other rules of the game, along with the skill to move about in the filed to make best use of the space make for main lessons. As time passes, they should try and recognize strengths and weaknesses of their teammates.

Also make the entire team understand their role by sustaining the player having the ball to be able to translate it into a goal. Tell the players about the quantum of coordination that is required to complete this task and coach them as well.

When you coach youth soccer, it is important to observe how long players can keep the possession of the ball. It would be great if they do it for extended period of time. It is also good to make them understand the quality of passing the ball smartly and with control. As mentioned before, the responsibility of other players is crucial in such situations.

Teach them to stay away from the path of the ball when the pass is made. Also, ensure that when the pass is about to be made, the players should have 3 different choices to pass the ball to. The players must adapt to the spaces around them so that when they receive the ball, they can control it well enough.

In teaching soccer, it extremely important to make the players aware of the circumstances where they struggle to control the ball. Also, if possible, it is ideal to have at least 2 more players supporting the pass so that after the pass is made, it can be moved about in an attacking position.

A great characteristic of a great team is that they are able to handle the ball even in unexpected circumstances. Conditions such as these are common and the team that adapts to them quickly becomes the winner. As a different story, if the team ignores this feature, it can end up loosing the game.

Lastly, any practice session will surely fail if it is devoid of any fun element. It doesn’t matter if the players are beginners or mature, if the drills are not exciting and energetic, they will drive the players to boredom. There are several games that help the players learn the ability to tackle the ball. The best part is that they learn while having fun.

Take a start and use these tips to effectively coach youth soccer team. These will go a long way in making them victorious. Our youth soccer coaching community has ample resources, tips, and techniques to help you learn the nuances of youth soccer coaching. Get onboard today.

Andre Botelho is a recognized expert in Coach youth soccer. 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 Coaching Youth Soccer guide visit: http://www.soccerdrillstips.com.

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Coaching Youth Soccer Drills - Video

Here's a video that shows you the secrets to coaching youth soccer drills effectively. You're about to learn youth soccer coaching secrets that most youth coaches and volunteer parents will never know.

Learn the secrets to explode your players’ skills, motivate them the right way and get 100% out of them, and make training more fun and interesting in record time.

To watch this youth soccer coaching video, go right now to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7O-ewtCjk0

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Teaching Youth Soccer: Speed Work Sessions Can Be Merged In Warm Ups

If you are teaching youth soccer, but do not have much time for the job, you will have to have a very creative and prudent approach so that you could train your players regarding the various soccer skills in little time with more efficiency.

For example, in order to make the best use of the time that you have for coaching youth soccer, you can include the speed work in the warm up sessions.

You just have to design and develop the warm up drills in a way that should include lots of speed work. Such strategies will bring dual advantages for you.

You will save a lot of time while the players will have practiced the warm up as well as have achieved some soccer speed skills. However, it does not mean that you have to use only the speed drills in the warm up session.

No, instead, you have to use variations as creatively as possible. Speed work must be included towards the end of the warm up session. I

t means that when you are teaching youth soccer, you should include the speed work in warm up session just as a part and not as a whole of it.

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Coaching Youth Soccer: Controlling The Ball In The Very First Touch

If you are coaching youth soccer, you probably know how important it is for the players to have the ability to get control of the ball as quickly as possible.

Using your creativity, you can come up with a wide array of youth soccer drills. Here, I am sharing with a very effective drill that will help your players have the quickest control of the ball.

For this drill, you need a square area of the field at least ten by ten yards in size. Divide your players in small teams of three and give one ball to each of these teams.

• Have two players stand on one side of this square area.
  
• The ball should be in their possession.
  
• The third player will take position on the opposite side of the square.
  
• The player with the ball in the beginning will pass the ball to the third player standing on the opposite side.
  
• The player receiving the ball will have to use just one touch to get control of the ball meanwhile the first player will sprint towards the third player.
  
• The third player will then pass on the ball to the second player.
  

The key here is to get control of the ball in the very first touch.


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Coaching High School Soccer: Various Drill To Enhance The Shooting Skills Of The Players

When it comes to coaching high school soccer, “Quick Shot” is one of the most effective soccer drills to improve the shooting skills of your players.

As per this drill, you can begin with dividing the players into small teams of three.

• Make sure that every team has one ball and two cones.
  
• Place the cones in a way to create the goalpost for every team.
  
• One player of every team will act as a goalie.
  
• You have to have the other two players take their position on the opposite sides of the goals in a way that they both should face each other.
  
• Now, each of these two players will attempt shooting the ball in an effort to score a goal. The goalie will try to save the goal.
  
• Once saved, the soccer goalie will pass on the ball to the other player.
  

A thorough practice of this drill will be very effective for both the players and the goalie. Please note that while coaching high school soccer using this youth soccer coaching drill, you have to make sure that you are switching the goalie quite often at regular intervals.

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Youth Soccer Coaching: Teaching The Advance Defensive Techniques

Youth soccer coaching session must be planned, keeping in view the specific age group of the players you have to coach. If you are coaching the high school soccer players i.e. players above 14 years of age, you can teach them about the following advance defensive techniques:

If the attacker is quite near your goal line, the defender must focus on putting much higher amount of pressure on the ball and the ball carrier.

Here, you have to clarify to your players that putting pressure does not mean, try to win the ball and get the possession of the same.

Applying pressure on the ball carrier only means that you have to leave no way for the attacker, but to lose the possession of the ball because of his or her mistake.

Teach your youth soccer players that this can be done effectively by putting yourself in a strong way between the ball carrier and the goal line.

When it comes to youth soccer coaching, another advance defensive technique is to effectively mark your enemy and block his or her way. Such techniques will effectively create a very hard defence that will be very hard to crack by the opponent team.

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Soccer Coaching Video: How To Enhance The Goalkeeping Skills

A soccer coaching video is an effective tool for the soccer coaches that will help them understand about their mistakes and various ways to ensure the achievement of optimum results, from their serious efforts.

It has been found that new youth soccer coaches have their focus on improving the soccer skills of all the players, except the goalkeeper, which is not the right approach. This is not something a good soccer coach is supposed to do.

It is very important for you to understand that goalkeeper of your team plays as important a role as does any other player in your team.

Therefore, instead of having this partial approach towards coaching youth soccer drills, you had better change your way and have special attention in improving the goalkeeping skills of the goalie.

One of the most effective ways in this regard is watching the soccer coaching video. It is a common saying in the world of soccer that a goalie is the last in the defensive line of your team and he or she is the first one in the offensive line of your team. You have to coach soccer goalkeeper drills in a way, so that he or she could read the mind of the attacker.

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Soccer Coaching Tips: Teaching The Defensive Strategy Is As Important As Teaching The Attacking Strategy

If you are looking out for various soccer coaching tips that could help you build a better strategy, in order to improve the overall soccer skills of your players, the first thing that you have to keep in mind in this regard is that soccer is a game, where using the defensive soccer techniques is as important as is using the attacking techniques.

Some coaches only believe in aggression and they focus their youth soccer coaching sessions, only to teach the players about the attacking strategy, which is not the right approach. Your purpose is to build a winning team and this is possible only when your players are aware of both the defensive and the attacking strategies.

The ability of your players to convert opportunities on the soccer field into scoring a goal is great, but if they are not good at defending an attack, the opponent team will not take longer to settle the account with you.

Therefore, while you are using the various soccer coaching tips, you should focus on learning, how to achieve formation of a team in a compact way. The compact formation of team in the field is undoubtedly the best defensive strategy that will keep the opponent team away from your goalpost.

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Soccer Coaching Techniques: Things That You Should Not Do

While you are running the soccer practice session, in order to teach your players about the various soccer coaching techniques, you must keep in mind the following don’ts:

• Some coaches are very aggressive in their nature and they just cannot tolerate a bad performance from their players. They get irritated very quickly. Make sure that you are not one of them. A soccer coach desirous to build a winning team out of the players they are coaching, must learn to have patience. When teaching youth soccer coaching drills, you must criticize the bad performance of a player, but in a creative and impressive way, so that the player must not feel discouraged.

• Shouting at the young players and humiliating them in various ways are also very common to see among soccer coaches. Well, it is very important for you to store in mind that these are some of the things that you should never do in your entire soccer coaching career.

• Sometimes, the players approach the coach regarding soccer coaching techniques or any other query or problem, but the coach does not pay heed to their problems. This is also not something a good soccer coach should do.

• Appreciate or criticize the performance of a player, make sure that you are genuine in what you say.

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Soccer Coaching Drills: Effective Tackling Of The Ball

If you are planning to develop specific soccer coaching drills, in order to help your players learn how to tackle the ball effectively in specific situation, the following points will prove very helpful for you:

• The techniques and tricks to tackle the ball effectively, is not something that you should teach your players as a separate subject. Always remember that tackling soccer techniques are just an important part of the various defensive techniques that the players are supposed to use on the field. But, at the same time, you should also note that tackling technique is very important and it can make the winning difference for your team.
  
  
• When coaching youth soccer training drills, you should design the tackling soccer coaching drills in a way, to encourage players, to make sure that they have a back up from a teammate, while they attempt for tackling. This is important to make sure that your team does not lose the opportunity to get and keep the possession of the ball.

• Here, you should also note that you have to have your players train in a way that their focus must be on tackling the ball and not tackling the player. You should discourage any such attempt from your players, because this may result in some foul play.

These are a few tips you can follow when teaching soccer.

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Coaching Soccer Drills: Let Your Players Observe And Imitate

While you are designing and developing the various coaching soccer drills to improve the soccer skills of your players, you must keep in mind the ways, young players use to learn the secrets of the game:

• The young players are fascinated towards the soccer game, the way professional and elite players play. They love to watch them and try to imitate them. Therefore, it is always a great idea to have your players watch the various soccer videos of big matches.
  
  For example, you are coaching youth soccer drills to improve the kicking skills of your players; you can have them watch those video clips, from big matches that include some good kicking skills of the elite players. This will leave a very good impression on the players and they will try to do the same, while they are playing.
  
  
• Young players tend to imitate the actions. Therefore, you have to be very careful while showing them the soccer training video clips. You will have to make sure that they do not attempt for something that may cause injury to them.
  
  Always remember that the coaching soccer drills must be developed, keeping in view the specific age group of your team.

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Coaching High School Soccer - An Essential Element

• Playing With Much Slower Or Weaker Team

It is very important for the coach and players to keep in mind that playing soccer with a much slower and weaker team can slow down the team’s play. A wise soccer coach understands that this is a potential problem when coaching high school soccer.

Actually, when you play against a much weaker or slower team, your team will dribble more or play more slowly. This can work as a disaster because when you get to play a good team, it is obvious that your team will take ten to twenty minutes to adjust back to the faster game speed. This will give enough time to your opponent team to take control of the game.

Regarding coaching high school soccer, always remember that even a single goal deficit against a tough opponent will not be an easy cake to overcome. Therefore, a good approach is to consider playing your substitutes or second team against a weaker or slower team.

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Coaching Soccer Drills Effectively

When you're coaching soccer drills, there is variety of fun, yet effective ways to teach the players about the same. These methods will not only improve the soccer practice attendance but your team will also play better and win more games. One of such methods is dribbling across a square.

• Dribble Across A Square (U-6 and Up)
  
  This is the best way to teach dribbling and how to use the bottom of the foot, the inside & outside of the foot to stop the ball, and turn. This is something that the U6-coaches must read and learn about. This method will effectively teach the players how to dribble in traffic.
  
  As per this method, first, make the square 5 or 6 adult steps wide. Now tell the players just to dribble across and stop. Do not let them turn and dribble back. The moment they have all dribbled across, have them all face inward and dribble back across to the opposite side and stop.

Coaching soccer drills can be rewarding if you make it fun and interesting.

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