How to coach soccer
No matter how experienced you may be in the field of soccer, a query like how to coach soccer gets you into a thinking mode. After all, youth soccer coaching is a dynamic and a difficult job and it is not easy to keep the players motivated to deliver under extreme pressure.
Let me tell you 5 simple tips that’ll help you improve your team’s performance significantly, when followed religiously.
1. Your plans should be comprehensive: Make complete and methodical plans if you wish to get the desired results in coaching. Have a heart to heart discussion with the players when you sit down to discuss and decide the team’s objectives and the timelines to reach them. The team’s progress is affected when the timelines are not met and desired results are not realized.
Once the plan is finalized, remain loyal to it but do keep some space for minor changes as and when required. There are unanticipated situations that require changes in even well made plans.
Soccer Coaching
2. Make your practice sessions fun-filled and exciting: Even the best designed soccer training drills fail to produce any results when they are rigid, monotonous, and devoid of any fun and games. You can practice this rule in lot many ways. For example: encourage players to participate in games and activities for some time after practice so as to develop a feeling of team spirit in them.
3.Discipline and freedom go hand-in-hand: As a coach, maintaining discipline should be your top priority. But, what is important to understand is that freedom is also as important for the kids to feel strongly towards discipline. Don’t underestimate the value of freedom and relaxation in teaching soccer.
Permit players some time for them to indulge, relax, or simply unwind. In preaching how to coach soccer, it is also extremely important to venture out with the kids on a picnic or an outdoor get together.
4. Maintain tolerance and support: Motivate your team to do new things and when these new things do not work out as expected, be cool about it. Keep scrutinizing their activities. If you must intervene to correct a potential blunder or a silly mistake, do it without reprimanding them.
Remember that punishment inculcates in players, a feeling of rejection while being compassionate and encouraging generates great ideas and performances.
5. Balance things: It is in training sessions that kids get to know about their soccer skills and inherent talent. It is well known that when we talk of a team, there are bound to be players of different calibers; the good, bad, and worst. It becomes your responsibility as a coach to make the best use of your good players in inspiring others.
Group the bad players with the good ones so that the bad players learn from their good counterparts during and after the sessions. It is crucial that you do not make any sort of comparison between the players ever.
Your objective now is to make sure that you use these tips to improve your approach about how to coach soccer.
To know more about youth soccer and the latest trends and techniques, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community.
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: Youth Soccer Training.
Being a surfer means you are by nature drawn to humongous waves. You have probably tried being in one, but while you are out there floating on your board and waiting for the next big one, you also have probably sulked in the fantasy of taking that incredible surf vacation getting a taste of some of the world’s most popular swells.
Why not live in real life that dream surf vacation?
Every good surfer has to experience a surf vacation once a month. These out of town trips can be tiring and frustrating as you get to pack and prepare a lot and follow that long list of things you need while you’re away. A number of surfers can be water-logged when it comes to setting up that surf vacation. Bear in mind these directions so you won’t miss a thing and you’ll feel free to swim in the vast blue expanse. Also remember to always double check the packing list right before taking off.
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First thing’s first. Decide where you are going. Your destination will lead you to the things that you are going to need. If you have plans of staying in a town and decide to rent a motel room then you won’t be needing your camping gears with you. If you will be at an isolated part of the coast, you might need to camp or sleep in your vehicle.
Make a list of things to bring days before you leave. Obviously you can live as comfortable as you like, but it is proven by a lot of campers and travelers that taking simply the essentials and a few extra things is a great way to keep the stress low.
Grab a toothbrush, toothpaste, flip flops and enough change of clothes to make you warm, dry and feeling clean while you are away from home. You will find shoes important if it is raining or if it’s cold or when there are hikes but even the cheapest sandals won’t help if you are constantly running out to check the waves or go off to the restaurant or for that bathroom break or simply living that sock free life in general.
Bring the essential food items like raisins, nuts, bananas, oranges, peanut butter and honey, bread, tuna and water.
If camping is part of the plan, bring along a tent and a sleeping bag. Bring a travel sleeping pad if you have one. This could mean the difference between eight and three hours of sleep.
Most important of all, for every surf vacation no matter how quick it is, you should have with you your surf board, the leash, wax, wet suit, booties for the cold, gloves when it’s freezing, sun screen, towel and a pair of board shorts. It would be wise to bring with you a spare leash.
How To Coach Soccer
How does a question like this sound to you, how to coach soccer or youth soccer? The phrase looks quite simple and familiar but if you give it a serious thought, a lot of things will start coming to your head.
One of the soccer skills that’s required for a player and a coach to learn is communication. A coach is required to regularly instruct players, give feedback, appraise them, council them and maintain discipline, so communication skills are a must.
Players, then again need an outlet to discuss performance issues with coach, peers, parents, colleagues, and share tips and tricks with relatively weak players in the team. The game of soccer acts as a common language for both players and coaches convey their feeling and thoughts.
Soccer coaching has some basic philosophies that the coaches must learn and consequently teach their players.
1. Call players by their name. This is not just polite but is also relaxing.
2. The instructions that you give to the players should be first clear in your mind before going out to them.
Show care: The objective of communication is to unite with and not to suppress the players. So try to understand the viewpoint of the other person.
4. Look at your body language: it should make the other person comfortable and transmit positive vibes.
5.When addressing the team, maintain eye contact with each player one by one. Look directly into the eyes of the player you are talking to.
6. Your technique of speaking should make an impression on the person you are talking to. So select a style that best describes you and also suits the other person.
7. Select a subject that requires redressal. Communication as an answer to the simple question, how to coach soccer is effective when it is concise and to the point. Choose a list of items and stick to it.
8.Be objective: Always remain cautious of the fact that you are a soccer coach who is speaking to a team or an individual player. So be firm with your sentiments and communicate only about the points of the game.
9.Speak clearly: it is important that your intended message reaches the recipient as it is.
10.When teaching soccer, repeat the important points. The players should always keep in mind the important points and this is possible only when you keep repeating them in different situations.
11.Always aim to keep the conversation light by using funny words and style.
12.Devote some time and attention to your players so that they do not fear seeking clarifications from you. Permit them to ask questions.
A soccer coach who does not exhibit good communication skills required to distribute the information correctly will not be a good coach in the long run.
In the end, how to coach soccer should be a means to educate the coach about the diversity in cultures and make allowances for them. Subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that has tons of information and knowledge on coaching soccer to young players, and tips on developing different aspects of game skills in players.
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.
Soccer field diagram
Just like a timetable is made for a specified time, drawing a soccer field diagram to train the kids on various positions and soccer formations helps in it’s smooth functioning. When the kids are younger, say between 4 to 6 years in age, it is better to make them play in small sided soccer, like a 3 v 3, or a 4 v 4 without goalkeepers.
With the kids growing up, they can move to a 5 v 5 together with a goalkeeper. There are several benefits. They enjoy the game much more; get maximum contacts with the ball, and are able to learn the models of the game in a better way.
This is an age where the kids are only learning to pass the ball and control it. Also start training them on different soccer positions and formations. This is the time when players should be identified as forwards or defenders. You should also ensure that they get to their positions as much as possible.
One day in future the number of players will enhance consistent with the size of the field. At that time, creating formations will be a bit problematic. But you should still assign positions to the players and ensure that the kids are doing justice to those positions.
Soccer formation
Once you’ve selected the formations, talk about these with your players. Make them understand the concept behind it and also why you think a certain player is better suited in a single position than anyone else. This is where the soccer field diagram helps the most. The kids get to learn fast by looking at visual demonstrations. There would also be some players who learn by reading the printed content or by watching you perform drills on the field.
There are a few rules and soccer tactics that are a part of every soccer position, like defenders, midfielders, and forwards. These descriptions are apt for a 2-2-2 formation in a 7 v 7 game. These guidelines are general in nature and you must modify them a little to suit your style, plan, and approach.
As an illustration, you may choose to engage 3 midfielders instead of 2. You may prefer your center midfielder to act forcefully on offence or need him to mark the opposition’s midfielders on defense. You may wish your wing defenders to take all throw-ins. There can a lot of changes.
In addition to the field diagram, it always pays to pen down your thoughts on paper. This allows the players to read through your instructions again and again and so the understanding improves. The parents can also go through the document and visualize your goals for the players and the team as a whole.
To teach soccer positions, apply extensive use of field diagrams irrespective of what you’ve selected to in addition. This can help you save on a lot of time and energy required to explain formations and is therefore a great mechanism.
Where’s the time to wait now? Go ahead and use a soccer field diagram to start teaching your players various formations and positions on the field. Our youth soccer coaching community has a huge amount of knowledge about youth soccer. Join today to take advantage of all the relevant information.
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 Coaching.
Manchester United is a phenomenally successful football club both on and off the pitch, whose record of success has helped attract fans from different countries all over the world. In Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand, the Premier League giants will provide two vitally important players for England’s World Cup campaign in South Africa.
Wayne Rooney has been in breathtaking form this season, scoring thirty four times in forty four appearances for Manchester United. Before he sustained an unfortunate ankle injury towards the end of the season, Rooney was in the running to surpass former Man Utd player Cristiano Ronaldo’s total of 42 goals in all competitions. In April, Rooney was voted PFA Players’ Player of the Year.
Rooney’s hunger for goals, unique ability and love of the game have made him a favourite of both England and Manchester United fans. His commitment in training and strong work ethic paid dividends this season when Rooney went on a run in which he scored seven consecutive headed goals – a substantial return for a player not previously recognised as an aerial threat. Rooney’s world-class record suggests he will pose a threat to even the best defences in South Africa.
When he came on as a substitute in an international friendly against Australia aged 17 years and 111 days, Rooney became the youngest ever player to represent his country. Despite the fact Rooney’s record has since been taken by international teammate Theo Walcott, his performances have amply demonstrated his world-class talent.. Rooney has netted 25 times in 58 appearances for his country since making his début.
With such an impressive international record to his name at the age of just 24, Rooney is on course to join Manchester United legend Bobby Charlton in an elite group of players with over 100 caps for England. The World Cup winning midfielder remains the national side’s record goalscorer, having scored 49 times in 106 appearances. Charlton’s range of passing and ability to strike the ball from distance had led to some fans drawing parallels with Manchester United’s current number ten.
In South Africa England will try to emulate Charlton’s World Cup winning success, and in Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney, Manchester United players will again provide a major contribution to England’s efforts.
Youth soccer drills
Forwarding the ball by using the head while the ball is still in the air is an effective method and most of us have never thought about it. This does not hurt the player in any way if is it practiced correctly in the youth soccer drills.
In case your players have not performed this skill of heading before, start teaching them by using a deflated ball. This can be done by letting some air out of the ball so that it shrinks and becomes soft and supple for kids to play. Including heading skill in the kids soccer drills requires you to first teach them the basics of this skill before starting with the practice.
The players should learn to move along the ball while it is still in air because they need to be in front of the ball when making a contact with it. Teach the players to continue watching the ball all the way through and until that time when it strikes their forehead.
Your players must recognize the importance of continuously looking at the ball whether it coming to them to going away from them. If their eyes are closed, they can be hurt. In youth soccer practice, teach players to strike the ball with the forehead’s top-front part instead of the crown or temples.
Youth Soccer Drills
A large number of youth soccer drills call attention to the movement involved in correctly handling the ball. Two of these have been discussed for your benefit and are as follows;
Sitting and Knees: When it comes to youth soccer coaching, this drill uses 2 players and 1 ball. One player will sit on the ground with their feet straight out in front of him or her. The other player should stand directly in front of the 1st and throw the ball at a very low level towards him or her. The objective behind this is that because the ball is thrown short, the person will have to come forward to hit it.
This activity should be repeated with a player positioned with both knees on the ground. Now, the player will have to move forward to actually shoot the ball. This drill teaches the technique of using the head to direct the ball.
Head out of Hands: This drill requires cones and one ball for each player. This drill requires the players to hold the ball with their hands and the throw it off by heading it. They should learn to alternatively move their head to the ball and then bring the ball to their head.
The cones can help the players learn heading to a particular location. The players learn the techniques to head the ball accurately and using their head.
So this is it; using these youth soccer drills, your players will get confident in heading the ball and competing without getting hurt. There is a huge amount of resources in our youth soccer coaching community and you can benefit from it all by subscribing to it.
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: Soccer Practice.
Coaching high school soccer
When it comes to coaching high school soccer, we must accept the fact that self-control is a choice just like confidence that players must make. In soccer coaching, self-control strategies are based on the relationship between thoughts and emotions. All of us know our mental state influences our passions that accordingly enhance our performance.
You can aid your players in learning the skill and discipline of self-control with the 12 step strategy that I’m going to share with you. Nevertheless, it’s imperative that players agree to these steps after that are sure that it holds a lot of importance for them.
What’s more, the players should also be prepared to take full responsibility for the actions they take. The strategy has been given below in 12 steps for your reference.
1. Awareness: Help the players figure out their weak points during the course of coaching youth soccer. Let them examine when, where, and why loss of control has occurred previously on field.
2. Understanding: Allow the players to make out the reason that affected their thinking in such a way that they lost their emotional stability.
Coaching Youth Soccer
3. Differences: Let them recall various situations when they managed to maintain control and when he did lose control. Let them gauge the difference in their attitudes, emotions, and behavior.
4. Problem: In coaching high school soccer, try to find out the exact problem. For example: Is it the guilt of letting the whole team down because of their performance?
5. Belief: Help the players raise their own expectations including self-control as one of the character. Give confidence to players to change themselves.
6. Reinforcement: Reinforcement has the potential to accelerate a change in behavior. Therefore, you must not forget your duty as a coach to recognize and honor the improvements of players so that they stick to these.
7. Goals: Set a series of small goals for players that will lead them along the road to change. Help the players understand the connection between thoughts, feelings, and actions.
8. Techniques: Put together different behavioral action items to uphold the confidence level. For example: When a particular situation comes up, this is the path that the players must go by.
9. Plan: In football coaching, train the players to systematically and considerably follow their goals.
10. Progress: Tell them to learn the skill of patience. Help the players realize the value of ups and downs in the path to improvement.
11. Setbacks: Help the players in accepting the setbacks, as these will continue to happen. So, the better is to use these to learn new ways to tackle these.
12. Remembrance: Last but an important point is to let the players identify the good reason behind the change. They should always be clear about what are they doing and why. How important the change is for their future?
We all agree that a perfect performance state for a soccer player is that of a relaxed promptness. It signifies the ability to use energy without any fear.
This is of utmost importance. Coaching high school soccer must include relaxation techniques so that the players can learn to be in-charge of their emotions to save energy and kill any fears.
You must subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community to get access to plenty of articles, newsletters, and videos to know new and improved soccer skillsyou’re your players.
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 Practice Drills.
In coaching high school soccer, you may wish to disagree but it’s true that communication is the most important aspect to get success. Coaching is an art of communication. This has the effect of expressing yourself to people with a view to perform them things in precisely the same manner.
Majority of coaches in soccer coaching are the players who used to play the game in their younger days. Then also they have to face a number of issues while coaching young players. These issues come up due to the inability to communicate properly. You must recognize that there are certain issues related to communication that need special attention if your job is to be made easier.
Let me explain them to you one at a time.
Coaches generally allow their emotions to become involved while watching their kids play. The coaches become spectators instead of adopting a critical approach to observing the kids. They ignore the important facets of the game that could improve the team’s performance significantly. They therefore lose the opportunity to have an objective conversation aimed at winning the game.
The coaches are generally not trained to communicate effectively although they have all the knowledge of the game. For example; in soccer coaching, many coaches are not aware of the utility of a flip chart or a video. When the coach finds it difficult to communicate his messages clearly, it brings monotony to the game even if he has a complete knowledge of the game.
In coaching high school soccer, communication becomes all the more important because the kids start to understand the game quite well. They have been doing these soccer drills for some time but at different levels. You can do away with the monotony of repetitive messages by frequently changing the layout of training.
It may come as a surprise to you that coaches often forget that their training sessions are carried out by people. They tend to get carried away in the process of coaching and training. For instance; the communication is incomplete when an instruction is given to a player but without his/ her name thus making it difficult for any of them to apply it.
In football coaching, there are some points that need special attention and they are as follows:
• Every message from the coach is equally important. So ensure that they are understood completely and correctly.
• Your messages should have a positive impact on the players to put their best foot forward. Help them to improve rather than reprimanding them for not playing well.
• Make sure you spend quality time with all your players. Research in this filed shows that coaches tend to spend comparatively more time with the best players (up to seven times more!).
• Communicate the potential issues that could arise and have a solution ready.
• Add force to the player’s confidence by harmonizing criticism with praise. Tip the balance more towards praise with players in coaching high school soccer.
Believe my words. Your training programs will be immensely benefitted as a result of adopting these simple exercises.
There’s lot more to know and understand about this aspect of soccer only if you wish to. Just subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community, and get access to the most important and informative topics concerning the game.
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 high school soccer.
Coaching soccer drills
You may have heard that in coaching soccer drills, all skills have only 1 goal and that is to take a shot at the goal. It takes both skill and instinct to develop the art of good shooting. But other than this, winning attitude is also equally important.
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, give a lot of emphasis on shooting.
There are so many things that may be a consequence of shooting. Shots can be positioned towards a goal. It might be that the goalkeeper drops the ball at the foot of your forward player. Unruly shots can turn into brilliant passes. Ground shots may spring back. A goal might result out of a straight shot.
During the soccer practice, attacking players are always on a lookout to shoot the ball into the goal at every possible opportunity. They are made to think in a way that they always have goal scoring on their mind. In England, these attacking players are called sniffers. This is due to the fact that they are always on the lookout for scoring chances.
To them, every opportunity is the last one they will get and hence shoot ferociously. They are always present when the opportunity is right. They have the skills to even convert negative situations into positive ones. So in coaching soccer drills encourage your players to shoot the ball whenever possible.
As a general rule, any kick that causes the ball to go towards the goal is considered as a shot. Yet, one technique that is most effective is driving the ball through the middle by use of the laces of the foot. While performing this, head of the player should be over the ball, his upper body be steady, and his toes should be extended.
In coaching drills, your players should learn to shoot the ball low and wide of the goalie. Herein, low ground shots take priority 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.
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, stop this practice by not letting your players to practice in 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.
If you would like to enhance your knowledge on soccer coaching 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 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.
